‘And sailing from there, we came the following day over against Chios; and the next day we touched at Samos; and the day after we came to Miletus. For Paul had determined to sail past Ephesus, that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.'
Due to the writer having been with the party we have a detailed description of a well remembered journey as they proceed on the voyage. Perhaps the full detail is given in order to stress the emotional tension in which they all were, each one counting the stops to Jerusalem as they went forward with agonising slowness, aware that for Paul there were dark times ahead. We can compare how in the story of Abraham offering Isaac every detail is given in order to prolong the agony (Genesis 22). Or they may indicate to those knowledgeable about that coast the speed at which they were travelling. But Paul is careful not to stop at Ephesus. This is stated as simply being in order to avoid any delay. Had he stopped at Ephesus he might have felt obliged to spend ‘seven days' there. That would not, however, have fitted in with his plans as he wanted to be in Jerusalem by Pentecost. On the other hand he may have determined it because it would have meant leaving that ship and obtaining another, as it did not wish to unload at Ephesus, something which would have caused further delays.
The aim to be in Jerusalem by Pentecost, one of the three great feasts of the Jews, may have been for a number of reasons:
1) It may well have been because he wanted to demonstrate to his Jewish Christian brethren, and even to the Jews, that he himself was still concerned to be a true Jew. By this he was following in the steps of the Master. We remember how the Pharisees, while they criticised His disciples for it, never criticised Jesus for failing to observe proper cleansing ritual. It was a sign that while He did not consider it strictly necessary (He allowed the disciples not to do it) He Himself did so in order to avoid causing offence. As He said to His disciples, ‘observe what they say, just do not do what they do' (Matthew 23:3). In the same way we have no reason to think that Paul ever dropped his Jewishness even when consorting freely with Gentiles (many Diaspora Jews and Jewish Christians would regularly consort with Gentiles for business purposes and maintain their Jewishness). What he did not allow it to do was keep him apart from them. He tried to steer a middle course.
2) He may have wanted to celebrate Pentecost in Jerusalem as the anniversary of the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit which had begun the outward movement of the word of which he had been such a vial part.
3) He would see Pentecost, the time of bringing the firstfruits, as the ideal time for arriving and presenting to the Jewish Christian leaders the large sum of money that he and his companions had brought as a gift from the Gentile churches. Doing this while all of Judaea were in Jerusalem, along with many other Jews and Jewish Christians from elsewhere, as a kind of donation of firstfruits, would give maximum publicity to the Gentiles' generous gift, would give it a special religious significance (compare Romans 15:26-27 where he sees it as the Gentiles partly repaying the debt that they owed to the Jews because they had been made partakers of spiritual things which proceeded from the Jews), and would hopefully warm the hearts of the Jewish Christians, and even of Jews who benefited, towards their Gentile brethren. He may well too have seen it as a kind of fulfilment of Isaiah 60:9-12, with the pilgrim Jews arriving on ships also laden with Gentile treasure, thus revealing to all that the eschatological days of the end were here when Gentiles were to be welcomed as Gentiles, as James had earlier recognised (see on Acts 15:16). The fact that Paul had great hopes that this gift would soften the Jews towards the work among the Gentiles was probably one reason why Paul had been so eager to bring it himself. Perhaps at first he had hoped that it would soften their hearts towards him, although he was to learn from prophecies that that was unlikely.
Chios was a city on the island of Chios and a free port, Samos was an island west of Ephesus, Miletus was on the mainland thirty miles south of Ephesus. It may be that there were no established churches on these islands, for no mention is made of any contact with them, or it may simply mean that they were not contactable in the time available.