Duties of the Elders: Coming Dangers. They are to be as free from blame as he is. The Holy Ghost has made them episcopoi of the flock, lit. overseers; if we remember what the word means we may translate bishops; they are the same persons as the elders (Acts 20:17). The office is local in early Church life; Paul mentions it only in Php_1:1; he generally speaks of those who are over you and admonish you; see Romans 12:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:12. The earliest bishops have to do with the stores and the hospitality of a Church (see 1 Timothy 3, 1 Timothy 5:17-20; Titus 1:5-9, Didaché xv.); those spoken of here have to do with teaching (cf. 1 Peter 5:2).
Acts 20:28. The end is strange. WH propose to read the blood of His own son.
Acts 20:29 f. Who the adversaries are, is hard to tell; there are predictions all through the NT of persecutions without and of strange doctrines arising within (1 John 2:19; Revelation 2:14). The mention of bishops and the forecast of heresies are probably both marks of a somewhat later time for the redaction of this speech.