Acts 20:24 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But none of these things move me— But I make no account of any of these things. It adds great beauty to this and all the other passages of scripture, in which the apostles express their contempt of the world, that they were not uttered by persons, like Seneca and Antoninus, in the full affluence of its enjoyments; but by men under the pressure of the greatest calamities, who were every day exposing their lives for the sake of God, and in the expectation of a happy immortality. To what has been observed respecting the word testify, on Acts 20:21 we add, that in heathen writers it is used in a forensic sense, for contesting by law, and pleading in a cause; and hence it signifies, earnestly to contend, or to persuade by arguments and threatenings. In the LXX in signifies to protest, to convince, to press earnestly, to persuade. It is most frequently used by St. Luke in a very intense signification, and is sometimes joined with exhorting or earnestly persuading to a thing, as in ch. Acts 18:5 where being pressed in the spirit, signifies intenseness and vehemency in testifying to them;—that he did vehemently endeavour to convince them; and it seems to be equivalent to the expression, Acts 20:28 where it is said, Apollos did mightily convince them. St. Paul uses this word in a most vehement sense, 1 Timothy 5:21. The word here, signifies not only St. Paul's bearing his testimony to the truth of the gospel, but his preaching, pressing, and persuading to the acceptance of it with the greatest earnestness.