the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive plural masculine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Timothy 1:19-20 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having it…
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, t…
Proverbs 19:1 Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
Acts 11:26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, an…
Isaiah 59:3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Acts 20:17-35
It should seem the ship Paul and his companions were embarked in for Jerusalem attended him on purpose, and staid or moved as he pleased; for when he came to Miletus, he went ashore, and tarried thee so long as to send for the elders of Ephesus to come to him thither; for if he had gone up to Ephesus, he could never have got away from them. These elders, or presbyters, some think, were those twelve who received the Holy Ghost by Paul's hands, Act 19:6. But, besides these, it is probable that Timothy had ordained other elders there for the service of that church, and the country about; these Paul sent for, that he might instruct and encourage them to go on in the work to which they had laid t…
after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you--Two classes of coming enemies are here announced, the one more external to themselves, the other bred in the bosom of their own community; both were to be teachers, but the one, "grievous wolves," not sparing, that is, making a prey of the flock; the other (Act 20:30), simply sectarian "perverters" of the truth, with the view of drawing a party after them. Perhaps the one pointed to that subtle poison of Oriental Gnosticism which we know to have very early infected the Asiatic churches; the other to such Judaizing tendencies as we know to have troubled nearly all the early churches. See the Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, an…
Also of your own selves, etc. - From out of your own assembly shall men arise, speaking perverse things, teaching for truth what is erroneous in itself, and perversive of the genuine doctrine of Christ crucified.
To draw away disciples - To make schisms or rents in the Church, in order to get a party to themselves. See, here, the cause of divisions in the Church:
1. The superintendents lose the life of God, neglect the souls of the people, become greedy of gain, and, by secular extortions, oppress the people.
2. The members of the Church, thus neglected, oppressed, and irritated, get their minds alienated from their rapacious pastors.
3. Men of sinister views take advantage of this state of…
The Church Fathers
And from among yourselves will arise men speaking perverse things. Concerning these, John also says: They went out from us, but they were not of us (1 John II).
From these men also come the Menandrianists, and the Marcionists, and the Carpocratians, and the Valentinians, and the Basilidians, and the Saturnilians. Each of these leaders in his own private and distinct capacity brought in his own private opinion. From these have come false Christs, false prophets, false apostles—men who have split up the one Church into parts through their corrupting doctrines, uttered in disparagement of God and of His Christ
"In order to draw away the disciples after them." Heretics strive to make the people their own instead of the Lord's, so that they might boast in themselves, when the name of the heretics is attached to these people, and so that they can profit from the name. For example, from Mani comes Manichaean, from Arius, Arian, and from Nestorius, Nestorian, and the other types of heresies. Paul himself checked this beforehand when he silenced and censured those who were saying, "I'm Paul's; I'm Apollos's; I'm Cephas's," since he did not want their faith to be explained by the name of a person but by Christ's name; he wanted them all to be called Christians, even though they had been taught by different teachers. Accordingly, whenever all the teachers strive for the same goal of proclaiming the true faith, of profiting the students while suppressing their own names, they are called, by the same name, Christians. If, however, the teachers pervert any of the teachings of the church, then the title of Catholic is denied, and they are called after the name of the teacher.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ephesians, Epistle to — Was written by Paul at Rome about the same time as that to the Colossians, which in many points it resembles. Contents of. The Epistle to the Colossians is mainly polemical, designed to refute…
Ephesus — The capital of proconsular Asia, which was the western part of Asia Minor. It was colonized principally from Athens. In the time of the Romans it bore the title of “the first and greatest metropolis…
Miletus — (Miletum, 2 Tim. 4:20), a seaport town and the ancient capital of Ionia, about 36 miles south of Ephesus. On his voyage from Greece to Syria, Paul touched at this port, and delivered that noble and…
Paul — =Saul (q.v.) was born about the same time as our Lord. His circumcision-name was Saul, and probably the name Paul was also given to him in infancy “for use in the Gentile world,” as “Saul” would be…
Philosophy — It is the object of the following article to give some account (I.) of that development of thought among the Jews which answered to the philosophy of the West; (II.) of the systematic progress of…
Doctrines, False · Teachers of: Speak perverse things — Teachers of: Speak perverse things
Elder · IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH — IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Ephesus · Paul visits and preaches in — Paul visits and preaches in
Miletus · addresses them at — addresses them at
Watchfulness · 36:18-21; — 36:18-21;
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Also of your own selves shall men arise,.... Not only false teachers from abroad should come and enter among them, but some would spring up out of their own communities, such as had been admitted members of them, and of whom they had hoped well; such were Hymenseus, Philetus, Alexander, Hertoogenes, and Phygellus;
speaking perverse things; concerning God, and Christ, and the Gospel; distorted things, wresting the Scriptures to their own destruction, and that of others; things that are disagreeable to the word of God, and pernicious to the souls of men:
to draw away disciples after them; to rend away members from the churches, make schisms and divisions, form parties, set themselves at the…
Acts 20:28-32
28. Therefore, take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to govern the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his blood. 29. For I know this, that after my departure grievous wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30. And of your own selves shall arise men, speaking perverse things, that they may draw disciples after them. 31. For which cause watch ye, remembering that by the space of three years I ceased not night and day to warn every one of you with tears. 32. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, who is able to build farther, and to give you an inheritance among all t…
vicious wolves: Paul’s prophecy did in fact happen, prompting him to write to Timothy in Ephesus some five years later (see 1 Tim 1:3-7, 19-20; 4:1-5; see also Matt 7:15; 10:16; Mark 13:22; Luke 10:3; 2 Pet 2:1-22; 3:3).
