The teaching of the Watchtower society that the apostles witnessed from house to house
is primarily based on two texts:
“And every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus. Acts 5:42
“while I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house. Acts 20:20
It is here assumed that “from house to house” means “from door-to-door” meaning that the disciples went down the street in a town or village visiting house after house searching for deserving ones to listen to their message. Is this what they did?
The expression “from house to house” is a rendering of the Greek phrase kat oikon. This expression literally means according to house and appears here in these two scriptures in the distributive sense. Of what significance is this? Note what is stated in the Watchtower:
“At Acts 5:42 the words “from house to house” are translated from kat’ oiʹkon. Here ka·taʹ is used in a “distributive” sense. Hence, the preaching of the disciples was distributed from one house to another. Commenting on Acts 20:20, Randolph O. Yeager wrote that Paul taught “both in public assemblies [de·mo·siʹa] and from house to house (distributive [ka·taʹ] with the accusative). Paul had spent three years in Ephesus. He visited every house, or at least he preached to all of the people (verse 26). Here is scriptural warrant for house to house evangelism as well as that carried on in public meetings.”
A similar use of ka·taʹ appears at Luke 8:1, which speaks of Jesus preaching “from city to city and from village to village.” Paul used the plural form kat’ oiʹkous at Acts 20:20. Here some Bible translations read “in your homes.” But the apostle was not referring solely to social calls upon elders or to shepherding visits in the homes of fellow believers. His next words show that he was speaking about a house-to-house ministry among unbelievers, for he said: “But I thoroughly bore witness both to Jews and to Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.” (Acts 20:21) Fellow believers had already repented and exercised faith in Jesus. Hence, both Acts 5:42 and Acts 20:20 have to do with preaching to unbelievers “from house to house,” or from door to door. (The Watchtower January 15, 1991 pg. 11 pars. 4-5)
However, distributive is not the same as consecutive. A person can go from “house to house” by going from a home in one area to a home in another area. It does not at all prove that Paul or the apostles went down the street consecutively from door to door. In support of this, there is another place in the scriptures where the exact same expression kat oikon in the distributive sense occurs:
“And day after day they were in constant attendance in the temple with a united purpose, and they took their meals in different homes and shared their food with great rejoicing and sincerity of heart, Acts 2:46
Note how each of these occurrences appear in the Kingdom Interlinear Translation:
Acts 5:42
Acts 20:20
Acts 2:46
Would anyone argue that the disciples carried their meals down the street and shared them with everyone from door to door? Obviously not. Their meals were for the benefit of fellow Christians not for everyone in town or in the neighborhood. So they visited only the homes of fellow Christians. This verse could have been rendered from house to house but with the understanding that it meant only certain predetermined homes. Interestingly, the footnote on Acts 20:20 in the Large Print Reference Bible says: “Or, “and in private houses.”
So it is simply not possible from this for Ralph O Yeager or anyone else to prove that Paul visited every house during his three year stay in Ephesus. Only by reading the account in Acts and letting the writer inform us what Paul did can we do so. To do otherwise would be to go beyond the things that have been written. What does the account tell us?
“In the course of events, while A·polʹlos was in Corinth, Paul went through the inland regions and came down to Ephʹe·sus. There he found some disciples and said to them: “Did you receive holy spirit when you became believers?” They replied to him: “Why, we have never heard that there is a holy spirit.” So he said: “In what, then, were you baptized?” They said: “In John’s baptism.” Paul said: “John baptized with the baptism in symbol of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they got baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid his hands on them, the holy spirit came upon them, and they began speaking in foreign languages and prophesying. There were about 12 men in all. Acts 19:1-7
But it must be noted that these men were already “believers,” “disciples,” when he found them.
They are very much similar to that of Apollos:
“Now a Jew named A·polʹlos, a native of Alexandria, arrived in Ephʹe·sus; he was an eloquent man who was well-versed in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of Jehovah, and aglow with the spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things about Jesus, but he was acquainted only with the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, and when Pris·cilʹla and Aqʹui·la heard him, they took him into their company and explained the way of God more accurately to him. Acts 18:24-26
Even though he did not have complete understaning of the Christian way, Apollos was nonetheless already a Christian when Aquila and Priscilla met him. Furthermore, they did not meet him going from door to door, but in the synagogue. Thus there is no reason for viewing Paul’s meeting with the disciples in Ephesus any differently.
After describing the baptism of these men by Paul, the account goes on to say:
“Entering the synagogue, for three months he spoke with boldness, giving talks and reasoning persuasively about the Kingdom of God. But when some stubbornly refused to believe, speaking injuriously about The Way before the crowd, he withdrew from them and separated the disciples from them, giving talks daily in the school auditorium of Ty·ranʹnus. Acts 19:8, 9
This is Luke’s eyewitness account about Paul’s ministry at Ephesus. Rather than from house to house he shows that Paul taught in the synagogue during three months. The three years that O Yeager speaks about occurs as part of Paul’s parting words in Acts 20:31:
“Therefore keep awake, and bear in mind that for three years, night and day, I never stopped admonishing each one of you with tears. Acts 20:31
Here Paul speaks of admonishing each one with tears. Obviously this is not something that he accomplished with unbelievers from door to door. Paul would admonish his brothers after they became believers. And it is not unreasonable to conclude from the account that these first heard his message in public places, either in the synagogue or in the school auditorium of Tyrannus.
In fact, throughout the book of Acts there is instance after instance of persons becoming believers as a result of talks given in a public place or public manner. The 3,000 at Pentecost gathered publicly to hear Peter and the other disciples speak and that very day they repented and became believers. They were not responding to the call of someone at the door of their house. (Acts 2:1-41)
While it is true that Cornelius and his associates heard the message of repentance and faith in Christ at Cornelius’ house, Peter’s visit there was not in connection with any “house-to-house preaching activity” but a specific visit to that one home. (Acts 10:24-48)
At Antioch in Pisidia, as a result of Paul’s speaking in the synagogue certain ones, Jews and proselytes, “followed Paul and Barnabas” so as to hear more. (Acts 13:14-16, 38-43)
The following sabbath, “nearly all the city gathered together to hear the word of Jehovah” and “all those who were rightly disposed for everlasting life became believers” (Acts 13:44-48)
In Iconium, the account says that Paul and Barnabas spoke in the synagogue and that “a great multitude of both Jews and Greeks became believers.” They ‘repented and put faith in Christ’ as the result of public teaching in the synagogue with no mention of any “house-to-house preaching activity.” (Acts 14:1)
At Philippi, Paul went outside the gate beside a river where there was a place of prayer. Lydia ‘opened her heart and responded. It was only afterward that they went to her house, and then as her guest. (Acts 16:12-15)
The Philippian jailer who was later converted became acquainted with Paul as a prisoner in his jail and Paul entered into his house only at his request, not due to any unsolicited visit to his door. (Acts 16:25-34)
In Thessalonica, the result of Paul’s reasoning with the people in the synagogue for three sabbaths was that “some of them became believers and associated themselves with Paul and Silas, and a great multitude of the Greeks who worshiped God” also did so– again, public teaching in a synagogue with no mention of any “houseto- house” preaching activity. (Acts 17:1-4)
In Beroea, upon arrival they “went into the synagogue of the Jews” and “many of them became believers, and so did not a few of the reputable Greek women and of the men.” (Acts 17:10-12)
In Athens, after Paul had spoken publicly in the synagogue, the marketplace and at the Areopagus, all public places, some “joined themselves to him and became believers.” (Acts 17:16-34)
In Corinth, Paul, while lodging in the home of Aquila and Priscilla, “would give a talk in the synagogue every sabbath and would persuade Jews and Greeks.” When opposition forced him out of the synagogue he went to the house of Titius Justus not to knock on his door but because it was adjoining the synagogue and used this house as a place of teaching, and the account says, Crispus the presiding officer of the synagogue and all his household became believers in the Lord, apparently from hearing Paul teach in the synagogue. “And many of the Corinthians that heard began to believe and be baptized.” (Acts 18:1-8)
All these accounts precede the account of Paul’s activity in Ephesus. Are we to think they shed no light on Paul’s statement quoted in the Watchtower from Acts 20:21 that he “thoroughly bore witness both to Jews and to Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus”?
Paul says he taught persons in Ephesus “publicly and from house to house.” If the first method is public, the second, reasonably, is private. Today Jehovah’s Witnesses would describe their door to door work as engaging in a public ministry. However, taking in consideration what is written in the entire book of Acts, how can it be argued that in Ephesus Paul found believers as a result of going from door to door which by his own words would have been other than his public ministry? Rather is it not certain that he spoke publicly in the synagogue and, later, in the school of Tyrannus, and that he thereafter went to the homes of such believers, from one home to another home, giving them private instruction?
Hence, when examined carefully and thoroughly, there is no evidence that the apostles engaged in a door to door ministry. This does not necessarily mean that it is wrong to do so today. But we cannot say as the Watchtower does that there is scriptural warrant for doing so.