Narkissos, what translation are you using when quoting those verses? That is an interesting point re who Paul was addressing at Acts 20:20. I've never noticed that before.
Gopher, yes good point, but one already made by Ray Franz in his book. By the way, I agree with Franz that the Society's case for consecutive door-to-door preaching is flimsy. I'm not trying to defend the Society's view, rather trying to find extra confirmation of Franz's research.
Thanks for those thoughts, but you havn't touched on my query re the 'distributive' sense for the preposition 'kata' (literally 'according to') that Franz mentions on page 214 of In Search of Christian Freedom. Where does Franz get this point from? Are there examples of the use of a 'consecutive' sense for this preposition that we can use to compare with these instances?
Franz says:
"The claim does not hold up under examination and thought. In the first place, 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, just as a doctor making 'house calls' might go from home to home. It does not at all require the idea of consecutive door-to-door visitation."
The problem I see with this is that 'distribution' still seems to suggest that the disciples made an effort to contact every home in whatever town or village they entered into! Perhaps it most likely wasn't by the method of going from one door to the next door along a street, as Franz makes a strong case for, but nevertheless, would not the sense of 'distributive' imply that they would have tried to call on as many homes as they could have?
The scenario I get from Luke 10 is that the disciples, upon entering a village, found a friendly home and set up base there for lodging, staying to eat there. Then they would have gone to people's homes to preach, perhaps inviting those ones to come to the house where they lodged to hear more. They would also have preached in the local synagogue or market-place.