Acts 19:10

Ἰησοῦ omitted after Κυρίου with אABDE. Not represented in Vulg.

10. ἐπὶ ἔτη δύο, by the space of two years. Speaking to the Ephesian elders at Miletus the Apostle says he ceased not to admonish the Church there for ‘three years.’ The two statements need not be conflicting. To the two years mentioned here when the three months of Acts 19:8 are added, and the time which may have preceded his teaching in the synagogue (see on Acts 19:8), the duration of the Apostle’s stay in Ephesus would be described in Jewish reckoning as ‘three years,’ which in their mode of speech need only consist of one whole year, and parts of that which preceded, and that which followed it. cf. the reckoning of three days between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.

ὥστε πάντας … ἀκοῦσαι τὸν λόγον τοῦ κυρίου, so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord. By Asia is meant ‘proconsular Asia’ (see note on Acts 2:10). The seed of the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse was sown in these two years. It is evident from the tumult described in this chapter that the Christian teaching was making as much way among the Gentiles as among the Jews. The language of St Luke here implies that the audience of St Paul was made up not of the settled inhabitants of Ephesus only, but of those who visited the city for business or pleasure, and carried news of the preacher and his message to all corners of the district. Philemon from Colossæ may have been one of St Paul’s converts during this time.