Acts 19:9

But when divers were hardened, and believed not Perhaps there may be a little gain to those unfamiliar with older English in putting (as Rev. Ver.) "some" for "divers," there seems to be none in giving "and disobedient" instead of "and believed not." The original looks back to the verb "persuade" in the previous verse. The Apostle tried to persuade, these men refused to be persuaded. That seems better expressed by the A. V.

but spake[better, speaking] evil of that[the] way before the multitude The evil speaking is the final manifestation of the hardening. The Apostle continued his exhortations to stony-hearted hearers for three months, but when their obstinacy changed into malignity he left them. "The way" was soon given as a distinctive name to "the Christian religion." See note on Acts 9:2 and cf. below Acts 19:23.

It was not mere opposition to the arguments of the Apostle which these Jews employed, they took occasion to excite the crowds of the city against him. And it would seem from Acts 19:33, where the Jews attempt to put forward a spokesman in the tumult, that they wished the heathen populace to understand that Paul was not approved of by his own nationality.

he departed from them i.e. ceased to take part in the public services at the synagogue.

and separated the disciples The Christian part of the congregation, with any of the Jews who were more interested than the rest in his teaching.

disputing[Better, reasoning] daily The verb is the same as in the previous verse. Among these more sympathizing hearers, he would only have to set forward the arguments for the faith which he preached unto them. His teaching now could go on constantly, and was not confined to the synagogue times of service.

in the school of one Tyrannus The best authorities omit "one." The teacher, whether a heathen or a Jew, was a man well known. Otherwise we can conceive no reason for the mention of a proper name. As the name is Greek, some have thought that the place meant was the lecture-room of a philosophic teacher; others, thinking that St Paul would hardly have chosen such a place for his preaching, have preferred to consider it a Jewish school or Beth-Hammidrash, in which his Jewish hearers would be more willing to assemble. Since the listeners are described, in the next verse, as being partly Jews, and partly Greeks, it is impossible to arrive at a conclusion. No doubt the Jews in Ephesus were numerous enough to render such "schools" necessary for their education, and in their intercourse with Gentiles they not unfrequently adopted a Gentile name in addition to their Jewish one. So Tyrannus may have been a Jew.