Acts 19:39

εἰ δέ τι περὶ ἑτέρων : if we read περαιτέρω, cf. Plato, Phædo, p. 107 B, the meaning is anything further than an accusation against an individual, a public and not a personal matter: if they desired to get any resolution passed with regard to the future conduct of citizens and of resident non-citizens in this matter, see Ramsay, Expositor, February, 1896, reading περαιτ. ἐπιλυθήσεται (cf. Mark 4:34), nowhere else in N.T. (the verb is found in LXX, Aquila, Genesis 40:8; Genesis 41:8; Genesis 41:12; Th., Hos., Acts 3:4; Philo., Jos.). τῇ ἐννόμῳ ἐκκλησίᾳ : “the regular assembly,” R.V. Mr. Wood, Ephesus, App., p. 38, quotes an inscription in which it was enjoined that a statue of Minerva should be placed in a certain spot, κατὰ πᾶσαν ἔννομον ἐκκλησίαν. But A.V. has “the lawful assembly”: which is the better rendering? “regular” seems to restrict us to νόμιμοι ἐκκλησίαι held on stated customary days, and to exclude from the secretary's statement any reference to extraordinary meetings, meetings summoned for special business, whereas he would be likely to use a term which would cover all legal meetings. But on the other hand Blass quotes the phrase given above from the inscriptions, and explains ἔννομοι ἐκκλησίαι sunt, quæ ex lege certis diebus fiebant (so too Wendt, Lightfoot); and if this is correct, “regular” would be the more appropriate rendering, ἔννομος = νόμιμος. But in Ephesus we have to consider how far the old Greek assembly ἐκκλησία was or was not under the control of the imperial government. In considering this with reference to the special incident before us, Ramsay, with whom Wendt agrees, p. 321 (1899), gives good reason for regarding the “regular” as equivalent to the “lawful” assemblies: i.e., extraordinary assemblies which in the Greek period had been legal, but were now so no longer through the jealous desire of Rome to control popular assemblies, abroad as at home. The ἐκκλησία could not be summoned without the leave of the Roman officials, and it was not at all likely that that sanction would be extended beyond a certain fixed and regular number, Ramsay, Expositor, February, 1896: “The Lawful Assembly,” and “Ephesus,” Hastings' B.D., p. 723.