Acts 19:9

ἐσκληρύνοντο : only here and in Romans 9:18, but four times in Hebrews, three times as a quotation from Psalms 95:8, and once in direct reference to that passage, Acts 3:13, cf. Exodus 7:3; Deuteronomy 2:30, etc. In Sir 30:12 it is found as here with ἀπειθέω, cf. also Clem. Rom., li., 3, 5. ἠπείθ.: “were disobedient,” R.V., unbelief is manifested in disobedience, Westcott, Hebrews, pp. 87, 97, cf. Ign., Magn., viii., 2; Polyc., Phil., ii., 1. τὴν ὁδὸν : “the Way,” see on Acts 9:2. κακολ., Mark 9:39, used by our Lord of speaking evil of Him, Matthew 15:4, and Mark 7:10, as a quotation from Exodus 21:17; in LXX five times, and once in same sense in Malachi 4:1; Malachi 4:1. ἀποστὰς : as in Acts 18:7, at Corinth; verb only in Luke and Paul, except Hebrews 3:12, see Friedrich, p. 7, and above on Acts 15:38, seven times in N.T. with ἀπό and a genitive as here. ἀφώρισε : except Matthew 13:49; Matthew 25:32 (2), only in Luke and Paul, cf. Luke 6:22; Acts 13:2; Romans 1:1; 2 Corinthians 6:17, quotation, Galatians 1:15; Galatians 2:12; cf. Grimm-Thayer for different shades of meaning, both in a good and bad sense, in classical Greek and also in LXX frequently. It is evidently presupposed that as in Acts 18:26 there were still disciples who held fast to the common worship of a Jewish community in the synagogue. καθʼ ἡμέραν : on the days when synagogue worship was held, and so the separation was complete. ἐν σχολῇ Τυράννου τινός, see critical note. We cannot tell whether reference is made to the lecture-hall of some heathen sophist hired by Paul or to the Beth Hammidrash kept by a Jew. Others have thought that Tyrannus, like Titius Justus, Acts 18:7, may have been “a proselyte of the gate,” but if so, one might expect it to be signified as in the case of Justus. The name was common enough, Jos., Ant., xvi., 10, 3; B. J., i., 26, 3; 2Ma 4:40, and see Plumptre's note, in loco. Overbeck's view is quite possible, that the expression referred to the standing name of the place, so called from its original owner, cf. Hort, Judaistic Christianity, p. 93. Probably, if we take the first-mentioned view, in teaching in such a school or lecture-hall the Apostle himself would appear to the people at large as one of the rhetors or travelling sophists of the time, Ramsay, St. Paul, pp. 246, 271 (so McGiffert, p. 285, who regards the notice as taken from a trustworthy source). For instances of the use of σχολή as a school of the philosophers for teaching and lecturing see Wetstein, in loco, cf. Latin, auditorium, Zöckler compares St. Augustine's lecture-hall in Rome before his conversion.