Acts 19:1. PAUL HAVING PASSED THROUGH THE UPPER COASTS. The eastern districts of Asia Minor were known by the appellation of the upper districts or country. The English word ‘coasts' is liable to mislead. So Herodotus speaks of the neighbourhood of Sardis as ‘the upper (districts) of Asia.' In this... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:2. HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED? The more accurate rendering is far more emphatic and clear, ‘Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?' Did its mighty influence in any way affect you at the time of your baptism? ‘We are left to conjecture what prompted the questio... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:3. AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, UNTO WHAT THEN WERE YE BAPTIZED? ‘ _Unto what_ as the object of faith and confession _then were ye baptized?_ ' for it is clear by your own words that you had not been baptized, to use your master John's own expression, ‘with the Holy Ghost' (see Matthew 3:11). St.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:4. THEN RAID PAUL, JOHN VERILY BAPTIZED WITH THE BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE, SAYING ONTO THE PEOPLE, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE ON HIM WHICH SHOULD COME AFTER HIM. Dr. Hackett well paraphrases Paul's reply to them: ‘John, indeed, preached repentance and a Saviour to come' (as you know); ‘but the Me... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:5. AND WHEN THEY HEARD THIS, THEY WERE BAPTIZED IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS. The willingness on the part of these followers of John the Baptist to be baptized anew in the name of the Lord Jesus, tells us that they had committed no error in doctrine, no mistake in looking upon their master... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:6. AND THEY SPAKE WITH TONGUES. The immediate effect of their baptism, after that Paul had laid his hands upon them, was the _visible_ presence of the Holy Ghost among them manifesting itself in the form of supernatural gifts. These gifts took the form of ‘speaking with tongues' and ‘prophes... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:7. AND ALL THE MEN WERE ABOUT TWELVE. Thus, out of the history of this foundation of the early Church, these men who came forward so abruptly disappeared as suddenly. The little episode is introduced to show how groups of men who were attached to an evidently widespread but imperfect form of... [ Continue Reading ]
_Paul's Work during the Three Years' Residence at Ephesus,_ 8-41. Acts 19:8. AND HE WENT INTO THE SYNAGOGUE, AND SPAKE BOLDLY FOR THE SPACE OF THREE MONTHS. Very short is the account which the writer of the ‘Acts' gives us of the long residence of Paul at Ephesus, nearly three years altogether. It w... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:9. BUT WHEN DIVERS WERE HARDENED... BUT SPAKE EVIL OF THAT WAY BEFORE THE MULTITUDE, HE DEPARTED FROM THEM. It was the old story which in Paul's weary life-work had so often been enacted and re-enacted, as at Thessalonica and Corinth, and in many another centre of his devoted work. His own c... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:10. AND THIS CONTINUED BY THE SPACE OF TWO YEARS. We must reckon this period from the time when Paul separated the disciples from the synagogue. The ‘two years' probably terminated before the events related in the 21st and following verses; the regular fixed work appears to have come to an e... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:11. AND GOD WROUGHT SPECIAL MIRACLES BY THE HANDS OF PAUL ‘Special,' uncommon, extraordinary, because they were performed without the personal agency and not in the presence of the apostle. A similar expression is used by Longinus when alluding to Moses as ‘no ordinary man' (οὐχ ὁ τυχοὶν ἀνή... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:12. SO THAT FROM HIS BODY WERE BROUGHT UNTO THE SICK HANDKERCHIEFS OR APRONS, AND THE DISEASES DEPARTED FROM THEM. Σουδα ́ ρια (Lat. _sudaria)_ are the ordinary handkerchiefs so common in use in the East, and which are used to wipe the sweat from the brows or face. The aprons, σιμικι ́ νθια... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:13. THEN CERTAIN OF THE VAGABOND JEWS, EXORCISTS, TOOK UPON THEM TO CALL OVER THEM WHICH HAD EVIL SPIRITS. There were, as heathen writers tell us, numbers of these Jews in various parts of the world, who wandered about trading on the credulity of men and women, professing to be magicians, fo... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:14. AND THERE WERE SEVEN SONS OF ONE SCEVA, A JEW, AND CHIEF OF THE PRIESTS, WHICH DID SO. Many suppositions have been hazarded respecting this title of Sceva the Jew, ‘chief of the priests.' Some imagine he must have been head of one of the twenty-four courses into which the priests of the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:15. AND THE EVIL SPIRIT ANSWERED AND SAID, JESUS I KNOW, AND PAUL I KNOW; BUT WHO ARE YE? The possessed man, like the Gadarene demoniac of the Gospel, identifying himself with the evil spirits, replied: ‘Jesus, whom ye invoke, I know: I know Him well, and His authority, and His power; and Pa... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:16. AND THE MAN IN WHOM THE EVIL SPIRIT WAS LEAPED ON THEM, AND OVERCAME THEM. Strong, like the poor man at Gadara (Mark 5:3-4), whom no man could bind, because the chains and fetters had been often plucked asunder by him, so now, this one, before whom the impostor exorcists were standing, t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:17. AND THIS WAS KNOWN TO ALL THE JEWS AND GREEKS ALSO DWELLING AT EPHESUS; AND FEAR FELL ON THEM ALL, AND THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS WAS MAGNIFIED. In Ephesus, where hidden arts were so extensively practised, and where so many were deceived and captivated by pretended dealings with the supe... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:18. AND MANY THAT BELIEVED CAME, AND CONFESSED, AND SHOWED THEIR DEEDS. The ‘fear' of the Unseen came not only upon the superstitious idolaters of Ephesus, but, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira above related, upon the Church. It was a saddening confession, however, for the inspired wri... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:19. MANY OF THEM ALSO WHICH USED CURIOUS ARTE. This specifies the practices of some of these professing believers, notwithstanding their professions of faith. Many of these nominal Christians, some no doubt by way of trade and commerce, others because they shrank from giving up their old bel... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:20. SO MIGHTILY GREW THE WORD OF GOD AND PREVAILED. Somewhere about this time Paul wrote his First Epistle to the Corinthians. It is more than probable that when he penned the words, ‘For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries' (1 Corinthians 16:9), the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:21. AFTER THESE THINGS WERE ENDED. ‘These things were ended' probably refer to the completion of the work of laying the foundation-stories of churches in Ephesus and the neighbouring Asian cities; the public mission work, so to speak, of the Asian district for this time was complete-Some two... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:22. SO HE SENT INTO MACEDONIA TWO OF THEM THAT MINISTERED UNTO HIM, TIMOTHEUS AND ERASTUS. It was at Ephesus, and about this time, that Paul wrote his First Epistle to the Corinthians. From a passage in that epistle, we learn some of the reasons why one of these two friends of Paul was sent... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:23. NO SMALL STIR ABOUT THAT WAY. ‘ The way' seems to have been a term in the Christian phraseology of the first days used familiarly as a term signifying the disciples of Christ (see chap. Acts 9:2; Acts 19:9; Acts 22:4; Acts 24:14; Acts 24:22). Plumptre suggests with great force that this... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:24. FOR A CERTAIN MAN NAMED DEMETRIUS, A SILVERSMITH, WHICH MADE SILVER SHRINES FOR DIANA. The temple of Artemis or Diana, the glory of Ephesus, was built of white marble on an eminence at the head of the harbour, and was esteemed by the ancients as one of the wonders of the world. The sun,... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:25. WHOM HE CALLED TOGETHER WITH THE WORKMEN OF LIKE OCCUPATION. ' with this sense of ‘spirit' Hence this _anthropological_ sense is rare compared with that which follows. (_c._) The _soteriological_ sense: the Holy Spirit in the human spirit, or, the human spirit acted upon by the Holy Spir... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:29. AND THE WHOLE CITY WAS FILLED WITH CONFUSION. We can well understand how easily, when it was reported that a hitherto despised company of foreign Jews for as such the Christians of the first century were necessarily regarded were engaged in a conspiracy to discredit the worship of the go... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:30. THE DISCIPLES SUFFERED HIM NOT. Paul with his customary chivalrous courtesy would not suffer his ‘companions in travel' to be exposed to danger without his being at their side to defend them. He wished, too, to plead the Christian cause, so unwarrantably attacked, before the people of Ep... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:31. AND CERTAIN OF THE CHIEF OF ASIA. Literally, ‘Asiarchs.' These officials were ten in number, chosen annually to superintend and preside over the games and festivals held in honour of the emperor and the gods. They were selected from the cities of Proconsular Asia, generally, according to... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:32. SOME CRIED ONE THING AND SOME ANOTHER. Evidently this is a ‘memory' of some one who was present. A vast concourse of people had been gathered together, all moved by some vague sense of injury, but all uncertain what the injury was, or what they really desired to bring about. The trade of... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:33. AND THEY DREW ALEXANDER OUT OF THE MULTITUDE, THE JEWS PUTTING HIM FORWARD. The abrupt way in which this man is introduced into the narrative by the writer, seems to indicate that ‘Alexander' was no unknown name to the brethren of the Church of the first days. There was no need to enter... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:34. BUT WHEN THEY KNEW THAT HE WAS A JEW. The old Gentile hate of the Jews at once flames out. His features, his foreign accent probably, and his dress told of his nationality, and the crowd refused to hear him, no doubt confounding him with the friends of Paul. ALL WITH ONE VOICE ABOUT THE... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:35. AND WHEN THE TOWN-CLERK HAD APPEASED THE PEOPLE. This official was a personage of great importance in these free Greek cities. He was a magistrate whose functions in some respects corresponded to those fulfilled by the recorder of modern times in England. His immediate duty consisted in... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:36. YE OUGHT TO BE QUIET. The ‘town-clerk' seems to be throughout his harangue intensely anxious that his city should not through any riotous behaviour incur the displeasure of Rome.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:37. NEITHER ROBBERS OF CHURCHES. This rendering is liable to mislead the modern reader. In the time when the English Version was made, it was by no means unusual to style a heathen temple a ‘church' or a ‘chapel.' NOR YET BLASPHEMERS OF YOUR GODDESS. Deeds of violence belonged to an age lon... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:38. IF DEMETRIUS AND... HAVE A MATTER AGAINST ANY MAN, THE LAW IS OPEN. It was clear that these men with whom Demetrius and his fellow-craftsmen were so incensed had committed no crime of which public cognisance would be taken. If some trade law, some civic regulation, had been infringed, le... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:39. IT SHALL BE DETERMINED IN A LAWFUL ASSEMBLY. The crowd of citizens he was then addressing was simply a popular gathering; their decisions could have no weight. Such a meeting would only tend to damage the city in the eyes of the Roman government. The ‘lawful assembly' (ε ̓ κκλησι ́ α ͅ)... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 19:40. FOR WE ARE IN DANGER TO BE CALLED IN QUESTION FOR THIS DAY'S UPROAR. Men of the rank of the ‘town-clerk' of Ephesus well knew how probable it was that a tumultuous meeting which endangered the public peace would be inquired into by the Roman officials. The prized liberties of their city... [ Continue Reading ]