Acts 19:1

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 term, however, were included, as in the present instance, many of the districts lying far inland. The term naturally sprang from a comparison of the more elevated regions of the interior with the low-lying country round the capital city, Ephesus.

Came to Ephesus. Ephesus was one of the great commercial cities of the world, singularly adapted both for inland and maritime commerce; it lay on the main road of traffic between the east and west. It possessed a capacious harbour called Panormus, formed by the river Cayster, known in Homeric story. It was built by Androclus the Athenian, and rapidly increased in wealth and magnificence. In the Alexandrian age it took a fresh departure, and became gradually a chief emporium of the world. The Romans made it the capital of the rich province of Asia, and history speaks of it as the metropolis of five hundred cities. It was the residence of a Roman proconsul, but ranked as one of the free cities of the Empire, enjoying its own peculiar form of government. Its theatre, which, notwithstanding the desolation of the once proud city, may still be traced, is the largest which has yet been discovered, and is said to have been capable of containing some 30,000 persons; still a building capable of containing even 20,000 must have been of colossal dimensions. But the glory of the city was the stately temple of Artemis of the Ephesians (Diana), for an account of which see the note on Acts 19:24 in this chapter. The grandeur of Ephesus received its death-blow in the third century in the reign of the Emperor Gallianus, when it was sacked and laid waste by the Goths who came from beyond the Danube. From that time it sank gradually into decay, its commerce being eventually diverted to Constantinople. In Christian story it was famous not only for the long residence of Paul and Timothy, but subsequently it was known as the abode of the Virgin Mary, and the home of the old age of the Apostle John. The graves of Mary and of John were here. The site of the once splendid Asian metropolis is now utterly desolate. Shapeless piles of ruined edifices occupy the ground where once the great city stood; and the harbour, once the resort of the ships of all nations, is now a confused morass. Not one stone of the celebrated temple remains above another. The few remaining inhabitants are lodged in a miserable Turkish village called Ayasaluch or Asalook, said to be a corruption of Hagios-Theologus (ἂγιος θεολόγος). the name by which St. John was known.

And finding certain disciples. See the remarks on this strange incident in the note on Acts 19:24 of the preceding chapter. It is clear that in a sense these disciples of John the Baptist were Christians, for St. Paul's question to them respecting the Holy Ghost relates to the period since they believed (πιστινσαντες). But there is no question that their knowledge was imperfect even concerning the doctrine of Jesus Christ, while they knew nothing at all relating to the Holy Spirit.