Acts 19:23

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 ‘name' for the disciples or their religion originated in the words in which Christ had claimed to be Himself the ‘Way, ' as well as the ‘Truth' and the ‘Life,' or in His language as to the strait way that led to eternal life; or perhaps again to the prophecy of Isaiah 40:3,cited by the Baptist, Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3, as, to preparing the ‘way' of the Lord. Prior to the general acceptance of the term ‘Christian,' it served as a convenient mutual designation by which the disciples could describe themselves, and which might be used by others who wished to speak respectfully of the ‘brotherhood.' Many evidently preferred it to the opprobrious epithet of the ‘Nazarenes.'