Acts 19:38

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, let Demetrius and the others proceed against Paul and his friends. Demetrius would be sure of all sympathy and even favour in such a trial in which the prosperity of the city was involved. ‘The law is open;' literally, ‘court days are now going on.' Ephesus was what we should now term an assize town, and the Roman officials held courts at intervals in all these. It was also an urbs libera, and had its local courts and magistrates. It is not improbable but that the words of the town-clerk signified, ‘At this instant the proconsul is on circuit, and is just now at Ephesus.'

There are deputies. Literally, ‘there are proconsuls.' In the time of Paul , ‘Asia' being a senatorial province, was governed by a proconsul. The only difficulty in the term is, that it is in the plural (‘proconsuls'), while only one of these officials held office in the senatorial province. It has been suggested that the term includes the proconsul and his assessors. It is, however, more probable that the term is used in a general sense, as we should say, ‘The province of Asia, with its capital Ephesus, is governed by proconsuls.'

Let them implead one another.. This is a legal technical phrase in the original Greek, as in the English.