Acts 19:21

I. Paul is here brought into some trouble at Ephesus, just when he is forecasting to go thence, and to cut out work for himself elsewhere. See here,

1. How he laid his purpose of going to other places, Act 19:21, Act 19:22. He was a man of vast designs for God, and was for making his influences as widely diffusive as might be. Having spent above two years at Ephesus, (1.) He designed a visit to the churches of Macedonia and Achaia, especially of Philippi and Corinth, the chief cities of those provinces, Act 19:21. There he had planted churches, and now is concerned to visit them. He purposed in the spirit, either in his own spirit, not communicating his purpose as yet, but keeping it to himself; or by the direction of the Holy Spirit, who was his guide in all his motions, and by whom he was led. He purposed to go and see how the work of God went on in those places, that he might rectify what was amiss and encourage what was good. (2.) Thence he designed to go to Jerusalem, to visit the brethren there, and give an account to them of the prospering of the good pleasure of the Lord in his hand; and thence he intended to go to Rome, to go and see Rome; not as if he designed only the gratifying of his curiosity with the sight of that ancient famous city, but because it was an expression people commonly used, that they would go and see Rome, would look about them there, when that which he designed was to see the Christians there, and to do them some service, Rom 1:11. The good people at Rome were the glory of the city which he longed for a sight of. Dr. Lightfoot supposes that it was upon the death of the emperor Claudius, who died the second year of Paul's being at Ephesus, that Paul thought of going to Rome, because while he lived the Jews were forbidden Rome, Act 18:2. (3.) He sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia, to give them notice of the visit he intended them, and to get their collection ready for the poor saints at Jerusalem. Soon after he wrote the first epistle to the Corinthians, designing to follow it himself, as appears Co1 4:17, Co1 4:19, I have sent to you Timotheus; but I will myself come to you shortly, if the Lord will. For the present, he staid in Asia, in the country about Ephesus, founding churches.

2. How he was seconded in his purpose, and obliged to pursue it by the troubles which at length he met with at Ephesus. It was strange that he had been quiet there so long; yet it should seem he had met with trouble there not recorded in this story, for in his epistle written at this time he speaks of his having fought with beasts at Ephesus (Co1 15:32), which seems to be meant of his being put to fight with wild beasts in the theatre, according to the barbarous treatment they sometimes gave the Christians. And he speaks of the trouble which came to them in Asia, near Ephesus, when he despaired of life, and received a sentence of death within himself, Co2 1:8, Co2 1:9.

II. But, in the trouble here related, he was worse frightened than hurt. In general, there arose no small stir about that way, Act 19:23. Some historians say that the famous impostor Apollonius Tyanaeus, who set up for a rival with Christ, and gave out himself, as Simon Magus, to be some great one, was at Ephesus about this time that Paul was there. But it seems the opposition he gave to the gospel was so insignificant that St. Luke did not think it worth taking notice of. The disturbance he gives an account of was of another nature: let us view the particulars of it. Here is,

1. A great complaint against Paul and the other preachers of the gospel for drawing people off from the worship of Diana, and so spoiling the trade of the silversmiths that worked for Diana's temple.

(1.) The complainant is Demetrius, a silversmith, a principal man, it is likely, of the trade, and one that would be thought to understand and consult the interests of it more than others of the company. Whether he worked in other sorts of plate or no we are not told; but the most advantageous branch of his trade was making silver shrines for Diana, Act 19:24. Some think these were medals stamped with the effigies of Diana, or her temple, or both; others think they were representations of the temple, with the image of Diana in it in miniature, all of silver, but so small that people might carry them about with them, as the papists do their crucifixes. Those that came from far to pay their devotions at the temple of Ephesus, when they went home bought these little temples or shrines, to carry home with them, for the gratifying of the curiosity of their friends, and to preserve in their own minds the idea of that stately edifice. See how craftsmen, and crafty men too above the rank of silversmiths, make an advantage to themselves of people's superstition, and serve their worldly ends by it.

(2.) The persons he appeals to are not the magistrates, but the mob; he called the craftsmen together, with the workmen of like occupation (a company of mechanics, who had no sense of any thing but their worldly interest), and these he endeavoured to incense against Paul, who would be actuated as little by reason and as much by fury as he could desire.

(3.) His complaint and representation are very full. [1.] He lays it down for a principle that the art and mystery of making silver shrines for the worshippers of Diana was very necessary to be supported and kept up (Act 19:25): "You know that by this craft we have not only our subsistence, and our necessary food, but our wealth. We grow rich, and raise estates. We live great, and have wherewithal to maintain our pleasures; and therefore, whatever comes of it, we must not suffer this craft to grow into contempt." Note, It is natural for men to be jealous for that, whether right or wrong, by which they get their wealth; and many have, for this reason alone, set themselves against the gospel of Christ, because it calls men off from those crafts which are unlawful, how much wealth soever is to be obtained by them. [2.] He charges it upon Paul that he had dissuaded men from worshipping idols. The words, as they are laid in the indictment, are, that he had asserted, Those are no gods which are made with hands, Act 19:26. Could any truth be more plain and self-evident than this, or any reasoning more cogent and convincing than that of the prophets, The workman made it, therefore it is not God? The first and most genuine notion we have of God is, that he had his being of himself, and depends upon none; but that all things have their being from him, and their dependence on him: and then it must follow that those are no gods which are the creatures of men's fancy and the work of men's hands. Yet this must be looked upon as an heretical and atheistical notion, and Paul as a criminal for maintaining it; not that they could advance any thing against this doctrine itself, but that the consequence of it was that not only at Ephesus, the chief city, but almost throughout all Asia, among the country people, who were their best customers, and whom they thought they were surest of, he had persuaded and turned away much people from the worship of Diana; so that there was not now such a demand for the silver shrines as had been, nor were such good rates given for them. There are those who will stickle for that which is most grossly absurd and unreasonable, and which carries along with it its own conviction of falsehood, as this does, that those are gods which are made with hands, if it have but human laws, and worldly interest and prescription, on its side. [3.] He reminds them of the danger which their trade was in of going to decay. Whatever touches this touches them in a sensible tender part: "If this doctrine gains credit, we are all undone, and may even shut up shop; this our craft will be set at nought, will be convicted, and put into an ill name as superstition, and a cheat upon the world, and every body will run it down. This our part" (so the word is), "our interest or share of trade and commerce," kinduneuei hēmin to meros, "will not only come into danger of being lost, but it will bring us into danger, and we shall become not only beggars, but malefactors." [4.] He pretends a mighty zeal for Diana, and a jealousy for her honour: Not only this our craft is in danger; if that were all, he would not have you think that he would have spoken with so much warmth, but all his care is lest the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed; and he would not, for all the world, see the diminution of the honour of that goddess, whom all Asia and the world worship. See what the worship of Diana had to plead for itself, and what was the utmost which the most zealous bigots for it had to say in its behalf. First, That it had pomp on its side; the magnificence of the temple was the thing that charmed them, the thing that chained them; they could not bear the thoughts of any thing that tended to the diminution, much less to the destruction, of that. Secondly, That it had numbers on its side; All Asia and the world worship it; and therefore it must needs be the right way of worship, let Paul say what he will to the contrary. Thus, because all the world wonders after the beast, therefore the dragon, the devil, the god of this world, gives him his power, and his seat, and great authority, Rev 13:2, Rev 13:3.

2. The popular resentment of this complaint. The charge was managed by a craftsman, and was framed to incense the common people, and it had the desired effect; for on this occasion they showed, (1.) A great displeasure against the gospel and the preachers of it. They were full of wrath (Act 19:28), full of fury and indignation, so the word signifies. The craftsmen went stark mad when they were told that their trade and their idol were both in danger. (2.) A great jealousy for the honour of their goddess: They cried out, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians; and we are resolved to stand by her, and live and die in the defence of her. Are there any that expose her to contempt, or threaten her destruction? Let us alone to deal with them. Let Paul say ever so much to prove that those are no gods which are made with hands, we will abide by it that, whatever becomes of other gods and goddesses, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. We must and will stand up for the religion of our country, which we have received by tradition from our fathers." Thus all people walked every one in the name of his god, and all thought well of their own; much more should the servants of the true God do so, who can say, This God is our God for ever and ever. (3.) A great disorder among themselves (Act 19:29): The whole city was full of confusion - he common and natural effect of intemperate zeal for a false religion; it throws all into confusion, dethrones reason, and enthrones passion; and men run together, not only not knowing one another's minds, but not knowing their own.

3. The proceedings of the mob under the power of these resentments, and how far they were carried.

(1.) They laid hands on some of Paul's companions, and hurried them into the theatre (Act 19:29), some think with design there to make them fight with beasts, as Paul had sometimes done; or perhaps they intended only to abuse them, and to make them a spectacle to the crowd. Those whom they seized were Gaius and Aristarchus, of both of whom we read elsewhere. Gaius was of Derbe, Act 20:4. Aristarchus is also there spoken of, and Col 4:10. They came with Paul from Macedonia, and this was their only crime, that they were Paul's companions in travel, both in services and sufferings.

(2.) Paul, who had escaped being seized by them, when he perceived his friends in distress for his sake, would have entered in unto the people, to sacrifice himself, if there were no other remedy, rather than his friends should suffer upon his account; and it was an evidence of a generous spirit, and that he loved his neighbour as himself.

(3.) He was persuaded from it by the kindness of his friends, who overruled him. [1.] The disciples suffered him not, for it better became him to offer it than it would have become them to suffer it. They had reason to say to Paul, as David's servants did to him, when he was for exposing himself in a piece of public service, Thou art worth ten thousand of us, Sa2 18:3. [2.] Others of his friends interposed, to prevent his throwing himself thus into the mouth of danger. They would treat him much worse than Gaius and Aristarchus, looking upon him as the ringleader of the party; and therefore better let them bear the brunt of the storm than that he should venture into it, Act 19:31. They were certain of the chief of Asia, the princes of Asia - Asiarchai. The critics tell us they were the chief of their priests; or, as others, the chief of their players. Whether they were converts to the Christian faith (and some such there were even of their priests and governors), or whether they were only well-wishers to Paul, as an ingenuous good man, we are not told, only that they were Paul's friends. Dr. Lightfoot suggests that they kept up a respect and kindness for him ever since he fought with beasts in their theatre, and were afraid he should be abused so again. Note, It is a friendly part to take more care of the lives and comforts of good men than they do themselves. It would be a very hazardous adventure for Paul to go into the theatre; it was a thousand to one that it would cost him his life; and therefore Paul was overruled by his friends to obey the law of self-preservation, and has taught us to keep out of the way of danger as long as we can without going out of the way of duty. We may be called to lay down our lives, but not to throw away our lives. It would better become Paul to venture into a synagogue than into a theatre.

(4.) The mob was in a perfect confusion (Act 19:32): Some cried one thing and some another, according as their fancies and passions, and perhaps the reports they received, led them. Some cried, Down with the Jews; others, Down with Paul; but the assembly was confused, as not understanding one another's minds. They contradicted one another, and were ready to fly in one another's faces for it, but they did not understand their own; for the truth was the greater part knew not wherefore they had come together. They knew not what began the riot, nor who, much less what business they had there; but, upon such occasions, the greatest part come only to enquire what the matter is: they follow the cry, follow the crowd, increase like a snow-ball, and where there are many there will be more.

(5.) The Jews would have interested themselves in this tumult (in other places they had been the first movers of such riots) but now at Ephesus they had not interest enough to raise the mob, and yet, when it was raised, they had ill-will enough to set in with it (Act 19:35): They drew Alexander out of the multitude, called him out to speak on the behalf of the Jews against Paul and his companions: "You have heard what Demetrius and the silversmiths have to say against them, as enemies to their religion; give us leave now to tell you what we have to say against him as an enemy to our religion." The Jews put him forward to do this, encouraged him, and told him they would stand by him and second him; and this they looked upon as necessary in their own defence, and therefore what he designed to say is called his apologizing to the people, not for himself in particular, but for the Jews in general, whom the worshippers of Diana looked upon to be as much their enemies as Paul was. Now they would have them know that they were as much Paul's enemies as they were; and those who are thus careful to distinguish themselves from the servants of Christ now, and are afraid of being taken for them, shall have their doom accordingly in the great day. Alexander beckoned with the hand, desiring to be heard against Paul; for it had been strange if a persecution had been carried on against the Christians and there were not Jews at one end or the other of it: if they could not begin the mischief, they would help it forward, and so make themselves partakers of other men's sins. Some think this Alexander had been a Christian, but had apostatized to Judaism, and therefore was drawn out as a proper person to accuse Paul; and that he was the Alexander the coppersmith that did Paul so much evil (Ti2 4:14), and whom he had delivered unto Satan, Ti1 1:20.

(6.) This occasioned the prosecutors to drop the prosecution of Paul's friends, and to turn it into acclamations in honour of their goddess (Act 19:34): When they knew that he was a Jew, and, as such, an enemy to the worship of Diana (for the Jews had now an implacable hatred to idols and idolatry), whatever he had to say for Paul or against him, they were resolved not to hear him, and therefore set the mob a shouting, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians; whoever runs her down, be he Jew or Christian, we are resolved to cry her up. She is Diana of the Ephesians, our Diana; and it is our honour and happiness to have her temple with us; and she is great, a famous goddess, and universally adored. There are other Dianas, but Diana of the Ephesians is beyond them all, because her temple is more rich and magnificent than any of theirs." This was all the cry for two hours together; and it was thought a sufficient confutation of Paul's doctrine, that those are not gods which are made with hands. Thus the most sacred truths are often run down with nothing else but noise and clamour and popular fury. It was said of old concerning idolaters that they were mad upon their idols; and here is an instance of it. Diana made the Ephesians great, for the town was enriched by the vast concourse of people from all parts to Diana's temple there, and therefore they are concerned by all means possible to keep up her sinking reputation with, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

4. The suppressing and dispersing of these rioters, by the prudence and vigilance of the town-clerk; he is called, grammateus - the scribe, or secretary, or recorder; "the register of their games," the Olympic games (so others), whose business it was to preserve the names of the victors and the prizes they won. With much ado he, at length, stilled the noise, so as to be heard, and then made a pacific speech to them, and gave us an instance of that of Solomon, The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that rules among fools, as Demetrius did. Ecc 9:17.

(1.) He humours them with an acknowledgment that Diana was the celebrated goddess of the Ephesians, Act 19:35. They needed not to be so loud and strenuous in asserting a truth which nobody denied, or could be ignorant of: Every one knows that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana; is neōkoros; not only that the inhabitants were worshippers of this goddess, but the city, as a corporation, was, by its charter, entrusted with the worship of Diana, to take care of her temple, and to accommodate those who came thither to do her homage. Ephesus is the aeditua (they say that is the most proper word), or the sacrist, of the great goddess Diana. The city was more the patroness and protectress of Diana than Diana was of the city. Such great care did idolaters take for the keeping up of the worship of gods made with hands, while the worship of the true and living God is neglected, and few nations or cities glory in patronizing and protecting that. The temple of Diana at Ephesus was a very rich and sumptuous structure, but, it should seem, the image of Diana in the temple, because they thought it sanctified the temple, was had in greater veneration than the temple, for they persuaded the people that it fell down from Jupiter, and therefore was none of the gods that were made with men's hands. See how easily the credulity of superstitious people is imposed upon by the fraud of designing men. Because this image of Diana had been set up time out of mind, and nobody could tell who made it, they made the people believe it fell down from Jupiter. "Now these things," says the town-clerk very gravely (but whether seriously or no, and as one that did himself believe them, may be questioned), "cannot be spoken against; they have obtained such universal credit that you need not fear contradiction, it can do you no prejudice." Some take it thus: "Seeing the image of Diana fell down from Jupiter, as we all believe, then what is said against gods made with hands does not at all affect us."

(2.) He cautions them against all violent and tumultuous proceedings, which their religion did not need, nor could receive any real advantage from (Act 19:36): You ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly. A very good rule this is to be observed at all times, both in private and public affairs; not to be hasty and precipitate in our motions, but to deliberate and take time to consider: not to put ourselves or others into a heat, but to be calm and composed, and always keep reason in the throne and passion under check. This word should be ready to us, to command the peace with, when we ourselves or those about us are growing disorderly: We ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly; to do nothing in haste, which we may repent of at leisure.

(3.) He wipes off the odium that had been cast upon Paul and his associates, and tells them, they were not the men that they were represented to them to be (Act 19:37): "You have brought hither these men, and are ready to pull them to pieces; but have you considered what is their transgression and what is their offence? What can you prove upon them? They are not robbers of churches, you cannot charge them with sacrilege, or the taking away of any dedicated thing. They have offered no violence to Diana's temple or the treasures of it; nor are they blasphemers of your goddess; they have not given any opprobrious language to the worshippers of Diana, nor spoken scurrilously of her or her temple. Why should you prosecute those with all this violence who, though they are not of your mind, yet do not inveigh with any bitterness against you? Since they are calm, why should you be hot?" It was the idol in the heart that they levelled all their force against, by reason and argument; if they can but get that down, the idol in the temple will fall of course. Those that preach against idolatrous churches have truth on their side, and ought vigorously to maintain it and press it on men's consciences; but let them not be robbers of those churches (on the prey laid they not their hand, Est 9:15, Est 9:16), nor blasphemers of those worships; with meekness instructing, not with passion and foul language reproaching, those that oppose themselves; for God's truth, as it needs not man's lie, so it needs not man's intemperate heat. The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

(4.) He turns them over to the regular methods of the law, which ought always to supersede popular tumults, and in civilized well-governed nations will do so. A great mercy it is to live in a country where provision is made for the keeping of the peace, and the administration of public justice, and the appointing of a remedy for every wrong; and herein we of this nation are as happy as any people. [1.] If the complaint be of a private injury, let them have recourse to the judges and courts of justice, which are kept publicly at stated times. If Demetrius and the company of the silversmiths, that have made all this rout, find themselves aggrieved, or any privilege they are legally entitled to infringed or entrenched upon, let them bring their action, take out a process, and the matter shall be fairly tried, and justice done: The law is open, and there are deputies; there is a proconsul and his delegate, whose business it is to hear both sides, and to determine according to equity; and in their determination all parties must acquiesce, and not be their own judges, nor appeal to the people. Note, The law is good if a man use it lawfully, as the last remedy both for the discovery of a right disputed and the recovery of a right denied. [2.] If the complaint be of a public grievance, relating to the constitution, it must be redressed, not by a confused rabble, but by a convention of the states (Act 19:39): If you enquire any thing concerning other matters, that are of common concern, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly of the aldermen and common-council, called together in a regular way by those in authority. Note, Private persons should not intermeddle in public matters, so as to anticipate the counsels of those whose business it is to take cognizance of them; we have enough to do to mind our own business.

(5.) He makes them sensible of the danger they are in, and of the premunire they have run themselves into by this riot (Act 19:40): "It is well if we be not called in question for this day's uproar, if we be not complained of at the emperor's court, as a factious and seditious city, and if a quo warranto be not brought against us and our charter taken away; for there is no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse, we have nothing to say in excuse of it. We cannot justify ourselves in breaking the peace by saying that others broke it first, and we only acted defensively; we have no colour for any such plea, and therefore let the matter go no further, for it has gone too far already." Note, Most people stand in awe of men's judgment more than of the judgment of God. How well were it if we would thus still the tumult of our disorderly appetites and passions, and check the violence of them, with the consideration of the account we must shortly give to the Judge of heaven and earth for all these disorders! We are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar in our hearts, in our houses; and how shall we answer it, there being no cause, no just cause, or no proportionable one, whereby we may give an account of this concourse, and of this heat and violence? As we must repress the inordinacy of our appetites, so also of our passions, with this, that for all these things God will bring us unto judgment (Ecc 11:9), and we are concerned to manage ourselves as those that must give account.

(6.) When he has thus shown them the absurdity of their riotous meeting, and the bad consequences that might follow from it, he advises them to separate with all speed (Act 19:41): he dismissed the assembly, ordered the crier perhaps to give notice that all manner of persons should peaceably depart and go about their own business, and they did so. See here, [1.] How the overruling providence of God preserves the public peace, by an unaccountable power over the spirits of men. Thus the world is kept in some order, and men are restrained from being as the fishes of the sea, where the greater devour the less. Considering what an impetuous furious thing, what an ungovernable untameable wild beast the mob is, when it is up, we shall see reason to acknowledge God's goodness that we are not always under the tyranny of it. He stills the noise of the sea, noise of her waves, and (which is no less an instance of his almighty power) the tumult of the people, Psa 65:7. [2.] See how many ways God has of protecting his people. Perhaps this town-clerk was no friend at all to Paul, nor to the gospel he preached, yet his human prudence is made to serve the divine purpose. Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Act_19:21-22

After these things were ended Paul purposed in the spirit.

Characteristics of Christianity

Note--

I. A practical beneficence in its spirit. There is distress in Jerusalem. Paul feels that something must be done for its relief. He communicates it to Timotheus and Erastus, and they feel the same; they go to the Churches of Macedonia and Achaia; they feel also, and relief comes as a matter of course. It was not a subject in those days requiring argument and declamation. In the letter which Paul wrote at this time he indicates the order in which the collection should be made, but uses no argument to enforce the duty (1Co_16:1-9). This is as it should be. True Christians are all members of one spiritual body; and the feeling of one member should be participated in by the whole.

II. An heroic aggressiveness in its disciples. I must also see Rome. What for? Merely to see it, in order to gratify curiosity, to study the institutions and habits of a wonderful people, to enrich his experience of life, to increase his acquaintance with men and things? No, but to carry the gospel there. His purpose indicates--

1. That Christianity could stand the scrutiny of the most enlightened people.

2. That no intellectual or social advancement can supersede the necessity of the gospel.

3. That evangelisation should have a special regard to the most influential centres of population.

III. An official authority amongst its minsters. Here are Paul, Timotheus, and Erastus, and there is a manifest subordination. Paul is the superior. He sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him. The authority was not legal or prescriptive, but simply moral. In a society where all minds are spiritually pure, the simple wish of the greatest soul is the greatest law.

IV. An incidental argument for its genuineness. In the account which is here given of Pauls purpose to visit Rome, and that which he gives himself years afterwards, there is one of those undesigned coincidences which constitute an incontrovertible argument for the truth of Christianity. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

I must … see Rome.--

Pauls ambition

(to young men):--

I. Pauls ambition was to see Rome, which meant seeing the world in epitome, and every young man who is worth his salt has a similar desire. This ambition--

1. Was of long standing, perhaps formed at school, and developed by intercourse with Priscilla and Aquila, who had lived in Rome. So doubtless it has been your desire ever since you have heard of lifes prospects and opportunities.

2. Was strong, and strengthened with the lapse of years. Soon after this he leaves Ephesus for Macedonia, where he hopes (2Co_10:16) to be able to preach the gospel in the regions beyond. Opportunity served, and he stood at Illyricum with the Adriatic between himself and his ambition, as previously he had stood with the AEgean between himself and Macedonia. But this time there was no call for help. Reaching Corinth, he writes to florae, and chaps, 1 and 16 show how strong his ambition had become. And so your ambition, so far from being weakened by disappointment, has grown deeper with every rebuff.

3. Natural. Consider what Rome was. The mistress of the world: the centre of the most potent civilisation the world has ever known. Even in its ruin nine educated men out of every ten hope to see it before they die. What, then, must Paul, a cultured gentleman of the first century, and withal a Roman citizen, have felt when it was in all its glory? And so it is natural that you should wish to see life, to know something of its business, to influence by speech and vote its politics and to contribute to its thought.

4. Was sanctioned by God. Generally at his conversion, more definitely just before his first missionary journey (Act_22:21), but the direct sanction was delayed till, strange to say, he was imprisoned at Jerusalem (Act_23:11), nor was it confirmed until near its actual realisation (Act_27:24). Twice in his Epistle does he say that it was subordinate to Gods will. So it was not mere human craving; what was human in it was by Gods approval, and Pauls self- restraint, made Divine. So it is not Gods will, perhaps, that you should move in a narrow sphere. Like Paul, make your ambition a matter of earnest prayer, both as to the time and to the method of its achievement.

5. Was subordinated to present duty. He had obligations to discharge in the shape of apostolic visitation, and the collection of funds for the poor, all which was indirectly helpful to the alternate realisation of his wish. Let no young man be in a hurry. An object gained prematurely, and without fitness to handle it, becomes a curse rather than a blessing.

6. Was achieved in an apparently roundabout way. Paul little thought that the path to Rome lay through Jerusalem. God moves in a mysterious way, and that way is always the nearest, although we may attempt short cuts. And see to it that you take Jerusalem on your way, and, like Paul, identify yourself with the Church. Life is a perilous place without the fear of God, a pronounced profession, and religious associates.

II. Pauls motives. Yours, of course, cannot be quite as simple. But there is nothing wrong in seeking personal gain provided something higher is contemplated with and through this. Paul wanted to see Rome that he might--

1. Preach the gospel there. How much this was necessary we see from Rom_1:1-32; how much it is still necessary we know. Look, then, upon life as affording an opportunity for testimony for God. Dont be ashamed of your mothers religion in the warehouse or the barracks. Paul was not ashamed of it in wicked, scoffing, cruel Rome.

2. Impart some spiritual gift (Rom_1:11). Act as salt in this corrupt world. Impart to business the spiritual gifts of genuineness and honesty; to literature cleanness and truth; to politics righteousness and the golden role.

3. Fell upon a wider world (Rom_15:24). He felt that if he could regulate the pulsations, and cleanse the diseases of that great heart, a new life current would flow through the worlds moral veins. Occupy every new centre as a means of wider usefulness. You will become an employer--let your influence be felt by your employes; you will marry--set up a family altar; when you join a Church dont be a useless log in it.

III. Pauls realisations. He saw Rome--but as a prisoner. And there are disappointing circumstances connected with the realisation of the loftiest human ambition. Life will not be all that you expect. You may win station, wealth, and fame, but you will win a cross as well. Did. Paul repine? No.

1. He accepted the circumstances as ordained of God.

2. He regarded them as most favourable for the accomplishment of his supreme desire. Paul might have preached in synagogue or public hall for many years without exerting a tithe of the influence which his military jailers, to whom he spoke one by one, carried through the city (Php_1:12-13; Php_4:22).

3. He utilised his enforced leisure in a correspondence which has ever since been amongst the foremost moral forces of the world. Conclusion: Your ambition is to see life. With Christ this ambition is perfectly safe, and the result, though disappointing in some respects, will be of the most glorious character; without Christ the whole result will be disaster, for what shall it profit a man, etc. (J. W. Burn.)

Dreamland

Context of the passage. This has been evidently for a long time in the apostles mind. Some months, possibly eighteen months, later it is repeated in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom_1:13-15; Rom_15:23-28). It no doubt first took root some six or seven years before, when he worked in the workshop of Aquila and. Priscilla at Corinth. These (Aquila and Priscilla) had come, we know, straight from Rome; and no doubt the glowing account which these devoted friends of his had given Paul, of the little Christian colony of Rome, their stories of the mighty city, of the perpetual influx of strangers, of the freedom which a great capital always affords for the dissemination of new ideas, of the influence which anything emanating from Rome would probably have on provincial cities--all these determined Paul eventually to go to Rome, and perhaps make it his headquarters.

1. This Roman journey and work no doubt for years entered into Pauls prayers. With each year the purpose evidently grew more intense. The work could never be complete till a Pauline Church flourished at Rome. It was well that his great doctrine of free salvation to all men--to Gentile equally with the Jew--should be accepted in Macedonia, in Corinth, in the wealthy Asian cities like Ephesus and. Colesse, in luxurious, pleasure loving, Syrian Antioch. But to be a doctrine of the world it must be received at Rome, the new Jerusalem of the Christian world.

2. And Pauls prayer was granted. The long agony and wrestling with the Holy Spirit was successful. The Lord heard His servants wish. Paul found himself at Rome; but how, in what position? He dreamed of the warm welcome from the poor but devoted Christians of the Suburra quarter across the Tiber, of the secret support of many a noble Roman lady, of many a patrician who had heard of him from the Chamberlain of Corinth, the Asiarch of Ephesus, possibly from a Sergius Paulus or a Gallio; but what was the reality? He found himself at Rome; but a prisoner, guarded, chained to a soldier; perhaps with a weary captivity, with a life-long slavery in the mines, perhaps with a cruel, violent death before him. These things were Pauls lot in the queen city. But his life dream was realised. He saw Rome, but disappointed. His earnest prayer granted, his life wishes realised, but all so altered with him. Let me anticipate some of the lessons I mean to draw. Many a one of us win our hearts desire, and find it so different to what we hoped, dreamed of, longed for. The man may win his post--the coveted post; he probably will find it full of anxieties, perplexities, cares, even disappointment. He may win wealth, station, high consideration, all those things once he thought so desirable; and with these, perhaps, he will find the hour of health and strength gone, the power of enjoying and even of using the much-coveted possession. Rank, consideration, wealth--gone, hopelessly gone. At Rome, the longed for Rome, like Paul: but, like Paul, a captive, hemmed in, hampered, hindered, bearing about a dying body. Like Paul, he must forget himself; he must set to with the weary work, the restless anxieties, the weak and fading health, and do his best for his Master and his Brother. He must never lose heart, but bravely struggle on. He must, as did Paul, remember it is the Lords hand leading him. Perhaps he himself has been unwise in coveting the higher post, but he must take up his heavier cross bravely and carry it to the end for his Masters sake uncomplainingly, as did Paul. Are there no women among our worshippers who, in past years, have longed for another, a more stirring, a brighter life; have longed for a home, as it is called, of their own; for husband and children, for a so-called independent life; and finding these, have found many a trouble, many a care, many a sorrow? The Rome they found is very different to the Rome of their girl dreams. How did Paul behave under his heavy sorrow? As a brave Christian should. He braced himself up to new and fresh work. Debarred from those missionary circuits which had done so much in old days, when Ephesus was his headquarters, now comparatively alone and friendless, he did his best. He gathered new congregations as best he could--soldiers, camp followers, court attendants--and spoke his Masters words to these. So passed two years, perhaps more, at Rome--his dream city. Yes; God had heard his prayer. Once more free. Contrary to his expectation evidently, from his sad words in the Philippian letter. He leaves the city associated with so much grief and dread. He had seen Rome, but in chains. Once more free, he hastens away; again the free missionary, but now aged and worn. Three more years of earnest, self-denying, gallant toil for his loved Master. But the shadow of imperial Rome still hangs over the devoted life. The suspicious government now watched him. They looked on him as a ringleader of a dangerous and fanatical sect; as a concealed enemy of the empire. So they seized him again, and again brought him to Rome--after three years. What must have been the aged prisoners thoughts when a second time he catered the city he has so desired to dwell in and to see--again in chains? Shall we trace his second residence? It only lasted a few months in close and weary captivity. He probably, save on the days of his trial, never saw the blue heavens, till that morning when they led him out beyond the gates to die. Thus Pauls hearts desire was granted, and he saw Rome.

(1) This strange fulfilment of a prayer almost suggests to us that Pauls earnest wish to see Rome, to lay the ground storeys of a mighty Pauline Church in the great capital, was hardly in accordance with his Masters will; seems as though Paul had not in this particular subordinated his will to his Lords; for though the prayer was granted it was a fulfilment very different to the end Paul looked for. He won his prayer; but the fulfilment was accompanied with sorrow and anguish.

(2) With us we, too, long to see Rome; aye, all of us, from the school girl to the grown, trained man, in the power and vigour of his manhood. We all, I think, long to see. Do we not? On in front we see, like Paul, a dream city, far different to the one in which our lot is cast. What do we want there? Is it gold, or leisure, or power, or pleasure? Do we, in our plans for the future, in our hopes for what will happen after long years, at all think of the kingdom of God, of the advancement of His glory, of the being able better to help our sister and our brother in their need and trouble, in their sickness and sorrow? Or in our dreamcity of the future do we only, or even chiefly, see our future--ourselves?

(3) But then there is another point to consider. Are we wise and prudent? Was Paul wise and prudent, so to pray, so to desire? Could he not have worked on, quiet and contented, doing his Fathers business, in the comparative retirement of a provincial city? I will not try and answer this. Each man and woman must put the question to their own hearts and God will whisper to each the answer.

(4) The grand lesson which we draw from these little words, which throw, however, so strong a light over many a page of Pauls eventful life is--If you long for great things, for power and opportunity to do great things, see well, look carefully, why you want this power, these opportunities. If the reason be indeed a noble one (but be sure first that it is), then pray for it, live for it, train for it, as did Paul. But remember, it may come to you as it did to Paul, most probably with anxiety, care, trouble, weariness, painfulness. Think well, ye discontented servants of high God, who long for greater things and nobler chances, whether at the price it is worth while to covet other things than those in the midst of which God has fixed your lot. Or whether the wiser, the more prudent, perhaps the better part even in Gods eyes, is not to make the best of what you are and where you are. This is to do indeed your Fathers business with quiet contentment; and such a life will in the glad end be crowned with the crown He has promised.

(5) I must see Rome. Better, oh, young toiler for bread or honour, better say--far better pray--I must see Jerusalem. Not the desecrated buildings now piled over the shapeless ruins of the old Sion, once the joy of the earth; but I must see the glorious city, the city of God, where the river of life flows from the throne of God and the Lamb; the city where shall be no more curse; the city of eternal day--for the Lord God giveth it light--where His saints shall reign for ever and ever. Pray for this city, agonise for this home. Your Lord has made it ready; your Lord has washed His pilgrims robes in His own dear blood, that they may enter in forgiven, clothed in white; and then, oh, blessed thought, these will go no more out. (Dean Spence.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 19:21-22. After these things, &c. — After the extraordinary cures performed, and conversions made, at Ephesus, which have been mentioned above, Paul, being much concerned about the spiritual welfare of his former converts, and very solicitous to promote the progress of the gospel; purposed in spirit διελθων, having passed through Macedonia and Achaia — Where he had planted so many flourishing churches some time ago; to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome — That I may bear my testimony to the gospel in that metropolis of the world. “Paul sought not to rest, but pressed on, as if he had yet done nothing. He is already possessed of Ephesus and Asia. He purposes for Macedonia and Achaia. He has his eye upon Jerusalem; then upon Rome; afterward on Spain, Rom 15:26. No Cesar, no Alexander the Great, no other hero, comes up to the magnanimity of this little Benjamite. Faith, and love to God and man, have enlarged his heart even as the sand of the sea.” — Bengelius. Providence, accordingly, brought Paul to Rome, though in a manner different from that in which he had expected to visit it. So he sent Timotheus and Erastus into Macedonia — To give the churches notice of his intending to visit them, and to get their collection ready for the poor Christians in Judea. And soon after, he wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians, designing to follow it himself, as appears, 1Co 4:17-19. For the present, however, he himself stayed in Asia — In the country about Ephesus, founding churches and instructing the new converts.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL REMARKS

Act_19:22. Timothy.—See on Act_16:1. Erastus.—Whether the city treasurer of Corinth (Rom_16:23) or Paul’s helper in Rome (2Ti_4:20), or whether both were the same individual is debated. For the nature of this mission of Timothy and Erastus see 1Co_4:17-19, and compare “Hints.”

HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_19:21-22

Paul’s Last Days in Ephesus; or, Contemplating New Plans

I. A run through Macedonia and Achaia.—These the main divisions, northern and southern, into which Greece under Roman rule was divided. The apostle’s object in this second crossing into Europe was to visit the Churches which had there been established, as e.g., in the towns of Philippi

(16), Thessalonica and Berœa

(17), and Corinth

(18), for the twofold purpose of first establishing them in the faith, and correcting such disorders as he knew had crept in among them, and secondly of bringing to a close the collection for the poor saints at Jerusalem, which had for upwards of a year been going on among the Churches there. This part of the apostle’s plan was subsequently carried out (Act_20:1-2); but in the meanwhile he remained in Ephesus, and sent over Timothy and Erastus to Macedonia.

II. A visit to Jerusalem.—“As the Redeemer, when He had fulfilled His course, set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem (Luk_9:51), so Paul also turns back to that city where the Lord was crucified, and where He had founded His first Church” (Lechler). Why he wished again to journey to Jerusalem is not stated by Luke, but from the Epistles to the Romans (Act_15:26) and Corinthians (1 Act_16:1-4, Act_8:1), it may be inferred that he contemplated bearing to the poor saints there the above mentioned munificent contribution from the Churches of Macedonia and Achaia. That he carried out this his fifth and last visit to Jerusalem is reported by Luke (Act_20:16, Act_21:17).

III. A journey to Rome.—The first notice of any desire on the apostle’s part to visit the metropolis of the Gentile world. That he actually had this desire and really used the words ascribed to him by Luke is confirmed by his letters to the Romans (Act_1:10-15, Act_15:23). The necessity which constrained him does not appear to have been any externally revealed intimation of the divine will, but a strong inward impulse in this direction which had been imparted to his spirit, doubtless by the Holy Spirit. The plan projected by himself was after visiting Jerusalem to start upon a fourth missionary tour, proceed to Rome and travel westward as far as Spain. How different this was from God’s plan for him will afterwards appear.

Learn.—

1. The propriety of forming purposes always in subordination to the divine will (Jas_4:15).

2. The wisdom of avoiding undue haste in carrying out our plans.

3. The advantage of always waiting upon God to direct one’s path.

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Act_19:21. “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” Compare with Rom_1:13; Rom_15:23-28. “The conformity between the history and the epistle is perfect. In the first quotation from the Epistle we find that a design of visiting Rome had long dwelt in the apostle’s mind; in the quotation from the Acts we find that design expressed a considerable time before the Epistle was written. In the history we find that the plan which Paul had formed was to pass through Macedonia and Achaia; after that to go to Jerusalem; and when he had finished his visit there to sail for Rome. When the Epistle was written, he had executed so much of his plan as to have passed through Macedonia and Achaia, and was preparing to pursue the remainder of it by speedily setting out towards Jerusalem; and in this point of his travels he tells his friends at Rome that when he had completed the business which carried him to Jerusalem he would come to them, when he should make his journey into Spain.” Also “the very inspection of the passages will satisfy us that they were not made up from one another.… If the passage in the Epistle was taken from the Acts, why was Spain put in? If the passage in the Acts was taken from the Epistle, why was Spain left out? If the two passages were unknown to each other, nothing can account for their conformity but truth.”—Paley, Horœ Paulinœ, chap. II., iii.

Act_19:22. The Mission of Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia.—“Of Timothy’s special mission in Macedonia we know nothing, but from 1Co_4:17-19, we learn that this trusted companion of the Gentile apostle was directed to pass on to Corinth to prepare the Church there for the approaching visit of the apostle. Erastus was most likely the same as the person alluded to in Rom_16:23, as the chamberlain of Corinth, and was not improbably chosen as the companion of Timothy on this difficult and delicate mission with which he was charged, on the supposition that his rank and station among the citizens would be a support to Timothy, who was the bearer of Paul’s stern, grave message to his well-loved Church.”—Spence.

Presumption or Piety—Which?—“After I have been there I must also see Rome.”

I. Presumption.—This Paul’s utterance might have been had he formed the resolution it expresses in his own mind and with dependence for carrying it out in his own strength. In this case, the signs of sinful arrogance would have been—

1. The double use of the pronoun “I,” whereas he should have remembered God and connected his purpose with Him, who alone orders and guides man’s ways.

2. The taking for granted that he would ever reach Jerusalem, which he might never have done, and certainly could not have done without the divine help and protection.

3. The self-confident assertion that he must see Rome, whereas again he ought to have said, “If the Lord will!” remembering that there can be no “must” in any plan or purpose outside of God’s arrangement or permission.

II. Piety.—This Paul’s utterance was because—

1. The purpose to which it referred was

(1) Formed under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Though not expressly stated this may be inferred.

2. Indicative of his love for the brethren—at least if his motive in desiring to visit Jerusalem was to carry gifts to the poor saints residing there.

3. Expressive of ardent zeal for the extension of the gospel. In this way must the desire and resolution to visit Rome be regarded.

4. Perhaps also suggestive of the loftiness of Paul’s faith, which confided in the divine assistance and support until these great desires of his heart were accomplished.

Timothy and Erastus.

I. Diverse.—

1. In race. Timothy a half Jew and half Greek: Erastus either a whole Jew or a whole Greek.

2. In birthplace. Timothy a native of Lystra: Erastus most likely of Corinth (Rom_16:23), or perhaps of Ephesus.

3. In station. Timothy the son of an obscure father: Erastus, if of Corinth, the treasurer of the city.

II. United.—

1. In Christian discipleship. Both believers and adherents of the way.

2. In relationship to Paul. Both numbered among his helpers.

3. In missionary service. Both sent into Macedonia.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

§ V. While the apostle is preparing to continue his journey to Macedonia and Achaia, a tumult occurs in Ephesus; the progress and end of it

Act_19:21-41

21[But] After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed [to travel] through Macedonia and Achaia, [and then] to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. 22So [But, δὲ] he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; but he himself stayed [and he tarried] in Asia for a season. 23And [But] the same [at that, ἐκεῖνον] time there arose no small stir [occurred not an inconsiderable disturbance] about that [the, τῆς] way. 24For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which [who] made silver shrines [temples] for Diana [of Artemis], brought no small gain unto the craftsmen [artisans]; 25Whom he called [gathered] together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs [Men], ye know that by this craft we have our wealth [that from this trade our14 prosperity proceeds]. 26Moreover [And χαὶ] ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned [drawn] away much people, saying that they be [by saying, They are] no gods, which are made with hands: [hands.] 27So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; [But (δὲ) not only this department of our own is in danger of declining,] but also that [but also] the temple of the great goddess Diana [Artemis,] should be despised [(is in danger) of being set at nought], and her magnificence should be [her grandeur of being] destroyed,15 whom [whereas] all Asia and the world worshippeth [her]. 28 And [But, δὲ] when they heard these sayings [that], they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana [Artemis] of the Ephesians. 29And the whole [om. whole16 ] city was filled with confusion: and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul’s companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre [confusion, and they rushed … theatre, and dragged with them Gaius … in travel]. 30And [But] when Paul would have entered in unto [wished to go among] the people, the disciples suffered him not [did not permit him]. 31And certain of the chief of Asia, which [And some of the Asiarchs who] were his friends, sent unto him, desiring [and besought] him that he would not adventure himself into the theatre. 32Some therefore [then, οὖν] cried one thing, and some [others] another: for the assembly was confused; and the more [greater] part knew not wherefore they were come together. 33And [But] they drew [brought forward]17 Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence unto [and intended to answer for himself before] the people. 34But when they knew [perceived]18 that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out [all lifted up one voice, and they cried about the space of two hours], Great is Diana [Artemis] of the Ephesians. 35And [But] when the townclerk had appeased [quieted] the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there [is there then, γάρ] that knoweth not how [om. how] that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper [the guardian]19 of the great goddess [om. goddess20 ] Diana [Artemis], and of the image which fell down from Jupiter [from heaven]? 36Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against [Since this is therefore undeniable], ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly [commit no rash act]. 37For ye have brought hither these men, which [who] are neither robbers of churches [temples], nor yet blasphemers of your21 goddess. 38Wherefore if Demetrius, and the craftsmen which [artisans who] are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open22 , and there are deputies [against any one (τινα,) there are court-days and proconsuls]: let them implead [bring charges against] one another. 39But if ye inquire any thing concerning other matters [seek for any thing further23 ], it shall be determined in a [the, τῇ] lawful24 assembly [of the people]. 40For we are [also, χαὶ γὰρ] in danger to be called in question for [of having charges brought against us on account of] this day’s uproar, there being no cause whereby [in view of which]25 we may give an account of this concourse. 41And when he had thus spoken [he had said this], he dismissed the assembly.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Act_19:21-22. Paul purposed in the spirit.—[Ἐν τῷ πνεύματι, “i.e., under the divine direction, or in his own mind as determined by the Holy Ghost.” (Alex.). “Placed in his mind, purposed,” (Hackett). “Apud animum constituit, consilium cepit.” (Kuin.). Others interpret: “By the direction of the Holy Spirit.”—Tr.]. The terms here employed in describing the proposed route of the apostle, exhibit the journey through Macedonia and Greece merely as an episode, (and the latter is indeed very briefly narrated in Act_20:1 ff.), whereas his visit to Jerusalem is represented as his main object. The present passage does not explicitly state his special purpose in proceeding to that city, but we ascertain from his Epistles (1Co_16:1 ff.; 2 Cor. Acts 8.; Rom_15:25 ff.) that he intended to collect alms for the congregation at Jerusalem, and he incidentally mentions the fact himself; sea below, Act_24:17. But it is remarkable that on the same occasion he turns his eyes for the first time towards Rome, as the ultimate point to which it was necessary for him to proceed.—Before he himself departed from Ephesus, he sent two of his assistants in advance to Macedonia; of Erastus nothing further is known, in addition to the fact mentioned in 2Ti_4:20, as his identity with the Erastus mentioned in Rom_16:23 is Very doubtful. Ἐπεσχεν εὶς τ. Ἀσίαν, i.e., he tarried, his attention being still directed to Asia [where he now was. Meyer and de Wette concur in giving such an interpretation to εὶς, rather than to take it in the sense of for with Winer: Gram. § 50. 4. b.—Tr.]

Act_19:23-24. There arose no small stir. Demetrius, the author of the disturbance, was an ἀργυροκόπος, i.e., a worker in silver, and, without doubt, the proprietor of a large manufacturing establishment, devoted to the preparation of articles of only one kind, namely silver temples of Artemis, that is, small models of the renowned temple of Diana, together with the statue. [On this temple, the city of Ephesus, etc. consult the very full account in Conyb. and Howson, Life, etc., of St. Paul. Vol. II. Acts 16.—“Whatever may have been the points of resemblance, there was also a great difference, at least between the Diana of the Latin poets and the Artemis of Ephesus, etc.” (Alex.).—Tr.]. It was a common practice to place such miniature temples in chambers [as household gods; see references in Conyb. loc. cit.—Tr.], and carry them along on journeys. Ammianus Marcellinus (XXII. 13) relates the following of the philosopher Asclepiades: deæ cœlestis argenteum breve figmentum quocunque ibat secum solitus efferre. Hence such a business must have been very lucrative when it was conducted on a large scale. Demetrius employed not only artists, strictly so called (τεχνῖται, Act_19:24; Act_19:38), but also a number of workmen or mechanics (ἐργάται, Act_19:25), all of whom derived their support, and, to a certain extent, large gains, from their respective occupations. [Alii erant τεχνῖται, artifices nobiliores; alii ἐργάται, operarii. (Bengel).—Tr.]. The conjecture (of Beza and others) that the ναοί were not models, but silver coins presenting an image of the temple on one side, is supported by very feeble arguments.

Act_19:25-27. Whom he called together, etc.—Demetrius was a man on whom many hundreds may have depended for their support; the decrease of the sale of the articles which he manufactured, furnished him with tangible means for measuring the influence of the apostle in discouraging the worship of Artemis; hence he was prompted to collect all the workmen, both of the higher and of the lower class (οῦς scil. τεχνίτας, καὶ τοὺς—ἐργάτας, Act_19:25), who were connected with his business, and very artfully roused their passions. In his address he states two distinct facts, and from them draws an inference. He first refers to the fact that their particular branch of trade [μέρος, Act_19:27] yielded large profits; he refers, in the second place, to the fact that Paul (ὁ Π. οὐτος, spoken contemptuously, and intended to increase the ill feeling of the hearers) had effected a vast and extensive change of opinion among the people, and opposed the worship of the images of the gods (οἱ διὰ χειρῶν γενόμενοι). When Demetrius asserted that a large multitude in Ephesus, and, indeed, in the whole province (Ἀσία, that is, Asia proconsularis), had been induced to adopt new views, he may have intentionally resorted to the language of exaggeration, in order the more successfully to provoke the people; still, even when such an allowance has been made, it remains an established fact that the apostle had exercised a very decided influence, for in any other case, the whole charge against the latter would have been manifestly pointless. From these facts Demetrius proceeds to draw a twofold inference: ‘Our branch [μέρος], our interest, is in danger of suffering (ἀπελεγμὸς, refutation, contempt, from ἐλέγχω), and, what is more (ἀλλὰ καὶ), the temple of Artemis will be set at nought, and the majesty of the goddess herself will be lowered (αὐτή, the goddess herself, as distinguished from her temple. Μεγαλειότης refers to the title ordinarily applied to the Ephesian Artemis—ἡ μεγάλη, e. g., Xen. Ephes. I.). Demetrius intended by this statement to appeal alike to the self-interest and to the religious fanaticism of his hearers, although he hypocritically represents the interest of the goddess as a higher and more important consideration than any other.

Act_19:28-30. Great is Diana of the Ephesians.—The address of Demetrius made an impression; the fanatical passions of the men to whose interests he had appealed, were powerfully excited, and at first found a vent in this exclamation. His workmen, with loud and exciting outcries, passed through the city in every direction, and soon produced a general tumult. All the people rushed to the theatre, in which, in Greek cities, public meetings were frequently held, especially when popular assemblies were convoked without a direct legal call. As the apostle himself could not, at the moment, be found, his attendants were violently dragged along by the multitude; they were Aristarchus, a native of Thessalonica (Act_20:4; Act_27:2; [Col_4:10; Phm_1:21.]), and Gaius [the Greek form of the Latin Caius.—Tr.], a native of Macedonia, a different person from Gaius of Derbe, mentioned in Act_20:4 [and from Gaius, mentioned in Rom_16:23; 1Co_1:14. (Meyer).—Tr.]

Act_19:31. And certain of the chief of Asia [some of the Asiarchs].—Some of them, without having become Christians, were, nevertheless, kindly disposed to the apostle, and sent him a message, warning him not to venture into the theatre. These Asiarchs [Ἀσιάρχαι] were officers elected by the cities of Asia proconsularis, who were required to exhibit games in honor of the gods at their own expense—a patriotic honorary office. [In other provinces such officers were respectively called Bithyniarchs, Syriarchs, Galatarchs, etc. (Meyer).—Tr.]

Act_19:32-34. Some therefore cried one thing, etc.—A graphic description of that tumultuous assembly of the people is here presented. Alexander [who is, without any valid reason, supposed by some interpreters to be the person mentioned in 1Ti_1:20; 2Ti_4:14. (Meyer).—Tr.] was thrust forward by the Jews, while others of the multitude made room for him in order that he might come forward (προεβίβασαν) and address the people. He was certainly not a Christian (as Meyer and Baumgarten assume, in accordance with the opinion of Calvin, in which case the Jews must have thrust him forward from malice), but an unconverted Jew. Those who suppose that he was a Christian, deduce this inference from the fact that he intended to defend himself before the people. But it may be easily conceived that the popular feeling made no distinction between the Christians and the Jews, as the latter had long been known as opponents of paganism. It may have been the case that the Jews wished Alexander, who was perhaps an experienced public orator, to speak in their behalf, and thus transfer the blame from themselves to the Christians. But when he attempted to speak, the people observed that he was a Jew, and would not permit him to utter a word; on the contrary, the fanaticism which was now aroused, burst forth in the united and incessant outcry which the workmen of Demetrius had already commenced.

Act_19:35-41. a. And when the townclerk.—Te γραμματεὺς was an officer whose duty it was to prepare, publish, and preserve, all the documents and decrees of the body politic to which he belonged; this office of a “secretary of state” was of considerable importance in the cities of Asia Minor. The incumbent, in the present case, at length prevailed on the assembled multitude to observe silence, and succeeded in allaying the excitement by the address which he delivered. The word γάρ, which follows τίς, implies that an effort to obtain silence had already been made.—Νεωκόρος originally designated a servant of the temple, or one whose duty it was to cleanse and adorn it; the word was afterwards employed as an honorable appellation, and was applied, in its connection with the priesthood, in the sense of keeper and guardian of the temple; the title was bestowed even on imperial persons, in order to confer honor upon them. The expression τὸ διοπετὲς [“adj. (Διός, πίπτω), fallen from Jove, heaven-descended” (Rob. Lex.), ἄγαλμα being understood; see Meyer ad loc.—Tr.] here denotes the wooden image of Artemis in the temple, so named, as, according to tradition, it had fallen from heaven.

b. Ye men of Ephesus, etc.—The address of this officer is intended to calm the excited multitude, and to prevent the commission of any rash and inconsiderate acts. With this view he reminds his hearers, in the first place, of certain well known and undisputed facts respecting the Ephesian worship of Diana, Act_19:35. In the second place, he makes the juristical remark that the men who had been arrested, were guilty of no crime against Artemis or her temple. [“The latter statement of the Grammateus, in reference to Paul and his associates, has been variously understood, by some as a mere falsehood, meant to calm the mob; by others as a true description of Paul’s abstinence from all direct warfare against idol worship; by a third class, as describing only his forbearance as to particular deities, or forms of heathen worship, which, according to Josephus, was practised also by the Jews; and lastly, as not denying even this kind of attack, but only an offensive and insulting method of conducting it.” (Alex.). The townclerk, however, is not speaking of Paul, but only of Gaius and Aristarchus, who stood before him (τ. ἄνδ. τούτους).—Tr.]. Hence—the townclerk proceeds to say—it was necessary, either that Demetrius and his associates should commence an action in due form against these men, and charge them (λόγος, discourse, a matter of complaint) with a private and personal offence, or else, if it was desired that their offence should be made an affair of the state, that a regular assembly of the people should be convoked, which alone would be a competent court, Act_19:37-39. Ἀγόρ, ἡμέραι, dies forenses s. judiciales habentur. Ἀ νθύπατοι, in the plural, conveys the sense: ‘There is always a proconsul on the spot.’ The words of this prudent man: ἡ ἔννομος ἐκκλησία imply with sufficient distinctness, even if somewhat indirectly, that the concourse before him was no regular assembly of the people, but rather a mob, and was by no means authorized to adopt any measures which could be recognized as legal. He directs the attention of his hearers, in the last place, to the circumstance that they had reason to apprehend that an account would be demanded of them respecting the present tumult, Act_19:40. [“The Roman government watched every appearance of insubordination or sedition in the provinces with a jealous eye. … It was a capital offence to take any part in a riotous proceeding.” (Hackett).—Tr.]. τάρ before κινδ, implies that this anxiety respecting a possible accusation of insurrection, was a sufficient reason for resorting to the legal process indicated in Act_19:39. Μηδενὸς αἰτιόυ ὑπ. is not masculine (Vulg.) in the sense: “No man being chargeable with it,” but neuter, implying: “Since no ground exists on which we can justify this συστροφή”—a word chosen in a spirit of mildness and forbearance, rather than στάσις.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The route announced by the apostle at Ephesus, embraced, in the first instance, Macedonia and Greece, and, afterwards, Jerusalem and Rome. Like the Redeemer, who, when His time was come, “steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luk_9:51), Paul continually looks back to the city in which the Lord was crucified, and in which he founded His first congregation. But the apostle’s glance and desire refer even to a more distant point—to Rome, to which he purposed in the spirit—by divine guidance and illumination—to proceed, Act_19:21. The revelations which Jesus had made in a direct manner, after his conversion, respecting the work assigned to him, now assume the form of dictates of his own soul—of resolutions adopted by a divine necessity.

2. The alarming tumult in Ephesus, which, like that at Philippi, proceeded from a purely pagan source, may also be traced, it is true, to base feelings engendered by the pecuniary losses of the authors (Act_16:19). There is, however, a difference to be found between the two cases, in so far as, at Ephesus, the material interests of a particular guild or trade were essentially interwoven with the local worship of that pagan city. The whole procedure strikingly foreshadows the many later outbursts of fanaticism against Christianity and the pure Gospel, when purely selfish motives assumed the guise of zeal in the service of religion.

3. A holy zeal and carnal passions are as widely different from each other as day is from night: the former proceeds from a disinterested. love of God, and from a sincere desire to promote His honor; the latter proceed from a selfish and corrupt source. The former always acts with energy and perseverance, but also with self-possession and intelligence; the latter are always fitful and extravagant, confused, reckless, and irrational, Act_19:32. The former produces good and abiding results; the latter either endanger or destroy, or else (Act_19:30-31) consume themselves, and expire in infamy.

4. The representations made by the townclerk imply that the apostle, as well as his assistants, had altogether refrained from mocking and blaspheming the heathen gods; in any other case, his words would not only have produced no effect, but would rather have called forth contradictions, and increased the excitement of the people. This fact is, moreover, indirectly established by the inflammatory address which Demetrius made to his associates in trade, since if he had possessed any proofs that the worship of Artemis had been actually assailed, he would certainly have availed himself of them for his own purposes. With this view the conduct of the apostle at Athens, which was prudent, moderate, and as generous as possible, fully accords. Hence the example of the great apostle of the Gentiles does not sanction that method of approaching pagans, according to which all that is irrational and foolish in their religion is exposed in offensive and insulting terms. That method may indeed cut to the quick, but it does not enlighten and heal. The apostolical procedure assumes a positive, not a negative, character. The testimony concerning the true God and His Christ, our Redeemer, or the preaching of the Gospel, is a power of God [Rom_1:16], which enlightens, builds up, and saves, and it is only by this truth and this power that error and sin can be successfully refuted and rebuked.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Act_19:21. After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit etc.—Paul does not believe that a time of repose had now arrived; he is eager to proceed further, as if he had hitherto accomplished nothing. He has already gained possession of Ephesus and Asia; he resolves to proceed to Macedonia and Achaia; his view is directed to Jerusalem; he meditates an expedition to Rome, and, afterwards, to Spain (Rom_15:24). No Alexander, no Cæsar, no other hero, ever exhibited such a lofty spirit as that which animated this little Benjamite [an allusion either to Psa_68:27, or to Augustine’s explanation of the apostle’s name (the Latin paulus), and to his tribe, Rom_11:1.—Tr.]. The truth concerning Christ, faith in Him, and love to Him, had enlarged his heart, and made it wide as the ocean. (Bengel).—There are times when the burdens and cares of our office seem to be almost too great to be borne, and when we exclaim with Elijah: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life” [1Ki_19:4]. But there are also other times, in which we can soar aloft in spirit, and, inspired by the dignity of our office, take such views and form such resolutions respecting the future, as are here ascribed to Paul. (Rieger).—Jerusalem and Rome are two peculiar, and, in their spiritual and secular relations, very remarkable cities. At the beginning, much that was good, and, afterwards, much that was evil, was widely diffused from them as central points. Much blood of the saints, crying for vengeance, has already been shed in them, and will yet be shed, Mat_23:35; Rev_18:24. It is worthy of remark that it was necessary for Luther also to see Rome, before the Reformation commenced, (id.).—God often fulfils the desires of his people, not in strict accordance with their opinion, but in that form which, as he judges, will most surely conduce to His honor and to their salvation. Paul desired to see Rome, but he was brought thither as a prisoner. (Starke).—Whatever changes might occur in the condition of this witness of Jesus, he never lost sight of Jerusalem and Rome, the scenes of his sufferings and martyrdom. Such was the course which the Lord had prescribed, and he hastened to finish it, even as Jesus went forward to meet the cross and death. (Ap. Past.).

Act_19:23. No small stir about that way.—This “way” did not correspond to the wishes of all men, for it required them to abandon their trade and forsake their own ways. Hence they create a disturbance, and Satan always desires to obstruct the narrow way. (Gossner.)—It is obvious that, Luke does not intend to conduct us through pagan lands and cities, without showing us that dark abyss from which destructive influences were to proceed, that would cause the Church to shed many tears and pour forth her blood. (Baumgarten).—When Paul was on the point of commencing the journey, God permitted him to be exposed to serious danger in Ephesus, in order that he might, from every spot, carry forth with him the marks [Gal_6:17] of the sufferings of Jesus, and, while enjoying the blessing of the Lord, might also bear after Him the cross. (Ap. Past.).

Act_19:24. For a certain man named Demetrius, etc.—It appears that the cause of the tumult was covetousness under the disguise of religion. Demetrius, the silversmith, is a type of all those dishonest religious zealots, who pretend that they are governed by zeal for sound doctrine, the honor of God, and the preservation of truth and order, while their real object is solely to retain their income, ease and honors. (Ap. Past.).

Act_19:25-26. Sirs, ye know, that by this craft we have our wealth … this Paul hath … turned away much people, etc.—The Gospel of Jesus cannot possibly maintain peace with the dead idols which the people of the world worship, and it rebukes the sinful lusts and evil works which give pleasure to them. Is it a wonder that such preaching should arouse the hatred, envy and jealousy of men who will not abandon their gods?—There are certain sins peculiar to trade and business in general, which long hinder the conversion of persons who are so occupied. Many tradesmen adopt it as a principle that usury, fraud, and unrighteous gains, are, as it were, allowable in their business. It is by the influence of this delusion that Satan retains such men in his service. A wise teacher will regard it as his duty to endeavor to expose and destroy all hidden snares of this character. (Ap. Past.).—Wherever Jesus Christ, the true Lord of all men, appears, He attracts to Himself the hearts, the love, the prayers, the outward works and also the outward sacrifices of men, and these are withdrawn from the idols to which they had been hitherto offered. If the idols of pagans and the idols of Christians could sigh and weep, they would begin to sigh and weep whenever the Holy Ghost opens an avenue among the nations. Heathen priests have often proclaimed falsehoods to their people, when the latter yielded to the influence of the Gospel, and have said: ‘Our God has complained and sighed in his temple, because his sacrifices have been withheld.’ But who is it that thus complains and sighs? He who is hidden behind the idol, and who derives his gains through that medium. (Ahlfeld).—Tetzel, in his day, and Leo, the enlightened pope, spoke precisely in the same manner. (Besser).—Even at the present time, in the bosom of Christendom, selfishness renews this opposition to divine truth in the hearts of men, both in science and in the outward life. Is it not selfishness, when the arrogant understanding of man will not submit in obedience to Jesus Christ? Is it not selfishness, when the carnal mind will not consent to abandon the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the world? Is it not selfishness, when the natural will attempts by its own resources to create a righteousness which shall avail before God? (Leonh. and Sp.).

Act_19:27. But also that the temple … should be despised, etc.—How skilfully avarice can conceal itself under the mantle of zeal for religion! (Quesnel).

Act_19:28. Cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.—Many mechanics make an idol of their trade. (Starke).—True religion is not maintained by means of tumults, (id.).—Who was the instigator of such a tumult and uproar? Was it Elijah, who troubled Israel [1Ki_18:17-18], or Jezebel, with all those who, like herself, were idolaters? (Gossner).—Do you shudder at the sight of such blindness on the part of people, who, in many other respects, possessed so much intelligence? Do not, however, believe that such shuddering is the sole effect which this scene should produce. Let this tumult, even if you glance merely at its original source, be a warning to you. Let the history of recent times teach you how corrupt individuals have been able to gain many adherents, to use the ignorant as their instruments, to attract by promises, to alarm by threats, and, when they assumed the guise of rectitude, to flatter human passions and employ the worst means, and have thus deluded entire congregations and large masses of men, so that these were not ashamed blindly to follow their blind guides. (Apelt).—A certain, external zeal may be enkindled even in favor of the truth or of portions of it, and attract a host of followers, who convert a holy zeal for the Lord into the unholy cry; “Great is our Diana!” Thus, in the age of the Reformation, the controversy respecting Original Sin (namely, whether it belonged to the very nature or substance of man, or only adhered to him as an accident or quality not essential to his nature) was carried even into drinking-houses, and divided the meanest peasants into two parties, who usually decided the question by means of their clubs. (Williger).

Act_19:29. And the whole city was filled with confusion.—Here we have a faithful description of a riot. One or two evil-minded men begin it; then it extends, and, like a mighty torrent, soon overflows town and country. (Starke).

Act_19:30. And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not.—Christians should indeed be firm, but not obstinate. (Lindhammer).—When the servants of God, who are full of His Spirit, are in danger of being carried beyond proper limits by their zeal, He often warns and restrains them even through the medium of others who have not the Spirit in the same measure. Even the most intelligent man does not always act with intelligence. (Gossner).—When the blind passions of the mob rage and foam like the stormy ocean, even the loudest voice which the witnesses of the truth could lift up, will not be heard, and, at such moments, Paul himself can adopt no other course than that of observing silence.

Act_19:31. And certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, etc.—An upright teacher will always retain faithful friends, even among men of distinction and authority, although the world may hate him. Herod highly esteemed John [Mar_6:20], however cruelly he ultimately persecuted him. Joseph and Nicodemus were secretly attached to Jesus. The genuine purity, integrity and truth, which our words and works ought to reveal, if we are the servants of Christ, will always secure the esteem and confidence of intelligent people of the world, although they may not themselves as yet be converted. A servant of Jesus will not court the favor of the world; but when God provides for his servants friends who are eminent and influential men, the latter are the instruments which a gracious Providence employs for the protection and aid of such servants in the various circumstances in which they are placed. (Ap. Past.).—Man’s favor and God’s grace are both desirable, when both may be found; but when man’s favor is withheld, God’s grace alone will suffice. (Old proverb).

Act_19:32. Some therefore cried one thing … knew not wherefore they were come together.—This is still the case, in our day, with the ignorant multitude, when political and religious agitators attempt to gain adherents. Many an honest German burgher (Spiessbürger) has, of late years, joined in a cry with others at a popular assembly, subscribed an address, or voted at an election, and never knew what the subject really was. In such cases the intelligent man and upright Christian may sadly smile, and, with the dying Huss, exclaim: O sancta simplicitas! And he may devoutly remember the compassionate prayer of our merciful Highpriest: ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!’ [Luk_23:34].

Act_19:33. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, etc.—The excited mob of pagans was soon joined by malignant Jews; the latter intended to set forth Alexander as their speaker, who doubtless desired to defend the Jews, but, above all, to make a new attack on Paul. He was not, however, allowed to speak. We cannot read this narrative without shuddering; and when we reflect on all that Paul endured on that occasion, we can readily understand his meaning when he compares that trial to a struggle with wild beasts, 1Co_15:32. (Rieger).

Act_19:34 About the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.—Men are never made drunken by the Holy Ghost (Act_2:13), but often by the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. (Eph_2:2).—That spirit often extends to them the intoxicating cup of pride and falsehood, filled to the brim, so that while they adore their idols, and thus virtually glorify themselves, they become deaf to the voice of truth, and are incapable of sober reflection. ‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians!’ This cry is still repeated, and the name alone of the idol is changed. The popular ideas and the heroes of the day are usually indebted for the honor and applause which they temporarily receive, to this cry of the foolish multitude. And yet this cry by no means proves that they possess any intrinsic worth. When Satan perceives that his time is nearly at an end, his fury is redoubled. The loud outcry at Ephesus plainly proved that the party which raised it, was approaching its dissolution. (Leonh. and Sp.).

Act_19:35-36. And when the townclerk had appeased the people, etc.—Tumults and insurrections are often more successfully suppressed by an eloquent tongue, than by a strong arm and a heavy sword. (Starke).—It is true that the townclerk’s address is not an apostle’s sermon; still, it shows that the speaker was a prudent, considerate, firm and just man, whom many Christian rulers might take as their model. He first of all calms the people, and gains their confidence by the assurance that the reputation of their city was incapable of being successfully assailed. But then his subsequent remarks do not accord with the sentiments of the people; he does not justify their course, neither does he place the persecuted disciples in their power. (Leonh. and Sp.).

Act_19:37. These men, which are neither robbers of churches [temples], nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.—The Christians of Ephesus on this occasion receive a recompense for having walked according to the rule which Paul gave to Titus: “Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.” Tit_3:1-2. (Besser).—We can here perceive with what prudence the apostles must have borne testimony against the heathen idols, since they could not be accused of having blasphemed Diana. Carnal weapons afford no substantial aid to the cause of truth. (Rieger).—It was not Paul’s custom to assail the idols of the pagans in direct terms. He first of all preached Jesus Christ to them, and built up in them that which was new; the old then fell of itself to the ground. (Ahlfeld.).—Neither does it afford us, who are preachers, any aid, when we disparage the idols of the world, unless, at the same time, we magnify the name of Christ.

Act_19:38. If Demetrius and the craftsmen … have a matter … the law is open, etc.—It is a mercy of God when a wise government exists, which is able to maintain law and order, and repress arbitrary conduct and injustice. (Leonh. and Sp.).—Paul here experienced the truth of all that he had said in praise of government: “He [It, i.e., civil government] is the minister of God to thee for good, etc.” Rom_13:4. (Williger).

Act_19:41. And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.—Their wrath, which had been so quickly enkindled, was as quickly extinguished. (Chrysostom).—Thus the tumult was suppressed by the wisdom and eloquence of the townclerk, whom the grace of God employed as an instrument for delivering His servants from danger, and defeating the enemies of the Gospel. But the roots of such enmity cannot be destroyed except by the silent power of the divine word, and by the winning language of the Holy Ghost, who is the true defender of the people of God. O Lord Jesus, whom the winds and the sea obey, assuage thou the raging of the nations and of our own flesh and blood against thee (Rieger); calm our hearts, and teach them to obey thy truth, and to enjoy the blessed peace of thy life! (Leonh. and Sp.).

(On Act_19:21-41). The uproar raised in Ephesus against the Gospel of Christ: I. Originating in selfishness; II. Maintained, by delusions; III. Triumphantly suppressed by the power of divine grace. (Leonh. and Sp.).—Lessons taught by experience respecting the self-deception of seditious men: I. They claim that they have lofty aims, but are controlled by the basest selfishness; II. They suppose that they act with freedom, but they are the blind tools of artful deceivers; III. They profess to act with intelligence, but they are guilty of the most absolute folly; IV. They boast that they contend for justice, but they commit the grossest acts of injustice; V. They entertain the wildest expectations, but ultimately gain nothing. (Bobe).—The tumult of the Ephesians, a warning for our times: I. In its remote source and its immediate cause;II. In its progress and results. (Apelt.).—The struggle which selfishness constantly maintains with the Gospel: I. The means which it employs, Act_19:25-27; II. The results produced, Act_19:28-30. (Lisco).—The hostility of idolaters to the Gospel: I. Its sources, Act_19:23-27; II. Its external form, Act_19:28-29. (id.).—Rules for our conduct towards men excited by their passions, which the address of the Ephesian townclerk furnishes: I. To recognize every element of truth in their complaints; II. To unfold any mistakes which they have made; III. To recommend lawful remedies; IV. To show the guilt and danger of disorderly proceedings, (id.).—The Lord, protecting his church even by means of of its enemies: I. He exposes their impure motives, and thus demonstrates the righteousness of His own cause: (a) the superstition, (b) the selfishness—of the Ephesian rioters; II. He converts the internal self-contradiction of sin into means for sustaining the truth: (a) the pagans reject an alliance with the Jews against the Christians—a victory of the truth, Act_19:33-34; (b) the tumult terminates to the injury of its authors—the good cause suffers no harm, Act_19:38-40. (id.).—The silversmith Demetrius and his associates, in modern times: they are, I. The abject slaves of money, whose eager search for temporal gains, banishes every thought on eternal things, Act_19:24-25; II. The Wind adherents of the established order, who, at every new movement of the Spirit, dread the loss of comfort, and even fear that the world will be destroyed, Act_19:26-27 : III. The self-satisfied priests of the Beautiful, who, in their idolatrous worship of Nature and Art, are unwilling to acknowledge a consciousness of sin and of their need of grace, Act_19:27. (Compare Goethe’s poem, entitled: ‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians,’ and his confession in his correspondence with Jacobi: “I cannot help it that I am one of the Ephesian silversmiths; I have spent my life in contemplating, admiring, and adoring the wonderful temple of the goddess (Nature), and in imitating her mysterious forms, and I cannot possibly derive any pleasure from the attempt of any apostle who obtrudes on his fellow-citizens another, and, moreover, a formless God,”—as Jacobi did, in his work: On Divine Things). [According to Jacobi’s philosophy, God is, essentially, only a moral idea. Herzog: Real-Enc. VII. 354).—Tr.]. IV. The hypocritical zealots in the cause of the church and religion, whose sanctimonious zeal for the house of God, is only a veil that conceals their selfish purposes, Act_19:27.—‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians,’ but still greater is the God of the Christians: I. The kingdom of nature is great and glorious, but our true home and our true peace can be found only in the kingdom of grace. II. The works of art and science which the human mind has produced, are great and beautiful, but when art and science are not controlled by the divine Spirit, and directed by the light of the Christian revelation, they go astray and enter very dark and dangerous paths. III. The power of the human will is great and mighty, but we cannot, even with the best intentions, render a pure service to the holy God, or build a temple that is worthy of Him, unless His Spirit cleanses the heart, and converts it into His sanctuary, and unless His strength is made perfect in our weakness [2Co_12:9]. IV. The history of temporal kingdoms (like Greece and Rome) records great and memorable deeds, but Christ’s kingdom of the cross triumphs over all of them; Ephesus is in ruins, and the temple of Diana is destroyed, but even the gates of Hell shall not prevail against His Church.—The tumult at Ephesus, an awful image of rebellion against the Gospel of God, which is continually renewed: I. In the benighted heathen world, by the brutal and, indeed, the Satanic spirit of heathenism: the dark scenes presented by the missionary field, such as the bloody persecution in Madagascar, the mutiny in India, etc. II. In unconverted Christendom, by a carnal mind, which will not submit to the rebukes of God’s word, and by the materialism of the age, which will not recognize heavenly things. III. In the hearts even of upright Christians, by the pride of reason, by self-righteousness, and by the flesh, which dreads the cross.—‘Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? … He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision,’ Psa_2:1-4 : I. The raging of the heathen: (a) their madness, Act_19:23-29; (b) their blindness, Act_19:32. II. The derision of the Lord: (a) He rules, in serene majesty, over His raging enemies; (b) He puts to shame their devices, before the whole world, Act_19:35-40.—Christ, the almighty Master of the tempest, even when unchained nations begin to rage: I. In the hour of danger, he places his people in the ark of safety: Paul, Act_19:30-31. II. He casts rocks into the sea, against which the raging waves dash in vain: the townclerk, Act_19:35 ff. III. He allows the storm of passion to expend its strength, and then subside: the appeased assembly, Act_19:35-41. IV. He conducts the vessel of his church on its voyage in safety: Paul’s progress, in the following chapter.—The messengers of the Gospel, opponents, it is true, but not blasphemers, of heathenism, Act_19:37 : the proof is derived, I. From their Christian prudence; with all their zeal for the house of the Lord, they are not foolishly zealous; II. From their Christian love; the indignation with which they survey the abominations of heathenism, is surpassed by the pity with which they behold the misery of the heathens; III. From their Christian wisdom; even in the gloom of heathenish folly, a spark of primitive truth may be perceived [comp. 17–22 ff.].—The townclerk of Ephesus a model, both as a man of the people, and as a statesman: I. His undaunted courage; II. His calmness and discretion; III. His impartial justice; IV. His benevolent spirit.—[Act_19:35-41.—The address of the townclerk of Ephesus: I. The circumstances which led to it: (a) the decline of idolatry; (b) the powerful influence of the Gospel; (c) the selfish passions of men. II. Its course of reasoning: he refers (a) to the apparently unfounded apprehensions of the multitude, Act_19:35 : (b) to the obvious innocence of the accused parties, Act_19:37; (c) to the unlawful proceedings of the people, Act_19:40. III. Its effect: (a) it delivered the apostle and his associates from personal danger; (b) it disappointed the malice of hostile pagans and Jews (Act_19:33); (c) it strengthened the faith of the believers.—Tr.].

Footnotes:

[14]Act_19:25. ἡμῖν is far better sustained [by A. B. D. E. and Cod. Sin.] than the genitive ἡμῶν [of text. rec. from G. H.]; the latter is a much easier reading. [Lach., Tisch., Born. and Alf. readἡμῖν.—Tr.]

[15]Act_19:27. [The text. rec. reads οὐδὲν λογισθῆναι,μἐλλειν τε καὶ καθαιρεῖσθαι τὴν μεγαλειότητα. Lach. and Tisch. read οὐθὲν λογισθήσεται, μέλλει τε καὶ καθ. της μεγαλειότητος. Alf. reads οὐθὲν λογισθῆναῖ, μέλλειν δὲ καὶ καθ. τῆς μεγ.—οὐδὲν in D. E. G.; οὐθὲν in A. B. H. and Cod. Sin.; λογισθήσεται in A. D. E. Syr.; λογισθῆναι in B (e sil). G. H. and Cod. Sin.; μέλλει in A (original); μέλλειν in B (e sil). E. G. H. and Cod. Sin.; τὲ in A. E., and Cod. Sin.; δὲ in B. G. H.; τὴν μεγ. in G. H.; τῆς μεγ. in A. B. E. and Cod. Sin.—Meyer regards the two infinitives λογ., μελ, although so well attested, as corruptions of the other and original readings, which some copyists did not understand. De Wette, on the other hand, maintains that the infinitive λογ., governed by κινδ., is the true reading, but was not not so understood by copyists.—Tr.]

[16]Act_19:29. ὅλη [found in D. E. G. H.] is evidently a later addition, and does not occur in some of the ancient manuscripts [not in A. B. Cod. Sin., etc.] and versions [not in Vulg., but in Syr.; the word is omitted by Lach., Tisch., and Alf.—Tr.]

[17]Act_19:33. προεβίβασαν [of text. rec.] is not indeed supported by stronger external evidence [by D (corrected; previously κατεβ.). G. H.] than συνεβίβασαν [which latter is the reading in A. B. E., Cod. Sin. and is adopted by Lach. and Tisch.]; still, the former is to be received as the genuine reading [and is adopted by Alf.], as the latter (συνεβ.) affords no intelligible sense. [Meyer adheres to the reading of the text. rec., and de Wette remarks that δυνεβ i.e., they instructed is “nonsense.”—Tr.]

[18]Act_19:34. [ἐπιγνόντων of text. rec., found only in some minuscules, is “a corruption to avoid the pendent nominative” (Alf.). Recent editors adopt ἐπιγνόντες from A. B. D. E. G. H. and Cod. Sin. The nominative is an anacoluthon; see various instances in Winer: Gram. § 63. I. 1.—Tr.]

[19]Act_19:35. a. [For a worshipper (Wicl.; Tynd., Cran., Geneva, Rheims), the margin of the Engl. Bible substitutes the more accurate version: the temple-keeper.—Tr.]

[20]Act_19:35. b. [θεᾶς of text. rec., from G. H., is omitted in A. B. D. E. Cod. Sin., Syr. Vulg., and dropped by Lach., Tisch. and Alf.—Tr.]

[21]ὑμῶν [of text. rec.] is better attested [by B (e sil). E. G. H. Vulg.] than ἡμῶν [which is found in A. D. E (corrected), and also Cod. Sin., and adopted by Lach.]; a copyist would have more easily changed the former into the latter, than the reverse.—[θεὰν of text. rec. in the same verse, from D. E (corrected)., is changed into θεόν by recent editors in accordance with A. B. D (corrected). E (original). G. H. Cod. Sin.—Tr.]

[22]Act_19:38. [For the law is open (Tynd., Cranm., Geneva), the margin of the Engl. Bible furnishes the more accurate version: the court-ways are kept. The original, accented in the text. rec. thus; ἀγοραῖοι, is now usually accented thus: ἀγοραῖοι. Winer recognizes the distinction; see his Gram. N. T. § 6. 2. The word ἠμἔραι, or, according to Meyer, αύνοδοι, conventus forenses, Vulg., is understood, Winer, § 64. I. 5. For the meaning of the word with the circumflex, see above, Exeg. note on Act_17:4-5.—Tr.]

[23]Act_19:39. a. περαιτέρω is found indeed in only one uncial manuscript, the Vatican [B], and in about 15 minuscules, whereas most of the manuscripts [A. B. G. H. Cod. Sin., Vulg. (alterius rei)] and fathers read περὶ ἑτέρων [as in text. rec.]. The former, however, is certainly the genuine reading, and was altered simply because it is a word which is rarely found. [It is adopted by Lach. and Tisch., with whom Meyer concurs; but Alf retains πρὶ ἐτ., and regards the other as a mistake of the copyist; nor is de Wette inclined to receive the word.—Tr.]

[24]Act_19:39. b. [For lawful assembly (Geneva, Rheims), the margin of the Engl. Bible offers the less accurate version: ordinary assembly. The article denotes that a legal assembly is meant, which was to be held at a certain well-known time.—Tr.]

[25]Act_19:40. οὐ after περὶ οῦ̓, is supported, it is true, by three uncial manuscripts [A. G. H.; also Cod. Sin.]; it is, nevertheless, (in accordance with the opinion of Tischendorf,) to be cancelled as a spurious reading. [It is omitted in B (e sil). D. E., and although received by Griesbach, is generally rejected by more recent editors.—Tr.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Acts

THE FIGHT WITH WILD BEASTS AT EPHESUS

Act 19:21 - Act 19:34.

Paul’s long residence in Ephesus indicates the importance of the position. The great wealthy city was the best possible centre for evangelising all the province of Asia, and that was to a large extent effected during the Apostle’s stay there. But he had a wider scheme in his mind. His settled policy was always to fly at the head, as it were. The most populous cities were his favourite fields, and already his thoughts were travelling towards the civilised world’s capital, the centre of empire-Rome. A blow struck there would echo through the world. Paul had his plan, and God had His, and Paul’s was not realised in the fashion he had meant, but it was realised in substance. He did not expect to enter Rome as a prisoner. God shaped the ends which Paul had only rough-hewn.

The programme in Act 19:21 - Act 19:22 was modified by circumstances, as some people would say; Paul would have said, by God. The riot hastened his departure from Ephesus. He did go to Jerusalem, and he did see Rome, but the chain of events that drew him there seemed to him, at first sight, the thwarting, rather than the fulfilment, of his long-cherished hope. Well it is for us to carry all our schemes to God, and to leave them in His hands.

The account of the riot is singularly vivid and lifelike. It reveals a new phase of antagonism to the Gospel, a kind of trades-union demonstration, quite unlike anything that has met us in the Acts. It gives a glimpse into the civic life of a great city, and shows demagogues and mob to be the same in Ephesus as in England. It has many points of interest for the commentator or scholar, and lessons for all. Luke tells the story with a certain dash of covert irony.

We have, first, the protest of the shrine-makers’ guild or trades-union, got up by the skilful manipulation of Demetrius. He was evidently an important man in the trade, probably well-to-do. As his speech shows, he knew exactly how to hit the average mind. The small shrines which he and his fellow-craftsmen made were of various materials, from humble pottery to silver, and were intended for ‘votaries to dedicate in the temple,’ and represented the goddess Artemis sitting in a niche with her lions beside her. Making these was a flourishing industry, and must have employed a large number of men and much capital. Trade was beginning to be slack, and sales were falling off. No doubt there is exaggeration in Demetrius’s rhetoric, but the meeting of the craft would not have been held unless a perceptible effect had been produced by Paul’s preaching. Probably Demetrius and the rest were more frightened than hurt; but men are very quick to take alarm when their pockets are threatened.

The speech is a perfect example of how self-interest masquerades in the garb of pure concern for lofty objects, and yet betrays itself. The danger to ‘our craft’ comes first, and the danger to the ‘magnificence’ of the goddess second; but the precedence given to the trade is salved over by a ‘not only,’ which tries to make the religious motive the chief. No doubt Demetrius was a devout worshipper of Artemis, and thought himself influenced by high motives in stirring up the craft. It is natural to be devout or moral or patriotic when it pays to be so. One would not expect a shrine-maker to be easily accessible to the conviction that ‘they be no gods which are made with hands.’

Such admixture of zeal for some great cause, with a shrewd eye to profit, is very common, and may deceive us if we are not always watchful. Jehu bragged about his ‘zeal for the Lord’ when it urged him to secure himself on the throne by murder; and he may have been quite honest in thinking that the impulse was pure, when it was really mingled. How many foremost men in public life everywhere pose as pure patriots, consumed with zeal for national progress, righteousness, etc., when all the while they are chiefly concerned about some private bit of log-rolling of their own! How often in churches there are men professing to be eager for the glory of God, who are, perhaps half-unconsciously, using it as a stalking-horse, behind which they may shoot game for their own larder! A drop of quicksilver oxidises and dims as soon as exposed to the air. The purest motives get a scum on them quickly unless we constantly keep them clear by communion with God.

Demetrius may teach us another lesson. His opposition to Paul was based on the plain fact that, if Paul’s teaching prevailed, no more shrines would be wanted. That was a new ground of opposition to the Gospel, resembled only by the motive for the action of the owners of the slave girl at Philippi; but it is a perennial source of antagonism to it. In our cities especially there are many trades which would be wiped out if Christ’s laws of life were universally adopted. So all the purveyors of commodities and pleasures which the Gospel forbids a Christian man to use are arrayed against it. We have to make up our minds to face and fight them. A liquor-seller, for instance, is not likely to look complacently on a religion which would bring his ‘trade into disrepute’; and there are other occupations which would be gone if Christ were King, and which therefore, by the instinct of self-preservation, are set against the Gospel, unless, so to speak, its teeth are drawn.

According to one reading, the shouts of the craftsmen which told that Demetrius had touched them in the tenderest part, their pockets, was an invocation, ‘Great Diana!’ not a profession of faith; and we have a more lively picture of an excited crowd if we adopt the alteration. It is easy to get a mob to yell out a watchword, whether religious or political; and the less they understand it, the louder are they likely to roar. In Athanasius’ days the rabble of Constantinople made the city ring with cries, degrading the subtlest questions as to the Trinity, and examples of the same sort have not been wanting nearer home. It is criminal to bring such incompetent judges into religious or political or social questions, it is cowardly to be influenced by them. ‘The voice of the people’ is not always ‘the voice of God.’ It is better to ‘be in the right with two or three’ than to swell the howl of Diana’s worshippers,

II. A various reading of Act 19:28 gives an additional particular, which is of course implied in the received text, but makes the narrative more complete and vivid if inserted.

It adds that the craftsmen rushed ‘into the street,’ and there raised their wild cry, which naturally ‘filled’ the city with confusion. So the howling mob, growing larger and more excited every minute, swept through Ephesus, and made for the theatre, the common place of assembly.

On their road they seem to have come across two of Paul’s companions, whom they dragged with them. What they meant to do with the two they had probably not asked themselves. A mob has no plans, and its most savage acts are unpremeditated. Passion let loose is almost sure to end in bloodshed, and the lives of Gaius and Aristarchus hung by a thread. A gust of fury storming over the mob, and a hundred hands might have torn them to atoms, and no man have thought himself their murderer.

What a noble contrast to the raging crowd the silent submission, no doubt accompanied by trustful looks to Heaven and unspoken prayers, presents! And how grandly Paul comes out! He had not been found, probably had not been sought for, by the rioters, whose rage was too blind to search for him, but his brave soul could not bear to leave his friends in peril and not plant himself by their sides. So he ‘was minded to enter in unto the people,’ well knowing that there he had to face more ferocious ‘wild beasts’ than if a cageful of lions had been loosed on him. Faith in God and fellowship with Christ lift a soul above fear of death. The noblest kind of courage is not that born of flesh or temperament, or of the madness of battle, but that which springs from calm trust in and absolute surrender to Christ.

Not only did the disciples restrain Paul as feeling that if the shepherd were smitten the sheep would be scattered, but interested friends started up in an unlikely quarter. The ‘chief of Asia’ or Asiarchs, who sent to dissuade him, ‘were the heads of the imperial political-religious organisation of the province, in the worship of “Rome and the emperors”; and their friendly attitude is a proof both that the spirit of the imperial policy was not as yet hostile to the new teaching, and that the educated classes did not share the hostility of the superstitious vulgar’ {Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller, p. 281}. It is probable that, in that time of crumbling faith and religious unrest, the people who knew most about the inside of the established worship believed in it least, and in their hearts agreed with Paul that ‘they be no gods which are made with hands.’

So we have in these verses the central picture of calm Christian faith and patient courage, contrasted on the one hand with the ferocity and excitement of heathen fanatical devotees, and on the other with the prudent regard to their own safety of the Asiarchs, who had no such faith in Diana as to lead them to joining the rioters, nor such faith in Paul’s message as to lead them to oppose the tumult, or to stand by his side, but contented themselves with sending to warn him. Who can doubt that the courage of the Christians is infinitely nobler than the fury of the mob or the cowardice of the Asiarchs, kindly as they were? If they were his friends, why did they not do something to shield him? ‘A plague on such backing!’

III. The scene in the theatre, to which Luke returns in Act 19:32, is described with a touch of scorn for the crowd, who mostly knew not what had brought them together.

One section of it kept characteristically cool and sharp-eyed for their own advantage. A number of Jews had mingled in it, probably intending to fan the flame against the Christians, if they could do it safely. As in so many other cases in Acts, common hatred brought Jew and Gentile together, each pocketing for the time his disgust with the other. The Jews saw their opportunity. Half a dozen cool heads, who know what they want, can often sway a mob as they will. Alexander, whom they ‘put forward,’ was no doubt going to make a speech disclaiming for the Jews settled in Ephesus any connection with the obnoxious Paul. We may be very sure that his ‘defence’ was of the former, not of the latter.

But the rioters were in no mood to listen to fine distinctions among the members of a race which they hated so heartily. Paul was a Jew, and this man was a Jew; that was enough. So the roar went up again to Great Diana, and for two long hours the crowd surged and shouted themselves hoarse, Gaius and Aristarchus standing silent all the while and expecting every moment to be their last. The scene reminds one of Baal’s priests shrieking to him on Carmel. It is but too true a representation of the wild orgies which stand for worship in all heathen religions. It is but too lively an example of what must always happen when excited crowds are ignorantly stirred by appeals to prejudice or self-interest.

The more democratic the form of government under which we live, the more needful is it to distinguish the voice of the people from the voice of the mob, and to beware of exciting, or being governed by, clamour however loud and long.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19:21-22 felt compelled by the Spirit: No doubt Paul was troubled by what he had heard about the situation in Corinth (see 1 Corinthians Book Introduction). Instead of going immediately himself, he sent . . . Timothy, who was carrying a letter, 1 Corinthians, from Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor 4:17; 16:10-11). Paul himself did go over to Macedonia and Achaia not long afterward (Acts 20:1-3). • “I must go on to Rome!”: Perhaps compelled by his proven strategy (see study note on 16:8), Paul wanted to proclaim the Good News in the most significant city in the world.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Act 19:21. Ἐπληρώθη, were fulfilled or ended) Paul did not at this point think that he ought now to be at rest, but he pants after something more, in the same way as if he had done nothing. He gains possession of Ephesus and Asia; he makes an appointment for Macedonia and Achaia: he looks towards Jerusalem: he meditates Rome; thence to Spain. See Rom 15:26, with what goes before and follows. No Alexander, no Cæsar, no other hero, approaches to the large-mindedness of this Little Benjamite [2Co 10:1; 2Co 10:10; Php 3:5]. The truth concerning Christ, and faith and love towards Christ, enlarged his heart, like the sand of the sea [1Ki 4:29]. Yet he proceeds in order: When these things were fulfilled or completed. Indeed the cause of Christianity had reached the proper degree of maturity in Asia: Act 19:9; Act 19:13-14; Act 19:18.—ἔθετο ἐν τῷ πνεύματι, purposed in the spirit) This is said of a holy purpose: of a bad purpose, ἔθου ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου, thou hast conceived (laid up) in thine heart: ch. Act 5:4. The design of Paul pleased the Lord: for He himself adds the promise, ch. Act 23:11. Observe the energy of Paul, ch. Act 20:2, note.—διελθὼν, having passed through) Construe this with πορεύεσθαι, to go, not with ἔθετο, purposed, for he was not yet in Macedonia.—[Ἱερουσαλὴμ—Ῥώμην, to Jerusalem—Rome) Two metropolitan cities, the one in an ecclesiastical, the other in a political point of view.—V. g.]—δεῖ, I must) The Lord answers in ch. Act 23:11, so must thou.—ἰδεῖν, see) He speaks in a noble spirit. Many adversities were awaiting him when about to see Rome. Paul regards not that consideration.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act_19:21-22. Ταῦτα] these things hitherto reported from Ephesus (Act_19:1-19). Schrader (der Apostel Paulus, II. p. 85 f.) would strangely refer it to the entire past labours of Paul, even including what is not related by Luke. An arbitrary device in favour of his hypothesis, that after Act_19:20 a great journey to Macedonia, Corinth, Crete, etc., occurred. See, on the contrary, Anger, de temp. rat. p. 64 ff.

ἔθετο ἐν τῷ πνεῦμ.] he determined in his spirit, he resolved. Comp. on Act_5:4.

τὴν Μακεδ. κ. Ἀχ.] see on Act_18:12.

πορεύεσθαι εἰς Ἱερουσ.] The special object of the journey is known from 1Co_16:1 ff.; 2 Corinthians 8; Rom_15:25 ff. The non-mention of this matter of the collection is so much the less to be set down to the account of a conciliatory design of the book (Schneckenburger, p. 67; Zeller, p. 267),as if it made the apostle turn his eyes towards Jerusalem on account of the celebration of the festival (Act_20:16, Act_24:11; Act_24:17),since the very aim of the collection would have well suited that alleged tendency.[96]

δεῖ] in the consciousness of the divine determination, which is confirmed by Act_23:11. From this consciousness is explained his earnest assurance, Rom_1:10 ff. And towards Rome now goes the whole further development[97] of his endeavours and of his destiny. He was actually to see Rome, but only after the lapse of years and as a prisoner.

Ἔραστον] 2Ti_4:20. Otherwise unknown and different from the person mentioned in Rom_16:23.

ἐπέσχε χρόνον] he kept himself (remained) behind for a time. See examples in Wetstein, and from Philo in Loesner, p. 219.

εἰς τ. Ἀσίαν] does not stand for ἐν τῇ Ἀσ. (in opposition to Grotius, Heinrichs, Kuinoel, and many others), but it denotes the direction in which this keeping back took place, toward Asia, where he was. Comp. the well-known ἐς δόμους μένειν, Soph. Aj. 80. Considering the frequency of this construction (comp. Act_18:21) generally, and in the N.T. (Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 287 [E. T. 333]), it is not to be rendered, with Winer: for Asia, in order to labour there.

[96] Comp. 2Co_9:12 ff.; see Lekebusch, p. 280. How undesignedly the work of the collection remained here unmentioned, is evident from Act_24:17.

[97] Compare Klostermann, Vindiciae Luc. p. 35 ff.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 19:21 . διελθὼν , see on the force of the word Ramsay, Expositor , May, 1895, and above on Act 13:6 . Ramsay regards this as perhaps the most conclusive of the ten cases he cites of the use of the verb as denoting missionary travel. There is no reason to suppose that Paul paid a visit to Corinth during his stay at Ephesus; Act 19:9-10 intimate that he resided at Ephesus through the whole period. Wendt thinks that the notice of this second visit to Corinth was omitted by Luke because it did not fit in with his representation of the ideal development of the Church. But is there any real argument to be found for it in the Epistles? The passages usually quoted are 2Co 2:1 ; 2Co 12:14 ; 2Co 13:1 . But τρίτον τοῦτο ἔρχομαι may well express “I am meaning to come,” so that Paul would mean that this was the third time he had purposed to come to them, not that he had come for the third time; and this rendering is borne out by the Apostle’s own words, 2Co 12:14 , Paley, Horæ Paulinæ , iv., 11, whilst with regard to 2Co 2:1 the words may simply mean that he resolves that his new, i.e. , his second visit, πάλιν ἐλθεῖν , should not be ἐν λύπῃ , for we are not shut up to the conclusion that πάλιν must be connected with ἐν λύπῃ as if he had already paid one visit in grief; and this interpretation is at all events in harmony with 2Co 13:2 , R.V. margin, and with Act 1:23 , R.V., see especially “II. Cor.” (Dr. A. Robertson) Hastings’ B.D., p. 494, and compare “Corinth” (Ramsay), ibid. , p. 483; see also Farrar, Messages of the Books , pp. 211, 216; St. Paul , ii. 101, 118; Felten, note, p. 364; Renan, Saint Paul , p. 450, note; and in favour of the second visit to Corinth, McGiffert, p. 310, following Alford, Neander, Weizsäcker (so too in early days St. Chrysostom). In 1Co 16:5-9 Paul speaks of his intention to go through Macedonia to Corinth, but previously, 2Co 1:16 , he had intended to sail from Ephesus to Corinth, then to go to Macedonia, and afterwards to return to Corinth. Why had he changed his plans? Owing to the bad news from Corinth, 2Co 1:23 . But although he did not go to Corinth in person, he determined to write to reprove the Corinthians, and this he did in 1 Cor. It is possible that the Apostle’s determination to see Rome the first notice of the desire so long cherished, Rom 1:13 ; Rom 15:23 may be closely connected with his friendship with Aquila and Priscilla (Ramsay, St. Paul , p. 255, and Plumptre, in loco , Hort, Rom. and Ephes. , p. 11).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By the motion of God’s Spirit: therefore we may not say that Paul ran hand over head to death, but as the Spirit of God led him.

Paul is never weary.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

After these things were ended--completed, implying something like a natural finish to his long period of labor at Ephesus.

Paul purposed . . . when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem . . . After I have been there, I must also see Rome--Mark here the vastness of the apostle's missionary plans. They were all fulfilled, though he "saw Rome" only as a prisoner.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 21. Paul purposed in the spirit, c.] Previously to this he appears to have concerted a journey to Macedonia, and a visit to Corinth, the capital of Achaia, where he seems to have spent a considerable time, probably the whole winter of A.D. 58 see 1Co 16:5-6; and afterwards to go to Jerusalem; but it is likely that he did not leave Ephesus till after pentecost, a.d. 59. (1Co 16:8) And he resolved, if possible, to see Rome, which had been the object of his wishes for a considerable time. See Ro 1:10, Ro 1:13; Ro 16:23.

It is generally believed that, during this period, while at Ephesus, he wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians. He had heard that some strange disorders had entered into that Church:-

1. That there were divisions among them; some extolling Paul, beyond all others; some, Peter; others, Apollos.

2. He had learned from Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, whom he saw at Ephesus, 1Co 16:17; 1Co 7:1, that several abuses had crept into their religious assemblies.

3. That even the Christians went to law with each other, and that before the heathens. And,

4. That a person professing Christianity in that city, had formed a matrimonial contract with his step-mother. It was to remedy those disorders that he wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians, in which he strongly reprehends all the above evils.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. He purposed in spirit. His meaning is, that Paul purposed to take his journey through the instinct and motion of the Spirit; that we may know that all his whole life was framed according to God’s will and pleasure. And therefore hath he the Spirit to be the governor of his actions, because he did both give over himself by him to be ruled, and did also depend upon his government. Neither skilleth that which followeth, that he had not that success in his journey which he did hope for; for God doth oftentimes govern and rule his faithful servants, suffering them to be ignorant of the end. For he will have them so far forth addicted to him, that they follow that which he hath showed them by his Spirit, even shutting their eyes when matters be doubtful. Moreover, it is certain that he was wholly addicted to profit the churches, omitting and foreslowing [neglecting] his own commodity, in that he had rather deprive himself of Timotheus, a most excellent to him of all, most faithful, most dear, finally, a most fit companion, than not to provide for the Macedonians.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(21) Paul purposed in the spirit.—Better, perhaps, in spirit. The Greek word, however, implies a reference to something more than human volition. The spirit which formed the purpose was in communion with the Divine Spirit. (See Notes on Act_17:16; Act_18:5.)

We learn from the First Epistle to the Corinthians what were the chief antecedents of this purpose. There had been intercourse, we may believe, more or less frequent, with the churches of both Macedonia and Achaia during the two years which St. Paul had spent at Ephesus; and there was much to cause anxiety. It had been necessary for him to send a letter, not extant, to warn the Corinthians against their besetting impurity (1Co_5:9). The slaves or freed-men of Chloe had brought tidings of schisms, and incestuous adulteries, and grave disorders in ritual and discipline. (See Introduction to the First Epistle to the Corinthians.) These things called for the Apostle’s presence. With these was joined another purpose. He wished to revisit Jerusalem, and to appear there as the bearer of a munificent contribution from the Gentile churches to the suffering church of the Hebrews. (See Notes to 1Co_16:1; 2Co_8:1.)

After I have been there, I must also see Rome.—This is the first recorded expression of a desire which we learn from Rom_1:13; Rom_15:23, had been cherished for many years, possibly from the time when he was first told that he was to be sent far off unto the Gentiles (Act_22:21). It was doubtless strengthened by personal contact with the numerous disciples from that city whom he met at Corinth, some of them dating their conversion from a time anterior to his own (Rom_16:7), and by the report which he heard from them of the faith and constancy of their brethren (Rom_1:8). His work would not seem to him complete until he had borne his witness in the great capital of the empire.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21, 22. St Paul’s Plans for his Journey from Ephesus

21. After these things were ended] The foundations of the Ephesian Church seemed fully laid, when sacrifices of such a kind had been made by the converts, and so St Paul feels that he may leave the seed sown in good hope that it will grow.

Paul purposed in the spirit] i.e. had settled it in his own mind.

when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia] Intending, no doubt, as was his wont, to visit the churches which had been founded on his previous mission (chapp. 16–18) from Philippi to Corinth.

to go to Jerusalem] With contributions, as we know, collected throughout the other churches for the needs of the central organization of the Christian movement. See 1Co_16:1-3. There this intended journey through Macedonia and to Corinth is alluded to, and the reason assigned for the Apostle’s lingering in Ephesus (Act_19:8-9) “I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.” The opening of the door was manifest in the burning piles of magic books, of the many adversaries we read in this chapter in a description which might justify the Apostle in using the language of the Psalmist, “Great bulls of Bashan close me in on every side.” Perhaps such a thought was in his mind when he wrote of “fighting with beasts at Ephesus” (1Co_15:32).

saying. After I have been there, I must also see Rome] Of the long cherished desire which he had to visit the Imperial City, the Apostle speaks Rom_1:13, in which passage he intimates that the purpose had been often entertained, but hitherto disappointed.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whom he called together,.... That is, the craftsmen; "all his co-artificers", as the Syriac version reads, all the chief of the trade, the masters of it, as he himself was:

with the workmen of like occupation; who were employed by him, and the rest of the masters in the several branches of the business; as founders, engravers, polishers, &c. some might make the images, and others the temples, or shrines; some do one part and some another, so that abundance of persons might be employed in this business:

and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth; the workmen not only had a comfortable and sufficient livelihood, but the masters of the trade grew rich: such a demand had they for their goods, and so profitable was this craft to them: this was a very strong and moving argument, to influence the masters and workmen; it so nearly touched them, and their worldly interest, than which nothing sticks closer to carnal men. Demetrius's way of address was very moving and persuasive, but his method manifestly betrayed what was his greatest concern, not religion, but his own secular interest; that which he should have mentioned last, if at all, he begins with: self is the leading and governing principle in a natural man.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

21 After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome.

Ver. 21. Purposed in the spirit] i.e. By the instinct of the Holy Spirit, his counsellor and conduct, by whom all his actions were moderated. So he went bound in the spirit, Act 20:22. So Simeon came by the spirit into the temple, Luk 2:27. And so still, the steps of every good man are ordered by the Lord, Psa 37:23.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

After these things were ended - After the gospel was firmly established at Ephesus, so that his presence there was no longer necessary.

Purposed in the spirit - Resolved in his mind.

When he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia - In these places he had founded flourishing churches. It is probable that his main object in this visit was to take up a collection for the poor saints at Jerusalem. See the notes on Rom 15:25-26.

To go to Jerusalem - To bear the contribution of the Gentile churches to the poor and oppressed Christians in Judea.

I must also see Rome - See the notes on Rom 15:24. He did go to Rome, but he went in chains, as a prisoner.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I must also see Rome. It is what St. Paul earnestly desired, and what the Spirit now revealed to him. See Romans i. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Paul purposed in the spirit; resolved with himself, or purposed in his heart, as Dan 1:8. Yet in this his determination he had the influence and guidance of the Holy Ghost, and that in a more than ordinary manner; as we may see by the continued series of this history, how he came to all these places here mentioned. Paul travelled through these countries, and went to these cities, because he hoped for a greater harvest, where he might scatter the seed so far abroad.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. After… ended—In the present two verses Luke states Paul’s new mapping out of his future mission.

When he started last from Antioch, (Act_18:23,) his plan was, after an orderly revisitation of his Galatian and Phrygian Churches, to fulfil his promise (Act_18:21) to perform a full ministry at Ephesus. For more than two years has he now discharged that ministry, and the most stupendous superstition of the world is trembling before him. Yet he realizes that his present mission here of laying sure foundations for a future growth is nearly accomplished, and he begins to forecast his future. A great definite object now rises up before his mind. He will circuit around through his European Churches back to Jerusalem, and then—ROME.

Purposed— ”By the phrase purposed in spirit we must doubtless understand neither a direct intimation of the Spirit, such as he had received during his first residence in this region, (Act_16:7,) nor yet an ordinary act of human deliberation and decision; but rather an act of the inner life, in which the energy of the Divine Spirit and of the spirit of Paul cooperated together in one common purpose.”—Baumgarten. (See our note on Luk_1:3.)

Go to Jerusalem—By this phrase Luke implies that the circuit through Europe was subsidiary, and his aiming at Jerusalem was the main object.

How was this? Luke does not inform us, and we must learn Paul’s mind in this from Paul himself.

The later Church at Jerusalem, under the terrible pressure of the hostile temple and haughty priesthood, was always half Judaized and quite pauperized. (See note on Act_11:29.) Toward the apostle of the Gentiles their face was repulsive. (See note on Act_15:12.) Toward them, in return, St. Paul looked with deep pity for their narrowness, yet with reverence for their position as the mother Church, and with a strong desire at once to relieve their necessities and win their hearts both to himself and to Christ, the Divine Incarnate. (See note on Act_12:19.) With these views he organized a system of extensive money contributions from all his Gentile Churches, with which in hand he purposed, attended by the chosen delegates of the Churches, to revisit the Jerusalem Church.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now after for offer, A.V. Purposed in the spirit (eqeto ejn tw pneumati); literally, set, fixed, or arranged it in his spirit, like the Hebrew phrase, bleb in 1Sa 12, etc. Similarly of past things, qento Luk_1:66, e pantev ejn th kardia aujtwn, "laid them up in their hearts" (comp. Act_5:4) When he had passed through Macedonia, etc. Observe the constant solicitude of Paul to revisit the Churches which he had founded, so as to confirm the disciples in the faith and to consolidate his work (Act_14:21 Act_15:36 Act_16:6; 1Th_3:1-5, etc.) It marks the unrivalled tenderness of his heart toward the disciples. Observe also the insatiable appetite of the apostle for spiritual conquests, and his noble contempt for idleness. He has but just won Ephesus and Asia, and already he undertakes Macedonia and Achaia. Nor does his mind stop there, but reaches on to Jerusalem, then stretches onwards to Rome, and meditates the invasion of Spain. Truly neither Alexander, nor Caesar, nor any hero of antiquity was a match for this little Benjamite (paulus) in the magnanimity of his designs (Bengel).

Vers. 21-41. The greed of gain.

Several instructive lessons crop up from this narrative. When two people advancing from opposite directions meet in a narrow pathway, one must give way to the other. When the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ encounters the greed of gain in a human breast, either the Word, with its promises, its hopes, its commands, must stand aside that the love of money may pursue its onward course, or the worldly gain must become as dung in the eyes of the hearer of the Word. We have noble examples in such men as Moses, Elisha, Daniel, Nehemiah, Zacchaeus, Peter and the other apostles, Barnabas, Paul, and many more both in ancient and modern times, of that contempt of worldly gains in comparison with the treasures of heaven, which marks the true servant of the living God. But we have, on the other hand, many sad though instructive instances of the love of gain holding its ground and barring the entrance into the heart of love and obedience to God. It was so in the instance recorded in this section. Here was the blessed gospel of God"s redeeming grace preached with extraordinary power by St. Paul, confirmed by signal miracles, attested by the conversion of multitudes, glorified by the open confession and the voluntary losses of so many professors of curious arts; it was presented with a power and a beauty to the minds of the Ephesians which seemed to be irresistible. What sweet lessons of godliness, what glorious promises of immortality, what captivating revelations of the goodness and love of God, did that gospel contain! It could set men free from sin; it could raise them to fellowship with angels; it could give them the victory over the very grave. But when Demetrius heard it he saw in it one fatal blot which obliterated all its excellences: it would destroy the trade in silver shrines. Let men once be convinced that there is one true and living God, the Lord of heaven and earth, and one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, and that to know him and love and serve him is eternal life, and there would be an end of the worship of the great goddess Diana of the Ephesians. The strangers who flocked to the pan-Ionian games would no longer crowd to the shop of Demetrius, that they might carry home with them a silver shrine; silver ornaments would no more be devoted to beautify the famous temple; the skill of the craftsmen would no longer bring them honor and respect; the faith of Jesus Christ would be the deathblow to the magnificence of Diana and to the gains of her workmen. Therefore the faith of Christ must be resisted. It must be kept out of the workmen"s heart, and it must be crushed that it spread no more. The true cry was Our gains are in danger! The pretended cry was The honor of Diana is at stake! And this leads Us to the further remark that selfish greed seldom dares show itself without disguise. It has an instinctive consciousness of its own unworthiness as a motive of action, and even of its repulsiveness in the eyes of others. It must therefore always put on some cloak of hyprocrisy. It must simulate zeal for God or benevolence towards man. It must pretend to be seeking some end very different from the true one, or at least one to which the true end is quite subordinate. Even if it admit that "this our craft is in danger," it puts forward as the supreme danger that "her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth." And this teaches us the importance of a very close scrutiny of our own motives of action, when our worldly interests are concerned. It is astonishing how much men"s judgment and their powers of discrimination are affected by considerations of interest. It is, perhaps, less common for men to act deliberately against their conviction of what is just and right than to be biased in their opinion of what is right by the disturbing force of self-interest. The man whose real aim through life is to do what is right and accept what is true, quite irrespective of any influence which his belief or his action may have upon his own temporal gains, should spare no pains to maintain a judgment quite independent of selfish considerations, and to force his conscience always to give a true verdict upon the evidence before it, unmoved by fear of loss, and unseduced by hopes of gain. Once more, the example of the Ephesian silversmiths supplies a caution, not unneeded to all Christians, against supposing that "godliness is a way of gain." A large part of the corruptions of Christianity, and of the scandalous lives of worldly minded clergy in all ages, has arisen from the attempt to make religion a source of individual gain and aggrandizement. Legacies extorted from death-bed terrors, preferment gained by unworthy means, the sale of indulgences, paid Masses for the dead, the huge treasures accumulated by divers pretences at the shrines of saints, and many other infamous devices to make religion lucrative to the professors of it, are examples of what I mean. The man of God and the chaste Church of Christ must flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. These are the Christian"s treasures, the results of his craft, the rewards of his labors. These are the branches which grow on the stem of heavenly truth, and with these alone can he be satisfied. He covets not the wages of unrighteousness; he cares not for the silver shrines; he frames not his creed either to catch the gifts of the wealthy, or to secure the praises of the world. The practical lesson to the Christian tradesman is to beware lest the interests of his trade lead him into any antagonism with the requirements of the gospel. Certain gains may be incompatible with perfect integrity, or with a supreme regard for the honor of God, or with true love to man. Let the Christian tradesman look to it that he is always ready to sacrifice his gains to his higher Christian obligations. His willingness to do so is the test of his Christian sincerity, and it is a severe test. The voice of a thriving, growing, swelling business is a loud voice, and the fear of checking a trade and losing all is a very telling fear. The cry of a feeble business, crying for more aliment and a wider field, is a very pressing cry. Let the voice of conscience, and duty, and fealty to Christ be louder and more pressing still, so that the silver shrines may pale before the claims of the supreme Lord of all, and the treasures of the world may become as dung before the glory of the righteousness of the children of God.

Vers. 21-41. The supreme conflict.

Of all the struggles which have occurred or are now taking place in the human world, there is not one which deserves to be named in comparison with that supreme conflict which is proceeding between Divine truth and human error, between holiness and sin, between Christ and "the world." We are

I ONE STRONG ADVERSARY WHICH HAS TO BE OVERCOME. The world will never be renovated until many strong "interests" have been bravely encountered and utterly overthrown. The gospel of Christ cannot be proclaimed in its fullness without giving occasion for many to say, here and there, now and again, This our craft is in danger" (ver. 27). It is the inevitable tendency of all purifying truth, not only to eradicate evil from the hearts of men, but to bring to naught the hurtful institutions of the world. But by these men live; with these their material interests are closely bound up. Whether it be "drunkenness, slavery, or war," which have been declared to be "the three great evils which have cursed mankind." or whether it be any other harmful thing which Christ purposes to overthrow, his truth must occasionally and incidentally assail the temporal interests and prospects of men. And such is our human nature that, when it does this, it will call forth the most bitter, vehement, crafty, determined opposition. It is in this incidental way that Christ comes, "not to send peace on earth, but a sword". (Mat_10:34) And we may learn

(1) that it is doubtful whether we are declaring the whole counsel of God, if we are provoking no hostility by our utterance;

(2) that we need not wonder that the coming of the kingdom of God is delayed when we take this envenomed hostility into account.

II THE SUCCESS OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH, NOTWITHSTANDING. By the confession of Demetrius: "This Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people," etc. (ver. 26). There may have been a note of exaggeration in his speech, but it is a significant fact that these shrines" were in much smaller request in consequence of Paul"s preaching. Truth will tell, sooner or later. Against all prejudices, material interests, social habits, civil laws, military forces, it will ultimately prevail. Imperceptibly at first, but in growing numbers and accelerating force, it wins its way until it is accepted, honored, crowned.

III THE SUBTLETY OF SIN. When the silversmiths of Ephesus find their craft in danger, they say so, plainly enough, while they confer together; but when they face the populace, they disguise their selfishness under the cloak of piety, and cry, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians" (ver. 29). Sin sometimes fights without any mask at all; it shows itself in its native hideousness, the rank, foul, selfish, shameful thing it is. But usually it seeks to conceal its ugliness by draping itself in something which is elegant and becoming. It affects piety, benevolence, patriotism; it is concerned for the comfort, the temporal necessities, or even the spiritual well-being of the world. God strikes through such miserable pretences with his penetrating eye, and it is often open to our human intelligence to recognize the hateful features beneath the graceful folds.

IV THE WEAPONS OF DIVINE WISDOM. These are three, as suggested here.

1. Prudence. This is least in virtue and value; but it is not unimportant. The town-clerk of Ephesus is a model of the politic in behavior and address (vers. 35-41); what he employed so admirably in the discharge of his secular duty, we may use advantageously in the fulfillment of our high mission. The disciples of Ephesus showed a wise prudence in not suffering Patti to enter the theatre; humanly speaking, they saved his life (ver. 30). He himself prudently left the city after this great disturbance. We may be and should be politic and prudent when our caution is not cowardice nor faithlessness. (Joh_16:8)

2. Courage. Paul was ready to go into the midst of the excited, violent, murderous multitude (ver. 30). The same unfaltering courage carried him over perilous seas, into dangerous countries, among hostile peoples,-everywhere, if only he saw the Master"s pointing finger or heard the cry of spiritual distress.

3. Faithfulness. It was the preaching of the cross, the telling of the old, old story of redeeming love, whatever the Jew might demand or the Gentile crave, which was the source and secret of the apostle"s power. C.

Vers. 21-41. The spirit of rebellion against the gospel.

The tumult at Ephesus presents a picture of certain aspects of human nature and of the contest between good and evil in the world.

I ITS CAUSES. Most radical of all was the instinct of self-seeking. This is the dark background out of which all manner of fiendish shapes arise to contend against the light. Then it was self-seeking under the guise of religious zeal. Demetrius is the type of all those who make great professions of interest for the "truth," the "honor of God," the "cause of religion," and the like, while their real motive is personal profit, honor, or notoriety. They appear to be aiming at the highest, are really driving at the lowest object. At the same time, consistency with self gives an appearance of truth, no matter how corrupt and base the self may be. Hence selfish men often earn a credit and reputation refused to the more conscientious. For the egoist always "knows his own mind," though it be a bad mind; the conscientious man has frequent self-doubts and conflicts, the signs of which cannot be suppressed.

II ITS MEANS AND INSTRUMENTS. The imagination of the multitude must, as usual, be acted upon. For good or for evil, great movements among the masses, are due immediately to influences upon the imagination. The preacher"s power lies here, and also that of the sophist and the demagogue. The ideas connected with profit and those connected with religion have immense governing newer over the mass. We remember the commotion a few years ago among the match-makers in the east of London when it was threatened to tax their industry. So with bread-riots, land riots, and the like All the instincts of self-preservation rise against those who appear to menace the very means of existence. Religious ideas are only a degree less powerful. Society rests upon religion. We can only faintly imagine how the Athenian felt about his guardian goddess Athene, or the Ephesian about great Artemis. The Greek city was to each native as one large house or home, the very hearth of which was the altar of the god, the very foundations of which rested on reverence for that god. Here, then, were two of the mightiest instincts of human nature roused up and armed against the gospel the self-seeking and the religious or superstitious instinct.

III THE VICTORY OF THE TRUTH.

1. The kingdom of sense and of nature is represented by the great gods of Greece. Christianity is the kingdom of the spirit. The worship of the Greek cities was that of the beautiful; art and science were supreme. Christianity makes the moral ideal supreme.

2. The true temple is the spirit of man. And no worthy temple can be built to God unless his Spirit purify the heart, and his strength be perfected in weakness. Without the internal cultus of the heart, the external, in buildings and ritual, is vain.

3. The spiritual kingdom alone is abiding. Ephesus and its temple have long been in ruins; but against the Church of Christ the gates of hell cannot prevail.

4. The security of the faithful amidst the storm. They are concealed in a safe place till the hour of danger be over past (vers. 30, 31). Help is raised up in unexpected quarters (ver. 35, et seq.). The storms of angry passions are subdued (ver. 40). The ark of the Church is guided safely through the tempest.

5. Character brought to light in troublous scenes. The chancellor at Ephesus is an example of undaunted courage, of calm prudence, of impartial justice, and of human kindness. J.

Vers. 21, 22The purpose of a great heart.

I An example of INTENSE DEVOTEDNESS.

1. Care of the Churches. Bad news from Corinth. Apostolic supervision required. Help for the poor saints at Jerusalem.

2. Love of souls. The message must be preached everywhere, even at Rome.

3. Self-sacrifice. The labors at Ephesus great. The weakness of the apostle a constant temptation to lessen his toil. The prospect both at Jerusalem and at Rome one of dark suffering, persecution, and probable death.

II THE PURPOSE OF GOD BLENDING WITH THE PURPOSE OF MAN.

1. No self-assertion, but simply absorbing desire to be employed for God.

2. Although the course of events unforeseen, yet the issue worked out gave the apostle "the desire of his heart.

3. The separation from Ephesus, which might have been painful and injurious to the Church there, prepared for by the occurrences in the city. It was necessary that Paul should go for his own personal safety. The disciples willingly parted with him. R.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

After these things were ended - Paul sought not to rest, but pressed on, as if he had yet done nothing. He is already possessed of Ephesus and Asia. He purposes for Macedonia and Achaia. He has his eye upon Jerusalem, then upon Rome; afterward on Spain, Rom. xv, 28. No Caesar, no Alexander the Great, no other hero, comes up to the magnanimity of this little Benjamite. Faith and love to God and man had enlarged his heart, even as the sand of the sea.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

spirit

i.e. in his own mind. Cf. (See Scofield "Act 20:22").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Tumult of Demetrius.

Some plans of Paul:

v. 21. After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome.

v. 22. So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; But he himself stayed in Asia for a season.

After these things had been accomplished, after the Gospel had scored this great victory over the powers of darkness and over the hearts of men, Paul made up his mind, not according to some temporary notion, but under the direction of the Holy Ghost. As the work of the Church at all times is under His government, so He, in those early days, directed the steps of His missionaries in wonderful ways, chap. 16:6-10. Paul planned to make a missionary trip through Macedonia and Achaia, where the congregations at Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Corinth, and possibly one at Athens and in a number of other cities, could well make use of his counsel, encouragement, and admonition, after which he intended to travel to Jerusalem. His own personal wish and desire was, after he had made these journeys, to see Rome, the capital of the entire empire. Since he could not leave at once, he sent two of his assistants in advance, two of the younger men that ministered to him while they were perfecting their knowledge of theology, namely, Timothy and Erastus. These two were to proceed to Macedonia first, but with instructions to visit Achaia also and there to inform the congregation at Corinth concerning Paul’s ways and teaching, 1Co 4:17; 1Co 16:10. Paul himself stayed in Ephesus for some time longer, though the congregations in the house of Aquila and Priscilla and elsewhere in the province were by this time well established, 1Co 16:19. This addition to this stay (Act 19:10) made the total length of time spent in Ephesus nearer three years than two, Act 20:31.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. How angry the devil grows at the success of the gospel, mentioned in the foregoing verses: there we read how the whole college of diabolical conjurors were brought over, by the apostles’ preaching at Ephesus, to burn their books, and leave their wicked course of life.

Hereupon the devil bestirs him, and raises a persecution against the apostle. Those that will disturb Satan in the quiet and peaceable possession of his kingdom, shall be sure to meet with trouble and disquiet from him. Let not any of the saints of God in general, nor any of the faithful and zealous ministers of Christ in particular, expect any long continuance of their outward tranquility and peace in this world, where they are every day up in arms against Satan, and meditating the ruin of him and his kingdom; for which he will certainly seek revenge.

Observe, 1. The instruments which the devil employs to raise the storm of persecution against the apostle, namely, Demetrius the silversmith, and his craftsmen; they looking upon St. Paul as one that impaired their profit, and spoiled their trade of making silver shrines for Diana’s temple, by his crying down the worship of idols.

"But what were their silver shrines, made for Diana’s temple?"

Answer, The temple of Diana was at that time one of the seven famous structures of the world; and the silver shrines made by these silversmiths, were certain models or images of this temple, wherein their idol goddess Diana was set forth; which shrines or portable temples, all the people of Asia carried about with them, to stir up the more their own devotions towards this idol.

So that this shrine-making must needs be a very gainful trade, when all Asia was addicted to this superstition. No wonder then that Demetrius, upon the sight of the loss of his gain, made an horrible outcry, and set the city in an uproar: for carnal men, whose gain is in their god and their godliness, account themselves undone when their god Mammon is in danger. If you take away their gods, what have they more.

Learn hence, That gain-getting, and maintaining of men’s livelihood, are mighty temptations to carnal men, to use impious means for supporting superstition and idolatry.

Observe, 3. The arguments which Demetrius used to stir up the people against the apostle; and they are three,

1. The plea of profit, By this craft we get our gain: if this man’s doctrine obtain, our trade will quickly fall under disgrace, and die. This was the most cogent, the most pungent argument, that could be used; for, though an argument drawn from our own interest is not the most weighty, yet usually it is the most persuasive.

2. The pretence of piety: not only are we like to lose our livelihood, but our religion too; Our goddess Diana will be despised, her temple profaned, and her worshippers scorned. This easily heated the rabble’s blood, put the multitude into a ferment, and caused an hideous outcry for two hours together, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

3. The plea of the antiquity and universality, and the common consent of all worshippers: Diana, whom all Asia, and the world worshippeth. As if Demetrius had said, "What! shall we suffer the temple of Diana to be set at naught by the preachments of this babbler Paul; a place so magnificent for structure, being some say one hundred, others two hundred and twenty years, a building; so renowned for the oracles of the gods, so magnified for the image that fell down from Jupiter, so honoured by the oblations of the Asiatic potentates, and crowded with the devotions of the Ephesians, and admired throughout the whole world?"

Lord! what danger was the life of the great apostle now in! how did this popular tumult threaten the present destruction of him and his companions, Gaius and Aristarchus! Now is supposed to be the time when the apostle says, That after the manner of men he had fought with beasts at Ephesus; and this is probably the deliverance which he gratefully commemorates in Who hath delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver; in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. 2Co 1:10

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. It is now spring-time A. D. 57. Paul has been absent from Europe three years, traveling throughout Asia looking after the work. It is really imperative that he return to Europe, where much heresy and disorder have crept in during his absence. “And when these things were fulfilled Paul purposed in spirit, having traveled through Macedonian Achaia, to go on into Jerusalem, saying, That after I shall be there it behooveth me also to see Rome.” Macedonia is Northern and Achaia Southern Greece. As Paul was the apostle of the Gentile world, and Rome the great capital and metropolis, his heart was set upon that far-off city, whither he longed to go and preach the glorious gospel.

THE DEVIL’S CHURCH

21. Ephesus was the great New York of Western Asia, among many other notable institutions honored with the greatest and most magnificent temple of the goddess Diana in the whole world, one of the seven wonders of the world, having occupied two hundred years in its building. In all heathen lands the manufacture of statues and images, as well as the erection and ornamentation of temples, is the most lucrative financial employment, as people are always willing to pay their last dollar to save their souls, though not willing to give up their sins. Now Demetrius, assembling the image makers and the various artificers connected with the temple and the worship of Diana, delivers them a powerful and inflammatory harangue, stirring them up to recognize the fact that Paul’s preaching is calculated in the ultimatum to undermine the worship of Diana, and thus vitiate their lucrative financial employments in the manufacture of innumerable images of this goddess to be sold to the millions of her faithful devotees. The result is a great uproar, of vast multitude, like the rolling billows of the ocean, rushing in impetuous stampede through the streets, shouting uproariously, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” Fortunately, Paul’s friends hold him out of the hands of the mob who have already seized his traveling companions, Gaius and Aristarchus of Macedonia, meanwhile Alexander, a Jewish disciple and comrade of Paul, is also caught in the violent whorls of the incorrigible insurrection. After a two hours’ uproar and stampede have somewhat exhausted them physically, the city clerk succeeds in commanding audience, warning them of their imminent danger of prosecution and punishment by the Roman Empire, and assuring them of their utter incompetency to defend themselves before a civil tribunal, should they be arraigned to give an account of that disgraceful uproar.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21, 22. The conclusion of the preceding events brought Paul to a period of comparative quiet, in which he began to think of leaving Ephesus. (21) " When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia, and go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. (22) So he sent into Macedonia two of those who were ministering to him, Timothy and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. "

It is supposed by some that, previous to this period, Paul had made a short visit to Corinth, and returned again to Ephesus. This supposition is based upon expressions in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, which are understood to imply such a visit. I regard the evidence, however, as insufficient for a safe conclusion, and will, therefore, treat the narrative as though no such visit had taken place. The reader who is curious to investigate the question should refer to Mr. Howson on the affirmative, and Paley on the negative.

The First Epistle to the Corinthians was written from Ephesus, as we learn from the remark, ( chapter 16:8-9 ,) "I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost; for a great and effectual door is opened to me, and there are many adversaries." It was also during the present visit that it was written, for, during his first visit, he did not tarry at all. The exact date of the epistle is best fixed within the period covered by the words "he himself stayed in Asia for a season;" for it was then that "a great and effectual door" was first opened to him. Other evidences of the date concur with these, and are fully stated by Mr. Howson.

This is not really the first epistle Paul wrote to the Corinthians; for in it he speaks of another, which he had previously written, upon the subject of fornication. He says: "I wrote to you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators." This is all we know of the subject-matter of the epistle, which is lost; and perhaps it was for the reason that it treated of this subject alone, and in a less detailed method than does the epistle now called the first, that it was not preserved with the other two.

Subsequent to the date of the lost epistle, some members of the household of Chloe had brought him information of great disorders and corruption in the Church in Corinth. He learned that the congregation was distracted by party strife; that fornication, and even incest were still tolerated by them; that some of them were engaged in litigation before the civil courts; that his own apostolic authority was called in question; that their women, contrary to the prevailing rules of modesty, took part in the worship with unvailed faces; that some confusion and strife had arisen in reference to the spiritual gifts among them; that some among them were even denying the resurrection; and that the Lord's supper was profaned by feasting and drunkenness. Besides all this, he had received a letter from them calling for information in reference to marriage and divorce, and the eating of meats offered to idols. To answer their questions, and to correct and rebuke these disorders, was the object of the epistle. The temper in which it is written appears calm and stern; yet it is not conceivable that Paul could hear of corruptions so gross in a Church which had cost him so much labor and anxiety, without intense pain. Though no such feeling was allowed to manifest itself in the epistle, he was constrained afterward, to confess it, and say to them, "Out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you, with many tears. " It was, therefore, with a heart full of anguish in reference to some results of his past labors, but buoyed up by the opening of a wide and effectual door in his present field, that he sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia, but remained himself in Asia for a season.

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21, 22. After these things were ended. What has just been recorded. Paul purposed in the spirit. Had determined, after a journey into Macedonia and Greece, to visit the churches planted in his former tour, to return to Jerusalem, and then to see Rome. This was all carried out, but in a way that at this time he did not foresee.

Sent into Macedonia. A band of missionaries always attended him and were sent where there seemed to be need. See 1 Cor. 4:17; 16:10. Erastus. Not before named, but mentioned also in Rom. 16:23, as “the chamberlain of Corinth.”

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Paul talks about going Jerusalem but does not leave Ephesus yet.

Now

This word is used here to mark a break in the main story line. Here Luke starts to tell a new part of the story.

Paul completed his ministry in Ephesus

"Paul completed the work that God had for him to do in Ephesus"

he decided in the Spirit

Possible meanings are 1) Paul decided with the help of the Holy Spirit or 2) Paul decided within his own spirit, which means he made up his mind.

Achaia

Achaia was the Roman province in which Corinth was located. It was the largest city in southern Greece and the capital of the province. See how you translated this in Acts 18:12.

I must also see Rome

"I must also travel to Rome"

Erastus

This is the name of a man. (See: How to Translate Names)

But he himself stayed in Asia for a while

It is made explicit in the next few verses that Paul remains in Ephesus. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

he himself

This is repeated for emphasis. (See: Reflexive Pronouns)

translationWords

to minister

Ephesus

Holy Spirit

Macedonia

Jerusalem

Rome

disciple

Timothy

Asia

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

21, 22. ST PAUL’S PLANS FOR HIS JOURNEY FROM EPHESUS

21. ὡς δὲ ἐπληρώθη ταῦτα, and after these things were ended. The foundations of the Ephesian Church seemed fully laid, when sacrifices of such a kind had been made by the converts, and so St Paul feels that he may leave the seed sown in good hope that it will grow.

ἔθετο ὁ Παῦλος ἐν τῷ πνεύματι, Paul purposed in the spirit, i.e. he had settled it in his own mind.

διελθὼν τὴν Μακεδονίαν καὶ Ἀχαΐαν, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia. Intending, no doubt, as was his wont, to visit the Churches which had been founded on his previous mission (chapp. 16–18) from Philippi to Corinth.

πορεύεσθαι εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, to go to Jerusalem. With contributions, as we know, collected throughout the other Churches for the needs of the central organization of the Christian movement. See 1Co 16:1-3. There this intended journey through Macedonia and to Corinth is alluded to, and the reason assigned for the Apostle’s lingering in Ephesus (Act 19:8-9) ‘I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.’ The opening of the door was manifest in the burning piles of magic books. Of the many adversaries we read in this chapter in a description which might justify the Apostle in using the language of the Psalmist, ‘Great bulls of Bashan close me in on every side.’ And perhaps such a thought was in his mind when he wrote of ‘fighting with beasts at Ephesus’ (1Co 15:32).

εἰπὼν ὅτι Μετὰ τὸ γενέσθαι … ἰδεῖν, saying, After I have been there I must also see Rome. Of the long-cherished desire which he had to visit the Imperial City, the Apostle speaks Rom 1:13, in which passage he intimates that the purpose had been often entertained, but hitherto disappointed.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. ταῦτα] The occurrences of vv. 19, 20.

ἐν τῷ πν.] An expression mostly used by Paul, see ref.

δεῖ] As he was sent to the Gentiles, he saw that the great metropolis of the Gentile world was the legitimate centre of his apostolic working. Or perhaps he speaks under some divine intimation that ultimately he should be brought to Rome. If so, his words were literally fulfilled. He did see Rome after he had been at Jerusalem this next time: but after considerable delay, and as a prisoner. Cf. the same design expressed by him, Rom 1:15; Rom 15:23-28; and Paley’s remarks in the Horæ Paulinæ.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.