Acts Chapter 19 verse 38 Holy Bible

ASV Acts 19:38

If therefore Demetrius, and the craftsmen that are with him, have a matter against any man, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls: let them accuse one another.
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BBE Acts 19:38

If, then, Demetrius and the workmen who are with him have a protest to make against any man, the law is open to them, and there are judges; let them put up a cause at law against one another.
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DARBY Acts 19:38

If therefore Demetrius and the artisans who [are] with him have a matter against any one, the courts are being held, and there are proconsuls: let them accuse one another.
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KJV Acts 19:38

Wherefore if Demetrius, and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies: let them implead one another.
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WBT Acts 19:38


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WEB Acts 19:38

If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a matter against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them press charges against one another.
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YLT Acts 19:38

if indeed, therefore, Demetrius and the artificers with him with any one have a matter, court `days' are held, and there are proconsuls; let them accuse one another.
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Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 38. - If therefore for wherefore if, A.V.; that for which, A.V.; the courts are for the law is, A.V.; proconsuls for deputies, A.V.; accuse for implead, A.V. Against any man. Mark the skill with which the town-clerk passes from the concrete to the abstract, and avoids the mention of Paul's name. The courts are open; ἀγοραῖοι (or ἀγόραιοι) ἄγονται. Some supply the word σύνοδοι, and make the sense "judicial assemblies," "sessions," coming round at proper fixed intervals. But the verb ἄγονται, more naturally suggests ἡμέραι, as Bengel says (ἄγειν γενέσια τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς σκηνοπηγίας: Ὀλύμπια: γενέθλιον, etc.), and then the meaning is, "The regular court-days are kept, when the proconsul attends to try causes;" there is no need to have an irregular trial. So Suidas explains it, Ἡμέρα ἐνῇ ἡ ἀγορὰ. There are proconsuls. Bengel, with whom Meyer agrees, thinks the plural denotes the unbroken succession of proconsuls. But Lewin thinks it may mark the exact time of these transactions as being immediately after the poisoning of the Proconsul Junius Silanus by order of Agrippina, when the two procurators, Celer and AElius, exercised the proconsular power till the appointment of another proconsul, according to a law of Claudius to that effect. Others have other explanations.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(38) The law is open.--Literally, the court, or forum, days are going on. The words may either indicate that the proconsul was then actually sitting to hold trials in the agora or forum, or may be taken as a colloquial idiom for "there are court days coming."There are deputies.--The Greek word is (as in Acts 13:7; Acts 18:12) the equivalent for proconsul. Strictly speaking, there was only one proconsul in each province, and we must therefore assume either that here also the expression is colloquial, or that the assessors (consiliarii) of the proconsul were popularly so described, or that some peculiar combination of circumstances had led to there being two persons at this time at Ephesus clothed with proconsular authority. There are some grounds for adopting the last alternative. Junius Silanus, who was Proconsul of Asia when St. Paul arrived in Ephesus (A.D. 54), had been poisoned by Celer and Helius, the two procurators, at the instigation of Agrippina; and it seems probable that they for a time held a joint proconsular authority.Let them implead one another.--The English word exactly expresses the technical force of the Greek. Demetrius and his followers were to lodge a formal statement of the charge they brought against the accused. They in their turn were to put in a rejoinder, and so joining issue, each side would produce its witnesses.