Acts Chapter 19 verse 40 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 40. - For indeed for for, A.V.; accused for called in question, A.V.; concerning for for, A.V.; riot for uproar, A.V.; for it for whereby, A.V.; and as touching it we shall not be able to for we may, A.V. and T.R.; account for an account, A.V. We are in danger (κινδυνεύομεν: see ver. 27, note). To be accused concerning this day's riot. The Greek cannot well be so construed. The margin is right; ἐγκαλεῖσθαι στάσεως is "to be charged with sedition;" περὶ τῆς σήμερον is for τῆς σήμερον ἡμέρας, "this day," as in Acts 20:26, τῇ σήμερον ἡμέρᾳ: only in English we should say, "on account of this day," i.e. what has been done this day. The R.T. places a stop after μηδενὸς αἰτίου ὑπάχοντοςρ As touching it. But "it" must mean "the riot," which is feminine, whereas οϋ is masculine; so that the R.T. is impossible to construe. It is much better, therefore, to adhere to the T.R., which has good manuscript authority, and to construe as the A.V. Whereby, equivalent to "on the ground of which" (Meyer). With regard to the great tumult to which the foregoing narrative relates, it is certain that St. Luke has by no means exaggerated its importance. In his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, written from Macedonia shortly after his departure from Ephesus, St. Paul speaks as one still smarting under the severity of his sufferings. In the language of trust, yet of a trust sorely tried, he speaks of the Father of mercies" who comforteth us in all our tribulation." He speaks of the sufferings of Christ as abounding in him. And then, referring directly to the trouble which came upon him in Asia, he says, "We were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us from so great a death" (2 Corinthians 1:4-10). And the same tone breaks out again in 2 Corinthians 4:7-18; 2 Corinthians 6:4-10; 2 Corinthians 11:23-27; 2 Corinthians 12:9, 10. It is also very probable that it was on this occasion that Priscilla and Aquila saved St. Paul's life at the risk of their own, to which he alludes in Romans 16:3, 4, written after he had reached Corinth from Macedonia, i.e. before Easter of the year So that it is certain that the riot and the danger to St. Paul's life were even greater than we should have inferred from St. Luke's narrative alone. It should be added, with reference to the three years residence at Ephesus (Acts 20:21) which this nineteenth chapter describes, that one or two important incidents which occurred are not related by St. Luke. The first is that encounter with a savage rabble to which St. Paul refers in 1 Corinthians 15:32, but of which we have no account in the Acts. It must have happened in the early part of his sojourn at Ephesus. Another is a probable visit to Corinth, inferred from 2 Corinthians 2:1; 2 Corinthians 12:14, 21; 2 Corinthians 13:1, 2; and thought to have been caused by bad accounts of the moral state of the Corinthian Church, sent to him at Ephesus. It was probably a hasty visit, and in contrast with it he says, in 1 Corinthians 16:7, with reference to his then coming visit, "I will not see you now by the way; but I trust to tarry a while with you." It is also thought that there was another letter to the Corinthians, written from Ephesus, soon after that second visit, which is now lost, but is alluded to in 1 Corinthians 5:9. The First Epistle to the Corinthians was manifestly written at this time from Ephesus (see 1 Corinthians 16:8, 19). Some think that the Epistle to the Galatians was also written from Ephesus, a little before the First Epistle to the Corinthians (see 1 Corinthians 16:1; Galatians 2:10); but Renan thinks it was written from Antioch, before he came to Ephesus.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(40) We are in danger to be called in question.--The "we" as used to include the rioters. The "called in question" is the same verb as that rendered "implead" in Acts 19:38. There was a risk of which Demetrius and his party had to be reminded, that they might find themselves defendants, and not plaintiffs, in a suit. A riotous "concourse" (the town-clerk uses the most contemptuous word he can find, "this mob meeting") taking the law into its own hands was not an offence which the proconsuls were likely to pass over lightly. It would hardly be thought a legitimate excuse that they had got hold of two Jews and wanted to "lynch" them.An interesting inscription of the date of Trajan, from an aqueduct at Ephesus, gives nearly all the technical terms that occur in the town-clerk's speech, and so far confirms the accuracy of St. Luke's report: "This has been dedicated by the loyal and devoted Council of the Ephesians, and the people that serve the temple (Neokoros), Peducaeus Priscinus being proconsul, by the decree of Tiberius Claudius Italicus, the town-clerk of the people."