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Acts 19:1-7 The Holy Ghost is conferred by Paul on twelve of

John’s disciples.

Acts 19:8-12 He preacheth at Ephesus, first in the synagogue, and

afterwards in a private school for two years; God

confirming the word by special miracles.

Acts 19:13-20 Certain Jewish exorcists, attempting to cast out a devil

in the name of Jesus, are sent off naked and wounded:

the gospel gains credit, and magical books are burned.

Acts 19:21-41 Paul proposing to depart soon, Demetrius and the

silversmiths raise an uproar against him, which is

with some difficulty appeased.

The upper coasts; the north parts, in which were Pontus, Bithynia, Phrygia, and Galatia, Acts 18:23.

Verse 1. - Country for coasts, A.V.; found for finding, A.V. and T.R. The upper country (τὰ ἀνωτερικὰ μέρη); the inland districts of Galatia and Phrygia, through which St. Paul journeyed on his way to Ephesus, as distinguished from the seacoast on which Ephesus stood. Disciples. They were like Apollos, believers in the Lord Jesus through the preaching of John the Baptist. It looks as if they were companions of Apollos, and had come with him from Alexandria, perhaps for some purpose of trade or Commerce.

XIX.

(1) Paul having passed through the upper coasts.—This implies a route passing from Galatia and Phrygia through the interior, and coming thence to Ephesus. The “coast,” in the modern sense of the term, St. Paul did not even approach.

Acts 19:1-7. Paul returning to Ephesus finds there some disciples of John the Baptist

1. And it came to pass that, while Apollos was at Corinth] The digression concerning Apollos being ended, the history now returns to St Paul. Apollos found, no doubt, that Corinth was the most effective centre for his work in Achaia, and apparently made that his head quarters.

Paul having passed through the upper country] The English word “coasts” (A. V.) is now confined in meaning to the sea-shore, formerly it signified any “border-land.” The parts actually visited by St Paul were far away from the sea. Indeed the adjective rendered “upper” signifies “that part to which men go up, away from the sea.” It is applied here to the more Eastern parts of Asia Minor. The Apostle’s journey was most likely through the districts of Lycaonia, Galatia and Phrygia which he had visited before.

came to Ephesus] In fulfilment of the conditional promise made by him when he left (Acts 18:11),

and finding certain disciples] The participle, indicated by the A. V., is not supported by the oldest texts. Read with R. V. “and found.” These men are called disciples, because they were, like Apollos, to a certain extent instructed concerning Jesus, and what they already knew drew them to listen to St Paul who could teach them more.

Upper coasts (τὰ ἀνωτερικὰ μέρη)

Coasts is a bad rendering. Better, as Rev., "the upper country;" lit., parts or districts. The reference is to districts like Galatia and Phrygia, lying up from the sea-coast and farther inland than Ephesus. Hence the expedition of Cyrus from the sea-coast toward Central Asia was called Anabasis, a going-up.

Certain disciples

Disciples of John the Baptist, who, like Apollos, had been instructed and baptized by the followers of the Baptist, and had joined the fellowship of the Christians. Some have thought that they had been instructed by Apollos himself; but there is no sufficient evidence of this. "There they were, a small and distinct community about twelve in number, still preparing, after the manner of the Baptist, for the coming of the Lord. Something there was which drew the attention of the apostle immediately on his arrival. They lacked, apparently, some of the tokens of the higher life that pervaded the nascent church; they were devout, rigorous, austere, but were wanting in the joy, the radiancy, the enthusiasm which were conspicuous in others" (Plumptre, "St. Paul in Asia Minor").

While Apollos was at Corinth (εν τω τον Απολλω εινα εν Κορινθω). Favourite idiom with Luke, εν with the locative of the articular infinitive and the accusative of general reference (Luke 1:8; Luke 2:27, etc.). Having passed through the upper country (διελθοντα τα ανωτερικα μερη). Second aorist active participle of διερχομα, accusative case agreeing with Παυλον, accusative of general reference with the infinitive ελθειν, idiomatic construction with εγενετο. The word for "upper" (ανωτερικα) is a late form for ανωτερα (Luke 14:10) and occurs in Hippocrates and Galen. It refers to the highlands (cf. Xenophon's Anabasis) and means that Paul did not travel the usual Roman road west by Colossae and Laodicea in the Lycus Valley, cities that he did not visit (Colossians 2:1). Instead he took the more direct road through the Cayster Valley to Ephesus. Codex Bezae says here that Paul wanted to go back to Jerusalem, but that the Holy Spirit bade him to go into Asia where he had been forbidden to go in the second tour (Acts 16:6). Whether the upper "parts" (μερη) here points to North Galatia is still a point of dispute among scholars. So he came again to Ephesus as he had promised to do (Acts 18:21). The province of Asia included the western part of Asia Minor. The Romans took this country B.C. 130. Finally the name was extended to the whole continent. It was a jewel in the Roman empire along with Africa and was a senatorial province. It was full of great cities like Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea (the seven churches of Acts 19:2; Acts 19:3), Colossae, Hierapolis, Apamea, to go no further. Hellenism had full sway here. Ephesus was the capital and chief city and was a richer and larger city than Corinth. It was located at the entrance to the valley of the Maeander to the east. Here was the power of Rome and the splendour of Greek culture and the full tide of oriental superstition and magic. The Temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the world. While in Ephesus some hold that Paul at this time wrote the Epistle to the Galatians after his recent visit there, some that he did it before his recent visit to Jerusalem. But it is still possible that he wrote it from Corinth just before writing to Rome, a point to discuss later. Certain disciples (τινας μαθητας). Who were they? Apollos had already gone to Corinth. They show no connection with Priscilla and Aquila. Luke calls them "disciples" or "learners" (μαθητας) because they were evidently sincere though crude and ignorant. There is no reason at all for connecting these uninformed disciples of the Baptist with Apollos. They were floating followers of the Baptist who drifted into Ephesus and whom Paul found. Some of John's disciples clung to him till his death (John 3:22-25; Luke 7:19; Matthew 14:12). Some of them left Palestine without the further knowledge of Jesus that came after his death and some did not even know that, as turned out to be the case with the group in Ephesus.

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Acts 19:1. See critical note for Bezan reading.—Ἀπολλὼ, cf. Acts 21:1; see Blass, Gram., p. 31, and Winer-Schmiedel, p. 95.—τὰ ἀνωτερικὰ μέρη: The main road to Ephesus which passed through Colosse and Laodicea was not apparently taken by Paul, but a shorter though less frequented route running through the Cayster valley. This route leads over higher ground than the other, and St. Paul in taking it would be passing through the higher-lying districts of Asia on his way from Pisidian Antioch to Ephesus. According to Colossians 2:1 the Apostle never visited Colosse and Laodicea, which seems to confirm the view taken above (but see Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 94, on Mr. Lewin’s view of Colossians 2:1). The expression τὰ ἀνωτ. μέρη is really a description in brief of the same district, “the region of Galatia and Phrygia,” mentioned in Acts 18:23. If the journey passed through North Galatia, Ramsay contends with great force that the expressions in Acts 18:23 καθεξῆς and πάντας τοὺς μαθητάς would be meaningless, as καθ. would apply not to Churches already known to us, but to Churches never mentioned in the book, and if St. Paul did not visit the South Galatian Churches, how could St. Luke mention “all the disciples”? Zöckler, Apostelgeschichte (second edition), in loco, as a supporter of the North Galatian theory, takes the term as the equivalent of the places referred to in Acts 18:23, but he does not include in these places as far north as Tavium or Ancyra, and a route through Cappadocia is not thought of; so here Pessinus, Amorion, Synnada, Apameia, Philadelphia, and Sardis would be visited by the Apostle, and from Sardis he would go down to Ephesus; the expression τὰ ἀνωτ. μέρη would thus in Zöckler’s view include churches founded on the second missionary journey, but the most northerly are excluded as lying too far away, p. 273; see Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 93; “Ephesus,” Hastings’ B.D., and Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, ii., 715; McGiffert, Apostolic Age, p. 275. Blass takes the words to mean districts more remote from the sea; Rendall (so Hackett) explains them as referring to the land route through the interior of Asia Minor by way of distinction to the sea route which Paul had before pursued on his way from Ephesus to Jerusalem. Grimm explains as the parts of Asia Minor more remote from the Mediterranean, farther east, and refers only to Hippocrates and Galen for the use of the adjective, which was evidently a very rare one (see Hobart, p. 148); see also Zöckler on Acts 19:1 and illustrations of Latin expressions similarly used. R.V. renders “the upper country,” lit[328], the upper parts, i.e., inland; A.V., “coasts,” i.e., borders, as in Matthew 2:16, etc., Humphry, Commentary on R. V.—εἰς Ἔφεσον: Ephesus and Athens have aptly been described as two typical cities of heathendom, the latter most Hellenic, the heart and citadel of Greece, the former the home of every Oriental quackery and superstition in combination with its Hellenism; the latter inquisitive, philosophical, courteous, refined, the former fanatical, superstitious, impulsive. And yet Acts portrays to the life the religious and moral atmosphere of the two cities, no less than their local colouring (Lightfoot, “Acts of the Apostles,” B.D.2, p. 36). Under the empire it was a regulation that the Roman governor should land at Ephesus, and from all quarters of the province the system of Roman roads made Ephesus easily accessible. St. Paul with his wonted judgment fixed upon it as a fitting centre for the message and for the spread of the Gospel. Like Corinth, with which close intercourse was maintained, Ephesus is described as one of the great knots in the line of communication between Rome and the East; see further notes in commentary, Ramsay, “Ephesus,” Hastings’ B.D.; “Ephesus,” B.D.2; E. Curtius, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, i., 233 ff.

[328] literal, literally.

Acts 19:1. Ἀπολλώ] Concerning this form of the accusative, see Winer, p. 61 [E. T. 72].

τὰ ἀυωτερικά] the districts lying more inland from Ephesus, as Galatia and Phrygia, xviii. 23. Comp. Kypke, II. 95. The reading of Theophylact, τὰ ἀνατολικά, is a correct gloss. A more precise definition of the course of the journey (Böttger, Beitr. I. p. 30, and de Wette: through the regions of Hierapolis, Philadelphia, and Sardes) is not to be attempted.

μαθητάς] i.e. as no other definition is added, Christians. It is true that they were disciples of John (Acts 19:3), who had been, like Apollos, instructed and baptized by disciples of the Baptist (comp. Acts 18:25), but they had joined the fellowship of the Christians, and were by these regarded as fellow-disciples, seeing that they possessed some knowledge of the person and doctrine of Jesus and a corresponding faith in Him, though of a very imperfect and indefinite character,—as it were, misty and dawning: therefore Paul himself also considered them as Christians (Acts 19:2), and he only learned from his conversation with them that they were merely disciples of John (Acts 19:3). Heinrichs (comp. Wetstein, also Lange, II. p. 264) thinks that they had received their instruction (Acts 18:25-26) and baptism of John from Apollos, and that Paul was also aware of this. But the very ignorance of these disciples can as little be reconciled with the energetic ministry of Apollos as with any already lengthened residence at Ephesus at all, where, under the influence of the Christians, and particularly of Aquila and Priscilla, they must have received more information concerning the πνεῦμα ἅγ. Therefore it is most probable that they were strangers, who had but just come to Ephesus and had attached themselves to the Christians of that place. As disciples of John they are to be regarded as Jews, not as Gentiles, which Acts 19:2 contains nothing to necessitate (in opposition to Baumgarten, II. p. 3).

Observe, also, that the earlier keeping back of the apostle from Asia on the part of the Spirit (Acts 16:6) had now, after his labours thus far in Greece, obtained its object and was no longer operative. Of this Paul was conscious. Cod. D has a special address of the Spirit to this effect,—an interpolation which Bornemann has adopted.