Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 19:38 - 19:38

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 19:38 - 19:38


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

38. ἔχουσιν πρός τινα λόγον, have a matter against any man, i.e. have any charge which they wish to bring. For the concerns in which the shrine-makers are interested must be such as the legal tribunals can take cognizance of.

ἀγοραῖοι ἄγονται, the law is open. This is the general sense. With ἀγοραῖοι we must supply ἡμέραι. The sense will then be ‘court days are appointed’ i.e. there are proper times fixed when such causes can be heard; or perhaps better, because of the verb which seems to imply that the opportunity of legal action is even now open, ‘court-meetings are now going on.’ In this latter sense σύνοδοι or some similar noun must be supplied with ἀγοραῖοι.

καὶ ἀνθύπατοί εἰσιν, and there are proconsuls. For the word ἀνθύπατος, cf. Act 13:7-8; Act 13:12. Asia, in which Ephesus was situated, was a proconsular province (see Conybeare and Howson, II. 78). The difficulty in the present verse has arisen from the use of the plural number, for there was only one proconsul over a province at the same time, and there could only be one in Ephesus when the townclerk was speaking. But if we consider that he is speaking merely of the provision made by the institutions of the empire for obtaining justice in a case of wrong, we can see that his words need not occasion much trouble. ‘Proconsuls are (he says) an imperial institution. In every province like ours there exists such a supreme magistrate, and so there is no fear about obtaining redress for real injuries.’ Another explanation (due to Basnage, and alluded to in the notes of Conybeare and Howson, u. s.) is that after the poisoning of the proconsul Silanus (as related Tac. An. XIII. 1), Celer and Ælius, who governed the province of Asia as procurators, might be intended by this plural title. Others have thought that there might be present in Ephesus some other proconsul from a neighbouring province, as Cilicia, Cyprus, Bithynia or elsewhere; but the first seems the easier explanation.

ἐγκαλείτωσαν ἀλλήλοις, let them accuse one another. Of course the accusation would be one side, the defence the other. What the γραμματεύς means is ‘let them take steps to obtain a legal decision.’