Acts 18:19

18:19 When they reached Ephesus, ¹  Paul ²  left Priscilla and Aquila ³  behind there, but he himself went ⁴  into the synagogue ⁵  and addressed ⁶  the Jews.

Acts 19:1

Disciples of John the Baptist at Ephesus

19:1 While ⁷  Apollos was in Corinth, ⁸  Paul went through the inland ⁹  regions ¹⁰  and came to Ephesus. ¹¹  He ¹²  found some disciples there ¹³ 

Acts 19:10

19:10 This went on for two years, so that all who lived in the province of Asia, ¹⁴  both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord. ¹⁵ 

¹ sn Ephesus was an influential city in Asia Minor. It was the location of the famous temple of Artemis. In 334 b.c. control of the city had passed to Alexander the Great, who contributed a large sum to the building of a new and more elaborate temple of Artemis, which became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and lasted until destroyed by the Goths in a.d. 263. This major port city would be reached from Corinth by ship. It was 250 mi (400 km) east of Corinth by sea.

² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Grk “left them”; the referents (Priscilla and Aquila) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Grk “going”; the participle εἰσελθών (eiselqwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

⁵ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

⁶ tn Although the word διελέξατο (dielexato; from διαλέγομαι, dialegomai) is frequently translated “reasoned,” “disputed,” or “argued,” this sense comes from its classical meaning where it was used of philosophical disputation, including the Socratic method of questions and answers. However, there does not seem to be contextual evidence for this kind of debate in Acts 18:19. As G. Schrenk (TDNT 2:94-95) points out, “What is at issue is the address which any qualified member of a synagogue might give.” Other examples of this may be found in the NT in Matt 4:23 and Mark 1:21.

⁷ tn Grk “It happened that while.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

⁸ map For location see JP1-C2; JP2-C2; JP3-C2; JP4-C2.

⁹ tn Or “interior.”

¹⁰ tn BDAG 92 s.v. ἀνωτερικός has “upper τὰ ἀ. μέρη the upper (i.e. inland) country, the interior Ac 19:1.”

¹¹ map For location see JP1-D2; JP2-D2; JP3-D2; JP4-D2.

¹² tn Grk “and found.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence and the sequencing with the following verse the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.

¹³ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text but is implied.

¹⁴ tn Grk “Asia”; in the NT this always refers to the Roman province of Asia, made up of about one-third of the west and southwest end of modern Asia Minor. Asia lay to the west of the region of Phrygia and Galatia. The words “the province of” are supplied to indicate to the modern reader that this does not refer to the continent of Asia.

¹⁵ sn The word of the Lord is a technical expression in OT literature, often referring to a divine prophetic utterance (e.g., Gen 15:1, Isa 1:10, Jonah 1:1). In the NT it occurs 15 times: 3 times as ῥῆμα τοῦ κυρίου (rJhma tou kuriou; Luke 22:61, Acts 11:16, 1 Pet 1:25) and 12 times as λόγος τοῦ κυρίου (logo" tou kuriou; here and in Acts 8:25; 13:44, 48, 49; 15:35, 36; 16:32; 19:20; 1 Thess 1:8, 4:15; 2 Thess 3:1). As in the OT, this phrase focuses on the prophetic nature and divine origin of what has been said.