Acts 19:1

19:1-7 Paul, at Ephesus, found some religious persons, who looked to Jesus as the Messiah. They had not been led to expect the miraculous powers of the Holy Ghost, nor were they informed that the gospel was especially the ministration of the Spirit. But they spake as ready to welcome the notice of it. Paul shows them that John never design that those he baptized should rest there, but told them that they should believe on Him who should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. They thankfully accepted the discovery, and were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Ghost came upon them in a surprising, overpowering manner; they spake with tongues, and prophesied, as the apostles and the first Gentile coverts did. Though we do not now expect miraculous powers, yet all who profess to be disciples of Christ, should be called on to examine whether they have received the seal of the Holy Ghost, in his sanctifying influences, to the sincerity of their faith. Many seem not to have heard that there is a Holy Ghost, and many deem all that is spoken concerning his graces and comforts, to be delusion. Of such it may properly be inquired, Unto what, then, were ye baptized? for they evidently know not the meaning of that outward sign on which they place great dependence.

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").

Acts 19:1 . While Apollos was at Corinth — Preaching with considerable success, Acts 18:27-28 ; Paul, having passed through the upper coasts — Of the Lesser Asia, namely, Galatia and Phrygia; came to Ephesus — According to his promise, Acts 18:19 ; Acts 18:21 , with a purpose of making some stay there. Ephesus, at this time, was the metropolis of the province of Asia, and an exceedingly populous city. For, not to speak of its native inhabitants, who were very numerous, a great concourse of strangers always resorted to it, some to worship the goddess Diana, whose rites were celebrated with great magnificence, in a temple erected to her there at the expense of all Asia; others to learn the arts of sorcery and magic, which were taught and practised at Ephesus with such reputation, that the magical words, or sentences, used in the practice of these arts, had their names from Ephesus; being called Εφεσια γραμματα , Ephesian letters: others came to prosecute law-suits, or to solicit offices from the Roman governor of the province, who had his residence there; others took Ephesus in their way to and from Europe; and others, after the manner of the easterns, abode there occasionally for the sake of commerce. Ephesus, therefore, being a place of such general resort, and the very throne of idolatry, superstition, and magic, the apostle, when he formerly left that city, resolved, as we have seen, to return and attack these impieties in their strongest hold.

Wherefore, having discharged his vow in Jerusalem, he made no stay there, nor even at Antioch, but travelled through Syria and Cilicia, and the countries above mentioned, as expeditiously as was consistent with his purpose in visiting them, and then came to Ephesus, where he abode three years, and gathered a very numerous church; the members of which were peculiarly dear to him, as is manifest from his epistle to them, and the discourse addressed to their elders, Acts 20:17 , &c.

CHAPTER 19 Ac 19:1-41. Signal Success of Paul at Ephesus. 1-3. while Apollos was at Corinth—where his ministry was so powerful that a formidable party in the Church of that city gloried in his type of preaching in preference to Paul's (1Co 1:12; 3:4), no doubt from the marked infusion of Greek philosophic culture which distinguished it, and which the apostle studiously avoided (1Co 2:1-5). Paul having passed through the upper coasts—"parts," the interior of Asia Minor, which, with reference to the seacoast, was elevated. came to Ephesus—thus fulfilling his promise (Ac 18:21). finding certain disciples—in the same stage of Christian knowledge as Apollos at first, newly arrived, probably, and having had no communication as yet with the church at Ephesus.Acts 19:1-7 The Holy Ghost is conferred by Paul on twelve ofJohn’s disciples.Acts 19:8-12 He preacheth at Ephesus, first in the synagogue, andafterwards in a private school for two years; Godconfirming the word by special miracles.Acts 19:13-20 Certain Jewish exorcists, attempting to cast out a devilin 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 thesilversmiths raise an uproar against him, which iswith 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. Acts 19:1

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.

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.