Acts 19:29 - Exposition

The city for the whole city, and the confusion for confusion, A.V. and T.R. ( τῆς for ὅλη ); they rushed, etc., having seized for having caught, etc., they rushed, etc., A.V. With one accord ( ὁμοθυμαδὸν ) ; see Acts 1:14 ; Acts 2:1 ; Acts 4:24 , etc., and for ὥρμησαν ὁμοθυμαδὸν , see Acts 7:57 . Into the theatre . The common place of resort for all great meetings. So Tacitus, 'Hist.,' 2.80 (quoted by Alford), says that at Antioch the people were wont to hold their public debates in the theatre, and that a crowded meeting was held there to forward the interests of Vespasian, then aspiring to the empire. So Josephus speaks of the people of Antioch holding a public assembly ( ἐκκλησίαζοντος ) in the theatre ('Bell. Jud.,' 7. 3.3). The people of the Greek city of Tarentum received the ambassadors from Rome in the theatre, "according to the Greek custom," Val. Max., 2.2, 5 (Kuinoel, on Acts 19:29 ). The theatre at Ephesus, of which "ruins of immense grandeur" still remain, is said to be the largest of which we have any account. Having seized ( συναρπάσαντες ); a favorite word with Luke( Acts 6:12 ; Acts 27:12 ; Luke 8:29 ); and found also in the LXX , of Proverbs 6:25 ; 2 Macc. 3:27; 4:41; but not elsewhere in the New Testament. It is a common medical word of sudden seizures. The force of the συν is that they hurried Gaius and Aristarchus along with them to the theatre, no doubt intending there to accuse them to the people. Gaius and Aristarchus . In Acts 20:4 there is mention of a certain Gaius who was one of Paul's companions in travel, but who is described as "of Derbe." Again in 1 Corinthians 1:14 a Gaius is mentioned as one of St. Paul's converts on his first visit to Corinth, whom he baptized himself; and in Romans 16:23 (written from Corinth) we have mention of Gaius as St. Paul's host, and of the whole Church, likely, therefore, to be the same person. Then we have the Gains to whom St. John's Third Epistle is addressed, and whose hospitality to the brethren was a conspicuous feature in his character, and one tending to identify him with the Gaius of Romans 16:23 . We seem, therefore, to have, in immediate connection with St, Paul, Gaius of Corinth, Gains of Macedonia, and Gaius of Derbe. But Gaius (or Caius , as it is written in Latin) was such a common name, and the Jews so often shifted their residence from one city to another, that it is not safe either to infer identity from identity of name, or diversity from diversity of description. Aristarchus, here described as of Macedonia , is more precisely spoken of in Acts 20:4 as a Thessalonian. In Acts 27:2 , where we find him accompanying St. Paul from Caesarea to Rome, he is described as "a Macedonian of Thessalonica." In Colossians 4:10 he is St. Paul's "fellow-prisoner,' as voluntarily sharing his prison (Alford, on Colossians 4:10 ), and in Philemon 1:24 he is his fellow-laborer. His history, therefore, is that, having been converted on St Paul's visit to Thessalonica, he attached himself to him as one of his missionary staff, and continued with him through good report and evil report, through persecution, violence, imprisonment, shipwreck, and bonds, to the latest moment on which the light of Bible history shines. Blessed servant of Christ! blessed fellow-servant of his chief apostle!