Verse 6
6. Found them not Probably, anticipating the mob, Paul and his attendants withdrew to some other house.
Rulers of the city Politarchs. Among the instances of Luke’s accuracy are the various names he gives of the public officials in the various localities of the world. At Cyprus there is a proconsul, (see note on Acts 13:7;) at Jerusalem the Roman officer is a chiliarch, (note on Acts 21:31;) at Ephesus there are Asiarchs, (note on Acts 19:31;) at Philippi there are pretors and lictors, (note on Acts 16:19-35;) and here, most remarkable of all, there are politarchs.
This word occurs nowhere else in ancient literature; and yet we have a providential proof that it is just the word that Luke should have used. The great Egnatian Way cuts Thessalonica in two; and over this street there still stands an arch bearing an ancient inscription, containing the names of the seven politarchs at the time of its erection. The time was probably near the day of Paul’s visit there; and, singular to say, three of the recorded names happen to be the same as those of three of Paul’s fellow-travellers Sopater, Gaius, and Secundus.
Upside down There is more truth in this hyperbole than they suppose. The world is wrong-side up, and needs to be turned upside down to be brought right-side up.
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