Tyrannus

Tyran'nus (Τύραννος, sovereign), the name of a man in whose school or place of audience Paul taught the Gospel for two years, during his sojourn at Ephesus (see Ac 19:9). A. D. 52, 53. The halls or rooms of the philosophers were called σχολαί among the later Greeks (Liddell and Scott, s.v.); and as Luke applies that term to the auditorium in this instance, the presumption is that Tyrannus himself was a Greek, and a public teacher of philosophy or rhetoric. He and Paul must have occupied the room at different hours; whether he hired it out to the Christians or gave them the use of it (in either case he must have been friendly to them) is left uncertain. Meyer is disposed to consider that Tyrannus was a Jewish rabbi, and the owner of a private synagogue or house for teaching (בֵּית מַדרָשׁ). But, in the first place, his Greek name, and the fact that he is not mentioned as a Jew or proselyte, disagree with that supposition; and, in the second place, as Paul repaired to this man's school after having been compelled to leave the Jewish synagogue (Ac 19:9), it is evident that he took this course as a means of gaining access to the heathen; an. object which he would naturally seek through the co-operation of one of their own number, and not by associating himself with a Jew or a Gentile adherent of the Jewish faith. In speaking of him merely as a certain Tyrannus (Τυρ®ννου τινός), Luke indicates certainly that he was not a believer at first; though it is natural enough to think that he may have become such as the result of his acquaintance with the apostle. Hemsen (Der Apostel Paulus, p; .218) throws out the idea that the hall may have belonged to the authorities of the city, and have derived its name from the original proprietor. See Seelen, De Schola Tyranni, in his Medit. Exeg. 3 615 sq.; Wallen Acta Pauli Ephesin. (Gryph. 1783). SEE PAUL.