Acts 19:1-41

Ephesus

1-41. Paul at Ephesus. Opposition of the manufacturers of idols. St. Paul, leaving Antioch in S. Galatia (see Acts 18:23), approached Ephesus not by the usual level route leading through Colossæ and Laodicea (see Colossians 2:1), but through the northern and more mountainous route leading down the Cayster valley (see Acts 19:1, 'the upper coasts,' RV 'the upper country'). He stayed at Ephesus over two years and three months, see Acts 19:8; Acts 19:10; Acts 19:22 (in Acts 20:31 the Apostle calls it three years), and making the city his centre, evangelised the whole of the province of Asia. According to D he did not originally intend to preach in Ephesus, but the Holy Spirit constrained him (contrast Acts 16:6). We hear little here of opposition from the Jews. The craftsmen and the uneducated classes were hostile, but the magistrates of the city (Acts 19:35) and of the province (Acts 19:31) were not unfriendly.