Acts 19:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Paul then chose as the place of his longer labor a city especially important for the spread of the Gospel. It was the center of communication and trade for a vast part of Asia, and the largest trading city in Asia on this side of Taurus: Ephesus.

Yet here Christianity faced a new struggle with alien tendencies of the religious spirit. These either openly opposed it or threatened to merge with it.

Pagan magic ruled here. It had taken its beginning from the mystical worship of Diana. Alongside this pagan magic, Jewish magic also found access here.

The spirit of the age was not satisfied by religion and always thirsted for something new. It supported this false teaching, which claimed to open union with heaven and spiritual powers by human strength.

After settling in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul, according to his custom, began attending the synagogue and preaching Christ there without fear. He did this for about three months.

But some of the Jews were gradually stirred against the Apostle's preaching. They finally became so hardened that they began openly, before the people, to speak evil of the way of the Lord.

They mocked the Apostle's teaching and the Christ whom he preached. Then Paul left them and separated from them all the Christians in Ephesus.

He moved his preaching to the school of a certain Tyrannus. There he preached not only on Sabbaths, as he had done until then in the synagogue, but daily. This school became a Christian school.

His labors and preaching were not without success. For two whole years Ephesus served as the center of his missionary activity. Since the fame of his preaching began to spread everywhere, he undoubtedly made short journeys through the surrounding places. Thus, according to St. Luke, "all the inhabitants of Asia heard the preaching concerning the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks."

Two years: this excludes the three months mentioned in verse 8.

All the inhabitants of Asia: this is an intensified, hyperbolic expression meaning very many; cf. the note on Mt 3:5.

Great numbers of both Jews and Greeks, proselytes and pagans, constantly streamed into flourishing commercial Ephesus from all the provinces of Asia Minor, especially the neighboring ones.

Some came for trade. Others came as worshipers at the then-famous temple of Artemis, or Diana, of the Ephesians, which was considered one of the seven wonders of the world.

The renown Paul enjoyed there moved many to come and hear his preaching. There, as he himself says, a great and wide door was opened to him; 1 Cor 16:8-9.

The Apostle Paul's two-year stay in Ephesus, of course, helped make his preaching known, as far as possible, to all the people there, both Jews and pagans.

Even now, public life in those places moves in a broad current, since everything is done not in private houses, but in squares and places open to all.

At that time, public accessibility in all of life was even greater. Therefore it is not surprising that in two years everyone gained a general idea of what had been essentially preached about Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior.

By noting this popularity of Paul's teaching, the writer of Acts shows that Paul did not live there so long without purpose or in vain.