414
ous τοῦ Παύλου.
δήµον, οὐκ εἴων αὐτὸν ot µαθηταί.
30. τοῦ δὲ Παύλου Bouhopévou εἰσελθεῖν eis τὸν
31. τινὲς δὲ καὶ τῶν ᾿Ασιαρχῶν
ὄντες αὐτῷ Φίλοι, πέµψαντες πρὸς αὐτόν, παρεκάλουν μὴ δοῦναι
of the mobs in the theatre, Die Herakli- tischen Briefe, p. 65; Gore, Ephesians, p. 255. ‘The heatre was capable of holding, it is calculated, 24,500 people, its dia- meter was 495 feet, and it was probably the largest in the world (Renan), Wet- stein remarks that the position of the places tended in no small degree to in- crease and foment the tumult, since the temple was in full view of the theatre.— συναρπάσαντες, Cf. Vi. 12, 1.ε., being carried off with them in their rush; we are not told whether they met Gaius and Aristarchus by chance, and seized them as well-known companions of Paul, συνεκδήµους, or whether they searched for them in their lodgings, and seized them when they could not find the Apostle. —’Apiotapxov: a native of Thessalonica, cf. xx. 4; he accompanied Paul on his last journey to Jerusalem, and hence to Rome, xxvii. 2. It is possible, as Lightfoot thinks, that the words ‘“Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us” in the latter passage intimate that Aristarchus accompanied Luke and Paul on the former part of this route because he was on his way home, and that leaving Paul at Myra he may have returned to Thessa- lonica, Lightfoot, Philippians, p. 35. But however this may be, it is evident from Col. iv. το, Philem., ver. 24, that he was with the Apostle at Rome, probably sharing his captivity. 6 συναιχµάλωτός pov, Col., µ. 5., can hardly refer to this incident at Ephesus, Lightfoot, PAzlip- pians, p. 11, “Aristarchus,” Β. Γ.3, or to a captivity in a spiritual sense, as bound and captive to Christ together with Paul; see also Salmon, Introd., p. 383.--Μακεδόνας: nothing was more natural than that devoted Christians from Thessalonica should be among St. Paul’s companions in travel when we consider his special affection for the Thessalonian Church. With thisreading the Gaius here is of course to be dis- tinguished from the Gaius of xx. 4, of Derbe, and from the Gaius of Rom. xvi. 23, 1 Cor. i. 14, a Corinthian. But if we could read Μακεδόνα, Ramsay, Si. Paul, p- 280, the Gaius here may be identified with the Gaius of xx. 4. In xx. 4 Blass connects Δερβαῖος with Timothy, making Gaius a Thessalonian with Aristarchus, Secundus, see im loco; but against this
we must place the positive statement of xvi. 1, that Timothy was a Lystran.— συνεκδήµους: used only by Luke and Paul, 2 Cor. viii. το, not in LXX, but in Plut. and Josephus. The word may . look forward to xx. 4 (so Ramsay, 4. 5.), or we may take it with Blass as referring to the part which the two men played as representatives of the Thessalonians, who were carrying with St. Paul the contri- bution to the Church at Jerusalem (2 Cor. ix. 4). These two men, as Weiss points out, may be our informants for some ot the details which follow.
Ver. 30. τοῦ δὲ Π. βουλ.: St. Paul was not the man to leave his comrades in the lurch, and he would have followed them with his life in his hands to face the mob of Ephesus; if we may depend upon the picture of Ephesian life given us in Pseudo-Heraclitus, Letter vii., we can understand the imminent danger in which St. Paul was placed at the mercy of men who were no longer men but beasts, ἐξ ἀνθρώπων θηρία Ὑγεγονότες (Die Heraklitischen Briefe, p. 65 (Ber- nays), and Ramsay, 4. s., p. 280).—87jpov, ver. 33, ΧΙ. 22, Xvil. 5, SO sometimes in classical Greek of the plebs, vulgus—in N.T. only in Acts. Both before and after the riot the passions of the vulgar mob were no doubt a real and serious danger to St. Paul, cf. 1 Cor. xv. 32, xvi. 9, 2 Cor. i. 8-10. In the former passage the word ἐθηριομάχησα is generally re- ferred to this danger in Ephesus, the multitude in its ferocious rage being compared to wild beasts, see Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 230, ‘‘ Ephesus,” Hastings’ B.D., and Plumptre’s note, i loco. With the expression used in 1 Cor. xv. 32 we may compare Ignat., Rom., v., 1, and cf. Ephes., vii., 1; Smyrn., iv., 1; so too Pseudo-Heraclitus, uw. s., and Renan, Saint Paul, p. 351, note; Grimm-Thayer, sub v. McGiffert, p. 280 Π., maintains that the word ἐθηριομάχησα refers to an actual conflict with wild beasts in the arena (so Weizsacker), and that 2 Cor. i. 9 more probably refers to the danger from the riot of Demetrius; but if the literal interpretation of the verb in 1 Cor. is correct, it is strange that St. Paul should have omitted such a terrible en- counter from his catalogue of dangers in 2 Cor. xi. 23; see also below at end of chapter.