This continued - This public instruction.

By the space ... - For two whole years.

So that all - That is, the great mass of the people.

Which dwelt in Asia - In that province of Asia Minor of which Ephesus was the principal city. The name Asia was used sometimes to denote that single province. See the notes on Acts 2:9. Ephesus was the capital; and there was, of course, a constant and large influx of people there for the purposes of commerce and worship.

Heard the word of the Lord Jesus - Heard the doctrine respecting the Lord Jesus.

By the space of two years - The schoolhouse of Tyrannus was his regular chapel; and it is likely that in it he taught Christianity, as Tyrannus taught languages or sciences.

All they - in Asia heard the word - Meaning, probably, the Proconsular Asia, for the extent of which see the note on Acts 16:6.

Jews and Greeks - For, although he ceased preaching in the synagogues of the Jews, yet they continued to hear him in the school of Tyrannus. But it is likely that Paul did not confine himself to this place, but went about through the different towns and villages; without which, how could all Asia have heard the word? By Greeks, we are to understand, not only the proselytes of the gate, but the heathens in general.

And this continued by the space of two years,.... Reckoning from the end of the three months, which had been spent in teaching in the synagogue:

so that all they which dwelt in Asia; in the lesser Asia, called the proconsular Asia, of which Ephesus was the chief city:

heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks; these, as they came to Ephesus, whether on account of religion, the Asiatic Jews to their synagogue, and the Greeks or Gentiles to the famous temple of Diana, or on account of trade and business, or for the sake of seeing this place, had the opportunity of hearing the Apostle Paul preach, concerning the person, offices, and grace of Christ; and dispute and reason concerning the more abstruse and difficult points of the Christian religion, in the above school, for two years together; so that the word of the Lord went out from hence, and was spread in all the cities and towns in Asia.

Asia

See on Acts 2:9.

And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

19:10 Continued... two years. That is, for two years he used this building. His whole stay in Ephesus was three years (Ac 20:31).

So that all they who dwelt in Asia. The Roman province of Asia of which Ephesus was the capital. It embraced only a part of Asia Minor. We know that Paul's preaching had a powerful effect (1) from the results upon those who practiced magic (Ac 19:19); (2) from the alarm of Demetrius (Ac 19:24); (3) from the statement of Pliny, about forty years later, in his celebrated letter to Trajan, that Christianity had caused the temples of the gods to be deserted.

19:10 All who desired it among the inhabitants of the proconsular Asia, now heard the word: St. Paul had been forbidden to preach it in Asia before, Acts 16:6. But now the time was come.

10. this continued . two years-in addition to the former three months. See on [2056]Ac 20:31. But during some part of this period he must have paid a second unrecorded visit to Corinth, since the one next recorded (see on [2057]Ac 20:2, 3) is twice called his third visit (2Co 12:14; 13:1). See on [2058]2Co 1:15, 16, which might seem inconsistent with this. The passage across was quite a short one (see on [2059]Ac 18:19)-Towards the close of this long stay at Ephesus, as we learn from 1Co 16:8, he wrote his First Epistle to the Corinthians; also (though on this opinions are divided) the Epistle to the Galatians. (See [2060]Introduction to First Corinthians, and [2061]Introduction to Galatians). And just as at Corinth his greatest success was after his withdrawal to a separate place of meeting (Ac 18:7-10), so at Ephesus.

so that all they which dwelt in-the Roman province of

Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks-This is the "great door and effectual opened unto him" while resident at Ephesus (1Co 16:9), which induced him to make it his headquarters for so long a period. The unwearied and varied character of his labors here are best seen in his own subsequent address to the elders of Ephesus (Ac 20:17, &c.). And thus Ephesus became the "ecclesiastical center for the entire region, as indeed it remained for a very long period" [Baumgarten]. Churches arose at Colosse, Laodicea, and Hierapolis eastward, either through his own labors or those of his faithful helpers whom he sent out in different directions, Epaphras, Archippus, Philemon (Col 1:7; 4:12-17; Phm 23).

19:8-12 When arguments and persuasions only harden men in unbelief and blasphemy, we must separate ourselves and others from such unholy company. God was pleased to confirm the teaching of these holy men of old, that if their hearers believed them not, they might believe the works.