Even some of Paul’s friends who were officials of the province of Asia sent word to him, begging him not to venture into the theatre.
I. Paul is here brought into some trouble at Ephesus, just when he is forecasting to go thence, and to cut out work for himself elsewhere. See here, 1. How he laid his purpose of going to other places, Act 19:21, Act 19:22. He was a man of vast designs for God, and was for making his influences as widely diffusive as might be.
Commenting on Acts 19:21-41
And when the town clerk had appeased the people,.... Caused them to cease their loud outcry, so as that he could be heard. This person seems to have been more than a "town clerk", as we render it; or a common "scribe", as the Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions render it; rather as the Syriac version, "a chief man of the city"; the Septuagint...
Verse 31. Certain of the chief of Asia. τωνασιαρχων. Of the Asiarchs. These were persons who presided over sacred things, and over the public games. It was their business to see that the proper services of religion were observed, and that proper honour was rendered to the Roman emperor in the public festivals, at the games, etc.