Acts 24:19

Who ought to have been here before thee, and object, if they had ought against me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) Who ought to have been here before thee.—The originators of the disturbance shrank from the consequences of their actions, and either remained at Jerusalem or else started on their homeward journey as soon as the Feast was over.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:10-21 Paul gives a just account of himself, which clears him from crime, and likewise shows the true reason of the violence against him. Let us never be driven from any good way by its having an ill name. It is very comfortable, in worshipping God, to look to him as the God of our fathers, and to set up no other rule of faith or practice but the Scriptures. This shows there will be a resurrection to a final judgment. Prophets and their doctrines were to be tried by their fruits. Paul's aim was to have a conscience void of offence. His care and endeavour was to abstain from many things, and to abound in the exercises of religion at all times; both towards God. and towards man. If blamed for being more earnest in the things of God than our neighbours, what is our reply? Do we shrink from the accusation? How many in the world would rather be accused of any weakness, nay, even of wickedness, than of an earnest, fervent feeling of love to the Lord Jesus Christ, and of devotedness to his service! Can such think that He will confess them when he comes in his glory, and before the angels of God? If there is any sight pleasing to the God of our salvation, and a sight at which the angels rejoice, it is, to behold a devoted follower of the Lord, here upon earth, acknowledging that he is guilty, if it be a crime, of loving the Lord who died for him, with all his heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. And that he will not in silence see God's word despised, or hear his name profaned; he will rather risk the ridicule and the hatred of the world, than one frown from that gracious Being whose love is better than life.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Who ought to have been here ... - They were the proper witnesses, and as they had staid away it showed that they were not prepared to undergo a strict examination. They alone could testify as to anything that occurred in the temple; and as they were not present, that charge ought to be dismissed.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18-21. found me purified in the temple—not polluting it, therefore, by my own presence, and neither gathering a crowd nor raising a stir: If then these Asiatic Jews have any charge to bring against me in justification of their arrest of me, why are they not here to substantiate it?

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Who ought to have been here; the Jews of Asia, who had caused all this stir, having seen Trophimus with Paul in the streets of Jerusalem, and maliciously presuming that he had brought him into the temple with him. Now these were the only proper witnesses, who might therefore be now absent, because they could testify nothing to the purpose, and when they thought seriously upon it, their consciences might accuse them for the clamour they had made against the apostle, Acts 21:28. As for the other Jews, they could only testify, by hearsay, which is not sufficient.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Who ought to have been here before thee,.... For they were the only persons who saw him in the temple, and what he was doing; and who by an hideous outcry raised a mob upon him, who took things upon hearsay from them:

and object, if they had ought against me; either with respect to sedition, or blasphemy, error or heresy, if they were capable of proving anything.

Geneva Study Bible

Who ought to have been here before thee, and object, if they had ought against me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 24:19. ἔδει without ἄν, cf. Luke 11:42; Luke 15:32; on the force of this imperfect, see Burton, p. 14, Winer-Moulton, xli. 2.—εἴ τι ἔχοιεν πρός με: the optative of subjective possibility, representing the subjective view of the agent—if they had anything against me (in their own belief), Winer-Moulton, xli. b 2, Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 111 (1893), Burton, p. 106.—κατηγορεῖν: “to make accusation,” R.V., cf. Acts 24:2.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. and object] Better (with Rev. Ver.), “and to make accusation.” They had set the cry against him, and now did not come to say what he had done wrong. They were probably on their way home, now that the feast was over.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 24:19. Οὓς, whom) Never does the world commit greater solecisms (blunders) in violation even of its own laws, than in persecuting the faith.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - To make accusation for object, A.V. The sense is exactly the same. Acts 24:19