Acts 19:40
For we are in danger to be called in question for this day’s uproar, there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse. For we are in danger to be called in question for this day’s uproar, there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse.
The verse belongs to the close of more than three years of labor centered in Ephesus, during which a flourishing church was raised up and the gospel spread throughout the province of Asia to both Jews and Gentiles, at the time when Paul purposed to pass through Macedonia and Achaia to Jerusalem and afterward to Rome, sent Timothy and Erastus on into Macedonia, remained himself in Ephesus until after Pentecost, and then had his departure hastened by this event. The uproar behind the verse grew out of opposition to Paul's teaching, which had weakened confidence in the worship of Diana and lessened the trade in her shrines. The verse is the closing warning of the speech by which the town clerk ended the riot in the theater at Ephesus and dismissed the assembly. That dismissal followed confused shouting in which some cried one thing and some another and most did not know why they had come, refusal to hear Alexander the Jewish coppersmith when he tried to turn their anger against Paul and his companions, about two hours of shouting Great is Diana of the Ephesians, and then exhaustion producing a momentary silence that allowed the clerk to use his office to gain a hearing.
To obtain that hearing he met the people on their own ground and appealed to their reason, arguing that there was no cause for tumult because the worship of Diana could not be spoken against, because Gaius and Aristarchus were neither robbers of churches nor blasphemers of the goddess, and because Demetrius and the craftsmen had open law, deputies, and a lawful assembly available for any matter. In the verse he declares that the city is in danger of being called in question and held legally accountable for that day's uproar and concourse, because there is no lawful cause by which to give an account of it, thereby distinguishing an unjustified mob from a lawful assembly. That danger included Roman censure for causing an uproar without lawful reason, which could lead to restrictions on the liberty of Ephesus.
By this warning the clerk helped quiet the crowd, restrain the mob, and bring the tumult to an orderly end, after which he dismissed the assembly. The officials' action publicly established that Paul and his companions, including Gaius and Aristarchus, had committed no unlawful act. It also kept the disturbance from disgracing Christianity or bringing it into disrepute. The chapter containing the verse confirms present reception of the promised blessing, showing the same experience of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance and the same persecution and uproar that accompanied the experience of the early apostles.