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.

People's New Testament

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.

Wesley's Notes

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

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).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.