Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 19:30

"And when Paul was minded to enter in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not." — Acts 19:30 (ASV)

When Paul wanted to enter in . . .—We almost see the impetuous zeal that urged the Apostle not to leave his companions to bear the brunt of the attack alone, and the anxious fear that made his friends eager to prevent a step that would probably endanger his own life without helping his friends.

He probably refers to this when he speaks of having, humanly speaking, fought with beasts at Ephesus (1 Corinthians 15:32); not that there was any actual danger of martyrdom in that form, but that the multitude in their fanatic rage presented a formidable ordeal.

So Ignatius (Epistle ad Rom. chapter 3) speaks of himself as “fighting with wild beasts” (using the same word as St. Paul), and describes the soldiers who guarded him on his journey from Antioch to Rome as the “ten leopards” who were his companions.