Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 19:32

"Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was in confusion; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together." — Acts 19:32 (ASV)

Some therefore cried one thing, and some another.—Better, kept on crying. The vivid nature of the entire narrative makes it almost certain that it must have originated from an eyewitness, or possibly from more than one.

Aristarchus or Gaius, who traveled to Jerusalem with St. Luke (Luke 20:4) and were also with him in Rome, may have recounted to him the entire story of the event in which they had played such a prominent role. Possibly, also, following up on the suggestion made in the Note on Acts 19:12, we might consider that Tyrannus wrote a report of the tumult to St. Luke. The two conjunctions translated as “therefore” (or better, then) seem to take the narrative back to what was happening in the theater, following the parenthetical account of what had occurred between the Apostle, the disciples, and the Asiarchs outside it.

For the assembly was confused.—It is not without interest to note that the Greek word for assembly is ecclesia, with which we are so familiar as applied to the Church of Christ. Strictly speaking, as the town-clerk is careful to point out (Acts 19:39), this mob gathering was not an ecclesia, but the word had come to be used vaguely.