Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 19:40

"For indeed we are in danger to be accused concerning this day`s riot, there being no cause [for it]: and as touching it we shall not be able to give account of this concourse." — Acts 19:40 (ASV)

We are in danger to be called in question.—The "we" in this phrase includes the rioters. The term "called in question" uses the same verb that is translated "implead" in Acts 19:38. Demetrius and his party had to be reminded of the risk that they might find themselves defendants, not plaintiffs, in a suit. A riotous "concourse" (the town-clerk uses the most contemptuous word he can find, "this mob meeting") taking the law into its own hands was not an offence that the proconsuls were likely to overlook. It would hardly be considered a legitimate excuse that they had seized two Jews and wanted to "lynch" them.

An interesting inscription from the time of Trajan, found on an aqueduct at Ephesus, contains nearly all the technical terms that appear in the town-clerk’s speech, and thus far confirms the accuracy of St. Luke’s report: “This has been dedicated by the loyal and devoted Council of the Ephesians, and the people that serve the temple (Neôkoros), Peducæus Priscinus being proconsul, by the decree of Tiberius Claudius Italicus, the town-clerk of the people.”