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Acts 17:6

in Acts 17

But when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have now come here,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And when they found them not, they dragged Jason and certain brethren before the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;

KJV

And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;

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This verse in Acts 17

Commentary

10 notes on this verse

A commentator

Bede

Retractions on Acts · Written before 735.

And when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brothers to the rulers of the city. It is written in Greek: And some other brothers; whence it is understood that Jason was also a brother, that is, faithful to Christ.

This site's exposition

The Jews, however, became jealous

on Acts 17:5-9

The Jews dragged Jason before the city officials and turned the message into sedition against Caesar, saying that there is another king. Luke calls these officials politarchs, the title found on an inscription from the Vardar Gate at Thessalonica.

This site's exposition

turned the world upside down

The verb for turned upside down means to stir up sedition, and the commander uses it at 21:38 of the Egyptian who led a revolt. The world here is the whole inhabited world under Caesar. The mob charged Paul and Silas with unrest across it.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

John Chrysostom

Homily on Acts 37 · Written before 407.

proposed

"And when they found them not," it says, "they haled Jason and certain brethren." O the tyranny! dragged them without any cause out of their houses.

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And when they found them not,....

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers--literally, "the politarchs"; the very name given to the magistrates of Thessalonica in an inscription on a still remaining arch of the city--so minute is the accuracy of this history. crying, These that have turned the world upside down--(See on Ac 16:20).
THIS IS JUST an old version of an oft-repeated story. When disturbances arise in a state, and rebellions and mutinies cause blood to be shed, it is still the custom to cry, “The Christians have done this.”
THIS IS JUST an old version of an oft-repeated story. When disturbances arise in a state, and rebellions and mutinies cause blood to be shed, it is still the custom to cry, “The Christians have done this.” In the days of Jesus we know that it was laid to the charge of our blessed and divine Master, that he was a stirrer of sedition, whereas he himself had refused to be a king, when his followers would have taken him by force to make him one, for he said, “My kingdom is not of this world;” yet was he crucified under the two false charges of sedition and blasphemy. The same thing occurred with the Apostles. Wherever they went to preach the gospel, the Jews who opposed them sought to stir up the refuse of the city to put an end to their ministry; and then, when a great tumult had been made by the Jews themselves, who had taken unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring him out to the people, then the Jews laid the tumult and the uproar at the door of the Apostles, saying, “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.” This plan was followed all through the Roman empire, until Christianity became the state religion. There was never a calamity befel Rome, never a war arose, never a famine or a plague, but the vulgar multitude cried, “The Christians to the lions! The Christians have done this.” Nero himself imputed the burning of Rome, of which he himself doubtless was the incendiary, to the Christians. The believers in Jesus were slandered as if they were the common sewer, into which all the filth of sin was to be poured; whereas, they were like Solomon’s great brazen sea, which was full of the purest water, wherein even priests themselves might wash their robes.
2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also - The very character our forefathers had for preaching that Gospel, in every part of the land, by which the nation has been illuminated, the mob disciplined into regularity and order, and the kingdom established in the hands of the best of monarchs.
These that have turned the world upside down - That have excited commotion and disturbance in other places. The charge has been often brought against the gospel that it has been the occasion of confusion and disorder.

The words behind it

22 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Matthew 24:14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.14 worksActs 24:5We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,10 worksActs 16:19–21When the girl’s owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities in the marketplace.9 worksActs 28:22But we consider your views worth hearing, because we know that people everywhere are speaking against this sect.”7 worksLuke 23:5But they kept insisting, “He stirs up the people all over Judea with His teaching. He began in Galilee and has come all the way here.”6 worksJohn 12:19Then the Pharisees said to one another, “You can see that this is doing you no good. Look how the whole world has gone after Him!”6 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Acts 21:28–31crying out, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches everywhere against our people and against our law and against this place. Furthermore, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.”5 worksJeremiah 38:2–4“This is what the LORD says: Whoever stays in this city will die by sword and famine and plague, but whoever surrenders to the Chaldeans will live; he will retain his life like a spoil of war, and he will live.4 worksActs 18:12–13While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews coordinated an attack on Paul and brought him before the judgment seat.4 worksActs 6:12–13So they stirred up the people, elders, and scribes and confronted Stephen. They seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin,4 works1 Kings 18:17–18When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”4 worksActs 22:22–23The crowd listened to Paul until he made this statement. Then they lifted up their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He is not fit to live!”4 worksLuke 2:34Then Simeon blessed them and said to His mother Mary: “Behold, this Child is appointed to cause the rise and fall of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against,4 worksExodus 3:8–9I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.3 worksAmos 7:10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words,3 worksJames 2:6But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?3 worksJeremiah 38:4Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to die, for he is discouraging the warriors who remain in this city, as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them; this man is not seeking the well-being of these people, but their ruin.”2 works2 Kings 8:7Then Elisha came to Damascus while Ben-hadad king of Aram was sick, and the king was told, “The man of God has come here.”2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Acts 24:5

    We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,

    it leads to

    • Acts 24:14

      I do confess to you, however, that I worship the God of our fathers according to the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is laid down by the Law and…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Acts 28:22

      But we consider your views worth hearing, because we know that people everywhere are speaking against this sect.”

    • Acts 21:28

      crying out, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches everywhere against our people and against our law and against this place. Furthermore, he has brought Greeks into the temple and…

  • Through

    Acts 28:22

    But we consider your views worth hearing, because we know that people everywhere are speaking against this sect.”

    it leads to

    • 1 Peter 2:12

      Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.

    • 1 Peter 3:16

      keeping a clear conscience, so that those who slander you may be put to shame by your good behavior in Christ.

  • Through

    Luke 23:5

    But they kept insisting, “He stirs up the people all over Judea with His teaching. He began in Galilee and has come all the way here.”

    it leads to

    • John 2:11

      Jesus performed this, the first of His signs, at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

    • Mark 1:14

      After the arrest of John, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God.

    • John 1:43

      The next day Jesus decided to set out for Galilee. Finding Philip, He told him, “Follow Me.”

Where this verse is studied

About Acts

The Pentecost, El Greco, about 1600, Museo del Prado. Public domain.
The Pentecost, El Greco, about 1600, Museo del Prado. Public domain.
Acts: the study guide →Read Acts 17 →
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Retractions on Acts; Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 193: “The World Turned Upside Down” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on Acts 37; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); R. J. Knowling, The Acts of the Apostles, The Expositor's Greek Testament and William Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen.

Read on in Acts 17 →