Bible Dictionary
Tyrannus
Tyrannus was associated with a school or lecture hall in Ephesus where Paul taught after leaving the synagogue. Paul reasoned there daily for about two years.
Definition
Tyrannus was associated with a school or lecture hall in Ephesus. After opposition arose in the synagogue, Paul separated his followers and taught daily in this place.
Biblical Usage
Paul reasoned in the school of Tyrannus for two years, so that the inhabitants of Asia heard the word of the Lord. The passage does not clearly state whether Tyrannus owned the hall, taught there, or merely gave it its established name.
Historical Background
A schole was a lecture hall or teaching room used by a philosopher or orator in Greek cities. Tyrannus is commonly thought to have been a Greek rhetorician, though some have understood him as a Jewish rabbi.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Prince, a Greek rhetorician, in whose “school” at Ephesus Paul disputed daily for the space of two years with those who came to him (Acts 19:9). Some have supposed that he was a Jew, and that his “school” was a private synagogue.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(sovereign), the name of a man in whose school or place of audience Paul taught the gospel for two years, during his sojourn at Ephesus. See (Acts 19:9) (A.D. 52,53.) The presumption is that Tyrannus himself was a Greek, and a public teacher of philosophy or rhetoric.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>ti-ran'-us (Turannos): When the Jews of Ephesus opposed Paul's teaching in the synagogue, he withdrew, and, separating his followers, reasoned daily in the school of Tyrannus. "This continued for the space of two years" (Ac 19:9,10). D Syriac (Western text) adds after Tyrannus (Ac 19:9), "from the 5th hour unto the 10th." Schole is the lecture-hall or teaching-room of a philosopher or orator, and such were to be found m every Greek city. Tyrannus may have been</p><p>(1) a Greek rhetorician or</p><p>(2) a Jewish rabbi.</p><p>(1) This is the common opinion, and many identify him with a certain Tyrannus, a sophist, mentioned by Suidas. Paul would thus appear to be one of the traveling rhetors of the time, who had hired such a hall to proclaim his own peculiar philosophy (Ramsay, Paul the Traveler, 246, 271).</p><p>(2) Meyer thinks that as the apostle had not passed wholly to the Gentiles, and Jews still flocked to hear him, and also that as Tyrannus is not spoken of as a proselyte (sebomenos ton Theon), this schole is the beth Midrash of a Jewish rabbi. "Paul with his Christians withdrew from the public synagogue to the private synagogue of Tyrannus, where he and his doctrine were more secure from public annoyance" (Meyer in the place cited.).</p><p>(3) Another view (Overbeck) is that the expression was the standing name of the place after the original owner.</p><p>S. F. Hunter</p>