Dragged for drew, A.V.; before for unto, A.V. Certain brethren; some of the Thessalonian Christians who happened to be in the house of Jason. The rulers of the city ( τοὺς πολιτάρχας, and Acts 17:8).
This is a remarkable instance of St. Luke's accuracy. The word is unknown in Greek literature. But an inscription on an ancient marble arch, still standing in Thessalonica, or Saloniki, records that Thessalonica was governed by seven politarchs.
Thessalonica was a Greek city, governed by its own laws. Hence the mention of the δῆμος in verse 5. The politarchs also were Greek, not Roman, magistrates. Crying; βοῶντες, often followed by μεγάλῃ φωνῇ, but whether so followed or not, always meaning "a loud cry" or "shout" (Acts 21:34; Luke 3:4, etc.
). Turned the world upside down; ἀναστατόω is used in the New Testament only by St. Luke and St. Paul (Acts 21:38; Galatians 5:12); to unsettle or disturb; i.e. to make people literally ἀναστάτους homeless, outcasts, from their former settlements, or, metaphorically, unsettled in their allegiance to their civil or spiritual rulers, is the meaning of the word.
In the mouth of St. Paul's accusers it contains a distinct charge of sedition and disobedience to the Roman law. The world ( τὴν οἰκουμένην the Roman empire (Luke 2:1), viewed as coextensive with the habitable globe (see verse 31; Acts 19:20; Acts 11:28, note).