Reference: Theatre
Easton
only mentioned in Ac 19:29,31. The ruins of this theatre at Ephesus still exist, and they show that it was a magnificent structure, capable of accommodating some 56,700 persons. It was the largest structure of the kind that ever existed. Theatres, as places of amusement, were unknown to the Jews.
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Fausets
The theater was anciently in the open air; semicircular; the seats in tiers above one another the stage on a level with the lowest seats. Besides the performance of dramas, public meetings were often in the theater, as being large enough almost to receive "the whole city" (Ac 19:29); so at Ephesus the theater was the scene of the tumultuous meeting excited by Demetrius. The remains of this theater still attest its vast size and convenient position. (See EPHESUS; DIANA.) In 1Co 4:9 "spectacle" is literally, "theatrical spectacle," a spectacle in which the world above and below is the theater, and angels and men the spectators. Heb 10:33, "made a "gazing stock" (theatrizomenoi) by afflictions"; as criminals often were exhibited to amuse the populace in the amphitheater, and "set forth last" in the show to fight with wild beasts (Tertullian, de Pudicitia, 14): Heb 12:1. In the theater Herod Agrippa I (Ac 12:21-23; Josephus, Ant. 19:8, section 2) gave audience to the Tyrian envoys, and was struck dead by God.
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Hastings
The name is Greek (lit. 'a place for viewing' [a spectacle]), and the thing appears to be of Greek origin also. From the cities of Greece proper, theatres spread all over the Greek and Roman world. The auditorium consisted regularly of a semicircular cavity cut on the side of a hill, much broader at the upper end than the lower. The seats were placed concentrically, being commonly carved out of the rock. The part level with the ground, the orchestra, was occupied by the choir. The stage and scene were on the diameter, and were of artificial construction, being very often like the front of a temple. The theatres were used for public meetings, as being generally the largest buildings in the cities (Ac 19:29,31; cf. also art. Ephesus).
A. Souter.
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Morish
A place built for dramatic and other public entertainments, and for meetings of the people. At the uproar at Ephesus they rushed into the theatre. Ac 19:29,31. The word is ???????, and is translated 'spectacle' in 1Co 4:9; the apostles were gazed upon both by angels and by men.
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Smith
Theatre.
For the explanation of the biblical allusions, two or three points only require notice. The Greek term, like the corresponding English term, denotes the place where dramatic performances are exhibited, and also the scene itself or spectacle which is witnessed there. It occurs in the first or local sense in
The other sense of the term "theatre" occurs in