] See ch. Acts 8:17; Acts 10:46, and note on ch. Acts 2:4; and on ἐπροφ., ch. Acts 11:27, note. Verse 7 7

Verse 7

Verse 9

Verse 10

πάντας τ. κατ.] Hyperbolical:—all had the opportunity, and probably some of every considerable town availed themselves of it. To this long teaching of Paul the seven churches of Asia owe their establishment.

Verse 11

11. οὐ τὰς τυχ.] See reff. miracles of no ordinary kind. In what they differed from the usual displays of power by the Apostles, is presently related: viz. that even garments taken from him were endued with miraculous power.

Verse 12

σουδ.] handkerchiefs: see ref. Luke, and notes there.

σιμικ.] not napkins, but semicinctia, aprons, such as servants and artisans use. ἀμφότερα λινοειδῆ εἰσι, Schol.

Diseases, and possession by evil spirits, are here plainly distinguished from each other. The rationalists, and semi-rationalists, are much troubled to reconcile the fact related, that such handkerchiefs and aprons were instrumental in working the cures, with what they are pleased to call a popular notion founded in superstition and error. But in this and similar narratives (see ch. Acts 5:15, note) Christian faith finds no difficulty whatever. All miraculous working is an exertion of the direct power of the All-powerful; a suspension by Him of His ordinary laws: and whether He will use any instrument in doing this, or what instrument, must depend altogether on His own purpose in the miracle—the effect to be produced on the recipients, beholders, or hearers. Without His special selection and enabling, all instruments were vain; with these, all are capable. In the present case, as before in ch. Acts 5:15, it was His purpose to exalt His Apostle as the Herald of His gospel, and to lay in Ephesus the strong foundation of His church. And He therefore endues him with this extraordinary power. (Wordsw. sees an especial fitness in this having occurred at Ephesus (see on Acts 19:19), and refers to God having shewed in Egypt that His power was greater than that of Satan working by magicians: and it may well have been so.)

But to argue by analogy from such a case,—to suppose that because our Lord was able, and Peter, and Paul, and in O. T. times Elisha, were enabled, to exert this peculiar power, therefore the same will be possessed by the body or relics of every real or supposed saint, is the height of folly and fanaticism. The true analogy tends directly the other way. In no cases but these do we find the power, even in the apostolic days: and the general cessation of all extraordinary gifts of the Spirit would lead us to the inference that à fortiori these, which were even then the rarest ( οὐχ αἱ τυχοῦσαι), have ceased also.

Verse 13

13.] See note on Matthew 12:27, respecting the Jewish exorcists. These men, seeing the success of Paul’s agency in casting out devils, adopt the Name of Jesus in their own exorcisms.

Verse 14

τινες does not belong to ἑπτά, see ch. Acts 23:23, but stands alone, recalling the τινες of the preceding verse.

Without the οἱ it would be, ‘certain men, &c. were attempting this,’ ἦσαν and ποιοῦντες being taken together. With it, They were (it was) certain men, seven sons, &c. who attempted this.

Verse 15

No difference between γινώσκω and ἐπίσταμαι must be pressed:—the two verbs are apparently used as separating Jesus and Paul, so that they do not stand together in the same category:—as in E. V., Jesus I know, and Paul I know: the One being God in heaven, the other man on earth.

Verse 16

16. ἀμφοτέρων] The weight of manuscript evidence for this reading is even surpassed by its internal probability. There would be every reason, as seven have been before mentioned, for altering it into αὐτῶν: but no imaginable one for substituting it for αὐτῶν. Two only, it would seem, were thus employed on this particular occasion: and Luke has retained the word as it stood in the record furnished to him. Whether any similar occurrence happened to the rest, we are not informed: this one is selected as most notorious.

γυμνούς] With their clothes torn off them.

Verse 18

18.] The natural effect of such an occurrence was to induce a horror of magical arts, &c., which some were still continuing to countenance or practise secretly, together with a profession of Christianity. Such persons now came forward and confessed their error. The πράξεις of this verse denotes the association with such practices: the next verse treats of the magicians themselves.

Verse 19

τὰς βίβλους] Magical formulæ, or receipt-books, or written amulets. These last were celebrated by the name of ἐφέσια γράμματα. So Eustath⁽⁹⁷⁾ ad Hom. Od. τ. p. 694 (Kuin.): ἐφέσια γράμματα— ἐπῳδαὶ γάρ τινες φασὶν ἐκεῖναι ἦσαν, ἃς καὶ κροῖσος ἐπὶ τῆς πυρᾶς εἰπὼν ὠφελήθη· καὶ ἐν ὀλυμπίᾳ δὲ φασί, ΄ιλησίου καὶ ἐφεσίου παλαιόντων τὸν ΄ιλήσιον μὴ δύνασθαι παλαίειν διὰ τὸ τὸν ἕτερον περὶ τῷ ἀστραγάλῳ ἔχειν τὰ ἐφέσια γράμματα· ὧν γνωσθέντων καὶ λυθέντων αὐτῷ, τριακοντάκις τὸ ἑξῆς πεσεῖν τὸν ἐφέσιον. See more illustrations in Wetst. They were copies of the mystic words engraved on the image of the Ephesian Artemis. Eustath⁽⁹⁸⁾ in C. and H. ii. 16.

ἀργ. μυρ. πέν.] 50,000 drachmæ, i.e. denarii: for the drachma of the Augustan and following ages was not the real Attic drachma, but the Roman denarius—about 8½d. of our money: which makes the entire value about £1770. That drachmæ and not shekels (Grot., Hamm.) are meant, is plain: for Luke is writing of a Grecian town, and to a Greek.

Verse 20

Verse 21

ἐν τῷ πν.] An expression mostly used by Paul, see ref.

δεῖ] As he was sent to the Gentiles, he saw that the great metropolis of the Gentile world was the legitimate centre of his apostolic working. Or perhaps he speaks under some divine intimation that ultimately he should be brought to Rome. If so, his words were literally fulfilled. He did see Rome after he had been at Jerusalem this next time: but after considerable delay, and as a prisoner. Cf. the same design expressed by him, Romans 1:15; Romans 15:23-28; and Paley’s remarks in the Horæ Paulinæ.

Verse 22

On the difficult question respecting a journey of Paul himself to Corinth during this period, see notes, 2 Corinthians 12:14; 2 Corinthians 13:1,—and Prolegg. to 1 Cor. § v.

ἔραστον] This Erastus can hardly be identical with the Erastus of Romans 16:23, who must have been resident at Corinth: see there: and therefore hardly either with the Erastus of 2 Timothy 4:20; see note there.

εἰς τ. ἀσίαν] i.e. in (but beware of imagining εἰς to be ‘put for’ ἐν, here or any where. It gives the direction of the tarrying, as in the expressions ἐς δόμους μένειν, Soph. Ag. 80, and διεκαρτέρουν εἰς τὴν πατρίδα, Lycurg. cont. Leocr., p. 158. It is far better to take it thus, with Meyer, than with Winer, Gr., edn. 6, § 50.4. b, as importing ‘in favour of,’ ‘for the benefit of’) Ephesus: Asia is named by way of contrast with Macedonia, just before mentioned. This is evident by the following event taking place at Ephesus.

Verse 24

24. ναοὺς ἀργ.] These were small models ( ἀφιδρύματα) of the celebrated temple of the Ephesian Artemis, with her statue, which it was the custom to carry on journeys, and place in houses, as a charm. Chrys. καὶ πῶς ἔνι ναοὺς ἀργυροῦς γενέσθαι; ἴσως ὡς κιβώρια μικρά. Ammian. Marcellin. xxii. 13: ‘Asclepiades philosophus … deæ cœlestis argenteum breve figmentum quocunque ibat secum solitus efferre.…’ Diod. Sic. i. 15: ναοὺς χουσοῦς δύο. Dio Cass. xxxix. 20: νεὼς ἥρας βραχὺς ἐπὶ τραπέζης τινὸς πρὸς ἀνατολῶν ἱδρυμένος. We may find an exact parallel in the usages of that corrupt form of Christianity, which, whatever it may pretend to teach, in practice honours similarly the “great goddess” of its imagination.

Verse 25

Dean Howson (ii. p. 98) suggests that possibly Alexander the coppersmith may have been one of these craftsmen: see 2 Timothy 4:14.

Verse 26

26.] The people believed that the images themselves were gods: τὰ χαλκᾶ καὶ τὰ γραπτὰ καὶ λίθινα μὴ μαθόντες, μηδὲ ἐθισθέντες ἀγάλματα καὶ τιμὰς θεῶν, ἀλλὰ θεοὺς καλεῖν. Plutarch de Isid⁽⁹⁹⁾ p. 379, c (Wetst.): see ch. Acts 17:29.

And so it is invariably, wherever images are employed professedly as media of worship.

The genitives ἐφ. and ἀς. are governed by ὄχλον

Verse 27

μέρος, as we say, department.

ἀλλὰ καί] but that eventually even the temple itself of the great goddess Artemis will be counted for nothing. μεγάλη was the usual epithet of the Ephesian Artemis: Xen. Ephes. i. p. 15: ὀμνύω τε τὴν πάτριον ἡμῖν θεόν, τὴν μεγάλην ἐφεσίων ἄρτεμιν. There is an inscription in Boeckh, 2963 c, containing the words της μεγαλης θεας αρτεμιδος προ πολεως. The same inscription also mentions γραμματεύς and ἀνθυπατος. C. and H. ii. 98.

The temple of Artemis at Ephesus, having been burnt to the ground by Herostratus on the night of the birth of Alexander the Great (B.C. 355), was restored with increased magnificence, and accounted one of the wonders of the ancient world. Its dimensions were 425 X 220 feet, and it was surrounded by 127 columns, 60 feet high. It was standing in all its grandeur at this time. See C. and H. ch. 16 vol. ii. pp. 84 ff.

τῆς μεγαλειότητος is the more difficult and probably original reading: and that she should be deposed from her greatness, whom &c.

Verse 29

συναρπ.] It is not implied that they seized Gaius and Aristarchus before they rushed into the theatre: compare προσευξάμενοι εἶπαν, ch. Acts 1:24, also ch. Acts 18:27, and Winer, edn. 6, § 45. 6. b.

γάϊον] A different person from the Gaius of ch. Acts 20:4, who was of Derbe, and from the Gaius of Romans 16:23, and 1 Corinthians 1:14, who was evidently a Corinthian. Aristarchus is mentioned ch. Acts 20:4; Acts 27:2; Colossians 4:10; Philemon 1:24. He was a native of Thessalonica.

Verse 31

δοῦναι] Kypke remarks: ‘latet in phrasi, quod periculum Paulo in theatro immineat.’ E. V. adventure himself; an excellent translation.

Verse 33

33.] ἐκ τ. ὄχλ. some of the multitude.

προεβ. urged forward, through the crowd; the Jews pushing him on from behind, ‘propellentibus.’

It is uncertain whether this Alexander is mentioned elsewhere (but see on 2 Timothy 4:14). He appears to have been a Christian convert from Judaism, whom the Jews were willing to expose as a victim to the fury of the mob: or perhaps one of themselves, put forward to clear them of blame on the occasion.

Verse 34

They would hear nothing from a Jew, as being an enemy of image-worship.

Verse 35

35. καταστ.] When he had quieted, lulled, the crowd.

ὁ γραμματεύς] the town-clerk is the nearest English office corresponding to it. He was the keeper of the archives and public reader of decrees, &c., in the assemblies. Thucyd. vii. 10, τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἐπέδοσαν· ὁ δὲ γραμματεὺς τῆς πόλεως παρελθὼν ἀνέγνω τοῖς ἀθηναίοις. ‘Among the Ephesian inscriptions in Boeckh, we find the following: ΄. ι. αυρ. διονυσιον τον ιεροκηρυκα και β ασιαρχον εκ των ιδιων τ. φλ. ΄ουνατιος φιλοσεβαστος ο γραμματευς καὶ ασιαρχησας. No. 2990.’ C. and H. ii. 96.

γάρ gives a reason for the καταστείλας. See Herm. on Viger, p. 829.

νεωκόρον] Probably a virger or adorner (Suidas says, not a sweeper: ὁ τὸν νεὼν κοσμῶν κ. εὐτρεπίζων, ἀλλʼ οὐχ ὁ σαρῶν) of the temple: here used as implying that Ephesus had the charge and keeping of the temple. The title is found (Wetst.) on inscriptions as belonging to Ephesus: η φιλοσεβαστος εφεσιων βουλη και ο νεωκορος δημος καθιερωσαν επι ανθυπατου πεδουκαιου πρεισκεινου ψηφισαμενου τιβ. κλ. ιταλικου του γραμματεως του δημου (Boeckh, No. 2966); and seems to have been specially granted by the emperors to particular cities: thus we have ὅσα ἐπετύχομεν παρὰ τοῦ κυρίου καίσαρος ἀδριανοῦ δἰ ἀντωνίου πολέμωνος δεύτερον δόγμα συγκλήτου, καθʼ ὃ δὶς νεωκόροι γεγόναμεν: and on coins of Hadrian, ἐφεσίων δὶς νεωκόρων, &c.: and similarly of Elagabalus, νικομηδέων τρὶς νεωκόρων: of Maximin⁽¹⁰¹⁾, ΄αγνήτων νεωκόρων ἀρτέμιδος. See also C. and H. ii. p. 89, where will be found an engraving of a coin exhibiting both the words νεωκόρος and ἀνθύπατος (Acts 19:38).

τ. διοπετοῦς] To give peculiar sanctity to various images, it was given out that they had fallen from heaven; so Euripides of the statue of Artemis at Tauris, ἔνθʼ ἄρτεμις σὴ σύγγονος βωμοὺς ἔχει, | λαβεῖν τʼ ἄγαλμα θεᾶς ὃ φασὶν ἐνθάδε | εἰς τούσδε ναοὺς οὐρανοῦ πεσεῖν ἄπο. Iph. Taur. 86, and 977, he calls it διοπετὲς ἄγαλμα, οὐρανοῦ πέσημα. So also Pausan. Att. 26, τὸ δὲ ἁγιώτατον … ἐστὶν ἀθηνᾶς ἄγαλμα ἐν τῇ νῦν ἀκροπόλει … φήμη δʼ ἐς αὐτὸ ἔχει, πεσεῖν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ.

The image is described by Pliny, xvi. 72: ‘de ipso simulacro Deæ ambigitur. Cæteri ex ebeno esse tradunt: Mucianus ter consul ex his qui, proxime viso eo, scripsere, vitigineum, et nunquam mutatum, septies restituto templo.’

Verse 37

37.] From this verse it appears that Paul had proceeded at Ephesus with the same caution as at Athens, and had not held up to contempt the worship of Artemis, any further than unavoidably the truths which he preached would render it contemptible. This is also manifest from his having friends among the Asiarchs, Acts 19:31. Chrysostom, however, treats this assertion of the town-clerk merely as a device to appease the people: τοῦτο ψεῦδος· ταῦτα μὲν πρὸς τὸν δῆμον.

γάρ refers to the προπετές with which he had charged them: ‘and this caution is not unneeded,—for &c.’ see Meyer; and Herm. as above, on Acts 19:35.

Verse 38

38. ἀγόραιοι] court-days (the grammarians distinguish ἀγοραῖος, ‘circumforaneus,’ an idler in the market, and ἀγόραιος, as in our text: so Suidas: but Ammonius vice versâ: and the distinction is now believed to be mere pedantry): and ἄγονται implies that they were then actually going on. They were the periodical assizes of the district, held by the proconsul and his assessors (see below). The Latin phrase for ἀγοραίους ἄγειν was conventus agere, or peragere, or convocare; cf. Cæs⁽¹⁰²⁾ B. G. i. 54; Acts 19:1; viii. 46. Hence the district itself was called conventus. See Smith’s Dict. of Antiquities, art. Conventus.

Pliny, H. N. Acts 19:29 fin., mentions Ephesus as one of these assize towns.

ἀνθύπατοι] there are (such things as) proconsuls: the fit officers before whom to bring these causes: a categoric plural. So the Commentators generally. But may not the ‘consiliarii’ of the proconsul who were his assessors at the ‘conventus,’ held in the provinces, have themselves popularly borne the name? We find in Jos. B. J. ii. 16. 1, that Cestius, the ἡγεμών of Syria, on receiving an application respecting Florus’s conduct at Jerusalem, μετὰ ἡγεμόνων ἐβουλεύετο,—which ἡγεμόνες were his assessors, or consiliarii. (See on ch. Acts 25:12, and Smith’s Dict. of Antt., ut supra.)

ἐγκαλ. ἀλλ.] let them (the plaintiffs and defendants) plead against one another.

Verse 39

39.] ‘Legitimus cœtus est, qui a magistrate civitatis convocatur et regitur.’ Grot. The art. points out the regularly recurring assembly, of which they all knew.

Verse 40

μηδενὸς κ. τ. λ.] There being no ground why (i.e. in consequence of which) we shall be able to give an account, i.e. ‘no ground whereon to build the possibility of our giving an account.’ The reading περὶ οὗ οὐ (see digest) seems to involve the sentence in almost inextricable confusion. To read περὶ τῆς συστ. τ. and take it in apposit. with περὶ οὗ, ‘hujus rei, videlicet conventus hujus’ (Bornemann), is very harsh.

Verses 1-16

Verse 2

αὐτούς] The Macedonian brethren: so ch. Acts 16:10 al., see reff., and Winer, edn. 6, § 22.3.

ἑλλάδα] Achaia, see ch. Acts 19:21.

Verse 3

μέλλοντι ἀνάγεσθαι] This purpose, of going from Corinth to Palestine by sea, is implied ch. Acts 19:21, and 1 Corinthians 16:3-7.

τοῦ ὑποστρ.] The genit. is not (as Meyer) governed directly by γνώμης, which would be more naturally followed by εἰς τὸ ὑπ.: but denotes the purpose, as in reff.

Verse 4

σώπατρος πύῤῥου βεροιαῖος] This mention of his father is perhaps made to distinguish him (?) from Sosipater, who was with Paul at Corinth (Romans 16:21). The name πύῤῥου has been erased as that of an unknown person, and because the mention of the father is unusual in the N. T.:—no possible reason can be given for its insertion by copyists.

ἀρίσταρχος] See ch. Acts 19:29; Acts 27:2; Colossians 4:10; Philemon 1:24.

Secundus is altogether unknown.

The Gaius here is not the Gaius of ch. Acts 19:29, who was a Macedonian. The epithet δερβαῖος is inserted for distinction’s sake. Timotheus was from Lystra, which probably gives occasion to his being mentioned here in close company with Gaius of Derbe. All attempts to join δερβαῖος with τιμόθεος in the construction are futile. Timotheus was not of Derbe, see ch. Acts 16:1-2; and the name Caius ( γάϊος, Gr.) was far too common to create any difficulty in there being two, or three (see note, ch. Acts 19:29) companions of Paul so called. With conjectural emendations of the text ( δερβ. δὲ τιμοθ., Kuin., Valck.) we have no concern.

ἀσιανοὶ τ. κ. τ.] Tycbicus is mentioned Ephesians 6:21, as sent (to Ephesus from Rome) with that Epistle. He bore also that to the Colossians, Colossians 4:7, at the same time. See also 2 Timothy 4:12; Titus 3:12.

Trophimus, an Ephesian, was in Jerusalem with Paul, ch. Acts 21:29; and had been, shortly before 2 Tim. was written, left sick at Miletus. (See Prolegg. to 2 Tim. § i. 5.)

Verse 5