Acts 19:13

ὁρκίζω with אABDE. Vulg. ‘abjuro.’

13. ἐπεχείρησαν δέ τινες καὶ τῶν περιερχομένων Ἰουδαίων ἐξορκιστῶν, and certain also of the Jews that went about as exorcists took upon them. In addition to the real, though ignorant, faith of the converts alluded to in Acts 19:12, some impostors, who had no faith, tried to win more credit for their jugglery by employing the names of Paul and Jesus. These were certain Jews who went about from place to place, professing by charms and spells to cure diseases. The A.V. ‘vagabond’ conveys in modern language a moral censure, which probably these men well deserved, but which is not in the Greek. The Rev. Ver. has adopted strolling:, which gives more nearly the sense of the original but is not a very dignified word. We read in Josephus (Ant. VIII. 2. 5) that ‘God gave Solomon skill against demons for the help and cure of men. And he arranged certain incantations whereby diseases are assuaged, and left behind him forms of exorcism, wherewith they so put to flight the overpowered evil spirits that they never return. And this method of curing is very prevalent among us up to the present time.’ The Jews at Ephesus were professors of this pretended art of healing.

ὀνομάζειν … τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ, to name over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus. From an early date the traditional literature of the Jews ascribed great effects to the utterance of the incommunicable divine name. By means of this (they say) it was that Moses slew the Egyptian, and Elisha brought destruction on the mocking children ‘by the name of Jehovah.’ We can understand therefore, if the fame of St Paul were become known, and the name of Jesus connected with his preaching, and with the powers vouchsafed, how these men (living among superstitious Jews) would make a pretence to the possession of the same secrets by which, as they would declare, the cures were wrought.

On these men Chrysostom remarks: τὸν Ἰησοῦν δὲ λέγουσι ἐκεῖνοι ἁπλῶς, δέον εἰπεῖν τὸν τῆς οἰκουμένης σωτῆρα, τὸν�. ἀλλ' οὐκ ἤθελον ὁμολογῆσαι τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ. διὸ καὶ ἐλέγχει αὐτοὺς ὁ δαίμων ἐπιπηδήσας αὐτοῖς, καὶ εἰπὼν τὸν Ἰησοῦν γινώσκω καὶ τὸν Παῦλον ἐπίσταμαι. ὥσει ἔλεγεν· ὑμεῖς οὐ πιστεύετε.

λέγοντες, Ὁρκίζω, saying, I adjure. The singular is the form which each particular pretender would use, when he was performing his exorcism.