Acts 19:13

If we read καὶ after ἀπὸ (see critical note), it contrasts the Jewish exorcists who endeavoured to gain this power with those like St. Paul who really possessed it. περιερχ.: “vagabond,” A.V., the word as it is now used colloquially does not express the Greek; R.V. “strolling,” Vulgate, circumeuntibus; Blass renders circumvagantes. The word “vagabond” is used only here in N.T.: in the O.T. we have it in Genesis 4:12; Genesis 4:14, R.V. “wanderer,” and in Psalms 109:10, R.V. “vagabonds,” cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, xi., 16. ἐξορκιστῶν : the word points to a class of Jews who practised exorcisms as a profession, cf. Jos., Ant., viii., 2, 5. The usual method of exorcism was the recitation of some special name or spell, and these Jewish exorcists having seen the power which Paul wielded by his appeal to the name of Jesus endeavoured to avail themselves of the same efficacy. It would be difficult to say how far these Jewish exorcists would employ the incantations so widely in vogue in a place like Ephesus, but there is a notable passage in Justin Martyr in which, whilst admitting that a Jew might exorcise an evil spirit by the God of Abraham, he complains that as a class the Jewish exorcists had adopted the same superstitions and magical aids as the heathen, “Exorcist,” B.D. 2, i., 1028. In the Didaché, iii., 4, the use of charms and sorceries is expressly forbidden since they led to idolatry. ὁρκίζομεν : with double accusative = of the one adjured and of the one by whom he is adjured, cf. Mark 5:7 (1 Thessalonians 5:27), see Grimm-Thayer, sub v., cf. Deissmann, Bibelstudien, p. 25 ff., for the constant use of the verb in inscriptions in formulæ of adjuration as here, see further “Demon” and “Exorcist” for examples of such formulæ, Hastings' B.D., i., pp. 593, 812, and for the absurdities involved in them.