Acts 19:14

See critical note. Σκευᾶ : probably a Latin name adapted to Greek, see Blass, in loco, who gives instances of its occurrence, see also Gram., p. 13, and Winer-Schmeidel, p. 75. Ewald refers it to the Hebrew שְׁכֵבְיָה. ἀρχ.: the description is difficult, as it seems incredible if we take it in its strictest sense; it may have denoted one who had been at the head of one of the twenty-four courses of priests in Jerusalem, or perhaps used loosely to denote one who belonged to the high-priestly families (cf. Acts 4:6). We cannot connect him with any special sacred office of the Jews in Asia Minor, as Nösgen proposes, for the Jews in the Diaspora had no temple, but synagogues; see reading in, critical note. Nothing further is known of Sceva, but there is no reason to suppose that he was an impostor in the sense that he pretended to be a high priest. ἧσαν … ποιοῦντες, Lucan, see above on Acts 1:10.