Acts 19:24

Δημ.: a sufficiently common name, as St. Luke's words show (Blass). There is no ground for identifying him with the Demetrius in 3 John, Acts 19:12, except the fact that both came from the neighbourhood of Ephesus; see, however, “Demetrius,” Hastings' B.D. ἀργυροκόπος, LXX, Judges 17:4 (A al.), Jeremiah 6:29; on the trade-guilds in Asia Minor cf. Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i., p. 105, and “Ephesus,” Hastings' B. D.; Church in the Roman Empire, p. 128; Demetrius may have been master of the guild for the year. ναοὺς ἀργ. Ἀρτέμιδος : “silver shrines of Diana,” R.V., i.e., representing the shrine of Diana (Artemis) with the statue of the goddess within (ὡς κιβώρια μικρά, Chrys.). These miniature temples were bought up by Ephesians and strangers alike, since the worship of the goddess was so widely spread, and since the “shrines” were made sufficiently small to be worn as amulets on journeys, as well as to be placed as ornaments in houses. There is no need to suppose that they were coins with a representation of the temple stamped upon them, and there is no evidence of the existence of such coins; Amm. Marc., xxii., 13, Dio Cass., xxxix., 20, cf. Blass and Wendt, in loco. They were first explained correctly by Curtius, Athenische Mittheilungen, ii., 49. Examples of these ναοί in terra-cotta or marble with dedicatory inscriptions abound in the neighbourhood of Ephesus. No examples in silver have been found, but they were naturally melted down owing to their intrinsic value, “Diana” (Ramsay), Hastings' B.D., and Church in the Roman Empire, u. s. On the interesting but apparently groundless hypothesis (as Zöckler calls it, Apostelgeschichte, p. 277, second edition) that Demetrius should be identified with Demetrius, the νεοποιός of an inscription at Ephesus which probably dated from a considerably later time, the very close of the first century, νεοποιός being really a temple warden, the words νεοποιὸς Ἀρτέμιδος being mistaken by the author of Acts and rendered “making silver shrines of Diana,” see Zöckler, u. s.; and Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 112 ff.; and Wendt (1899), p. 317. As Ramsay puts it, there is no extant use of such a phrase as νεοπ. Ἀρτ. in any authority about A.D. 57, νεοποιοί simply being the term used in inscriptions found at Ephesus as Hicks himself allows (Church in the Roman Empire, pp. 122, 123). παρείχετο, see critical note or reading in Blass. Rendall distinguishes between active voice, Acts 16:16, where the slave girl finds work for her masters, whilst here, middle voice, Demetrius finds work for himself and his fellow-craftsmen in their joint employment. ἐργασίαν “business,” R.V., in Acts 16:16; Acts 16:19, “gain”; here the two meanings run into each other, in Acts 19:25 “business,” R.V., is perhaps more in accordance with the context οὐκ ὀλίγην, Lucan, see on Acts 19:23. τεχνίταις … ἐργάταις : “alii erant τεχνῖται, artifices nobiliores; alii ἐργάται, operarii,” so Zöckler and Grimm-Thayer following Bengel. But Blass regards them as the same, cf. reading in, and Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 128, note. There were no doubt shrines of widely differing value, for the rich of silver made by the richer tradesmen, for the poorer classes of marble and terracotta, so that several trades were no doubt seriously affected, Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 278, and “Ephesus,” u. s., Church in the Roman Empire, p. 128, and to the same effect Wendt (1899), p. 317. The word ἐργάται occurs in one of the inscriptions at Ephesus, ἐργ. προπυλεῖται πρὸς τῷ Ποσειδῶνι, “Ephesus,” u. s., p. 723, note.