Acts 19:35

καταστείλας : only here in N.T. and in Acts 19:36, “had quieted,” R.V., cf. 2Ma 4:31, 3Ma 6:1, Aquila, Psalms 64 (65):8, also in Josephus and Plutarch. ὁ γραμματεὺς : “the secretary of the city” Ramsay; Lightfoot was the first to point out the importance of the officer so named called also ὁ Ἐφεσίων γραμ. or γραμ. τοῦ δήμου; he was the most influential person in Ephesus, for not only were the decrees to be proposed drafted by him and the Strategoi, and money left to the city was committed to his charge, but as the power of the Ecclesia, the public assembly, declined under imperial rule, the importance of the secretary's office was enhanced, because he was in closer touch with the court of the proconsul than the other city magistrates, and acted as a medium of communication between the imperial and municipal government, “Ephesus” (Ramsay), Hastings' B.D., p. 723, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i., 66; St. Paul, pp. 281, 304; Hicks, Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, iii., p. 154, and Wood's Ephesus, App., p. 49, often with Asiarchs and proconsul; Lightfoot, Contemp. Review, p. 294, 1878. St. Luke's picture therefore of the secretary as a man of influence and keenly alive to his responsibility is strikingly in accordance with what we might have expected. τίς γάρ ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος : “what man is there then?” etc. Rendall: the γάρ looks back to the action of the speaker in quieting the crowd, as if he would say that there is no need for this excitement, for all that you have said about your goddess is universally acknowledged. νεωκόρον : “temple-keeper,” R.V., “a worshipper,” A.V., cultricem, Vulgate, lit [331], “a temple-sweeper” (on derivation see Grimm-Thayer, sub v.), and so found in classical Greek, a sacristan, a verger, Lat., ædituus, cf. Jos., B. J., v., 9, 4, where = worshippers, οὓς ὁ θεὸς ἑαυτῷ νεωκόρους ἦγεν. The title “Warden of the Temple of Ephesus” was a boast of the city, just as other cities boasted of the same title in relation to other deities. It would seem that the title at Ephesus was generally used in connection with the imperial cultus; in the period of this narrative, Ephesus could claim the title as Warden of one Temple of this cultus, and later on she enjoyed the title of δὶς, τρὶς νεωκόρος, as the number of the temples of the imperial cultus increased. But there is ample justification from inscriptions for the mention of the title in the verse before us in connection with the Artemis worship. For references, Ramsay, “Ephesus,” Hastings' B.D., p. 722; Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i., 58; Wendt, Blass, in loco; Lightfoot, Cont. Rev., p. 294, 1878; Wood, Ephesus, App., p. 50. τοῦ Δ., sc., ἄγαλμα : or some such word; the image was believed to have fallen from the sky (heaven, R.V. margin), like that of the Tauric Artemis, cf. Eur., Iph.., 977, 1384, where we find οὐρανοῦ πέσημα given as the equivalent and explanation of διοπετὲς ἄγαλμα (Herod., i., 11). The worship of Diana of the Ephesians was entirely Asian and not Greek, although the Greek colonists attempted to establish an identification with their own Artemis on account of certain analogies between them. According to Jerome, Præfat. ad Ephesios, the Ephesian Artemis was represented as a figure with many breasts, multimammia (“quam Græci πολύμαστον vocant”), symbolising the reproductive and nutritive powers of Nature which she personified. This description is fully borne out by the common representations of the goddess on coins and statues. No one could say for certain of what the ἄγαλμα was made: according to Petronius it was made of cedar wood, according to Pliny of the wood of the vine, according to Xen. of gold, and according to others of ebony. For a fuller description of the image, and for some account of the wide prevalence of worship of the goddess and its peculiar character, Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, “Diana of the Ephesians,” Hastings' B.D., B.D. 2; Wendt, 1888, in loco; Farrar, St. Paul, ii., p. 13, and references in Wetstein.

[331] literal, literally.