Acts 19:14

Acts 19:14. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. Many suppositions have been hazarded respecting this title of Sceva the Jew, ‘chief of the priests.' Some imagine he must have been head of one of the twenty-four courses into which the priests of the Temple were divided. But surely one holding such a dignified position in the proud Hebrew hierarchy of Jerusalem, never would have stooped to the occupation of a charlatan and an impostor. Others have suggested that he was once the high priest at Jerusalem, and had been deposed, as we know was not unfrequently the case, by the Roman imperial government. But no such name appears in the list of high priests that we possess. It is more probable that the rank he held was purely a local one in the synagogue of Ephesus, a city where we should not be surprised to find, even among her most distinguished citizens, dabblers in these occult arts.