Acts 19:33

Acts 19:33. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. The abrupt way in which this man is introduced into the narrative by the writer, seems to indicate that ‘Alexander' was no unknown name to the brethren of the Church of the first days. There was no need to enter into any details. The readers contemporary with the writer of the ‘Acts' all evidently knew ‘Alexander' the Jew who would have spoken on the day of the Ephesian meeting when Demetrius stirred men up against Paul and the Christians.

If we identify him with that ‘Alexander the coppersmith' whose bitter and relentless hostility to Paul won him that solitary notice in the last epistle of the apostle (see 2 Timothy 4:14), then the abrupt mention here of ‘Alexander' is explained, all would at once recognise the deadly foe of the Gentile apostle, who subsequently acquired so painful a notoriety among the Christians.

The Jews on this occasion, well aware of the dislike and mistrust with which they were generally regarded by the Gentile populations among whom they dwelt, fearful lest they as was only too probable should be confounded with Paul and his disciples, put forward one of their people to explain to the Ephesians that the Jews, far from being inculpated with Paul and his school, hated these men with a hatred equal to or even greater than theirs. If, as we suppose, this man was identical with Alexander the coppersmith, his trade might have led him into certain relations with Demetrius and his fellow-craftsmen who also worked in metal.