AND IT CAME TO PASS THAT WHILE APOLLOS WAS AT CORINTH,.... Whither he came after the Apostle Paul, and where he watered what the apostle had planted, and where he became very famous and eminent; insomuch that he was set up, though not with his will, at the head of a party, in opposition to the chief... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SAID UNTO THEM, HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST,.... Meaning, not the special regenerating and sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost, for that is supposed in their being disciples and believers, but the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, for it follows, SINCE YE BELIEVED? that is, in Christ; w... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, UNTO WHAT THEN WERE YE BAPTIZED?.... The apostle takes it for granted that they were baptized, since they were not only believers, but disciples; such as not only believed with the heart, but had made a profession of their faith, and were followers of Christ; but asks unto wha... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SAID PAUL,.... In reply to their answer, understanding them that they were baptized by John, he takes it up, and gives an account of John's baptism: showing how agreeable it was, and that it was the same baptism with the baptism of Christ, being administered in his name: JOHN VERILY BAPTIZED W... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THEY HEARD THIS,.... That is, the people to whom John preached, his hearers; when they heard of the Messiah, and that Jesus was he, and that it became them to believe in him: THEY WERE BAPTIZED IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS; not the disciples that Paul found at Ephesus, but the hearers of John... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN PAUL HAD LAID HIS HANDS UPON THEM,.... They having been before baptized, not by him, but by John, or one of his disciples, in the name of the Lord Jesus; just as Peter and John laid their hands upon the believing Samaritans, who had been before baptized by Philip, Acts 8:14 and the same ext... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALL THE MEN WERE ABOUT TWELVE. The Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, have not the word "about"; but affirm, that the men were twelve; and indeed the number being so small, the historian might be at a certainty about it: these seem to be the first materials of a Gospel church at Ephesus, whi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE WENT INTO THE SYNAGOGUE,.... Of the Jews at Ephesus, for it seems to have been a private house, where he had met with the twelve baptized disciples, and had laid his hands on them; and these being Jews, as it seems most likely, by their having been baptized into John's baptism, the apostle we... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT WHEN DIVERS WERE HARDENED AND BELIEVED NOT,.... For though some were affected with and convinced by the arguments the apostle used, others were but the more hardened and remained incredulous: for the Gospel, while it is the savour of life unto life to some, it is the savour of death unto death,... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THIS CONTINUED BY THE SPACE OF TWO YEARS,.... Reckoning from the end of the three months, which had been spent in teaching in the synagogue: SO THAT ALL THEY WHICH DWELT IN ASIA; in the lesser Asia, called the proconsular Asia, of which Ephesus was the chief city: HEARD THE WORD OF THE LORD JE... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GOD WROUGHT SPECIAL MIRACLES BY THE HANDS OF PAUL. For the confirmation of the doctrine which he preached, and of his mission, as an apostle; and these were not any sort of miracles, common and vulgar ones, and much less things of chance, and what were merely accidental, as the word may signify;... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THAT FROM HIS BODY WERE BROUGHT UNTO THE SICK,.... The Ethiopic version renders it, "from the extremity", or "border of his garment"; and the Syriac version, "from the garments which were upon his body"; were brought and put upon the sick; that is, of the clothes which the apostle wore, some of t... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN CERTAIN OF THE VAGABOND JEWS,.... Who strolled about from place to place, pretending to tell fortunes, cure diseases by charms, and dispossess devils by conjuration, and therefore are called as follows, EXORCISTS; such there were among the Jews, as Justin Martyr observes h, who adjured by the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE WERE SEVEN SONS OF ONE SCEVA A JEW,.... Who strolled about the country, and used exorcisms: and CHIEF OF THE PRIESTS; that were at Ephesus; not the high priest of the Jews, for he would have been at Jerusalem, and not at Ephesus; though indeed it does not necessarily follow from the words... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE EVIL SPIRIT ANSWERED AND SAID,.... The Alexandrian copy, the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, add, "to them"; to the seven sons of Sceva: JESUS I KNOW; to be the Son of God and Messiah, and own that he has power of dispossessing spirits, of which there were many instances in th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE MAN IN WHOM THE EVIL SPIRIT WAS,.... Being agitated by him: LEAPT UPON THEM; with great agility and force, and laid hold on them, and struggled with them, and beat and wounded them, and stripped them naked: AND OVERCAME THEM, AND PREVAILED AGAINST THEM; the Alexandrian copy, Beza's most an... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THIS WAS KNOWN TO ALL THE JEWS,.... These men being Jews: and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus: for though it was done in a private house, yet there might be many spectators and witnesses, both Jews and Greeks, who spread this fact about the city, and who, were to be depended upon: AND FEAR FELL... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MANY THAT BELIEVED,.... In Jesus Christ, whose name was spoken of with great respect, and which spread fear in every person: CAME; to the apostle: AND CONFESSED; their sins; and acknowledged what a wicked life they had led: AND SHOWED THEIR DEEDS; their former evil deeds, which they had been... [ Continue Reading ]
MANY ALSO OF THEM WHICH USED CURIOUS ARTS..... Magic arts, soothsaying, necromancy, conjuration, and the like, being convinced of the folly and wickedness of them: BROUGHT THEIR BOOKS TOGETHER; by which they had learned these arts; Ephesus was famous for this sort of learning; here Apollonius Tyane... [ Continue Reading ]
SO MIGHTILY GREW THE WORD OF GOD, AND PREVAILED. Over conjuring books, conjurers themselves, yea, even the devils; the power of God going along with it, many were converted; which is meant by the increase of it, and were delivered from the power of darkness, out of the hands of Satan, and translated... [ Continue Reading ]
AFTER THESE THINGS WERE ENDED,.... After that the apostle had disputed with the Jews in their synagogue, for the space of three months, and in the school of Tyrannus about two years; and after many souls had been converted at Ephesus, and were formed into a church state, and were established in the... [ Continue Reading ]
SO HE SENT INTO MACEDONIA,.... To Philippi, or Thessalonica, or Berea, or some of the places there, to let them know of his coming, and to prepare for him: TWO OF THEM THAT MINISTERED UNTO HIM; that were his assistants in preaching the Gospel: TIMOTHEUS AND ERASTUS; the former of these was a disci... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE SAME TIME THERE AROSE NO SMALL STIR ABOUT THAT WAY. The Syriac version reads, "the way of God"; and the Vulgate Latin version, "the way of the Lord": that is, the Christian religion, and the doctrines and ordinances of the Gospel, which the saints were directed to walk in; and the Ethiopic v... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR A CERTAIN MAN, NAMED DEMETRIUS, A SILVERSMITH,.... Who worked in silver, not in coining silver money, but in making silver vessels, in melting silver, and casting it into moulds, and forming it into different shapes; and particularly, WHICH MADE SILVER SHRINES FOR DIANA; who Diana was, Acts 19... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOM HE CALLED TOGETHER,.... That is, the craftsmen; "all his co-artificers", as the Syriac version reads, all the chief of the trade, the masters of it, as he himself was: WITH THE WORKMEN OF LIKE OCCUPATION; who were employed by him, and the rest of the masters in the several branches of the busi... [ Continue Reading ]
MOREOVER, YE SEE AND HEAR,.... Demetrius appeals to their senses of seeing and hearing; they saw what was done in their own city, and they had heard how things were elsewhere; they might believe what they saw with their eyes, and they had reason to depend upon the report which was brought to their e... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THAT NOT ONLY THIS OUR CRAFT IS IN DANGER TO BE SET AT NOUGHT,.... Or "to come into reproof", as the words may be literally rendered, and as they are in the Vulgate Latin version; that is, if this notion prevails, that they are not gods, which are made with hands, this art and business of making... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THEY HEARD THESE SAYINGS,.... Both the masters and the workmen; THEY WERE FULL OF WRATH; against Paul and his doctrine: AND CRIED OUT, SAYING, GREAT IS DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS; this goddess is frequently called in Heathen writers, Diana of the Ephesians, or the Ephesian Diana, because of h... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE WHOLE CITY WAS FILLED WITH CONFUSION,.... For the workmen that made the silver shrines very likely ran up and down in the city, crying out, great is Diana of the Ephesians, which brought the people out of their houses to inquire what was the matter; and the mob gathering and increasing, as t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN PAUL WOULD HAVE ENTERED IN UNTO THE PEOPLE,.... In the theatre, in order to have preached to the people, and to have removed their prejudices against him, and the Gospel preached by him, and to have shown them the error and evil of their idolatrous ways and worship, and to have reconciled t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND CERTAIN OF THE CHIEF OF ASIA,.... Or the Asiarchs; these were not princes of Asia, rulers or governors of provinces, or cities, or civil magistrates; but priests who presided over the games and diversions at the theatre, and had the management and command of things there. Such an one was Philip... [ Continue Reading ]
SOME THEREFORE CRIED ONE THING, AND SOME ANOTHER,.... Not in the church at Ephesus among the disciples, and friends of the apostle, as if they were divided in their sentiments about his going into the theatre, some being for it, and others against it; but the people that were gathered together in th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY DREW ALEXANDER OUT OF THE MULTITUDE,.... Or "some of the multitude brought forth Alexander"; into the theatre, in order to kill him, by casting him to the wild beasts. Some think this is the same with Alexander the coppersmith, who apostatized upon this danger he was exposed to, and became... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT WHEN THEY KNEW THAT HE WAS A JEW,.... And so equally an enemy to their idolatry, as Paul and his companions were, whether he was a Christian or not. ALL WITH ONE VOICE ABOUT THE SPACE OF TWO HOURS CRIED OUT; all that were in the theatre lift up their voices at once to prevent Alexander's apolog... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THE TOWN CLERK HAD APPEASED THE PEOPLE,.... Caused them to cease their loud outcry, so as that he could be heard. This person seems to have been more than a "town clerk", as we render it; or a common "scribe", as the Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions render it; rather as the Syri... [ Continue Reading ]
SEEING THEN THAT THESE THINGS CANNOT BE SPOKEN AGAINST,.... This officer intimates, in order to quiet the mob, and make them easy, that these things were so certain, and well known, that nobody would pretend to contradict them, and therefore they must be mistaken in the men, whom they had hurried in... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR YE HAVE BROUGHT HITHER THESE MEN,.... The Arabic version reads, "these two men"; that is, Gaius and Aristarchus, whom they had brought by force into the theatre to fight with wild beasts: WHICH ARE NEITHER ROBBERS OF CHURCHES; or "temples"; or, as the Arabic version renders it, "robbers of the... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE IF DEMETRIUS, AND THE CRAFTSMEN WHICH ARE WITH HIM,.... Who were the ringleaders and encouragers of this tumult: HAVE A MATTER AGAINST ANY MAN; any accusation, or charge, any crime to accuse him of, and charge him with: THE LAW IS OPEN; or court days are kept; there are certain times fix... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT IF YE INQUIRE ANYTHING CONCERNING OTHER MATTERS,.... Than what belongs to the craft and business of Demetrius, and the artificers: IT SHALL BE DETERMINED IN A LAWFUL ASSEMBLY; that is, called together according to law, and who have a right to hear, try, and judge causes, which such a confused l... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE ARE IN DANGER OF BEING CALLED IN QUESTION,.... Or are liable to be called to an account, reproved, and punished by the Roman proconsul, appointed over this city, or by the Roman emperor, or the Roman senate: for this day's uproar; it being capable of being interpreted as a riot, tumult, and s... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN HE HAD THUS SPOKEN,.... Or delivered this oration, made use of the above arguments, reasonings, and expostulations: HE DISMISSED THE ASSEMBLY; he ordered them to break up, and every one to return home in peace, and go about his own business; and thus Paul, and his companions, were delivere... [ Continue Reading ]