Bible Study series: Acts 19:23-41. Satan counterattacks the mighty work of God in Ephesus. But God will always win, as we read in the Epistle to the Ephesians.
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I also translate to learn, so the translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click on this link:
At the link to the original post, next, I write more commentary and dig a little deeper into the Greek. I also offer a section titled Observations for Discipleship at the end. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided in the commentary section for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Acts 19:23-41
23 At that time not a small disturbance happened about the Way, 24 for a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, by making silver shrines of Artemis, provided no little profit for skilled craftsmen. 25 He brought together the workers in similar things and said, “Men, you know that prosperity is ours from this business! 26 And you observe and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in nearly all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and led astray a large crowd, saying that the gods who come about by the hands do not exist! 27 Not only does this endanger our line of business, to come to be discredited, but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be considered worthless, and she herself, whom all of Asia and the world worship, is about to be brought down with her majesty!”
28 When they heard this, they were filled with anger and shouted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 The city was filled with confusion and together rushed into the theater and grabbed Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia. 30 When Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples did not allow him. 31 Even some of the Asiarchs, who were his friends, sent to him urging him not to endanger himself in the theater. 32 So then some were shouting one thing, others another thing, for the assembly was in confusion, and the majority did not know why they had come together. 33 Some members of the crowd advised Alexander, after Jews thrust him forward. Alexander motioned with his hand and intended to give a defense to the people. 34 But when they found out he was Jew, everyone with one voice shouted for about two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35 After the town clerk quieted down the crowd, he said, “Men! Ephesians! Who is there among humanity who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the guardian of the great Artemis, who fell from heaven? 36 From these undeniable facts therefore you must quiet down and do nothing reckless! 37 For you brought these men who are neither temple robbers nor have spoken irreverently about our goddess! 38 If therefore Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have some issue, the courts are held and the proconsuls are here, so they can press charges against others. 39 And if you seek something further, it shall be decided in a lawful assembly. 40 For we are risking to be charged with a riot for today’s events, since there is no cause for which we will be able to render an account for this disorderly gathering. 41 After he said these things, he dismissed the assembly. (Acts 19:23-41)
Comments:
It is a powerful and clear description of life in an ancient city—not that riots happened every day. But I can feel the dust and the crowds and the shouting and confusion.
Keener (pp. 487-88) provides a list of local details to show that Luke was not inventing this long pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or unit or section with no basis in fact.
1.. On other occasions Ephesus aggressively defended the Artemis cult.
2.. Asia Minor’s cities had many riots and much unrest in this period.
3.. Economic concerns for the temple were of special concern in this period (cf. 19:25).
4.. Luke’s titles for Artemis fit local Ephesian usage (19:27, 37).
5.. The silversmiths’ shops (19:24-25) may have been located on the road from the harbor to the theater (or perhaps near the busy market) and (even more likely) were relatively close to the theater (19:29).
6.. Whereas the term translated town clerk had a wide semantic range, it was the precise designation for Ephesus’s city clerk (19:35)
Then Keener concludes:
By the standards of Paul own list of sufferings (1 Cor 4:9-13; 2 Cor 4:8-12; 6:4-10; 11:23-27), Luke’s account is fairly mild; he does not recount the half of Paul’s troubles! Given Luke’s apologetic concerns [to show Christianity does not start troubles or riots], it is far more likely that he toned down the repercussions of the incident than that he created it. Despite Luke’s concise survey of most of Paul’s two years in Ephesus and decision to focus on a particularly dramatic scene, he is well aware that Paul faced prior opposition there (20:19). (p. 488).
In other words, Luke’s account is briefer than Paul’s records, even though Luke was aware of Paul’s suffering. An historian can be accurate and condense his account. Recall my nickname for Luke: “the Omitter” or “Condenser.”
23-25:
This section may be alluded to in 2 Cor. 1:8-11:
8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. (2 Cor. 1:8-11, NIV).
“not a small”: this means a massive disturbance. The phrasing is known as a litotes (pronounced lih-toh-teez), or an understatement that expresses the affirmative by a negative! Luke likes litotes: Acts 12:18; 14:17, 28; 15:2; 17:4, 12, 27; 19:11, 23; 20:12; 21:39; 26:19; 27:20; 28:2.
“no little profit”: Another litotes. It is a keen insight of Luke that Demetrius ignited the riot because of money.
Apparently, Paul was winning many converts in Ephesus because Demetrius and his guild (so to speak) saw a drop-off or a rapid decline in their business.
You will have to look up online an article about Artemis and the temple in Ephesus. It was huge. “It was supported by 127 pillars, each of them sixty feet [18.3m] high and was adorned by Praxiteles and other great sculptors of antiquity” (Bruce, comment on v. 23). In its width and length, it is estimated to be 425 by 225 feet (129.5 by 68.5m) or 377 by 197 feet (130 by 70m) and built on a platform of 420 by 240 feet (128 by 73m).
26:
Paul was preaching monotheism. Later in his farewell address to the Ephesians, he said he proclaimed the full counsel of God (Acts 20:20, 27). Renewalists must proclaim the entire Word, not just hopes and dreams or love or empathy. Moral law must be factored in.
Paul is taking down idols and manmade things, including temples, just as Stephen did in his bold discourse in front of the Jewish temple, It is a theme in Acts.
Stephen:
41 And they made a calf in those days and brought sacrifices to the idol and began to celebrate the works of their hands” (Acts 7:41).
Stephen continues:
48 However, the Most High does not live in things made with hands, just as the prophet says:
49 Heaven is my throne,
And earth is the footstool for my feet;
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
Or which place for my rest?
50 For did not my hand make all of these things?” [Is. 66:1-2] (Acts 7:48-50)
Paul is preaching to the Athenians, where there is the beautiful temple to Athena on the acropolis and other beautiful temples on lower levels.
24 God who made the universe and everything in it, he is Lord of heaven and earth, and he does not live in handmade temples; 25 neither is he tended by human hands, as if he needed something. He gave everyone life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:24-25)
All pagan temples and shrines and church buildings throughout all human history will be wiped out at the Second Coming, for the church will be his holy dwelling place.
The Church Fulfills and Replaces Old Testament Temple
Since the church replaces the OT temple, then how much more does the church replace all temples, particularly the pagan ones!
Bock is on target:
For Demetrius, the threat is economic, cultural, and religious … For Luke, the battle Paul wages is not a political one with Rome but a worldview that takes people captive into empty idolatry. The battle is real, as Pliny the younger (Ep. 10.96) in about AD 112 records how Rome’s strong suppression of Christianity in another part of the empire (Bithynia) led to the reoccupation of abandoned temples and in the revival of participation in festivals … Both sides see the Way as part of a cultural and religious war about divinity. (comment on vv. 25-27)
27-28:
The theater could hold 24-25,000. You can look it up online. It is still visible but broken down.
Give Demetrius credit: he knew what was at stake, because as the centuries rolled on, the religion of Artemis declined, and Christianity rose. He must have seen a decline right before his eyes.
Shouting the same words for two hours shows a crowd that was struck by a mania. Don’t forget that Ephesus was steeped in the occult. I have no doubt that a territorial demonic spirit whipped people up. It was not about to give up its hold of a key city like Ephesus (Dan. 10:13, 20).
“filled”: this is either a satanic infilling or a human infilling. It is the opposite or counterfeit of the Spirit’s infilling, which brings peace.
29:
“together”: The Greek adverb appears eleven times, and ten only in Acts (1:14; 2:46; 4:24; 5:12; 7:57; 8:6; 12:20; 15:25; 18:12; 19:29), and once in Paul (Rom. 15:6). Being united in spirit, whether for good or evil, is powerful. Unite for the good, which is the gospel.
“Gaius and Aristarchus”: In Acts 20:4, Gaius comes from Derbe, and in that verse Aristarchus is said to come from Thessalonica. Aristarchus also appears in Acts 27:2; Col. 4:10; Phm. 24. Scholars conjecture that Luke’s source for this riot episode comes from these two men (or one of them).
30-31:
One has to admire Paul’s willingness to rush into danger, particularly when Demetrius had mentioned him by name. And one has to admire the disciples for holding him back. Discretion and prudence is the better part of valor, yes a cliché, but a true one.
In v. 30 I translated the Greek noun dēmos (pronounced day-moss) as “assembly” because in my own study of inscriptions many years ago (in books, not on site), it often meant “assembly.” But you can go for “crowd,” if you wish. The context (a riot!) supports the “crowds” translation.
The Asiarchs were high up in society—ruling magistrates over Asia in fact. It is unclear how they were friends of Paul, unless he preached the gospel to them, and they said yes. Nice thought. Let’s hold on to it.
“That such men were friendly to Paul suggests that imperial policy at this time was not hostile to Christianity, and that more educated classes did not share the antipathy to Paul by the more superstitious rank and file” (Bruce, comment on vv. 30-31). Remember the original dedicatee to the book of Acts: Theophilus. He was either a high-level Roman or Greek.
32:
It is an accurate description of a mob, before social media. Once again it could be that a demonic spirit over Ephesus was behind the confusion. Occultic practices had flourished there, and why would Satan cede ground so easily?
“confusion”: Sometimes our minds get so overloaded with stuff that it overwhelms our mental computing ability. When that happens, it is a signal that you must back away from the issue or issue, and trust God. You can also ask someone wiser and more established than you for clarity.
33:
We don’t know what some members of the crowd advised him, but it probably went something like this: “Alexander, you are a famous orator. You must tell the crowd that we Jews lived in peace in Ephesus. We never offended your temple. It’s all Paul, as Demetrius rightly said. We disassociate ourselves from him. Tell the crowd that Paul is somewhere in the city, so track him down!” Who was Alexander? It is probably not the coppersmith mentioned in 2 Tim. 4:14. Alexander in 1 Tim. 1:20 was an errant Christian, not the Alexander here (Bruce, comment on vv. 33-34, note 75).
34:
Again, a mania struck the Ephesians, which can only be interpreted as satanic. Did a territorial evil spirit whip them up? Probably. But in the end, you decide.
35:
“fell from heaven”: No one knew when this happened. But apparently the image fell down from heaven already beautifully carved. For Christians, Luke is clear when Jesus came from heaven—when he was born: When Caesar issued a decree and Quirinius was governor of Syria (Luke 2:1-2). We also know he was crucified when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea. The myths about the gods coming to earth are buried under a murky past. The coming of the Messiah has historical parameters.
The town clerk was the liaison between the civic authorities of Ephesus and the Roman provincial authorities, which was headquartered in Ephesus. He was also a record keeper, registrar, and accountant for temple funds (Bock, comment on vv. 35-37).
36-37:
Poor Gaius and Aristarchus! Remember them? They were standing in the middle of the worked-up crowd, wondering whether they would get mob justice—a stoning. Maybe it is true that these two men never spoke irreverently about Artemis from a pagan point of view, but Paul spoke the truth, the hard truth about the entire religion. It is a good thing that he was not allowed into the assembly!
Demetrius shouted that Paul said God does not dwell in temples made with human hands (v. 26). He is above such paltry locations. The town clerk counters this belief with the idea that an image fell down from the sky. It was God sent. Artemis does indeed come from heaven and loves to dwell in the huge temple built for her. (HT: Peterson, comment on vv. 35-36).
38-41:
“They can bring charges”: this refers to Demetrius and the other ringleaders.
Let’s remember that ancient cities were not lawless but had civic law available to them. The town clerk reminded the crowd of this. Give the town clerk credit. He showed wisdom.
Luke’s further purpose was to rebut charges brought against Christianity, here in Ephesus and also in other places (HT: Bruce, comment on vv. 38-41). Peaceful Christianity was no threat to Rome. However, as I noted in v. 26, I believe there is a challenge to pagan temples. Christianity was a challenge to paganism and temples.
Proconsuls were governors and judges, taken from the highest level in Roman society.
I like how Peterson summarizes the episode with Demetrius and the protest:
Spiritual opposition may manifest itself in a variety of ways, but the name of Jesus is powerful to overcome even demonic forces and to allow the gospel to prevail. In many cultures today, those who profess to be believers hold on to animistic or magical beliefs and practices. I some situations, this syncretism or fold religion is overlooked or disregarded by church leaders. However, as in ancient Ephesus, there can be no spiritual advance or growth of the church unless ties are broken and supernatural forces of evil are renounced. (comment on v. 41)
GrowApp for Acts 19:23-41
1. Paul was bold in his witness, even challenging an entire popular religion. You may not be called to do this huge thing, but you can challenge friends and family members. If you have, tell your story.
RELATED
The Historical Reliability of the Book of Acts
Book of Acts and Paul’s Epistles: Match Made in Heaven?
SOURCES
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