Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 19:24
For a certain [man] named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;
24. For a certain man shrines for Diana ] Better, shrines of Diana. These appear to have been little models in silver either of the temple or of the shrine in which the image was preserved. We may be quite sure that the ingenuity of Greek artists devised forms enough and sizes enough to suit all needs. Smaller specimens might be carried about and worn as ornaments and amulets at the same time; the larger could be kept in the houses of their possessors, and would be a sign of wealth as well as of devotion.
The Greek name rendered Diana is Artemis, but this Ephesian Artemis was totally distinct from Artemis the Greek goddess, the sister of Apollo. It is believed that the Ephesian worship was originally Asiatic, and that when the Greeks sent colonies to Asia Minor they found it already established there, and from some resemblance which they discovered in the worship they gave the Asian divinity the name of Artemis. The Ephesian Artemis was the personification of the fruitful and nurturing powers of nature, and so the image in the temple represented her with many breasts. Her whole figure is said to have been like a mummy, standing upright and tapering downwards to a point. Her crown and girdle and the pedestal on which the figure stood had engraved signs or letters, and the body was covered with figures of mystical animals. All these things would furnish abundant variety for the craft of the silversmiths.
brought no small gain unto the craftsmen ] The Rev. Ver. renders “ no little business.” The word no doubt means primarily “employment” by which a living is made. But we have it used twice in chap. Act 16:16; Act 16:19 of the “gain” made by the Philippian masters from the ravings of the girl who was possessed. And here too “gain” seems the better sense. It was because their gains were going that the uproar was made, and probably Demetrius himself, the most fierce of all the rioters, did none of the work, but through employing many workmen had a large share of the gains. He calls the gain a business or craft (the same word) in Act 19:25, that being, as has been said, the first sense of the word, but there is no need to cast aside the other sense of the word here.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A silversmith – The word used here denotes one who works in silver in any way, either in making money, in stamping silver, or in forming utensils from it. It is probable that the employment of this man was confined to the business here specified, that of making shrines, as his complaint Acts . Act 19:26-27 implied that destroying this would be sufficient to throw them out of all employment. Silver shrines naous. Temples. The word shrine properly means a case, small chest, or box; particularly applied to a box in which sacred things are deposited. Hence, we hear of the shrines for relics (Webster). The word shrines here denotes small portable temples, or edifices, made of silver, so as to represent the temple of Diana, and probably containing a silver image of the goddess. Such shrines would be purchased by devotees and by worshippers of the goddess, and by strangers, who would be desirous of possessing a representation of one of the seven wonders of the world. See the notes on Act 19:27. The great number of persons that came to Ephesus for her worship would constitute an ample sale for productions of this kind, and make the manufacture a profitable employment. It is well known that pagans everywhere are accustomed to carry with them small images, or representations of their gods, as an amulet or charm. The Romans had such images in all their houses, called penates, or household gods. A similar thing is mentioned as early as the time of Laban Gen 31:19, whose images Rachel had stolen and taken with her. Compare Jdg 17:5, The man Micah had an house of gods; 1Sa 19:13; Hos 3:4. These images were usually enclosed in a box, case, or chest, made of wood, iron, or silver; and probably, as here, usually made to resemble the temple where the idol was worshipped.
Diana – This was a celebrated goddess of the pagan, and one of the twelve superior deities. In the heavens she was Luna, or Meui (the moon); on earth, Diana; and in hell, Hecate. She was sometimes represented with a crescent on her head, a bow in her hand, and dressed in a hunting habit; at other times with a triple face, and with instruments of torture. She was commonly regarded as the goddess of hunting. She was also worshipped under the various names of Lucina, Proserpine, Trivia, etc. She was also represented with a great number of breasts, to denote her as being the fountain of blessings, or as distributing her benefits to each in their proper station. She was worshipped in Egypt, Athens, Cilicia, and among pagan nations generally; but the most celebrated place of her worship was Ephesus, a city especially dedicated to her.
Unto the craftsmen – To the laborers employed under Demetrius in the manufacture of shrines.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Act 19:24-41
A certain man named Demetrius.
Paul and Demetrius
The application of these words to present day life is a task that might be assigned to a child. Demetrius never dies; his word is to be heard in every tongue; he is present in great force in every Church, as representing two special phases of life. With the subtlety of selfishness he puts the case with comical adroitness. He knows the value of a little piety. If it were a mere matter of trade, he could have lifted his noble self above all market place considerations, but that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised was the thought that afflicted his pious heart.
I. What was the reality of the case from the first point of view? Trade was injured. If Paul had preached abstract ideas, Demetrius would have made shrines for him if he had ordered them, but a preacher that thunders upon immediate iniquity may get himself into trouble. Modern preachers might preach a whole year upon the evils of intemperance, but if those who deal in strong drink were to find their takings going down the preacher would soon hear of the circumstance. You may circulate what books you please, but if the literature that is eating out the morality of our young people is arrested in its baleful progress, then you will be caricatured, contemned, laughed at. Rejoice when such persecution befalls you. It is a sign of true success. Demetrius will not fail to let you know how your work is going on. But press on–another stroke, another rush, and down goes Demetrius, and all his progeny fall into the pit to keep him profitless company. What bad journal have you, as a Christian Church, ever shut up? What place of iniquitous business have you ever bought and washed, and within its unholy walls set up the altar of Christ? Where do you follow and outbid Demetrius, driving him back? We are afraid to build churches too near one another; we study one anothers feelings about that. Show me the thoroughfare in any great city in which Christian churches have pushed back evil institutions–back to the rivers edge, and into the river, if possible. To see such a city would be to see the beginning of heaven.
II. The next phase of the case as put by Demetrius is infinitely more humiliating. The temple of the great goddess Diana is in danger. That particular phase of the situation is best represented by the words a religious panic. The temple was in danger. That is the language of today. If it is a temple that can be put in danger, it is a temple made with hands, and must go down. Hear the great challenge of the Master: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. What panics we have seen! As if truth could ever be in danger! Some time ago a number of highly learned men issued a volume entitled Essays and Reviews. It was the doom of Christianity! And yet Christianity has gone forward on her beneficent career without ever having bought a copy of the volume that some people earnestly thought was to have taken her life. We ought to have a religion that cannot be put in danger. If our religion is an affair of letters, forms, dates, autographs, then I do not wonder that our cabinet is sometimes broken into. I do not keep my religion in a museum, or lock it up in an iron safe; my conception of God no man can break through nor steal. You cannot take my Bible from me; if you could prove that the Apostle John wrote the Pentateuch, and that Moses wrote the Apocalypse, and that the Apocalypse should come in the middle of the Bible, you have not touched what I hold to be the revelation of God to the human heart. What we, as the common people, have to be sure about is, that God has sent great messages of law and love and light and life to everyone of us; that Gods revelations do not depend upon changing grammars, but upon an inward, spiritual consciousness and holy sympathy. Whose insight is not intellectual but moral–the purity of heart which sees God. The Bible speaks to my own heart as no other book speaks. It proves its own inspiration by its grasp of human life, by its answers to human need. The town clerk laid down the principle that ought to guide us (verse 36). The brevity of life, the certainty of death, the reality of sin, the present hell that burns me, the need of a Saviour–these things cannot be spoken against; therefore, those of us who feel them to be true ought to be quiet. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Paul and Demetrius
1. Men have talked a great deal about the toleration of Rome and of ancient civilised nations as compared with the intolerance of Christian nations and times. Wherever, in ancient or modern times, men preach truths adverse to the current truths in such a way that they are kept high above mens heads they can preach them as long as they please. Paul might have discussed the abstract questions of religion and the various questions of idols and idolaters to the end of his life, and no Demetrius would have risen up. It was not until the truth he preached found an application to men that his preaching became offensive; and indeed all great truths do reach down, finally, to mens private and business life. I will defy any man to preach any great salient moral truth thoroughly and not find himself meddling with questions which concern courts, merchants, statesmen, politicians. When, therefore, it is said, e.g., These ministers have no right to meddle with political questions, it is saying that ministers may preach truths as long as they do not hit anywhere, but that when they have carried them out in such a way that they take hold of mens interests, and so begin to be practical, then they must stop, because they have no right to preach politics!
2. Paul had no conception of what he was doing. He was preaching Christ fearlessly, freely. He had no idea of the existence of Demetrius, and did not dream that he was hurting anybody. And yet you see what were the ramifications of moral truth, and how, as the result of Pauls preaching, there uprose this Demetrius and his craftsmen. It bore testimony against them. And so long as the world stands faithful preaching will not only do what the preacher aims to do, but a great deal more. It will reach men that he never thought of and interests that he never contemplated. Truth may be handled with unnecessary offence, without a wise regard to times and seasons. There is such a way of preaching that under favourable circumstances we can sometimes persuade men to hear the truth against their interests. But, on the whole, there is no way in which you can so preach the truth that it will destroy mens interests, and have them remain peaceable, and like it. That was what our Master meant when He said, I came not to send peace, but sword. He knew that men who live by pampering superstitions and evil passions would not consent to be purified without a struggle. Satan, either in man or in society, is neither to be bound or cast out, except there be a mighty power over against him.
3. You will therefore say that this Demetrius was a very bad man. But was he? Remember, first, that he knew no religion but heathenism, and that he supposed that to be the best religion there was in the world. Remember, too, that he occupied the same relation to his religion that the Tract Society does to ours. The latter makes shrines–little books representing their notions of religion. And Demetrius probably said to himself, It is better for the people to stick to their religion; and what if making their shrines is profitable to me, I am working at a religious business. And as our religion is associated with our country, I am making men not only religious, but patriotic. Here was a Jew, that was not born in Asia, but away off in Palestine, and was setting forth a strange God; and Demetrius felt everything in him rise up in indignation. But it is very evident that his feeling of self-interest was strongest. He was not a good man, and yet he was not an extremely bad man. He was just like men that you see every day. There is nothing more common than for men to hang one motive outside where it can be seen and keep the others in the background to turn the machinery.
4. From this narrative we may derive the principle that moral truth is of transcendently more value than all the material interests, order, or peace of society. There is an impression that the gospel is such a soothing syrup that if a preacher knows his business men going to hear him will be made very peaceable and happy, and will go away feeling very good. If, on the other hand, a man disturbs the community, it is thought that these results are prima facie evidence that he is not a true preacher of the gospel; and it has passed into a byword–we see it in all the fifth-rate newspapers and hear it from the lips of pot house politicians–that ministers ought to be followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, and that they go beyond their sphere when they preach so as to disturb anybody. But hear again our Saviours words: Think not that I am come to send peace on earth, etc. If you go home, saying, I must follow the Lord, and everybody in the household says, We are following Mammon, or Pleasure, it is for you to stand by your higher light; and you will give offence. Nevertheless, you must be firm. If the father and mother will worship Baal, and the child would worship Jehovah, the child must not yield; and if there be quarrelling, it is not the childs fault. (H. W. Beecher.)
The power of obscure men
A man may work a great evil, and yet himself not be a great man. Demetrius has no history. He raised the town that day, not by any powers of mind or heart, but simply by the explosive force of those depraved and selfish passions to which he appealed. Anybody can do that; and then, when the popular violence is aroused, he can imagine himself a chieftain or a hero. (G. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Covetousness
I. Undisturbed. Nothing in Ephesus was more thrifty and well behaved. It asked nothing of the gospel except to be left alone. Shrine making was a perfectly legitimate business. It combined religion with art. It was patriotic, for it made Ephesus renowned. It was in a healthy condition. The liquor traffic could not have been more quiet, nor newspapers more up to the times. The business was harmonious within. Capital and labour had no quarrel. Demetrius and Co. were no enemies of the working classes, for they brought much gain to the craftsmen.
II. Alarmed. Learn now–
1. How sensitive it is. Covetousness in the abstract preachers may assail with perfect impunity, but business is a different thing.
2. How energetic.
3. How cruel. The idolatry is condemned of God and is the death of souls; but what of that? Mere sentiment. By this we have our wealth.
4. How hypocritical. Under the garb of zeal for religion.
III. Defeated–
1. By its own blunders. It has a majority, but no case. It makes the mistake of trying to put down truth by brawling. Another blunder was falsehood.
2. Through its dangerous drift. There is nothing truly conservative but truth and righteousness. Covetousness in trade or politics will sooner or later upheave society. Here it filled the whole city with confusion. It will jeopardise any public interest to save its gold.
3. Through the power of simple truth and goodness. The mayor of the city sees through it all. (A. Mitchell, D. D.)
Defence of vested interests
Idolatry is renunciation of the one God and degradation to men. But there are men now who will defend and combine to protect the traffic in intoxicating liquors, in adulterating with poisons the food of the people, in stock gambling, in lotteries, in the circulation of obscene books and pictures, in many methods which are forbidden by God and are demoralising and destructive to mankind. Now, all these modes of money making are opposed by the whole spirit of Christs precepts, and just so far as Christian principles prevail in a country, these kinds of business must be subverted. The classes of men who would rather make money than obey God will resist and clamour and combine against any efforts that may be made to popularise the spirit and purity of gospel principles. They will even become quite religious, as did these image makers of Ephesus, in pleading for liberty to selfishness and in defence of vested rights. They would rather worship Diana and her images than Jesus Christ and His beneficences if the former would permit and the latter would forbid money making by wronging and debasing their fellow men. So we have in this lesson some very important practical teachings for our own age. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)
The spirit of sedition: the teachings of experience concerning its deceptions
1. One pretends to high aims, and is influenced by the grossest selfishness.
2. One thinks himself free to act, and is the involuntary instrument of crafty seducers.
3. One values himself as enlightened, and commits acts the most foolish.
4. One prides himself that he contends for the right, and perpetrates the most unrighteous deeds of violence.
5. One is filled with extravagant expectations, and in the end gains nothing.
Demetrius
1. If Demetrius makes silver images and Paul preaches against idolatry, there is bound to be a struggle between them.
2. If he can summon a few congenial spirits–craftsmen who work very little with their hands and very much with their mouths–the struggle may grow to an uproar.
3. If he and his congenial spirits can get the attention of the city rabble, the uproar may attain to the dignity of a riot.
4. If he and his companions can disguise the denton of selfishness by calling it the goddess Diana, or Public Worship, or the Cause of Justice, they will invitably do so.
5. If he, the demagogue, makes a speech, he usually manufactures his facts to order. The idea of all Asia and the world worshipping Diana! (S. S. Times.)
Mobs
When the mob–
1. Rushes out to wreak its vengeance on somebody, it usually catches the wrong man.
2. Can agree on a common cry, the riotous element is much strengthened.
3. Is thoroughly, wildly, unreasonably mad, it is a needless risk for Paul to go in unto them.
4. Howls the loudest, its members usually have the least possible idea what they are howling about.
5. Knows why it comes together, it is wiser than most mobs are.
6. Finds out that Alexander is a Jew, or for any other reason is unpopular, his eloquence is useless.
7. Has spent two or three hours in yelling itself hoarse, then there may possibly be a chance for the town clerk or somebody else to make himself heard. (S. S. Times.)
A good town clerk
1. Happy the city with so able an official as the town clerk of Ephesus.
2. Wise the advice that urges the angry multitude to do nothing rashly.
3. Shrewd the counsel that reminds the mob of the law whose place it is usurping.
4. Keen the insight that sees just when to read the Riot Act to the crowd.
5. Admirable the judgment that can tell when to work on the peoples fears. (S. S. Times.)
The uproar at Ephesus
I. Bore brave testimony to the power of the gospel. Had the work of Paul been confined to a few, or only reached the heads and not the hearts of many in Ephesus, Demetrius would have paid no attention to it. The offence lay in the fact that it had gained power, and was pushing the old faith to the wall. So in our day. When liquordealers rally, and policy shop holders amalgamate, it is because righteousness is beginning to make itself felt.
II. Was rooted in selfishness. In this case the selfishness was pecuniary. In other cases it was political; in others yet it was ecclesiastical. So today.
III. Was fostered by false arguments. The temple of the great goddess Diana is to be despised. Had they stopped to investigate the matter, they would have found that the apostle would have substituted in the place of an idol the only living and true God, and in the place of filth and lust would have put purity and virtue; and that surely would have been better. But when the purse was threatened they were blind to all else, and bolstered up their cause as best they might with poor arguments. So it is yet. Rum sellers cry fanaticism and extol personal liberty. Infidels decry Sunday laws, pleading liberty of conscience for all. But, as in Pauls time, the motive is selfishness and the argument hypocritical.
IV. Proceeds to violence. This spirit, modified, is what underlies all petty persecutions. If we are not ready to succumb to evil, it turns on us, and delights to inflict pain by look, by word, by deed.
V. In no way injured Christianity. No blood was shed. But if it had Christianity would not have been injured. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. A persecuted Church is far more alive in true heroic virtue than a rich Church. No opposition of evil men today, however they may band themselves together, can truly hinder the progress of Christs Church. (A. F. Schauffler.)
The uproar in Ephesus
I. Opposition to the gospel has proceeded from the bad passions of men–from avarice, ambition, love of earthly pleasures. This uproar was excited by mercenary artificers, who worshipped no god with so much ardour as the god of riches. Such opposition reflects honour upon Christianity. Had it been a human contrivance, it would have been adapted, like other impostures, to the corrupt inclinations of mankind. The enemies of our religion, in order to justify their opposition, have brought many false accusations against it. But it cannot be justly charged with disturbing the peace of society, which it secures by impressing upon the heart the purest lessons of morality. It cannot be charged with impairing domestic happiness, since it establishes the empire of love. It cannot be charged with impeding the business and the duties of life, for it teaches us to acquit ourselves with fidelity in every relation. What, then, is the evil which it has done? It has abolished certain institutions which originated in the cruelty and licentiousness of mankind; it has overthrown establishments under which imposture flourished; it has restrained vices which were the sources of private gratification and public misery.
II. The sacred name of religion has been prostituted to serve the most infamous purposes. It was the pretext under which Demetrius and his accomplices concealed their design to secure the gain which they derived from the folly and delusion of their countrymen. In the name of religion conquerors have desolated the earth, persecutors have committed unnatural cruelties, Churches have corrupted the doctrines and institutions of the gospel, repealed the ordinances of Heaven, imposed their own unhallowed commands upon the consciences of their subjects, and fulminated excommunications against the pious and the sincere. The language of all such persons has been, Come, see our zeal for the Lord.
II. The concurrence of a multitude in support of a cause is no proof of its justice. Truth is not to be decided by numbers. In the old world Noah alone was found faithful, while the rest had corrupted their ways. In the wilderness all the Israelites rebelled except Caleb and Joshua. When our Saviour appeared upon the earth how few of the Jews acknowledged Him to be the Messiah! And in the dark ages did not all the world wonder after the beast? The maxim that the voice of the people is the voice of God is, for the most part evidently false, and in no case can be admitted without many limitations. What, in most cases, is the voice of the people but the voice of thoughtlessness, prejudice, and passion? What is it, in fact, but the voice of a few artful men who make use of the people as the blind instruments of accomplishing their private designs?
IV. God reigns and carries on the designs of His government amidst the commotions of the world. He rules not only over the unconscious elements, but likewise over the passions of men. When these passions are most headstrong and impetuous, He controls their fury, and directs their course. In the uproar at Ephesus He preserved the life of Paul and his companions, first by the confusion of the people, and then by the seasonable interference of a person of prudence and authority. Let us not be dismayed, although the pillars of the earth should be shaken and all things should seem to be out of course (Psa 93:1-4). (J. Dick, A. M.)
The uproar at Ephesus
was a representative transaction, and from it we may learn important lessons.
I. Popular opposition to the gospel is to be expected. That gospel from the beginning has been forced to make its way against the sturdy resistance of those to whom it has been addressed; and the religious apathy of the masses and the pronounced enmity of leaders in society, literature, and science today are phenomena which cannot escape the most careless attention. And yet, rightly viewed, there is nothing strange or alarming in this. Final victory is promised, but battle is to precede it. It is not to be expected that men will quietly surrender to a system that endeavours to reverse the gravitation of their nature. They are fond of self-pleasing; how shall they listen willingly to teaching of self-denial, etc., etc.?
II. Popular opinion is not the proper criterion of truth. If the matter could have been decided by counts of heads and clack of tongues, then Diana would have triumphed against Christ. So long as Christianity is accepted only by a fragment of the community or the race, shallow thinkers justify their unfaith. But the most cursory reading of history rebukes the fallacy of the position. It was public opinion in Jerusalem that drove Jesus to Calvary; that here refused the gospel a hearing; that in Paris crimsoned the streets with Huguenot blood. From the beginning until now public opinion has cursed the world with false faith and outrage of every sort. And so no man can find any warrant for his personal convictions in the fact that the bulk of society is of his way of thinking. Upon him alone falls always the solemn shadow of personal responsibility. It is easier to swim with the swift current of popular thought than to ally ourselves with the minority that are breasting the stream.
III. The claims of the gospel will not be acknowledged while there is an idol in the way. It was not the truth which Paul preached, in itself considered, to which the Ephesians objected. Let the apostle teach a doctrine which would make the trade in silver shrines good, and Demetrius would have turned his opposition into help. It was not pure reverence for Diana that actuated them; it was their business that made them so religious in her direction. Let Paul lay down as the first condition of salvation that every man must set up a shrine to Jesus, and it would have answered quite as well. Their personal gain was the real idol. (Sermons by the Monday Club.)
The triumphs of the gospel
The meeting which Demetrius now addressed was a very remarkable one. It gives us an insight into–
1. The perversion of human handicraft. Here is an assembly of men whose inventive genius and skilful labour were employed in the manufacturing of things offensive to Heaven and debasing to souls. Much of the industry of the world is employed in fabricating that which is bad–beverages which brutalise the reason, arts which inflame the lusts, and horrid implements of torture and death. So men build up fortunes by selling the productions of wickedness.
2. The force of the mercantile spirit. What brought these men together, and inspired Demetrius to arrest the progress of the truth was cupidity. Preach of human liberty to slaveholders; peace to those who get their living in providing weapons for battle; spiritual independency to men who derive their revenue and influence by arrogating dominion over mens faith; and you will have the mercenary spirit rising in full tide against you.
3. The revolutionary power of the gospel Demetrius felt that the very foundations of idolatry were being sappped by the doctrines of the apostle (verse 26). The triumphs of the gospel at Ephesus, according to Demetrius–
I. Involved a religious revolution. Such a change is always–
1. The most radical. The god of the soul, whatever it is, is in all cases the object of the souls supreme affection, and the very root of mans life. Change this in a man, and you change the whole current of his existence; you reverse the action of the machinery of his being. The man becomes a new creation, a new man.
2. The most difficult. The strongest attachments are the religious. Men have ever been ready to give their property, their wives, their children, their very lives for their gods. Add to this that the old religions had a grand history, a gorgeous aspect, and a worldwide popularity, which gave them an immense influence over their devotees.
II. Were undeniable facts. He suggests three kinds of evidence–
1. Personal observation–Ye see, etc. They had seen with their own eyes the change which the gospel had wrought. Such ocular evidence most men in Christendom are privileged to possess. Who has not known the drunkard, the blasphemer, the licentious, and the selfish, become, by the power of the gospel, temperate, reverent, chaste, and generous?
2. General testimony–Ye hear, doubtless from their own townsmen, whom they were bound to believe. Such evidence is nearly as conclusive as the former, and is often available where the former is not. What we have seen is but a fraction compared with what we have heard. We have heard with our ears, etc. From the testimony of Paul we are assured that in Colosse, Ephesus, Rome, and Corinth, wonderful religious revolutions had been effected by the gospel he had preached. Clement confirms, in a letter which he wrote thirty years after, this testimony.
3. Avowed enemies. Could Demetrius have denied, or ignored its effects, he would have done so. The revolutions which Christianity has effected are so manifest, that hostile historians, such as Gibbon, are bound to chronicle them as the fountains of striking epochs.
III. Were confined to no particular type of men. Not alone at Ephesus, etc.
IV. Were achieved by the agency of man as man. This Paul; not these angels; not these magistrates backed by victorious legions. How did he do it? By wielding civil authority? No. All political power was against him. By miraculous instrumentality? He was, it is true, endowed with this power, but the great moral results of his ministry are not ascribed to this. Here is the agency he employs–He hath persuaded. This is the noblest of works. He who wins one soul achieves a conquest that throws the victories of the Caesars, Alexanders, and Napoleons into contempt. Conclusion: There is much in connection with the agency of Paul at Ephesus which impresses us with Divine power.
1. In his daring to enter such a place.
2. In what, by his simple agency, he accomplished there. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Which made silver shrines for Diana.—
The worship of Diana
The worship of Artemis or Diana had from a very early period been connected with the city of Ephesus. The first temple owed much of its magnificence to Croesus. This was burnt down in B.C. 335, by Herostratus, who was impelled by an insane desire thus to secure an immortality of renown. Under Alexander the Great it was rebuilt with more stateliness than ever, and was looked upon as one of the seven wonders of the world. Its porticoes were adorned with paintings and sculptures by the great masters of Greek art, Phidias and Polycletus, Calliphron and Apelles. It had an establishment of priests, attendants, and boys, which reminds us of the organisation of a great cathedral or abbey in mediaeval Europe. Provision was made for the education of the children employed in the temple services, and retiring pensions given to priests and priestesses. Large gifts and bequests were made for the maintenance of its fabric and ritual, and the city conferred its highest honours upon those who thus enrolled themselves among its illustrious benefactors. Pilgrims came from all parts of the world to worship or to gaze, and carried away with them memorials in silver and bronze, generally models of the sacellum, or sanctuary, in which the image of the goddess stood, and of the image itself. That image, however, was very unlike the sculptured beauty with which Greek and Roman art loved to represent the form of Artemis, and would seem to have been the survival of an older cultus of the powers of nature, like the Phrygian worship of Cybele, modified and renamed by the Greek settlers who took the place of the original inhabitants. A four-fold many-breasted female figure, ending, below the breasts, in a square column, with mysterious symbolic ornamentation, in which bees, and ears of corn, and flowers were strangely mingled, carved in wood, black with age, this was the centre of the adoration of that never-ceasing stream of worshippers. Its ugliness was, perhaps, the secret of its power. When art clothes idolatry with beauty, man feels at liberty to criticise the artist and his work, and the feeling of reverence becomes gradually weaker. The savage bows before his fetich with a blinder homage than that which Pericles gave to the Jupiter of Phidias. The first real blow to the worship which bad lasted for so many ages was given by the two years of St. Pauls work of which we read here. As by the strange irony of history, the next stroke aimed at its maghificence came from the hand of Nero, who robbed it, as he robbed the temples of Delphi, and Pergamus, and Athens, not sparing even villages, of many of its art treasures for the adornment of his Golden House at Rome (Tacit. Ann. 15.45). Trajan sent its richly-sculptured gates as an offering to a temple at Byzantium. As the Church of Christ advanced, its worship, of course, declined. Priests and priestesses ministered in deserted shrines. When the empire became Christian, the temple of Ephesus, in common with that at Delphi, supplied materials for the church, erected by Justinian, in honour of the Divine Wisdom, which is now the Mosque of St. Sophia. When the Goths devastated Asia Minor, in the reign of Gallienus (A.D. 263), they plundered it with a reckless hand, and the work which they began was completed centuries later by the Turks. The whole city, bearing the name of Aioslouk–has fallen into such decay that the very site of the temple was till within the last few years a matter of dispute among archaeologists. (Dean Plumptre.)
The temple of Diana
1. Do you not see in that temple of Diana an expression of what the world needs? It wants a God who can provide food. Diana was a huntress. In pictures on many of the coins she held a stag by the horn with one hand and a bundle of arrows in the other. Oh, this is a hungry world! Diana could not give one pound of meat, or one mouthful of food to the millions of her worshippers. Let Diana have her arrows and her hounds; our God has the sunshine and the showers and the harvests, and in proportion as He is worshipped does plenty reign.
2. So also in the temple of Diana the world expressed its need of a refuge. To it from all parts of the land came debtors who could not pay their debts, and the offenders of the law that they might escape incarceration. But she sheltered them only a little while, and, while she kept them from arrest, she could not change their hearts, and the guilty remained guilty. But our God in Jesus Christ is a refuge into which we may fly from all our sins and be safe for eternity, and the nature is transformed.
3. Then, in that temple were deposited treasures from all the earth for safe keeping. Chrysostom says it was the treasure house of nations; they brought gold and silver and precious stones and coronets from across the sea, and put them under the care of Diana of the Ephesians. But again and again were those treasures ransacked, captured, or destroyed. Nero robbed them, the Scythians scattered them, the Goths burned them. Diana failed those who trusted her with treasures, but our God, to Him we may entrust all our treasures for this world and the next, and He will not fail anyone who put confidence in Him.
4. But notice what killed Ephesus, and what has killed most of the cities that lie buried in the cemetery of nations. Luxury! The costly baths, which had been the means of health to the city, became its ruin. Instead of the cold baths that had been the invigoration of the people, the hot baths, which are only intended for the infirm or the invalid, were substituted. In these hot baths many lay most of the time. Authors wrote books while in these baths. Business was neglected and a hot bath taken four or five times a day. When the keeper of the baths was reprimanded for not having them warm enough, one of the rulers said: You blame him for not making the bath warm enough; I blame you because you have it warm at all. But that warm bath which enervated Ephesus was only a type of what went on in all departments of Ephesian life, and in luxurious indulgence. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Brought no small gain unto the craftsmen.—
Self-interested idolatry
Self-interest often leads men to oppose the truth. A missionary once wrote: One man was very indignant on hearing the sin and folly of idol worship exposed; the native brother who was speaking coolly replied, I suppose you are a maker of images? Yes! exclaimed a voice in the crowd; he makes and sells them for four annas apiece. I thought so, said the native brother; he is afraid lest any should be persuaded not to buy his images; that is the reason he is so angry with us. This remark excited such a general laugh at the idol maker, that for shame he retired from the crowd and gave us no more trouble. (J. L. Nye.)
Self interest in opinion
Nothing more hinders men from going to or from an opinion than the interest they have by holding it. Men do not care so much for the opinions they hold, as for what they hold by their opinions. Many a man thinks what Demetrius said; hence they fly in the face of truth, so dearly sweet and sweetly dear, is their darling gain. They see they cannot have the honey unless they burn the bees, and therefore fire them forthwith; they cannot possess the vineyard, unless Naboth be put to death, and therefore he must be dispatched. When once the copyhold of gain and honour is touched, men begin to look about them, and will never call godliness gain, because gain is their godliness. (R. Venning.)
Pocket or principle
Depend upon it, Paul was voted a good enough sort of Jew until he began to interfere with business. It is always so. You touch mens trade and you will soon find out how near their religious convictions lie to their pockets. Any one who proposes to interfere with profits will be set upon, right or wrong. It is no longer a question of principle, but of . s. d. Suppose I am a High, or a Low, or a Broad Churchman–it matters little which–in the name of decency and common sense I declare that six public houses within thirty yards, as at Glasgow, are excessive; or 20,000 are too many for London–do you think I shall stop the renewal of one license next year? Not a bit of it! Theres too much wealth and social influence enlisted against me–too many brewers in parliament–for my feeble might to have any weight. But what will happen? Why, if I am a High Churchman, the brewers will discover that I am a person of Romanizing tendencies, to be vigorously resisted in the name of our national protestantism; if I am a Low Churchman, they will call me a narrow, old-fashioned bigot; if I am a Broad Churchman, they will say that I am unorthodox, a most dishonest person, a wolf in sheeps clothing, and a very dangerous man. Yes, certainly; very dangerous–to beer. So the instant Pauls popularity touched the manufacture of silver shrines, Demetrius organised a Trades-Union mob, and nearly succeeded in wrecking Paul and his followers. (H. R. Haweis, M. A.)
Paul at Ephesus
This chapter contains a description of two forces which then operated, and still operate, against the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of them is the greed of men who have pecuniary interest opposed to righteousness, and the other of them is what the historian calls the curious arts–what we may describe as a tendency to dabble with the real or imaginary intercourse between this world and the next outside of God Himself; a tendency which shows itself at every point in the development of the Church. Now, this indignation meeting of the craftsmen of Dianas shrine has furnished the model of many similar gatherings since. It does not appear that Paul had said anything disrespectful about Diana; on the contrary, the town clerk says that he had not mentioned her: he had been eminently cautious. At the same time, the accusation of Demetrius was a sufficiently reasonable one, for the gospel is a very awkward force in this world. I will not remain in the clouds, it will get its feet upon the ground; it will not be content to discuss the future, it will have its say about the present; it will not deal with you as if you were angels up yonder, it will always remember that you are men. And, therefore, it comes and grips the practical questions of life, and, unlike all other religions, it is most firm precisely where all the forces of the world and human interest are marshalled against righteousness and truth. I must say that Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen showed a very keen insight into the position. They seemed to perceive that though the preacher never mentioned Artemis and Diana, supposing what the preacher said were really listened to by the people, it would be like the daylight breaking into an old tenement and rousing and expelling the moles and the bats and the vermin. Demetrius saw distinctly what many people do not see even today, that the gospel need never lift up its voice and cry, that it can come into a society with the sweet piercing breath of the Spirit, and every abuse will be terrified and every sinner trembling in his shoes. I confess that my sympathy with Demetrius is great, and so is yours. He was perfectly right. He had invested his capital in silver for making the silver shrines for Diana, his wife and children depended upon it, and if these were to be disturbed he would see his little children starving. And I like Demetrius; there is something honest about him. He is the best man of the kind that we read of in history up to this day. He begins his speech frankly and truly: he says, Ye know that by this business we have our wealth. He says nothing about religion until he has made it clear that it is a clear appeal to the selfish interests, and when he has secured the selfish interests, then he draws over the decent garment of religious concern for the great goddess Diana. The people of today are not so distinct in this matter; they begin with religion, and do not always mention the incidental fact by this fact we have our wealth. I do not know anything more terrible than for a man to have chosen his life in such a way that his interests in the world can only be promoted on condition that the eternal laws of God shall be suspended. When a man has so embarked in the course of life, that he cannot easily withdraw, the dilemma is perfectly clear: either he will have to yield his interests to the gospel of Christ, and he will be ruined, as we call it, he will lose all his profit. It is a terrible position, and I do not myself wonder that when one is in that position he invokes all the powers of heaven on his side, and quotes Christianity against Christ, and will have a religious reason for the most irreligious doing. The other force which is enlisted against the gospel in this chapter concerning Ephesus is one about which it is more difficult to speak. It was called in the ancient world sorcery; it has not yet got an accepted title in the modern world. But let us observe what it is. When faith decays superstition grows. When the clear vision ceases, the dark, shadowy, and occult process begins. We need not say much about it, but I shall lift up my voice against it as long as I can, and especially to young people, and I urge you to have nothing to do with it. God has quite sufficiently revealed Himself in human life and in nature for all sound minds; and I want you to be content to remain ignorant rather than gain doubtful knowledge about occult things in doubtful ways. Now I want to close by reminding you of the great power by which the opposing forces were met and can be met today. It is described in the sixth verse of the chapter, and it is referred to in the second verse, where the apostle put this question to the twelve men who were Christians at Ephesus but had not received the Holy Ghost. And there is a distinction drawn between two kinds of baptism; one is the baptism of John, and the other is the baptism into the name of Jesus Christ, and receiving the Holy Ghost is identical with the baptism into the name of Jesus Christ. These two baptisms remain distinct up to the present day; the one is formal, ritualistic, is quite easily received and quite easily given; the other is spiritual and real, and can be received only by the most radical change of the whole life when the soul is wrought into the very name of Jesus Christ, emptied there, filled there, made new there, receiving from God the life that is God, the life manifested in the flesh. The one baptism makes us professors, the other baptism makes us possessors. (R. F. Horton, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 24. Silver shrines for Diana] It is generally known that the temple of Diana at Ephesus was deemed one of the seven wonders of the world, and was a most superb building. It appears that the silver shrines mentioned here were small portable representations of this temple, which were bought by strangers as matters of curiosity, and probably of devotion. If we can suppose them to have been exact models of this famous temple, representing the whole exterior of its magnificent workmanship, which is possible, they would be held in high estimation, and probably become a sort of substitute for the temple itself, to worshippers of this goddess who lived in distant parts of Greece. The temple of Diana was raised at the expense of all Asia Minor, and yet was two hundred and twenty years in building, before it was brought to its sum of perfection. It was in length 425 feet, by 220 in breadth; and was beautified by 127 columns, which were made at the expense of so many kings; and was adorned with the most beautiful statues. To procure himself an everlasting fame, Erostratus burned it to the ground the same night on which Alexander the Great was born. It is reported that Alexander offered to make it as magnificent as it was before, provided he might put his name on the front; but this was refused. It was afterwards rebuilt and adorned, but Nero plundered it of all its riches. This grand building remains almost entire to the present day, and is now turned into a Turkish mosque. See an account of it in Montfaucon, Antiq. Expliq. vol. ii., with a beautiful drawing on plate vi., No. 20. See also Stuart’s Athens. There were also pieces of silver struck with a representation of the temple of Minerva on one side: many coins occur in the reigns of the first Roman emperors, where temples, with idols in the porch, appear on the reverse; and several may be seen in Muselius, in the reigns of Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, c. A beautiful representation of the temple of Diana at Ephesus may be seen on a medal engraved by Montfaucon, in his Antiq. Expliq. Suppl. vol. ii. plate 33. It has eight Doric columns in front, which Pliny says were sixty feet in length. In the entrance, the figure of Diana is represented with a sort of tower upon her head her arms are supported by two staves; at her feet are represented two stags with their backs towards each other. The sun is represented on the right side of her head, and the moon as a crescent on the left. On each side and at the bottom of this temple are the words, . Some think that the medals here referred to are the same that are meant by the silver shrines made by Demetrius and his craftsmen. See Clarke on Ac 19:27.
Brought no small gain] There were many made, many sold, and probably at considerable prices.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
These shrines were only, either;
1. Portraits of the temple of Diana, in which was graven, or by any other art represented, that famous structure, which was afterwards burnt by Erostratus: or:
2. they were medals in which their idol Diana was expressed according to her image, spoken of, Act 19:35. And they are called here, temples, or shrines, because they did resemble and represent that shrine or temple.
And these the superstitious people carried home to their houses and friends; not only to evidence what a pilgrimage they had performed, but to incite the more their devotions towards this idol.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24-26. silver shrines for“of”
Dianasmall models ofthe Ephesian temple and of the shrine or chapel of the goddess, or ofthe shrine and statue alone, which were purchased by visitors asmemorials of what they had seen, and were carried about and depositedin houses as a charm. (The models of the chapel of our Lady ofLoretto, and such like, which the Church of Rome systematicallyencourages, are such a palpable imitation of this heathen practicethat it is no wonder it should be regarded by impartial judges asChristianity paganized).
gain to the craftsmenthemaster-artificers.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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,
[See comments on Ac 19:27], these were not coins or medals of silver, struck by Demetrius, with the figure of the temple of Diana on them, nor images of Diana, as the Ethiopic version reads; but they were chaplets, or little temples made of silver, in imitation of the temple of Diana at Ephesus, with her image included in it; the words may be rendered, “silver temples”: in some manuscripts it is added, “like little chests”: which being sold to the people,
brought no small gain to the craftsmen: who were of the same trade with him; masters of the same business, who employed others under them, as appears by what follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Demetrius, a silversmith ( ). The name is common enough and may or may not be the man mentioned in 3Jo 1:12 who was also from the neighbourhood of Ephesus. There is on an inscription at Ephesus near the close of the century a Demetrius called a temple warden of Artemis (Diana). Zoeckler suggests that Luke misunderstood this word and translated it into , a beater (, to beat) of silver (, silver), “which made silver shrines of Artemis” ( () ). It is true that no silver shrines of the temple have been found in Ephesus, but only numerous terra-cotta ones. Ramsay suggests that the silver ones would naturally be melted down. The date is too late anyhow to identify the Demetrius who was with the Demetrius who made little silver temples of Artemis, though B does not have the word . The poor votaries would buy the terra-cotta ones, the rich the silver shrines (Ramsay, Paul the Traveller, p. 278). These small models of the temple with the statue of Artemis inside would be set up in the houses or even worn as amulets. It is a pity that the Revised Version renders Artemis here. Diana as the Ephesian Artemis is quite distinct from the Greek Artemis, the sister of Apollo, the Diana of the Romans. This temple, built in the 6th century B.C., was burnt by Herostratus Oct. 13 B.C. 356, the night when Alexander the Great was born. It was restored and was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. Artemis was worshipped as the goddess of fertility, like the Lydian Cybele, a figure with many breasts. The great festival in May would offer Demetrius a golden opportunity for the sale of the shrines.
Brought no little business ( ). Imperfect middle, continued to bring (furnish, provide). The middle accents the part that Demetrius played as the leader of the guild of silversmiths, work for himself and for them.
Unto the craftsmen ( ). The artisans from (craft, art). Trade guilds were common in the ancient world. Demetrius had probably organized this guild and provided the capital for the enterprise.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Silversmith [] . Lit., a silver – beater.
Shrines. Small models of the temple of Diana, containing an image of the goddess. They were purchased by pilgrims to the temple, just as rosaries and images of the virgin are bought by pilgrims to Lourdes, or bronze models of Trajan’s column or of the Colonne Vendome by tourists to Rome or Paris. 24 Craftsmen [] . In the next verse he mentions the workmen [] , the two words denoting, respectively, the artisans, who performed the more delicate work, and the laborers, who did the rougher work.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For a certain man named Demetrius,” (Demetrios gar tis onomati) “For a certain one by name of Demetrius; any time the term “certain one,” “certain man,” or certain woman,” etc., is used, it eliminates a generality. It points out one person, to the exclusion of all others. He was perhaps a union leader or master of the trade guild, perhaps unrelated to the Demetrius of 3Jn 1:12.
2) “A silversmith,” (argurokopos) “A silversmith,” by trade, by business, industry, and profession, a producer and/or distributor of silver products, statutes to be placed in shrine temples and smaller ones to be worn as adornments.
3) “Which made silver shrines for Diana,”(poion naous argurous Artemidos) “Who engaged in silver shrines production of Artemis,” known as the goddess Diana, apparently of varying sizes and shapes, for homes, public places, and to be carried on the bodies or person of idol patrons.
4) “Brought no small gain unto the craftsmen; (pareicheto tois technitais ouk oligen ergasian) “Provided the Artisans (technical workers) no little trade,” no small financial gain. Affirmatively, this means that the silver shrine producing trade simply was a big profit making business to the false god making craftsmen who produced shrines of the idol goddess Diana. It was fear of loss of money, in this false-god trade-guild-business that motivated Demetrius, the headmaster of the workmen, to incite public opposition to the ministry of Paul and the Ephesian Christian brethren on this occasion; 1Ti 6:10 certifies that the “love of money” covetous, affectionate craving for money, is the root of all (kinds of) evil, a thing here exemplified. It was this covetous care for greed and gain that incited masters of soothsayers against Paul and Silas, Act 16:16; Act 16:19.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(24) Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana.The worship of Artemis (to give the Greek name of the goddess whom the Romans identified with their Diana) had from a very early period been connected with the city of Ephesus. The first temple owed much of its magnificence to Croesus. This was burnt down, in B.C. 335, by Herostratus, who was impelled by an insane desire thus to secure an immortality of renown. Under Alexander the Great, it was rebuilt with more stateliness than ever, and was looked upon as one of the seven wonders of the world. Its porticos were adorned with paintings and sculptures by the great masters of Greek art, Phidias and Polycletus, Calliphron and Apelles. It had an establishment of priests, attendants, and boys, which reminds us of the organisation of a great cathedral or abbey in Mediaeval Europe. Provision was made for the education of the children employed in the temple services, and retiring pensions given to priests and priestesses (reminding us, in the latter instance, of the rule of 1Ti. 5:9, which it may indeed have suggested) after the age of sixty. Among the former were one class known as Theologi, interpreters of the mysteries of the goddess; a name which apparently suggested the application of that title (the Divine, the Theologus) to St. John in his character as an apocalyptic seer, as seen in the superscription of the Revelation. Large gifts and bequests were made for the maintenance of its fabric and ritual, and the city conferred its highest honours upon those who thus enrolled themselves among its illustrious benefactors. Pilgrims came from all parts of the world to worship or to gaze, and carried away with them memorials in silver or bronze, generally models of the sacellum, or sanctuary, in which the image of the goddess stood, and of the image itself. That image, however, was very unlike the sculptured beauty with which Greek and Roman art loved to represent the form of Artemis, and would seem to have been the survival of an older cultus of the powers of nature, like the Phrygian worship of Cybele, modified and renamed by the Greek settlers who took the place of the original inhabitants. A four-fold many-breasted female figure, ending, below the breasts, in a square column, with mysterious symbolic ornamentation, in which bees, and ears of corn, and flowers were strangely mingled, carved in wood, black with age, and with no form or beauty, this was the centre of the adoration of that never-ceasing stream of worshippers. As we look to the more elaborate reproductions of that type in marble, of which one may be seen in the Vatican Museum, we seem to be gazing on a Hindoo idol rather than on a Greek statue. Its ugliness was, perhaps, the secret of its power. When art clothes idolatry with beauty, man feels at liberty to criticise the artist and his work, and the feeling of reverence becomes gradually weaker. The savage bows before his fetiche with a blinder homage than that which Pericles gave to the Jupiter of Phidias. The first real blow to the worship which had lasted for so many ages was given by the two years of St. Pauls work of which we read here. As by the strange irony of history, the next stroke aimed at its magnificence came from the hand of Nero, who robbed it, as he robbed the temples of Delphi, and Pergamus, and Athens, not sparing even villages, of many of its art-treasures for the adornment of his Golden House at Rome (Tacit. Ann. xv. 45). Trajan sent its richly sculptured gates as an offering to a temple at Byzantium. As the Church of Christ advanced, its worship, of course, declined. Priests and priestesses ministered in deserted shrines. When the empire became Christian, the temple of Ephesus, in common with that of Delphi, supplied materials for the church, erected by Justinian, in honour of the Divine Wisdom, which is now the Mosque of St. Sophia. When the Goths devastated Asia Minor, in the reign of Gallienus (A.D. 263), they plundered it with a reckless hand, and the work which they began was completed centuries later by the Turks. The whole city, bearing the name of Aiosloukin which some have traced the words Hagios Theologos, as applied to St. John as the patron sainthas fallen into such decay that the very site of the temple was till within the last few years a matter of dispute among archologists. Mr. George Wood, however, in 1869, commenced a series of excavations which have led to the discoveries of strata corresponding to the foundations of the three temples which had been erected on the same site, enabled him to trace out the ground-plan, and brought to light many inscriptions connected with the temple, one in particular, the trust-deed, so to speak, of a large sum given for its support, from which we learn more than was known before as to its priesthood and their organisation. (See Woods Ephesus, pp. 4-45.)
The word for shrine is that which, though translated temple in Joh. 2:19 (where see Note) and elsewhere, is always applied to the inner sanctuary, in which the Divine Presence was supposed to dwell, and therefore, here, to the chapel or shrine in which the statue of the goddess stood. It was to the rest of the building what the Confession and the Tribune are in Italian churches.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
The Commotion at Ephesus on behalf of the great Goddess (Diana) Artemis , Act 19:24-41 .
The great Ephesian goddess Artemis (improperly here transformed into the Latin goddess Diana) was, as the picture of her image here exhibited illustrates, the personification of earth or NATURE in her generative, productive, and nourishing energies and manifestations. Like earth, she bore a mural coronal, a crown of walls; and, as the nourishing all-mother, she exhibited a countless number of nippled breasts. As generative nature-goddess she presided over human conception and childbirth, and her temple was once burned on the birthnight of Alexander the Great, because the great goddess was absent attending the great man’s infantile advent. As cherishing nature-goddess, the Ephesian spells derived from her person such energizing strength as to give all-conquering power to those who wore them. Hence, too, she was patron of health and of medicine, of the preparation of herbs, drugs, and charms, which could cast out demons, invigorate the corporeal system, and guard from danger and harm. Hereby she was a fountain of sorcery and juggle. Magical science flourished under her shadow. She stood in dark connection with subterranean and infernal powers and agencies. From her precincts a body of magical professors sprang, and travelling wizards and exorcists sallied forth into all adjacent regions.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
24. Shrines The shrines were portable images or models of the temple of Artemis, or rather of the central chapel enclosed by the temple, and in which the image of the goddess was encased. The shrine was made of wood or metal, and probably contained an image of the great image. As the goddess was worshipped not only in “all Asia,” but “all the world,” these shrines were in great demand for world-wide exportation. They were supposed to communicate all those blessings of health, vigour, safety, offspring, and prosperity of which the original nature-goddess was author. To secure those blessings the shrines were worn about the person, retained in the home, or deposited in some neighbouring temple. Hence we see they were the material of an abundant trade for their manufacturers in Ephesus.
Demetrius If not proprietor of the entire manufactory or sale of the shrines, this person was at any rate qualified in brain and tongue for leading a stirring movement. The preaching of Paul, the growth of his Church, the spreading scepticism chording with the advancing civilization of the age, was making its impression. Of this the shrine market was test, and was exhibiting unwelcome proofs. A counter movement was imperatively necessary.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis (Latin: Diana), brought no little business to the craftsmen, whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, “Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth.” ’
Behind the trouble was a business magnate, Demetrius, who operated in silver. He may have been an overseer of the silversmiths’ guild. His business made ‘silver shrines’, and he employed the services of many people and cooperated in business activity with many more. Until Paul arrived all had been going very well, and trade was brisk. Silver shrines sold like hot cakes. But Paul’s coming had affected trade. People who became Christians were not interested in shrines which were ‘gods made with hands’, and due to the widescale advance of the word, they had consequently all lost many good customers.
So he called together all who were involved in the trade to discuss what should be done. He pointed out to them that their wealth depended on selling the silver shrines. If the market dried up they would be ruined. It is very probable that we have here in this gathering an example of a trade guild, in which members of a trade would gather together. There were many such guilds for different professions, and the Romans were not very keen on them and sought to limit them by legislation. There were severe laws about illegal associations. But they were popular because they provided a means of mutual support and trade protection, although their main purpose was social interaction. They presented a problem to Christians who worked in those trades for they tended to have idolatrous associations.
The reasons behind the Roman objection to such guilds comes out in the much later reply of the Emperor Trajan to Pliny when he wanted to form a fire brigade. He replied, ‘It is to be remembered that societies of this sort have greatly disturbed the peace of the province — whatever name we give them, and for whatever purpose they may have been founded, they will not fail to transform themselves into factious assemblies’. This was always a danger with ‘unofficial’ gatherings of any kind.
The ‘shrines’ may have been replicas, on a small scale, of the image of Artemis (which could be seen in the temple) which was considered to have ‘fallen from heaven’. That was very possibly a meteorite, the appearance of which with a number of protuberances on it had been seen as suggestive, and which may then have been shaped into a likeness of the goddess with her many breasts.
Or the ‘silver shrines’ may have consisted of small plaques of shrines containing such an image, of which examples have been discovered. They would be sold as mementoes, votive offerings, burial items and in order to grace idol shelves in homes. They would be made of various materials such as silver, terracotta, lead or marble to suit all tastes and pockets.
This Artemis was not the same as the divinely beautiful Artemis of the Greeks, although they were often equated, but was the ancient Anatolian fertility goddess who was worshipped all over Asia Minor in the form of a nature religion, and depicted as rather ugly and many breasted, her main image probably being an asteroid with suggestive protuberances, possibly partly shaped in a rough way by priests, and revered because it had fallen from the gods. Her worship was conducted by a high priest who was a eunuch, and there were other eunuch priests and three classes of priestess courtesans. Her fertility rites would undoubtedly have encouraged very loose sexual behaviour (compare Rev 2:14; Rev 2:20) as fertility rites regularly did. Her huge temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was supported by over one hundred massive pillars. It was a major treasury for the ancient world, acting as a bank where large sums of money could be kept safe under the protection of the goddess. Cult and business enterprise were thus closely linked, and its importance to Ephesus, and the world, is clear.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Act 19:24. Demetriuswhich made silver shrines for Diana, These shrines, it has been generally supposed, were little models of the famous temple of Diana, with folding-doors; which being opened, the image of the idol goddess was seen placed therein. The votaries of Diana who came to worship at Ephesus, used to purchase them; and it is not unlikely, that upon their return home, they set them up, and consecrated them in their private or domestic heathen chapels. This opinion is rendered probable by a variety of passages in ancient authors. Beza, however, and others conjecture, that the business of Demetrius might possibly be, making a sort of coins or medals, on the reverse of which the temple was represented: and in Beza’s Greek Testament, we have a print of one of these medals, in which the image itself is exhibited as seen through the open doors of the temple. It is possible that this company of workmen might take in those who wrought in all these idolatrous commodities; and likewise those who made a kind of pageants, intended for public processions, in which Diana was represented in a kind of moveable chapel, resembling her great temple, in a larger proportion than these supposed shrines or models.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Act 19:24 . The silver-beater ( ) Demetrius had a manufactory, in which little silver temples ( ) representing the splendid (Callimach. Hymn. in Dian. 249) temple of Diana [98] with the statue of the goddess, (Chrysostom), were made. These miniature temples must have found great sale, partly among Ephesians, partly among strangers, as it was a general custom to carry such miniature shrines as amulets with them in journeys, and to place them in their houses (Dio Cass. xxxix. 20; Diod. Sic. i. 15; Amm. Marc. xxii. 13; Dougt. Anal. II. p. 91); and particularly as the was such a universally venerated object of worship (Creuzer, Symbol . II. p. 176 ff.; Preller, Mythol. I. p. 196 ff.; Hermann, gottesd. Alterth. lxvi. 4, lxviii. 39). We are not to think of coins with the impression of the temple (in opposition to Beza, Scaliger, Piscator, Valckenaer), as the naming of coins after the figure impressed on them ( boves, puellae, pulli, testudines ; see Beza in loc. ) is only known in reference to living creatures; nor can the existence of such coins with the impress of the Ephesian temple be historically proved.
[98] See concerning this temple, burned by Herostratus on the night in which Alexander the Great was born, and afterwards built with greater magnificence, Hirt, d. Temp. d. Diana z. Ephes. , Berlin 1809.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
24 For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;
Ver. 24. Which made silver shrines ] Gr. temples, Templa portatilia, small portable temples, resembling that greater temple of Diana; as now the Agnus Dei (lamb of God) among the Papists. (Beza.) Some say they were little houses or caskets to put the idols in. (Casaubon.) Others, small coins stamped with the image of that famous temple. (Piscator.) Idolatrous trinkets they were, such as brought no small gain to the craftsmen, to whom gain was godliness.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24. . ] These were small models ( ) of the celebrated temple of the Ephesian Artemis, with her statue, which it was the custom to carry on journeys, and place in houses, as a charm. Chrys. ; . Ammian. Marcellin. xxii. 13: ‘Asclepiades philosophus de clestis argenteum breve figmentum quocunque ibat secum solitus efferre.’ Diod. Sic. i. 15: . Dio Cass. xxxix. 20: . We may find an exact parallel in the usages of that corrupt form of Christianity, which, whatever it may pretend to teach, in practice honours similarly the “great goddess” of its imagination.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 19:24 . .: a sufficiently common name, as St. Luke’s words show (Blass). There is no ground for identifying him with the Demetrius in 3 John, Act 19:12 , except the fact that both came from the neighbourhood of Ephesus; see, however, “Demetrius,” Hastings’ B.D. , LXX, Jdg 17:4 (A al. ), Jer 6:29 ; on the trade-guilds in Asia Minor cf. Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia , i., p. 105, and “Ephesus,” Hastings’ B. D.; Church in the Roman Empire , p. 128; Demetrius may have been master of the guild for the year. . : “silver shrines of Diana,” R.V., i.e. , representing the shrine of Diana (Artemis) with the statue of the goddess within ( , Chrys.). These miniature temples were bought up by Ephesians and strangers alike, since the worship of the goddess was so widely spread, and since the “shrines” were made sufficiently small to be worn as amulets on journeys, as well as to be placed as ornaments in houses. There is no need to suppose that they were coins with a representation of the temple stamped upon them, and there is no evidence of the existence of such coins; Amm. Marc., xxii., 13, Dio Cass., xxxix., 20, cf. Blass and Wendt, in loco. They were first explained correctly by Curtius, Athenische Mittheilungen , ii., 49. Examples of these in terra-cotta or marble with dedicatory inscriptions abound in the neighbourhood of Ephesus. No examples in silver have been found, but they were naturally melted down owing to their intrinsic value, “Diana” (Ramsay), Hastings’ B.D., and Church in the Roman Empire, u. s. On the interesting but apparently groundless hypothesis (as Zckler calls it, Apostelgeschichte , p. 277, second edition) that Demetrius should be identified with Demetrius, the of an inscription at Ephesus which probably dated from a considerably later time, the very close of the first century, being really a temple warden, the words being mistaken by the author of Acts and rendered “making silver shrines of Diana,” see Zckler, u. s.; and Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire , p. 112 ff.; and Wendt (1899), p. 317. As Ramsay puts it, there is no extant use of such a phrase as . . in any authority about A.D. 57, simply being the term used in inscriptions found at Ephesus as Hicks himself allows ( Church in the Roman Empire , pp. 122, 123). , see critical note or reading in Blass. Rendall distinguishes between active voice, Act 16:16 , where the slave girl finds work for her masters, whilst here, middle voice, Demetrius finds work for himself and his fellow-craftsmen in their joint employment. “business,” R.V., in Act 16:16 ; Act 16:19 , “gain”; here the two meanings run into each other, in Act 19:25 “business,” R.V., is perhaps more in accordance with the context , Lucan, see on Act 19:23 . : “alii erant , artifices nobiliores; alii , operarii,” so Zckler and Grimm-Thayer following Bengel. But Blass regards them as the same, cf. reading in , and Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire , p. 128, note. There were no doubt shrines of widely differing value, for the rich of silver made by the richer tradesmen, for the poorer classes of marble and terracotta, so that several trades were no doubt seriously affected, Ramsay, St. Paul , p. 278, and “Ephesus,” u. s., Church in the Roman Empire , p. 128, and to the same effect Wendt (1899), p. 317. The word occurs in one of the inscriptions at Ephesus, . , “Ephesus,” u. s. , p. 723, note.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
named = by name.
silversmith. Greek. argurokopos. Literally silver-beater. Only here.
shrines. Greek. naos. See note on Mat 23:16. Here a shrine meant an image of the goddess and part of the famous temple. These might be large enough to make ornaments for rooms or small enough to be carried as charms. On the reverse of a coin of Ephesus in the British Museum is a facade of the temple with a figure of Artemis in the centre.
for = of.
Diana. Greek. Artemis. Not the chaste huntress of popular mythology, but an Oriental deity who personified the bountifulness of nature. An alabaster statue in the museum of Naples represents her with a castellated crown, and many breasts, with various emblematic figures indicating that she is the universal mother of all creation. Layard, in Nineveh and its Remains, gives reasons for identifying her with Semiramis, the Queen of Babylon, from whom all the licentiousness in ancient worship proceeded.
gain. Greek. ergasia. See note on Act 16:16.
craftsmen. Greek. technites. Only here, Act 19:38. Heb 11:10. Rev 18:22. Compare Act 18:3.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
24. .] These were small models () of the celebrated temple of the Ephesian Artemis, with her statue, which it was the custom to carry on journeys, and place in houses, as a charm. Chrys. ; . Ammian. Marcellin. xxii. 13: Asclepiades philosophus de clestis argenteum breve figmentum quocunque ibat secum solitus efferre. Diod. Sic. i. 15: . Dio Cass. xxxix. 20: . We may find an exact parallel in the usages of that corrupt form of Christianity, which, whatever it may pretend to teach, in practice honours similarly the great goddess of its imagination.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 19:24. , silver shrines) silver models of the temple or clinodia, which represented the form of the temple of Diana. Similar coins also were made. The margin of the map of Palestine has a copy of them in Hedingers Bible.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
shrines: , temples, probably portable silver models of the temple of Diana, and small images of the goddess, somewhat like the Santa Casa purchased by pilgrims at Loretto.
Diana: Act 19:27, Act 19:28, Act 19:34, Act 19:35
brought: Act 16:16, Isa 56:11, Isa 56:12, 1Ti 6:9, 1Ti 6:10
Reciprocal: Gen 34:23 – General Ecc 10:13 – beginning Isa 41:6 – helped Isa 44:11 – let them all Jer 12:6 – yea Jer 26:9 – And all Dan 5:4 – of gold Joh 2:16 – make Act 16:19 – the hope Act 17:5 – and set Act 19:38 – Demetrius 1Ti 6:5 – supposing Rev 18:15 – which
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
FALSE ZEAL
A certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana.
Act 19:24
Demetrius is a type of those who debase religion by their covetous-ness. He sold silver shrines made by the operatives of Ephesus. These shrines were probably representatives of the famous temple, with the figure of the goddess. They sold freely, not only to worshippers, but also to strangers who were constantly visiting Ephesus. They paid well. This was the chief importance of them, and shrewd, and long-headed, and calculating, there was a keen perception of the danger which was involved in the success of Pauls preaching. There was no care for the truth as truth. There was no interest in the effects of the truth. The whole matter began and ended with the trade of the silversmiths, which was endangered; and so Demetrius, like other false zealots who pretend to care for the errors of men or the true doctrine of religion, began to make a great stir in favour of the great goddess. But, secretly his only desire was to preserve his own livelihood and fortune. How many men there are who are zealous for God and for righteousness just in the same way that Demetrius was for Diana. This zeal is not according to knowledge. We should learn to distinguish between false and true zeal.
I. False zeal is always selfish.It sets the individual uppermost and foremost and in the midst of the life.
II. False zeal is fitful.There is no abiding property in it. It cannot stay. Men cannot depend upon it, and God does not. It endures but for a little while, and then it becomes dull, and it smoulders itself into coldness or death.
III. False zeal is full of duplicity.It never gives the true reason either for its activities or for its cessation of works in which it was visibly engaged. The craft was in danger, but Demetrius did not say so. All that he said in private was meant to arouse the prejudices and excite the animosities of the workmen. Their cry was not we are in danger of losing our maintenance, but our Church is in danger; the great goddess is being reviled, her worship will be neglected, her temple will be deserted.
IV. False zeal is destructive.It has no respect for even the most sacred things, if they stand in its way. It rushes on blindly, heedlessly, and allows no considerations, human or divine, to restrain it in its course. Truth and righteousness harmonise together, and harmonise all conflicting interests. God loves sacrifice. But if a man despise mercy in his blind zeal, God says, I will have mercy and not sacrifice.
V. A true zeal is intelligent because it is the earnestness of real convictions.It is like a sunbeamit has both light and heat in it. There is no one-sidedness in it. It is fair, as remembering the manifoldness of human interests and the place and power of each. It is deliberate, calm, self-contained, mighty, and it holds on to the end. It says with bated breath, not in proud boastfulness and arrogance, This one thing I do; but, while it does it, it remembers how much else is to be done and is being done, and it is tolerant, patient, much-enduring.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
4
Act 19:24. Diana was a heathen goddess and a temple was built for her at Ephesus. Demetrius and his fellow workers made a great deal of money by forming shrines, which were small models of the temple, selling them to travelers who wished them for souvenirs.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 19:24. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana. The temple of Artemis or Diana, the glory of Ephesus, was built of white marble on an eminence at the head of the harbour, and was esteemed by the ancients as one of the wonders of the world. The sun, it was said, in its course saw nothing more magnificent than the temple of Diana at Ephesus. There were three temples built in succession on the spot to the goddess. Of the earliest, which was erected in the days of the Athenian colonists, we know little or nothing. The second temple was erected previous to the Macedonian reign, and its adornment was shared in by all the cities of Asia. Crsus, king of Lydia, was among those who contributed. The work was begun before the Persian war, and was slowly continued even through the Peloponnesian war; its dedication was celebrated by a poet contemporary with Euripides. On the night in which Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, was born, a fanatic named Herostratus set the buildings on fire and the temple was destroyed. It rose, however, again speedily from its ashes, and was adorned with more sumptuous magnificence than before. History tells us how the ladies of Ephesus gave their jewellery to assist in the restoration work. The citizens were never tired of adding to the grandeur and stateliness of their temple. So late as the second century, a long colonnade was built which united the fane with the city. When the Goths sacked Ephesus in the reign of Gallienus, the Diana temple was robbed of its treasures and defaced. It was never restored; and as Paganism gradually, during the third and fourth centuries, sank into disrepute and oblivion, the famous temple of Ephesus remained a deserted ruinserving, however, as a quarry whence precious stones and marbles were hewn out for the decoration of cathedrals and churches where the God whom Paul the wandering tentmaker had originally preached in Ephesus was alone worshipped. Its stately remains are still to be found in some of the Italian churches, but more especially in the desecrated mosque of Stamboul, once Justinians proud cathedral of St. Sophia, the metropolitan church of the East.
The temple at Ephesus dedicated to Artemis (Diana) was of vast size and of exquisite proportions, 425 feet in length and 220 feet in breadth. It was supported by columns sixty feet high. There were 127 of these pillars, each of them, we are told, the gift of a king; the folding-doors were of cypress wood; the part which was not open to the sky was roofed over with cedar; the staircase was formed of the wood of one single vine from the island of Cyprus. In the temple treasury in its palmy days a great treasure was supposed to be laid up. A large establishment of priests, priestesses, and attendants was kept up for the service of the goddess. Provision was made for the education of the young connected with this great centre of idolatrous worship, which was visited annually by a vast concourse of pilgrims from all parts of the known world.
Brought no small gain unto the craftsmen. The pilgrims worshipping at the shrine were in the habit, before they left Ephesus, of buying as memorials of their visit small models of the temple, and a shrine possibly containing a little image of the goddess. These were made in wood, and gold, and silver. The workmen of Demetrius used the last-named material. These little models of temples were very common among pagan peoples, and were termed . They were often set up in their homes on their return as objects of worship, and were not unfrequently of such a size as could be carried about upon the person, and were looked on in the latter case as charms or amulets which had the power to avert diseases and other dangers. These models were not only sold in Ephesus, but were sent as articles of traffic into distant countries. The little shrines of Diana of Ephesus are expressly mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes on verse 23
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 24
Silver shrines for Diana; silver models of the temple of Diana, a most magnificent edifice at Ephesus, celebrated all over the world.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
19:24 For a certain [man] named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver {l} shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;
(l) These were special counterfeit temples with Diana’s picture in them, which those who worshipped her bought.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
There were two goddesses named Artemis (Greek) or Diana (Latin) that Gentiles worshipped in the Roman Empire at this time. One was the goddess of the hunt, usually pictured as a young woman carrying a hunting bow. The other was a fertility goddess portrayed as a woman with many breasts. The latter was the one especially venerated in Ephesus. There were at least 33 other places of Artemis worship in the ancient world, but the temple in Ephesus was the chief worship center. [Note: Ladd, "The Acts . . .," p. 1161. Strabo, Geography 4.1.5.] Pausanias, who wrote in the middle of the second century A.D., claimed that the Artemis cult was the most widely followed one in the ancient world. [Note: Pausanias, Description of Hellas 4.31.8, cited by Witherington, p. 587.]
The temple of Diana in Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and many historians believe it was one of the most beautiful buildings ever built. [Note: See my comments on Act 19:1-2 above.] It stood on the side of Mount Pion about a mile northeast of the city and served as a bank as well as a place of worship and cultic immorality. It could accommodate about 25,000 people and was probably the largest Greek temple ever built. Its centerpiece was evidently a meteorite that resembled a woman with many breasts. Other meteorites that became sacred cult objects were at Troy, Pessinus, Enna, and Emeas. [Note: See Longenecker, p. 502.]
The silversmiths in Ephesus took Artemis as their patron saint and, among their other wares, made miniature silver shrines containing images of the goddess that they sold to devotees. As Christianity spread, interest in Artemis and the market for her statuettes declined. The leader of the guild that made these trinkets was Demetrius.
"When pilgrims came to Ephesus they liked to take a souvenir home. These silversmiths were makers of little silver model shrines which were bought and sold as souvenirs." [Note: Barclay, p. 160.]
Alternatively, worshippers may have presented these model shrines as votive offerings when they visited the temple, as some people purchase candles that they proceed to light and leave in churches today. [Note: Witherington, p. 590.]