Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 19:25
Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.
25. whom he called [Better, gathered ] together with the workmen of like occupation ] His own special craft was the carving and engraving of these shrines, as we learn from the word rendered silversmith. But before the work reached that higher stage, the materials had to pass through many hands in preparation, and from the smelter of the metal up to him who added the final touches of adornment and polishing, all were concerned in the threatened loss of trade.
and said our wealth ] He appeals to them at once because they are enriched and make gain by their craft.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
With the workmen of like occupation – Those who were in his employ, and all others engaged in the same business. As they would be all affected in the same way, it was easy to produce an excitement among them all.
Sirs – Greek: Men.
By this craft – By this business or occupation. This is our trade.
Our wealth – Greek: our acquisition; our property. We are dependent on it for a living. It does not mean that they were rich, but that they relied on this for a subsistence. That it was a lucrative business is apparent, but it is not affirmed that they were in fact rich.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 25. By this craft we have our wealth.] The word not only signifies wealth, but also abundance. It was a most lucrative trade; and he plainly saw that, if the apostles were permitted to go on thus preaching, the worship of Diana itself would be destroyed; and, consequently, all the gain that he and his fellows derived from it would be brought to nought.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Gain, getting or keeping a livelihood, are great temptations, and, a little pretext of piety with them, keep up the superstition and false worship that abound in the world.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
25. Whom he called together with theworkmen of like occupationrather, “with the workmen (orfabricators) of such articles,” meaning the artisans employed bythe master-artificers, all who manufactured any kind of memorial ofthe temple and its worship for sale.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Whom he called together,…. That is, the craftsmen; “all his co-artificers”, as the Syriac version reads, all the chief of the trade, the masters of it, as he himself was:
with the workmen of like occupation; who were employed by him, and the rest of the masters in the several branches of the business; as founders, engravers, polishers, c. some might make the images, and others the temples, or shrines some do one part and some another, so that abundance of persons might be employed in this business:
and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth; the workmen not only had a comfortable and sufficient livelihood, but the masters of the trade grew rich: such a demand had they for their goods, and so profitable was this craft to them: this was a very strong and moving argument, to influence the masters and workmen; it so nearly touched them, and their worldly interest, than which nothing sticks closer to carnal men. Demetrius’s way of address was very moving and persuasive, but his method manifestly betrayed what was his greatest concern, not religion, but his own secular interest; that which he should have mentioned last, if at all, he begins with: self is the leading and governing principle in a natural man.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Whom he gathered together ( ). First aorist active participle of , old verb to assemble together (, a crowd), in the N.T. only here and Ac 12:12.
With the workmen of like occupation ( ). “And the workmen concerning such things,” apparently those who made the marble and terra-cotta shrines who would also be affected in the same way. It was a gathering of the associated trades, not for a strike, for employer and employees met together, but in protest against the preaching of Paul.
We have our wealth ( ). The wealth is to us (dative of possession). This old word for wealth occurs here alone in the N.T. It is from and , easy to pass through, easy to accomplish, to be well off, wealthy, welfare, weal, well-being, rich. Demetrius appeals to this knowledge and self-interest of the artisans as the basis for their zeal for Artemis, piety for revenue.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Wealth [] . See on ability, ch. 11 29. Lit., welfare. Wealth is used by the A. V. in the older and more general sense of weal, or well – being generally. Compare the Litany of the English Church : “In all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Whom he called together,” (ous sunsthroisas) “Whom he called, assembled in colleague,” he summoned to a council to discuss their fears of loss, in their common-cause-craft. Demetrius is said to have been a contemptible little Jew who loved the dollar, above Jewish law, and hated Paul and the church for their interference in his trade profits, Joh 15:20.
2) “With the workmen of like occupation “ (kai tous peri ta toiauta ergatas) “As well as the workmen engaged in such things in the area,” a sort of workmen’s union, trade, or guild, that bound the common craft workmen to each other’s defense when personal danger of loss in business matters seemed at hand.
3) “And said, Sirs, ye know,” (eipen andres epistasthe) “And said, men you all understand,” you all realize, or are aware. Demetrius was the chairman, presiding officer, or lead spokesman, as master, chief or overseer who introduced or laid before them and defined the problem they faced.
4) “That by this craft we have our wealth.” (hoti ek tautes tes ergasias he euporia hemin estin) “That from this trade we have our gain,” profit or livelihood, by engaging in this false-god making trade “we have, hold, or secure our wealth;” The trade, like prostitution, the liquor, or gambling business, was morally and ethically wrong; The moral aspect didn’t bother Demetrius, it was the ego of profit from the production of the silver shrines, the “love of money at any cost,” that disturbed him. Like the rich barn builder and the rich man who later cried for mercy in hell, he was covetous for money for the moment, Luk 12:16-21; Luk 16:19-31; 1Jn 2:15-17.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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25. By this craft. Demetrius doth in this place filthily betray his malice. It is lawful for a man, in some measure, to provide for his private profit; but to trouble common [the public] peace for a man’s own gain, to overthrow − (388) equity and right, to give over a man’s self to do violence and commit murder, to extinguish that of set purpose which is just and right; that is too great wickedness. Demetrius confesseth that this is the state of the cause, because, [viz. that] Paul denieth that those are gods which are made with men’s hands. He doth not inquire whether this be true or no; but being blinded with a desire to get gain, he is carried headlong to oppress true doctrine. The same blindness doth drive him headlong to seek violent remedies. Also the craftsmen, because they be afraid of poverty and hunger, run headlong as violently; for the belly is blind and deaf, so that it can admit no equity. For which cause, every one of us ought more to suspect himself, when the question is touching our own gain and profit, lest the same covetous desire which made these men so mad take away all difference of justice and injustice, of that which is filthy and that which is honest. −
(388) −
“
Pervertere,” to pervert.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(25) The workmen of like occupation.The craftsmen of the previous verse represent the higher class of what we call skilled labour. Here we have the unskilled labourers whom they employed. The former were, in a sense, artists, these were artisans.
Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.Literally, Men, the word used being different from that in Act. 16:30. The word for craft is the same as that translated gain in Act. 16:19, where see Note. The opening words of Demetrius bring before us, with an almost naive simplicity, the element of vested interests which has at all times played so prominent a part in the resistance to religious and political reforms, and entered largely into the persecutions against which the early preachers of the gospel had to contend. Every city had its temples and priests, its flamens, its oracles or sanctuaries. Sacrifices and feasts created a market for industry which would otherwise have been wanting. In its later development, the Christian Church, employing the services of art, encouraging pilgrimages, organising conventual and collegiate institutions, created a market of another kind, and thus gave rise to new vested interests, which in their turn were obstacles to the work of reformation. At first, however, the absence of the aesthetic element in the aims and life of the Church seemed to threaten those who were occupied in such arts with an entire loss of livelihood, and roused them to a fierce antagonism.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Act 19:25-26 . Demetrius assembled not only the artisans ( ) who worked for him, but also the other workmen who were occupied in similar industrial occupations ( ). Bengel correctly remarks: “Alii erant , artifices nobiliores, alii operarii.”
] without , like the Latin non modo sed , contains a climax; see Maetzn. ad Antiph. p. 129; Bremi, ad Isocr. Exc. IX.; Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 317 [E. T. 369].
.] namely, from the worship of the gods.
] The people identified the statues of the gods with the gods themselves, or at least believed that the numen of the divinity filled them. See Elsner, Obss. p. 453 ff.; Wolf, Cur. ; Hermann, gottesd. Alterth. xviii. 19.
Observe the order of the words, accordant with their emphasis, marked also by dislocation in Act 19:26 , and the scornful and bitter : that Paul there!
is predicate. How Paul looked on the heathen gods, may be seen at 1Co 8:4 ; 1Co 10:20 . The gods = images , were to him of course only the work of men, without any reality of that which they were intended to represent. Comp. Act 17:29 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
25 Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.
Ver. 25. By this craft we have our wealth ] And wealth is the wordling’s god, which he prizeth, as Micah did his idol; and can as hardly forego it. What a cursing made Micah’s mother in the loss of her eleven hundred shekels of silver, Jdg 17:2 , and what a hubbub raised Micah all the country over, when the Danites had despoiled him of his dunghill deity,Jdg 18:22-27Jdg 18:22-27 . So did the silversmiths here, and they thought they had reason to be thus mad when their trade was taken away.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
25. ] All sorts of memorials or amulets connected with the worship of Artemis.
Dean Howson (ii. p. 98) suggests that possibly Alexander the coppersmith may have been one of these craftsmen: see 2Ti 4:14 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 19:25 . , cf. Luk 10:40-41 , for a similar use of with accusative, but see W. H., l. c. , and 2Ma 12:1 . : wealth, or gain, only here in N.T., in classical Greek “in different senses in different authorities,” Grimm-Thayer; in LXX, 2Ki 25:10 , but in a different sense (see Hatch and Redpath’s references to its use by Aquila, Symm., and others). Rendall takes it of comfort and well-being, in the old English sense weal .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
called together = gathered together. See note on Act 12:12.
with = and.
workmen. Greek. ergates. A general term.
of like occupation. Literally concerning (Greek. peri. App-104.) such things. The shrines were made in terra-cotta, marble, &c, as well as silver. Demetrius was a guild-master of the silversmiths’ guild, or trade union, and perhaps the other workmen had their own guilds.
Sirs. Greek. aner. App-123. See note on Act 7:26.
by = out of. Greek. ek. App-104.
craft. Same as “gain”, Act 19:24.
wealth. Greek. euporia. Only here. Compare “ability”, Act 11:29.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
25. ] All sorts of memorials or amulets connected with the worship of Artemis.
Dean Howson (ii. p. 98) suggests that possibly Alexander the coppersmith may have been one of these craftsmen: see 2Ti 4:14.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 19:25. , workmen) The , the artificers of a nobler class, were distinct from the , workmen.- , gain, wealth) It is upon the plea of this that the faith is often crushed.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
ye know: Act 16:19, Hos 4:8, Hos 12:7, Hos 12:8, 2Pe 2:3, Rev 18:3, Rev 18:11-19
Reciprocal: Jer 15:10 – a man
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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Act 19:25. Demetrius became concerned over the prospect of losing this business and he called a meeting of his partners in the trade.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 19:25. Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation. No doubt this Demetrius, who was probably chief of the guild of silversmiths, as we should say, summoned a meeting of the various trades who derived their livelihood in one way or another from the temple of Diana and the pilgrims who resorted to her shrine.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes on verse 23
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Demetrius’ words establish the extent to which the gospel had penetrated Asia and the effect it had. There is no stronger testimony than the words of a critic who acknowledges the success of his adversary. Obviously financial loss motivated Demetrius to organize this protest as much as, or perhaps more than, veneration for the goddess Artemis. Artemis was known as a major supporter of chastity, being a virgin goddess. [Note: Ibid., p. 587.]
". . . vested interests were disguised as local patriotism-in this case also under the cloak of religious zeal." [Note: Neil, p. 207.]
"In an honor-shame culture such as this one, public humiliation, or being seen as merely mercenary individuals, could ruin reputations and so one’s livelihood." [Note: Witherington, p. 592.]
"The guilds, and the problem they presented to the non-conforming Christian, haunt the background of the New Testament. They were societies not trade unions, primarily social, and multitudinous in ancient society. Records exist of guilds of bankers, doctors, architects, producers of woollen and linen goods, dyers, workers in metal, stone or clay, builders, carpenters, pastry cooks, barbers, embalmers and transport workers." [Note: Blaiklock, p. 158.]
The only other protest by Gentiles against the gospel that Luke recorded in Acts also resulted from financial loss (cf. Act 16:16-24). The profit motive still opposes the spread of the gospel.
". . . you cannot step on a man’s pocketbook without hearing him say, ’Ouch!’" [Note: McGee, 4:600.]