Paul establishes the church at Ephesus. The tumult of the silversmiths.
Hovv Paul began the Church of Ephesus, first in 1• that vvere baptized vvith Iohns baptisme, • then preaching three moneths in the Synagogue of the Ievves, vntil for their obstinacie and blaspheming, he forsooke them, disputing aftervvard in a certaine schoole for tvvo yeres space to the maruelous increase of the Church, specially through his great miracles also, in healing diseases vvith the touche of his clothes, and expelling diuels, 13 vvho yet contemned the Exorcists of the Ievves. 18 Hovv the Christians there confesse their actes, and burne their vnlavvful bookes: 21 and hovv he foretold that after he had been at Hierusalem, he must see Rome. 23 and vvhat a great sedition vvas raised against him at Ephesus, by them that got their liuing of vvorking to the idolatrous Temple of Diana.
1And it came to pass, while Apollo was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper coasts, came to Ephesus and found certain disciples.Or egli avvenne, che mentre Apollo era in Corinto, Paolo, scorse le provincie superiori, giunse ad Efeso, e vi trovò alcuni discepoli:AND it came to passe vvhen Apollo vvas at Corinth, that Paul hauing gone through the higher partes came to Ephesus, and found certaine disciples:Factum est autem cum Apollo esset Corinthi, ut Paulus peragratis superioribus partibus veniret Ephesum, et inveniret quosdam discipulos: 2And he said to them: Have you received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? But they said to him: We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost.E disse loro: Avete voi ricevuto lo Spirito santo dopo, che avete creduto? Ma quelli gli dissero: Non abbiamo nemmeno sentito a dire, se siavi lo Spirito santo.and he said to them, Haue you receiued the holy Ghost, beleeuing? But they said to him, Nay, neither haue vve heard whether there be a holy Ghost.dixitque ad eos: Si Spiritum Sanctum accepistis credentes ? At illi dixerunt ad eum: Sed neque si Spiritus Sanctus est, audivimus. 3And he said: In what then were you baptized? Who said: In John’s baptism.Ed egli gli disse: in (nome di) chi adunque siete stati battezzati? E quelli dissero: Col battesimo di Giovanni.But he said, In vvhat then vvere you baptized? Vvho said, In Iohns baptisme.Ille vero ait: In quo ergo baptizati estis ? Qui dixerunt: In Joannis baptismate. 4Then Paul said: John baptized the people with the baptism of penance saying: That they should believe in him, who was to come after him, that is to say, in Jesus.Ma disse Paolo: Giovanni battezzò con battesimo di penitenza il popolo dicendo, che credessero in quello, il quale dovea venir dopo di lui, cioè in Gesù.And Paul said: Iohn baptized the people vvith the baptisme of penance, saying: That they should beleeue in him that vvas to come after him, that is to say, in IESVS.Dixit autem Paulus: Joannes baptizavit baptismo pœnitentiæ populum, dicens in eum qui venturus esset post ipsum ut crederent, hoc est, in Jesum. 5Having heard these things, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.Udite tali cose furono battezzati nel nome del Signore Gesù.Hearing these things, they vvere baptized in the name of our Lord IESVS.His auditis, baptizati sunt in nomine Domini Jesu. 6And when Paul had imposed his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them: and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.E avendo Paolo imposte loro le mani, venne sopra di essi lo Spirito santo, e parlavan le lingue, e profetavano.And vvhen Paul had imposed hands on them, the holy Ghost came vpon them, and they spake vvith tongues, and prophecied.Et cum imposuisset illis manus Paulus, venit Spiritus Sanctus super eos, et loquebantur linguis, et prophetabant.
7And all the men were about twelve.Questi erano in tutto circa dodici uomini.And all the men vvere about tvvelue.Erant autem omnes viri fere duodecim. 8And entering into the synagogue, he spoke boldly for the space of three months, disputing and exhorting concerning the kingdom of God.Ed entrato nella Sinagoga parlava liberamente, disputando per tre mesi, e rendendo ragione delle cose del regno di Dio.And entring in to the synagogue, he spake confidently for three moneths, disputing and exhorting of the kingdom of God.Introgressus autem synagogam, cum fiducia loquebatur per tres menses, disputans et suadens de regno Dei. 9But when some were hardened and believed not, speaking evil of the way of the Lord before the multitude, departing from them, he separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.Ma indurandosi alcuni, e non credendo, e dicendo male della via del Signore dinanzi alla moltitudine, ritiratosi da coloro, segregò i discepoli, e disputava ogni di nella scuola di un certo Tiranno.But vvhen certaine vvere indûrate, and beleeued not, il-speaking the vvay of our Lord before the multitude, departing from them, he separated the disciples, daily disputing in the schole of one Tyrannus.Cum autem quidam indurarentur, et non crederent, maledicentes viam Domini coram multitudine, discedens ab eis, segregavit discipulos, quotidie disputans in schola tyranni cujusdam. 10And this continued for the space of two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Gentiles.E ciò fu per due anni, talmente che tutti quelli, che abitavan nell'Asia, udirono la parola del Signore e Giudei, e Greci.An this vvas done for the space of tvvo yeres, so that al vvhich dvvelt in Asia, heard the vvord of our Lord, Ievves and Gentils.Hoc autem factum est per biennium, ita ut omnes qui habitabant in Asia audirent verbum Domini, Judæi atque gentiles. 11And God wrought by the hand of Paul more than common miracles.E miracoli non ordinari faceva Dio per mano di Paolo:And God vvrought by the hand of Paul miracles not common:Virtutesque non quaslibet faciebat Deus per manum Pauli, 12So that even there were brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons: and the diseases departed from them: and the wicked spirits went out of them.Di modo che persino portavansi ai malati i fazzoletti, e le fasce state sul corpo di lui, e partivansi da essi le malattie, e gli spiriti cattivi ne uscivano.so that there vvere also brought from his body • napkins or, handkerchefs vpon the sicke, and the diseases departed from them, and the vvicked spirits vvent out.ita ut etiam super languidos deferrentur a corpore ejus sudaria et semicinctia, et recedebant ab eis languores, et spiritus nequam egrediebantur.
13Now some also of the Jewish exorcists, who went about, attempted to invoke over them that had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying: I conjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth.E si provarono anche alcuni di que', che andavano attorno esorcisti Giudei, ad invocare il nome del Signore Gesù sopra coloro, che avevano degli spiriti cattivi, dicendo: Vi scongiuro per quel Gesù predicato da Paolo.And certaine also of the Iudaical exorcists that vvent about, assaied to inuocate vpon them that had euil spirits, the name of our Lord IESVS, saying, I adiure you by IESVS vvhom Paul preacheth.Tentaverunt autem quidam et de circumeuntibus Judæis exorcistis invocare super eos qui habebant spiritus malos nomen Domini Jesu, dicentes: Adjuro vos per Jesum, quem Paulus prædicat. 14And there were certain men, seven sons of Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, that did this.Que', che facevan questo, erano sette figli di Sceva Giudeo principe de' sacerdoti.And there vvere certaine sonnes of Sceua a Ievve, cheefe priest, seuen, that did this.Erant autem quidam Judæi, Scevæ principis sacerdotum septem filii, qui hoc faciebant. 15But the wicked spirit, answering, said to them: Jesus I know: and Paul I know. But who are you?Ma il malo spirito rispose, e disse loro: Conosco Gesù, e so chi è Paolo: ma voi chi siete?But the vvicked spirit ansvvering, said to them, IESVS I knovv, and • Paul I knovv: but you, vvhat are ye?Respondens autem spiritus nequam dixit eis: Jesum novi, et Paulum scio: vos autem qui estis ? 16And the man in whom the wicked spirit was, leaping upon them and mastering them both, prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.E saltato loro adosso quell'uomo, in cui era lo spirito pessimo, e potendone più di loro due, gli strapazzò in guisa, che ignudi, e feriti si partirono da quella casa.And the man in vvhom the vvicked spirit vvas, leaping vpon them, and mastring both', preuailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and vvounded.Et insiliens in eos homo, in quo erat dæmonium pessimum, et dominatus amborum, invaluit contra eos, ita ut nudi et vulnerati effugerent de domo illa. 17And this became known to all the Jews and the Gentiles that dwelt a Ephesus. And fear fell on them all: and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.E questa cosa la riseppero e i Giudei tutti, e i Gentili, che abitavano in Efeso: ed entrò in tutti loro timore, e magnificavasi il nome del Signore Gesù.And this vvas made notorious to al the Ievves and the Gentiles that dvvelt at Ephesus: and feare fel vpon al them, and the name of our Lord IESVS vvas magnified.Hoc autem notum factum est omnibus Judæis, atque gentilibus qui habitabant Ephesi: et cecidit timor super omnes illos, et magnificabatur nomen Domini Jesu.
18And many of them that believed came, confessing and declaring their deeds.E molti di quelli, che aveano creduto, venivano a confessare, e manifestare le opere loro.And many of them that beleeued, came confessing and declaring their deedes.Multique credentium veniebant, confitentes et annuntiantes actus suos. 19And many of them who had followed curious arts brought together their books and burnt them before all. And, counting the price of them, they found the money to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.E molti di quelli, che erano andati dietro a cose vane, portarono a furia i libri, e li bruciarono in presenza di tutti: e calcolato il valore di essi, trovaron la somma di cinquantamila denari.And many of them that had folovved • curious things, brought together their • bookes, and burnt them before al: and counting the prices of them, they found the money to be fiftie thousand pence.Multi autem ex eis, qui fuerant curiosa sectati, contulerunt libros, et combusserunt coram omnibus: et computatis pretiis illorum, invenerunt pecuniam denariorum quinquaginta millium. 20So mightily grew the word of God and was confirmed.Così cresceva forte, e si stabiliva la parola di Dio.So mightely increased the vvord of God and vvas confirmed.Ita fortiter crescebat verbum Dei, et confirmabatur. 21And when these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying: After I have been there, I must see Rome also.Terminate queste cose, propose Paolo in ispirito, girata la Macedonia, e l'Acaja, di andare a Gerusalemme, dicendo: Dopo che io sarò stato là, bisogna, ch'io vegga anche Roma.And vvhen these things vvere ended, Paul purposed in the Spirit, vvhen he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to goe to Hierusalem, saying, After I shall haue been there, I must see Rome also.His autem expletis, proposuit Paulus in Spiritu, transita Macedonia et Achaia, ire Jerosolymam, dicens: Quoniam postquam fuero ibi, oportet me et Romam videre. 22And sending into Macedonia two of them that ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself remained for a time in Asia.E mandati nella Macedonia due di quelli, che lo assistevano, Timoteo, ed Erasto, si rimase egli per un tempo nell'Asia.And sending into Macedonia tvvo of them that ministred vnto him, Timothee and Erastus, himself remained for a time in Asia.Mittens autem in Macedoniam duos ex ministrantibus sibi, Timotheum et Erastum, ipse remansit ad tempus in Asia. 23Now at that time there arose no small disturbance about the way of the Lord.E allora nacque non piccol tumulto per cagione della via del Signore.And at that time there vvas made no litle trouble about the vvay of our Lord.Facta est autem illo tempore turbatio non minima de via Domini.
24For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver temples for Diana, brought no small gain to the craftsmen.Imperocché un certo orefice, per nome Demetrio, il quale faceva in argento dei templi di Diana, dava non poco guadagno agli artigiani.For one named Demetrius, a siluersmith, that made siluer temples of Diána, procured to the artificers no smal gaine:Demetrius enim quidam nomine, argentarius, faciens ædes argenteas Dianæ, præstabat artificibus non modicum quæstum: 25Whom he calling together with the workmen of like occupation, said: Sirs, you know that our gain is by this trade.Convocati i quali, e quelli, che di cose simili lavoravano, disse: O uomini, voi sapete, che da questo lavorio vien la nostra ricchezza;vvhom calling together and them that vvere the same kinde of vvorkemen, he said, Sirs, you knovv that our gaine is of this occupation:quos convocans, et eos qui hujusmodi erant opifices, dixit: Viri, scitis quia de hoc artificio est nobis acquisitio: 26And you see and hear that this Paul, by persuasion hath drawn away a great multitude, not only of Ephesus, but almost of all Asia, saying: they are not gods which are made by hands.E vedete, e sentite, che non solo in Efeso, ma in quasi tutta l'Asia, questo Paolo con sue persuasioni ha fatto cambiare di sentimento a molta gente, affermando, che non son dei que', che si fan con le mani.and you see, and heare that this same Paul by persuasion hath auerted a great multitude not only of Ephesus, but almost of al Asia, saying, That they are not gods vvhich be made by handes.et videtis et auditis quia non solum Ephesi, sed pene totius Asiæ, Paulus hic suadens avertit multam turbam, dicens: Quoniam non sunt dii, qui manibus fiunt. 27So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought, but also the temple of great Diana shall be reputed for nothing! Yea, and her majesty shall begin to be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.E non solo è pericolo, che questa nostra professione vituperevole divenga, ma di più, il tempio della grande Diana sarà contato per niente, e comincerà a distruggersi la maestà di lei, cui l'Asia tutta, e il mondo adora.And not only vnto vs is this part in danger to be reproued, but also the temple of great Diana shal be reputed for nothing, yea & her maiestie shal begin to be destroied, vvhom al Asia & the vvorld vvorshippeth.Non solum autem hæc periclitabitur nobis pars in redargutionem venire, sed et magnæ Dianæ templum in nihilum reputabitur, sed et destrui incipiet majestas ejus, quam tota Asia et orbis colit. 28Having heard these things, they were full of anger and cried out, saying: Great is Diana of the Ephesians!Udito questo, coloro si riempirono di sdegno, e sclamaron, dicendo: Gran Diana degli Efesini.Hearing these things, they vvere replenished vvith anger, and cried out saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.His auditis, repleti sunt ira, et exclamaverunt dicentes: Magna Diana Ephesiorum.
29And the whole city was filled with confusion. And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul’s companions, they rushed with one accord into the theatre.E si riempiè la città di confusione, e corser tutti d'accordo al teatro, strascinando Gaio, e Aristarco Macedoni, compagni di Paolo.And the vvhole citie vvas filled vvith confusion, & they ranne violently vvith one accord in to the theátre, catching Gaius and Aristarchus Macedonians, Paules companions.Et impleta est civitas confusione, et impetum fecerunt uno animo in theatrum, rapto Gajo et Aristarcho Macedonibus, comitibus Pauli. 30And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not.E volendo Paolo affacciarsi al popolo, nol permisero i discepoli.And vvhen Paul vvould haue entred into the people, the disciples did not permit him.Paulo autem volente intrare in populum, non permiserunt discipuli. 31And some also of the rulers of Asia, who were his friends, sent unto him, desiring that he would not venture himself into the theatre.Alcuni eziandio degli Asiarchi, che erangli amici, mandarono a pregarlo, che non si esponesse al teatro:And certaine also of the Princes of Asia that vvere his frendes, sent vnto him, desying that he vvould not aduēture him selfe into the theátre:Quidam autem et de Asiæ principibus, qui erant amici ejus, miserunt ad eum rogantes ne se daret in theatrum: 32Now some cried one thing, some another. For the assembly was confused: and the greater part knew not for what cause they were come together.E quelli gridavano chi in un modo, e chi in un altro: essendo la adunanza in confusione, e i più non sapevano il perché si fossero adunati.and others cried an other thing. For the assemblie vvas confuse, & the more part knevv not for vvhat cause they vvere assembled.alii autem aliud clamabant. Erat enim ecclesia confusa: et plures nesciebant qua ex causa convenissent. 33And they drew forth Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews thrusting him forward. And Alexander, beckoning with his hand for silence, would have given the people satisfaction,Fu poi tratto fuor della turba Alessandro, spingendolo avanti i Giudei. E Alessandro fatto segno con mano, che si tacessero, voleva dir sua ragione al popolo.And of the multitude they drevv forth Alexander, the Ievves thrusting him forvvard. But Alexander vvith his hand desiring silence, vvould haue giuen the people satisfaction.De turba autem detraxerunt Alexandrum, propellentibus eum Judæis. Alexander autem manu silentio postulato, volebat reddere rationem populo. 34But as soon as they perceived him to be a Jew, all with one voice, for the space of about two, hours, cried out: Great is Diana of the Ephesians!Ma subito che l'ebber conosciuto per Giudeo, si fecer di tutti una sola voce, che per quasi due ore gridavano: Gran Diana degli Efesini.Vvhom as soone as they perceiued to be a Ievve, there vvas made one voice of al, almost for the space of tvvo houres crying out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.Quem ut cognoverunt Judæum esse, vox facta una est omnium, quasi per horas duas clamantium: Magna Diana Ephesiorum.
35And when the town clerk had appeased the multitudes, he said: Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great Diana and of Jupiter’s offspring?E avendo il segretario calmata la turba, disse: Uomini Efesini, e qual è uomo, che non sappia, che la città di Efeso è adoratrice della grande Diana, prole di Giove?And vvhen the Scribe had appeased the multitudes, he saith, Ye men of Ephesus, for vvhat man is there that knovveth not the citie of the Ephesians to be a vvorshipper of great Diana, & Iupiters childe?Et cum sedasset scriba turbas, dixit: Viri Ephesii, quis enim est hominum, qui nesciat Ephesiorum civitatem cultricem esse magnæ Dianæ, Jovisque prolis ? 36For as much therefore as these things cannot be contradicted, you ought to be quiet and to do nothing rashly.Non potendo adunque contraddirsi a questo, convenevol cosa si o, che voi vi acquietiate, e nulla facciate temerariamente.Forasmuch therfore as these things can not be gainsaid, you must be quieted, and doe nothing rashly.Cum ergo his contradici non possit, oportet vos sedatos esse, et nihil temere agere. 37For you have brought hither these men, who are neither guilty of sacrilege nor of blasphemy against your goddess.Imperocché avete condotti questi uomini né sacrileghi, né bestemmiatori della vostra dea.For you haue brought these men, being neither sacrilegious, nor blaspheming your Goddesse.Adduxistis enim homines istos, neque sacrilegos, neque blasphemantes deam vestram. 38But if Demetrius and the craftsmen that are with him have a matter against any man, the courts of justice are open: and there are proconsuls. Let them accuse one another.Che se Demetrio, e gli artefici, che sono con lui, hanno da dire contro qualcheduno, vi sono i giorni, ne' quali si tien ragione, e vi sono i proconsoli, se la disputino tra di loro.But if Demetrius and the artificers that are vvith him, haue matter to say against any man, there are Courtes kept in the common place, & there are Proconsuls, let them accuse one an other.Quod si Demetrius et qui cum eo sunt artifices, habent adversus aliquem causam, conventus forenses aguntur, et proconsules sunt: accusent invicem. 39And if you inquire after any other matter, it may be decided in a lawful assembly.Che se alcun'altra cosa voi bramate, in una legittima adunanza potrà decidersi.And if you aske any other matter: it may be resolued in a lavvful assemblie.Si quid autem alterius rei quæritis, in legitima ecclesia poterit absolvi.
40For we are even in danger to be called in question for this day’s uproar, there being no man guilty (of whom we may give account) of this concourse. And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.Imperocché siamo in pericolo di essere accusati di sedizione perle cose di questo giorno: non essendovi chi abbia dato causa (di cui possiam render ragione) a questo sollevamento. E detto questo licenziò l'adunanza.For vve are in danger also to be accused for this daies sedition: vvhereas there is no man guilty by vvhom vve may giue an account of this concourse. And vvhen he had said these things, he dimissed the assemblie.Nam et periclitamur argui seditionis hodiernæ, cum nullus obnoxius sit de quo possimus reddere rationem concursus istius. Et cum hæc dixisset, dimisit ecclesiam.
19:1
about the year A.D. 54.
Calmet
Disciples. These were apparently disciples of St. John the Baptist, who believed in Christ from his testimony, and had received no farther instruction, nor any baptism but John's. (Calmet)
19:2
Calmet
St. Paul first inquires of them, if they have received the Holy Ghost by confirmation. Their answer is probably not to be interpreted with rigour; since they must have heard something of the holy Spirit, so often mentioned in the Old Testament, by whom the prophets are said to speak, etc. They meant, they did not know there was in the Church, any means of communicating this Spirit to the faithful. (Calmet)
19:5
Witham
Baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, so called to distinguish it from the baptism of John; and that of Christ was given in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, according to the command of Christ himself. [Matthew 28:19.] (Witham)
19:6
Witham
Imposed his hands on them, by which imposition of hands, was given the Holy Ghost in the sacrament of confirmation. (Witham)
19:9
about the year A.D. 55.
19:12
Witham
Aprons. It is likely such as he used in working, cured diseases, and cast out devils. What wonder, then, if God work miracles by the relics of martyrs and saints, to testify the sanctity of his servants, and to encourage others both to give them a reasonable honour, and to imitate their lives? (Witham)
Thus was fulfilled the promise which Christ had made his disciples, viz. that they should perform greater miracles than he himself had done. St. Chrysostom repeats more than once, that these clothes raised the dead, and that the apostles' shadow chased away all maladies, and triumphed over death. Perhaps the unprejudiced reader may observe in this verse some reason for paying due regard to the relics, or whatever has belonged to the saints.
19:13
about the year A.D. 56.
Witham
The Jewish exorcists. Among the Jews were some, who by calling upon the name of the true God, sometimes cast out evil spirits. But these sons of Sceva seeing St. Paul cast out devils, by calling upon the name of Jesus, thought fit to do the same, though they did not believe in Jesus Christ. And God punished them in this manner, as it is here related, at least two of them. (Witham)
Tirinus and others
It is uncertain whether the Jews really possessed the power of exorcising demoniacs. From the 12th chapter of St. Matthew, one would be inclined to the affirmative opinion, as our Saviour seems to mention it as a thing well attested. The Jews pretended they received their exorcisms from Solomon. On the other hand, neither the Old nor New Testament ever approve of this power in them nor is it any where mentioned in Scripture that Solomon was the author of any such things. The old law was particularly severe in condemning every kind of enchantment. It is certain, that they, in the time here spoken of, added much superstition and magic to these rites. (Tirinus and others.)
Josephus mentions remarkable instances of their power in exorcisms performed in his own presence, and in that of the emperor Vespasian, and his whole army. (Lib. 2:chap. 25. The Jewish War)
Ep. ad Demetrium
Extraordinary things might possibly be performed by magic and collusion between these impostors and the demons. That this power of expelling devils, resides in the Church, every page of primitive ecclesiastical history, testifies. Scripture is also equally explicit on this subject. The exorcisms, says St. Cyprian, are the spiritual torments and scourges of the demons. (Ep. ad Demetrium.)
It was for this reason the Jews, on this occasion, used the name of Jesus; a name terrible to the infernal spirits, to add power to their imprecations. Tertullian urges facts of this power in the Christians, with much energy and eloquence, in his Apology. Prudentius has recorded the same, with equal elegance, in his verse
----------Torquetur Apollo Nomine percussus Christi, nec fulmina verbi Ferre potest. Agitant miserum verbera linguae.
19:18
Witham
Confessing and declaring their deeds, as penitents do in the sacrament of penance, and not only in general declaring or confessing themselves sinners. See Matthew 3:6. (Witham)
19:19
Witham
Curious arts. By which are here meant books of divination and magic art, to which study the Ephesians were much addicted. The price of the books burnt, amounting to a great sum, even computing the 50,000 denarii, each of them at sevenpence half-penny English money. (Witham)
The value of the books here destroyed might have amounted to £1000 sterling. The Christian emperors, Constantine the Great, Valentinian, Theodosius, Marcian, and Justinian, have made laws not less strict for destroying, than those of the Church for proscribing, the use of wicked books, where danger is likely to ensue. The danger of reading them is set forth by Eusebius, lib. vii. Acts 6; by St. Augustine, lib. 3:de bap. Acts 14; by St. Gregory, lib. V. ep. 64.
Such baneful productions should be destroyed; for although they may possibly produce no bad effect during the life of the present possessors, no one can pretend to say into what hands they will afterwards fall, nor what evil they may hereafter occasion.
19:21
19:23
about the year A.D. 57.
Witham
About the way of the Lord; that is, about Christian faith, and religion. (Witham)
A great source of these troubles that ensued, was the preaching of the gospel.
19:24
Witham
Who made silver temples for Diana.[Ver. 24. Aedes argenteas, naous argurous.] Perhaps figures of Diana's temple in silver; or boxes and shrines, in which was the statue or figure of Diana. (Witham)
19:27
Witham
In danger of being vilified, and Diana of losing her reputation. They ought to have reflected, says St. Chrysostom, (hom. xlii.) that if such a poor man, as Paul, could destroy the worship, and the majesty of this great goddess, whom, as they say, all the world adored, how much greater and worthy of adoration must the God be, by whose power Paul could do this? (Witham)
19:28
Witham
Great is Diana of the Ephesians. This they shouted out without intermission for about two hours, though the greatest part knew not why they had met together. A true representation of an unthinking rash mob. (Witham)
19:31
Witham
Some also of the rulers of Asia. They are called friends to St. Paul, but it is uncertain whether they were Christians, or others, who favoured him, and wished him well. (Witham)
19:35
The town-clerk, etc. Literally, the scribe, or the recorder of the city.
Witham
Jupiter's offspring.[Ver. 35. Jovisque prolis, kai tou diopetous. Simulachri a caelo dilapsi. See Suidas.] His daughter, according to the poets. The Greek text seems to signify a statue, or figure of Diana, which was pretended to have fallen from heaven, and from Jupiter. (Witham)
Is a worshipper. Neokoron ousan; the word Neokoros is found in this sense in the Arundelian marbles, and more frequently on ancient coins and inscriptions. Its derivation is from neos, a temple, and kore, a virgin, or rather korein, to cleanse and decorate; as if this city were especially destined to ornament the Diana of Ephesus, which the people supposed came to them not by the work of man, but a present from heaven.
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Witham
Nor of blasphemy against your goddess. St. Chrysostom takes notice, that to calm the people, he says more than was true. (Witham)
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In the liturgy The Epistle vpō whitson-eue.
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Iohns baptisme no• sufficiēt.
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Concordance Mt, 3, 11.
Concordance Mr. 1, 8.
Concordance Lu. 3, 16.
Christs baptisme necessarie.
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S. Paul ministred the Sacrament of Cōfirmatiō. See an̄ot, c. 8, 〈◊〉.
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12. Napkins.] Touching of Relikes, & miracles done by the same. The napkins that had touched S. Paules body, vvrought miracles, and it vvas no superstition to attribute that vertue to them vvhich God gaue to them in deede: nor to seeke to touch them for health, Act. 5, 15. vvas any dishonour to God, but it much proued Christes religiō to be true, and him to be the only God, vvhose seruants, yea vvhose seruants shades and napkins could do such vvonders, as S. Chrysostome (to. 5. cont. Gentiles, quòd Christus sit Deus, in vit. Babyla.) shovveth in a vvhole booke to that purpose, against the Pagans, prouing hereby and by the like vertue of other Saincts and their Relikes, that Christ their Lord and Maister is God. for it is al one concerning the bodies of Saincts, reliques, garments, staues, bookes, or any thing that belonged to them, al which may and haue done and yet doe (vvhen it is necessarie to our edification) the like vvonders to Gods great honour: not only in their life time, but after their death much more. for S. Paules napkins had as great force vvhen he vvas dead, as vvhen he liued, and so much more, as his grace and dignitie vvith God is greater then before. Vvhich S. Chrysostom in the place alleaged proueth at large by the shrine of S. Babylas the Martyr: and to thinke the contrarie, is the Heresie of Vigilantius, condemned so long since as S. Hieroms time, and by him refuted aboundantly.
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16. Paul I knovv.] The name, or presence, or Reliques of Saincts & holy men, confound the Diuel. Both the said napkins taken from S. Paules body, and his name also, vvere dreadful and able to expel diuels. Vvhereby vve learne that not only Christes name, vvhich is the principal, but his seruāts names also inuocated vpon the possessed, haue povver ouer diuels: vvhich is a maruelous honour to Saincts, and nothing diminisheth the glorie of Christ, but excedingly increaseth the same, In vit. Hilarionis. not only him self, but his seruants also being able to do such things, and to be stronger then any Diuel in Hel. So vve read in S. Hierom that many did inuocate the name of S. Hilarion vpon the possessed, Chrys. loco citato. and the Diuels straight departed. so did the Diuel knovv S. Babylas and other Saincts, euen after they vvere dead, vvhen they could not speake for the presence of their Relikes, and vvhen they vvere tormented and expelled by them: vvhereof al antiquitie is ful of testimonies. But our Heretikes Luther and Caluin and their Scholers attempting to cast out Diuels, sp•d much like as these good fellovves did.
them
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They made not only a general confessiō wherein al mē shew thē selues alike to be sinners, as our Protestants do: but euery one confessed his owne proper deedes and faultes.
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19. Curious things.] Curious and vnlavvful sciences, as Vvitcheraft, Necromancie, and other meanes of diuination by southsaying, Superstitious, heretical, and al hurtful bookes must be made avvay. figure-•asting, interpretation of dreames, or any vvay not allovved by God and his Church, must much more be abhorred of old Christians, vvhen these so lately conuerted vvere so zelous and diligent to leaue them And by this example al that are nevvly reconciled to the Church, are taught, the first thing they do, to burne their heretical and naughtie bookes.
19. Bookes.] A Christian man is bound to burne or deface al vvicked bookes of vvhat sort so euer, Decrees and penal lawes against heretical bookes. specially Heretical bookes. Vvhich though they infect not him alvvaies that keepeth them, yet being furth comming, they may be noisom and pernicious to others that shal haue them and read them after his death, or othervvise. Therfore hath the Church taken order for condemning al such bookes, and against the reading of them, vvhere danger may ensue: and the Christian Emperoures, Constantinus Magnus, Valentin•an, Theodosius, Martian, Iustinian, made penal lavves for the burning or defacing of them. Sozem. li. 1 c. 20. li. 2c. 〈◊〉. Conc. Chalac. act. 3. in fine, cap. Amplae. & in fine totius Conc. •. Imperator. Conc. Constantinop. 2. conses. 5. cap. Debitam. & Act. 1 cap. 1. & cap. Rem. See Eusebius li. • de vita Constant. c. 61. 62. 63. 64. The danger of reading them, as it is manifest, so it is signified by Euseb. li. 7 c. 6. s. Augustine li. 3 de bapt. 6. 14. S. Greg. li. 5 ep. 64.
The 6 part.
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Of taking avvay the Gospel frō Hierusalem the head citie of the Iewes, and giuing it to ROME the head citie of the Gentils.
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〈Greek〉
The Protestants translate, shrines, in the bible an. 1577: to make the people thinke that it toucheth the holy shrines of Sainctes: most corruptly, the greeke signifyng plainly, temples, and that of heathē gods:
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〈Greek〉.
Here the Heretikes adde to the text this word, image, more then is in the greeke, to put a scruple into the peoples minde concerning holy Images.
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Baptism 10
… What the Lord was not yet conferring, of course the servant could not furnish. Accordingly, in the Acts of the Apostles, we find that men who had “John’s baptism” had not received the Holy Spirit, whom they knew not even by hearing.
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 17.30
… and the salvation by baptism of the jailer with his whole house at night after the earthquake); or the events at Thessalonica; and the address at Areopagus in the midst of the Athenians; or the instructions at Corinth, and in all Achaia? How shall I worthily recount the mighty deeds which were wrought at Ephesus through Paul, by the Holy Ghost
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 40
… for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ.” ( v. 28 .) “And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coasts”—meaning what we have read as to Cæsarea and the other places—“came to Ephesus, and having found certain disciples (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 69.6
… Though it is against nature the Ethiopian does change his skin and the leopard his spots. Those who have received only John’s baptism and have no knowledge of the Holy Spirit are baptized again, lest any should suppose that water unsanctified thereby could suffice for the salvation of either Jew or Gentile.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Dialogue Against the Luciferians 1
… But I have wandered too far, and when I might have met my opponent face to face and repelled his attack, I have only thrown a few light darts from a distance. The baptism of John was so far imperfect that it is plain they who had been baptized by him were afterwards baptized with the baptism of Christ. For thus the history relates,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist 2.37
… When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve.’
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Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 6.17
… Simon Magus, astonished at what he saw, desired to receive from Peter this gift, but though it was a good thing he desired, he thought to attain it by the mammon of unrighteousness. We next remark in passing that the baptism of John was inferior to the baptism of Jesus which was given through His disciples. Those persons in the Acts
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 40
… And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on Him who should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 17
… And the proof is that He is the Son of God, and that He needed not baptism, and that the object of the descent of the Spirit was only to make Him known. For it was not in the power of John to give the Spirit, as those who were baptized by him show when they say, “We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Dialogue Against the Luciferians 1
7. L. Pray tell me, have you not read in the Acts of the Apostles that those who had already been baptized by John, on their saying in reply to the Apostle’s question that they had not even heard what the Holy Ghost was, afterwards obtained the Holy Ghost? Whence it is clear that it is possible to be baptized, and yet not to have the Holy Ghost.
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 4.26
… but since these will raise the question both of the past custom of the Church and of the baptism of John, which is wont to excite no small doubt in those who pay slight attention to a matter which is sufficiently obvious, seeing that those who had received the baptism of John were commanded by the apostle to be baptized again
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 5.9
Chapter 9.— 10. Now we must see what is said of the baptism of John. For "we read in the Acts of the Apostles, that those who had already been baptized with the baptism of John were yet baptized by Paul,"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 5.10
… yet says, on seeing our Lord, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," —nevertheless I am not disposed to contend vehemently against any one who maintains that sins were remitted even in the baptism of John, but that some fuller sanctification was conferred by the baptism of Christ on those whom Paul ordered to be baptized anew.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist 3.56
… because the latter could be done by many, the former only by a few, of whom he was chief. And yet we read that he said in certain places, "My gospel;" but he never called baptism either his, or any one’s else by whom it was administered. For that baptism alone which John gave is called John’s baptism.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 5
… What then are they wont to say? Behold, after John baptism was given; after heretical baptism is it not to be given? because certain who had the baptism of John were commanded by Paul to be baptized,
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Baptism 10
… whereas the very thing which was celestial in John—the Spirit of prophecy—so completely failed, after the transfer of the whole Spirit to the Lord, that he presently sent to inquire whether He whom he had himself preached, whom he had pointed out when coming to him, were “HE.” And so “the baptism of repentance”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 10
… And Paul too saith, “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,” not by the baptism of John, but “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God.” And elsewhere too he saith, “John verily preached a baptism of repentance,” (he saith not “of remission,”) “that they should believe on Him that should come after him.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 40
… Probably they had been on a visit at Jerusalem at the time (of John’s preaching), and did not even know Jesus. And he does not say to them, Do ye believe in Jesus? but what? “Have ye received the Holy Ghost?” ( v. 2 .) He knew that they had not, but wishes themselves to say it, that having learnt what they lack, they may ask. “John verily baptized,” etc. (
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 1.3
… And, lastly, they who had said: “We have not heard if there be any Holy Spirit, were baptized afterwards in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 24
… Now this is done by God’s so disposing it as to provide for Peter a mighty ground of justification.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 40
… And it is likely that he did in fact receive baptism. But if these (disciples) of John, after that baptism again received baptism, was this needful for the disciples also? And wherefore the need of water? These are very different from him, men who did not even know whether there were a Holy Ghost.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 93.47
47. But you will say, “The Apostle Paul baptized after John.”
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.8
Paul the apostle to the Ephesians: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in which ye were sealed in the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy, be taken away from you.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 18
… not any others, but Peter [and John ]. “And when Simon,” it says, “saw that through laying on of the Apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given.” He would not have said, “And having seen,” unless there had been some sensible manifestation. “Then laid they their hands on them,” etc. Just as Paul also did, when they spake with tongues. (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 40
… ( a ) “That they should believe on Him that was to come:” on what kind (of Person)? “I indeed baptize you with water, but He that cometh after me, shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.” ( Matt. iii. 11 .) “And when Paul,” it says, “had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 51
… xii. 27 .) And this He said, signifying that before the Crucifixion not all cast out devils by the Spirit, but that some did so by the power received from Him. So when He was about to send them, He said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” ( c. xx. 22 ); and again, “The Holy Ghost came upon them” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 9
“And of laying on of hands.” For thus did they receive the Spirit, “when Paul had laid his hands on them” (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 41
(Recapitulation.) ( b ) “And having entered in to the synagogue,” etc. (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 41
… “He departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. And this was done for the space of two years, so that all that were in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” ( v. 10 .) ( a ) Do you mark how much was effected by his persisting?
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… i. 8 .) For since he had promised to go to Corinth, he excuses himself on the score of having loitered, and mentions the trial relating the affair of Demetrius. “There arose no small stir about the Way.” Do you see the renown
St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 1.1
I have learned not only from your letter but from those of many others that cavils are raised against me in the school of Tyrannus,
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 41
… “He departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. And this was done for the space of two years, so that all that were in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 1
… “For obedience to the faith.” So it was not the Apostles that achieved it, but grace that paved the way before them. For it was their part to go about and preach, but to persuade was of God, Who wrought in them. As also Luke saith, that “He opened their heart” ( Acts xvi. 14 ); and again, To whom it was given to hear the word of God.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 30
… Or rather do not compare only, but vie with this woman, and after laying aside the burdens of grass ( χλόης ), (for this is what thy costly dressing is), take thou the dress from heaven, and learn whence Priscilla became such as she was. How then did they become so? For two years they entertained Paul as a guest: (Probably
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Commentary on Galatians 1
Ver. 6 . “I marvel that ye are so quickly
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Two Homilies on Eutropius 2.14
… Whence was this? He received the earnest, he bore the signet ring and carried it about. All men saw that the King had espoused our nature: the demon saw it and retreated, he saw the earnest, and trembled and withdrew: he saw but the Apostle’s garments
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 41
… xvi. 6 ) (on a former occasion); waiting, as it seems to me, for this same conjuncture. (Hom. xl. p. 245.) ( b ) “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… i. 8 .) For since he had promised to go to Corinth, he excuses himself on the score of having loitered, and mentions the trial relating the affair of Demetrius. “There arose no small stir about the Way.” Do you see the renown
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 10.19
… the Twelve Apostles are His witnesses, having preached the truth not only in words, but also by their own torments and deaths: the shadow of Peter bears witness, having healed the sick in the name of Christ. The handkerchiefs and aprons bear witness, as in like manner by Christ’s power they wrought cures of old through Paul
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 17.30
… Whom they of that City knew not before, but came to know Him by the doctrine of Paul; and when Paul had laid his hands on them, and the Holy Ghost had come upon them, they spake with tongues, and prophesied . And so great spiritual grace was upon him, that not only his touch wrought cures, but even the handkerchiefs and napkins
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 4.6
… For it did not quench the fire, but though burning, made it powerless. And it was truly marvellous and unaccountable, that this not only happened with respect to the bodies of these saints, but also with respect to their garments, and their shoes. And as it was in the case of the Apostles, the garments of Paul expelled diseases and demons,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 8
… In this then let us find a pleasure, herewith let us fortify ourselves. It was thus Paul waxed great, and yet he was of the like nature with ourselves, so the whole choir of the Disciples. But faith had made him a perfectly different person, and so much did it abound in them, that even their garments had great force. (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 14
… For if the first-fruits be so great that we are thereby freed even from our sins, and attain to righteousness and sanctification, and that those of that time both drave out devils, and raised the dead by their shadow ( Acts v. 15 ), or garments (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 32
… ix. 3 ), through which he spake “before kings, and was not ashamed!” ( Ps. cxix. 46 ) through which we come to know Paul through which also Paul’s Master! Not so awful to us is the thunder, as was that voice to the demons! For if they shuddered at his clothes (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 6
… as indeed he was saying above, “I came not with excellency of speech:” for that he might have possessed this also is plain; for he whose garments raised the dead and whose shadow expelled diseases,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 7
[6.] Wilt thou that I show thee this also from the Apostles more obviously to the sense. Consider Paul, whose garments wrought: Peter, whose very shadows were mighty. (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 41
… 12 .) This, and the miracle of the shadows is what He meant (in those words). ( d ) “Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… since, when ( Hom. in Eph. Prol.) their temple was burnt it so grieved them, that they forbade even the name of the incendiary ever to be mentioned. See how, wherever there is idolatry, in every case we find money at the bottom of it. Both in the former instance it was for money, and in the case of this man, for money. (
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 18.26
26. But since the word Ecclesia is applied to different things (as also it is written of the multitude in the theatre of the Ephesians, And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the Assembly
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 41
… “And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 41
… But instead of that, they spoke even those senseless words, “By Jesus, whom Paul preacheth.” Do you mark the forbearance (of the writer), how he writes history and does not call names? This makes the Apostles admirable. “And the evil spirit,” etc. (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 41
… “They fled out of that house naked and wounded:” he sorely battered their heads, perhaps rent their garments. ( e ) “And this became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, that dwelt at Ephesus, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many of them that had believed came confessing and making known their practices.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… i. 8 .) For since he had promised to go to Corinth, he excuses himself on the score of having loitered, and mentions the trial relating the affair of Demetrius. “There arose no small stir about the Way.” Do you see the renown
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Tertullian † AD 220 On the Apparel of Women 1.2
… when to an age much more ignorant (than ours) they had disclosed certain well-concealed material substances, and several not well-revealed scientific arts—if it is true that they had laid bare the operations of metallurgy, and had divulged the natural properties of herbs, and had promulgated the powers of enchantments, and had traced out every curious art,
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 17.30
… And so great spiritual grace was upon him, that not only his touch wrought cures, but even the handkerchiefs and napkins , brought from his body, healed diseases, and scared away the evil spirits; and at last they also who practised curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 41
… “And many of them that practised curious arts, brought their books together, and burnt them in the presence of all men;”—having seen that there was no more use of them now that the demons themselves do these things—“and reckoned up the price of them, and found the amount fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 21
For he spake only; and, falling upon his enemies more fiercely than any fire, his words drave out the demons and brought over unto him the men that were possessed of them. For when he cast out that demon, the evil one, fifty thousand sorcerers coming together burnt their books of magic and revolted to the truth. (See
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 8.8
… But if we have acted rightly, as was done in the times of the apostles,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 62.15
… Ye know in the Acts of the Apostles how it is written, that many lost men, that is, men of such arts, and followers of naughty doctrines, brought unto the Apostles all their books; and there were burned so many volumes, that it was the writer’s task to make a valuation of them, and write down the sum of the price.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 81.18
18. “The enemies of God have lied unto Him” ( ver. 15 ). Dost thou renounce? I renounce. And he returns to what he renounced. In fact, what things dost thou renounce, except bad deeds, diabolical deeds, deeds to be condemned of God, thefts, plunderings, perjuries, manslayings, adulteries, sacrileges, abominable rites, curious arts.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
(Recapitulation.) “After these things were ended,” it says, “Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem,” saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” (
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Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 3.4.5
5. Luke also in the Acts speaks of his friends, and mentions them by name.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… Wherefore does he send away Timothy and Erastus? Of this I suppose he says, “Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone. He sent away,” it says, “two of those who ministered to him” ( 1 Thess. iii. 1 ), both to announce his coming, and to make them more eager. “But he himself tarried awhile in Asia.” (
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 1.5
… “Take heed that no man make spoil of you by philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, and after the rudiments of this world, not according to Christ; for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of Godhead in bodily shape.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… iii. 1 ), both to announce his coming, and to make them more eager. “But he himself tarried awhile in Asia.” ( v. 22 .) Most of all does he pass his time in Asia; and with reason: there, namely, was the tyranny, of the philosophers. (Afterwards) also he came and discoursed to them again. “And the same time” etc. (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… i. 8 .) For since he had promised to go to Corinth, he excuses himself on the score of having loitered, and mentions the trial relating the affair of Demetrius. “There arose no small stir about the Way.” Do you see the renown
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… but to them the loss was great, since they were poor, and subsisted on their daily earnings. Nevertheless, these men say nothing, but only he. And observe: “Whom having collected, and the workmen of like occupation,” having themselves common cause with him, “he said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth” (
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St Peter of Alexandria † AD 311 The Canonical Epistle, with the Commentaries of Theodore Balsamon and John Zonaras 13
Hence neither is it lawful to accuse those who have left all, and have retired for the safety of their life, as if others had been held back by them. For at Ephesus also they seized Gaius and Aristarchus instead of Paul, and rushed to the theatre, these being Paul’s companions in travel
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught; but also, that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth. And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… ( f ) “not only is this our craft in danger to be set at naught, but also,” as if forsooth alleging a greater consideration, “the temple of the great goddess Diana,” etc. ( c ) “whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.” (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… On hearing about Diana, and about their source of gain. “And cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion: and rushed with one accord into the theatre.” ( v. 29 ). Such is the way with vulgar minds, any trivial occasion shall hurry them away and inflame their passions. Therefore
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 46
… This is the man, that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.” ( v. 27, 28 .) Mark their habitual conduct, how turbulent we everywhere find it, how men who with or without reason make a clamor in the midst.
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Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 3.4.5
5. Luke also in the Acts speaks of his friends, and mentions them by name.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… xvii. 6 ).—“And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath.” Upon what was that wrath called forth? On hearing about Diana, and about their source of gain. “And cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion: and rushed with one accord into the theatre.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 43
… and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. These going before tarried for us at Troas.” ( v. 4, 5 .) But how does he call Timothy a man “of Thessalonica?” This is not his meaning, but, “Of Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus and Gaius: of Derbe, Timothy,”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… Therefore it behooves to do (things) with (strict) examination. But see how contemptible they were, to be so exposed to all (excitements)! “Having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul’s companions in travel, they dragged them:” (here) again recklessly, just as did the Jews in the case of Jason; and everywhere they set upon them.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 13.6
6. At last having loaded the culprits with chains, and bound them with iron, they sent them away to the prison through the midst of the forum. Men that had kept their studs of horses, who had been presidents of the games,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… Therefore it behooves to do (things) with (strict) examination. But see how contemptible they were, to be so exposed to all (excitements)! “Having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul’s companions in travel, they dragged them:” (here) again recklessly, just as did the Jews in the case of Jason; and everywhere they set upon them.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 45
… 3 .) Then they tarry with the brethren seven days. Now that they were come near to Jerusalem, they no longer run. ( b ) “Who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.” ( v. 4 .) Observe how, when the Spirit does not forbid, he complies. They said, “Adventure not thyself into the theatre, and he did not adventure” (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… 31 ) to a disorderly populace and tumult. And Paul complies, for he was not vainglorious, nor ambitious. “Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused.” Such is the nature of the multitude: it recklessly follows, like fire when it has fallen upon fuel; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.” (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.” ( v. 32 .) “And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward.” It was the Jews that thrust him forward; but as providence ordered it, this man did not speak. “And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence unto the people.” (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… but as providence ordered it, this man did not speak. “And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence unto the people.” ( v. 33 .) “But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 46.6
… 3 ): when the Gospel was preached, “What is this? He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods:” this the Athenians; but the Ephesians, with what tumult would they have slain the Apostles, when in the theatre, for their goddess Diana, they made such an uproar, as to be shouting, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… For two years had Paul abode there, and see how many heathen there were still! “And when the town clerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is temple-keeper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?” (
Sozomen † AD 450 The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen 2.5
… The people were induced to remain passive from the fear that, if they resisted these edicts, they, their children, and their wives, would be exposed to evil. The vergers and the priests, being unsupported by the multitude, brought out their most precious treasures, and the idols called διοπετῆ ,
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret 3.7
… Julianus the uncle of Julian, prefect of the East, learnt this by night, and riding at full speed came to Daphne, eager to bring succour to the deity whom he worshipped; but when he saw the so-called god turned into powder he scourged the officers in charge of the temple,
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… On hearing about Diana, and about their source of gain. “And cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion: and rushed with one accord into the theatre.” ( v. 29 ). Such is the way with vulgar minds, any trivial occasion shall hurry them away and inflame their passions. Therefore
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… “Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against.” ( v. 36 .) Why then do ye make a question about them, as if these things were not plain? ( b ) Then he quietly chides them, showing that they had come together without reason. “And to do nothing rashly,” he says. Showing that they had acted rashly. ( a ) “For ye have brought hither,” etc. (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 47
Observe how, when he discourses to those that are without, he does not decline availing himself of the aids afforded by the laws. Here he awes the tribune by the name of his city. And again, elsewhere he said, “Openly, uncondemned, Romans as we are, they have cast us into prison.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 6
… “Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… let them implead one another. But if ye enquire anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly. For we are in danger to be called in question for this day’s uproar, there being no cause, for which (matter) we shall not be able to give an account for this concourse.” (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 42
… ( c ) and it was not right on account of private charges to hold a public assembly. For he put them to a nonplus, and left them not a word to say for themselves. “There being no cause,” he says, “for this concourse, for which” (matter) “we shall not be able to give the account.” (
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1. HAVING TRAVELED THROUGH THE UPPER REGIONS, — Galatia and Phrygia, after he had returned to Antioch from Jerusalem, of which the preceding chapter, verse 23. CERTAIN DISCIPLES. — Cajetan is of the opinion that these were converts and baptized with the baptism of John by Apollos. For he had been at Ephesus before Paul, and knew only the baptism of John, the preceding chapter, verses 24 and 25. But it is an obstacle that Apollos was instructed more fully concerning Christ and the baptism of Christ by Aquila at Ephesus, chapter xviii, verse 26; wherefore if these had been his disciples, certainly he himself would have instructed them more fully concerning Christ, and would have taken care that they be baptized with the baptism of Christ. Add that the baptism of John lasted only until Christ: for it led to him and tended toward him, and therefore was conferred by John alone, not by disciples or his successors, as St. Augustine teaches, tract. 5 in John, and St. Cyril, lib. II in John, cap. LVII, and is sufficiently gathered from John I, 33, and III, 23. I say therefore that these, about twenty years before, had been baptized by John the Baptist himself in Judaea. For when they had gone up from Asia to Jerusalem according to custom for the feast day, hearing the preaching of John, they received his baptism, and from him learned that they ought to believe in Christ soon to come; soon returning to Asia to their home, they had heard nothing further of the things done in Judaea by John and Christ: wherefore they hear these things here from Paul. Thus Chrysostom and others to be cited presently.
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2. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST, — that is, Have you been confirmed by the sacrament of Confirmation? for in it the Holy Ghost was first visibly given, as I said chapter VIII. Because they said they were disciples of Christ, to whom they were sent by John, Paul thought they had been baptized with the baptism of Christ; but he doubted whether they had been confirmed, because there had been no Bishop at Ephesus, to whom alone it belongs to confer the sacrament of Confirmation. Whence he adds: BELIEVING. — In Greek πιστεύσαντες, that is, after you have believed, and consequently have been baptized. Thus Pagninus, the Zurich Bible and others. BUT NEITHER IF THE HOLY GHOST IS, HAVE WE HEARD. — Hence it is clear that the baptism of John was different from the baptism of Christ, as against Calvin and heretics the Council of Trent defines, sess. 7, cap. 1 On Baptism. For the baptism of Christ is conferred by invocation of the Holy Trinity, saying: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." But John's in the name of Christ about to come only, as will appear verse 4, and therefore these had not heard the name of the Holy Ghost. See Bellarmine, tract. On Baptism, cap. xix and xxi. Therefore St. Cyprian wrongly, epistle 73 to Jubaianus, took from the rebaptism of these an argument for rebaptizing heretics: which error "he purged with the sickle of passion," says St. Augustine, epistle 48. Worse do the Centuriators feign, lib. II, cap. IV, tit. On Baptism, and Kemnitius, in Examination of the Council of Trent, cap. On Baptism, that John the Baptist baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity: but these did not receive the true baptism of John, but a mutilated and corrupted one. For they themselves expressly assert that they were baptized with the baptism of John, nor does Paul doubt of its truth, but rather presupposes it to have been true. But he adds that the baptism of John was only a symbol of penance, and therefore insufficient for the remission of sins: for Christ alone in his baptism confers that.
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3. IN QUO, — εἰς τί, that is in what, that is in which, namely in baptism: for they answer, "in John's baptism"; for often εἰς is taken for ἐν. Otherwise properly in what, that is in whom, namely whose name being invoked "were you baptized?" Imprudently and ineptly Beza and Bucer here interpret baptism as the doctrine of John apart from baptism, as if to say: In what were you baptized, that is whose doctrine were you taught, by whom were you instructed? They answer: "in John's baptism," that is we were educated in John's school and discipline, yet not baptized by him. They do this because they think John's baptism was the same as Christ's baptism. Lest therefore they make Paul, who had them baptized with Christ's baptism, an Anabaptist, they say they were not baptized with John's baptism, or Christ's, as they themselves think. Where see what spirit drives heretics, namely the envy of Lucifer, which blinds them and throws them into confusion. For in order to diminish Christ and His Sacraments, they confuse them with the old things and St. John's, indeed they equate and identify these with those. But nowhere in Scripture or the Fathers is doctrine called baptism: for it is one thing to teach, another to baptize. Who ever thought that to be baptized with baptism was the same as to be taught a doctrine? Second, that baptism is properly taken here is clear from what follows: "But Paul said: John baptized with the baptism of penance the people." Again: "Having heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus"; where it is clear that baptism is properly taken for sacramental washing, not for doctrine. Therefore also a little before, when he says they were baptized with John's baptism, he takes baptism properly. For he opposes Christ's baptism to John's baptism, and commands those baptized with John's baptism to be baptized with Christ's baptism. Therefore it is clear that John's baptism was different from Christ's baptism, and far inferior to it, unless we wish to make Paul an Anabaptist. Third, thus teach and explain St. Chrysostom here; St. Augustine, in the book On the One Baptism, chapter vii; St. Jerome, in chapter II of Joel; Tertullian, in the book On Baptism, chapter x; Origen, volume VIII on John, and others throughout. Fourth, because in Greek it is μέν, which requires an expressed or tacit antithesis. Whence it seeks δέ after itself, as if to say: John indeed baptized with the baptism of penance, but Christ baptizes with the baptism of remission of sins, justice and salvation. For Beza wrongly refers τὸ μέν to δέ, which is found in verse 5 in the Greek, where it says: ἀκούσαντες δέ, that is hearing indeed they were baptized. For Paul's sentence cannot be completed by the history of the deed done by others, namely those baptized, but must be supplied by Paul's own sentence tacitly: otherwise it must be said that τὸ μέν is enclitic, and redundant, as it is redundant in chapter I, 1, and elsewhere. See Bellarmine, On Baptism, chapter xxii, where he refutes the various evasions of others.
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4. JOHN BAPTIZED WITH THE BAPTISM OF PENANCE. — That is with a baptism which was a symbol, an excitation and protestation of penance, for receiving the remission of sins through Christ's baptism. See what is said in chapter I, 5. Hence it follows that infants and children incapable of reason and penance were not baptized with John's baptism; but only adults, as being capable of reason and penance. Thus Suarez and others throughout. It is otherwise with Christ's baptism, which is conferred on little ones for the remission of original sin. SAYING: IN HIM WHO WAS TO COME AFTER HIM, THAT THEY MIGHT BELIEVE. — Hence St. Jerome, in chapter II of Joel; D. Thomas, the Master of the Sentences, Bonaventure, Palatius and others, in IV, distinction II, collect that this was the formula of John's baptism: "I baptize you, in him who is to come that you may believe, that is in Jesus Christ," whom I shall soon show you. But Christ baptizing said: "I baptize you, in your name, who are to come," says Palatius. Where note that this formula is exhortatory, and therefore was not properly the form of the Sacrament (for this is proper to the Sacraments of the new law, which because they are perfect, coalesce from matter and form), but was in the manner of a form. For it was properly an exhortation to penance and faith in Christ. Thus teach Durandus, Gabriel, Soto and from them Francis Suarez, III part., Question XXXVIII, distinction xxv, section 1. Note: τὸ "who is to come" is a periphrasis of the Messiah or Christ, as I said in Genesis XLIX, 12. Whence the Greek and Syriac add: that is in Jesus Christ.
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5. WHEN THEY HEARD THIS, THEY WERE BAPTIZED. — Beza contends that these are the words not of Luke, but of Paul; for his narrative begun in the preceding verse is here completed, as if Paul said: Many of the people, having heard the words of John, were baptized by him in the name of Christ. But that these are the words not of Paul, but of Luke, is plainly required by the whole series of the events, which is a historical narrative, namely that these twelve Ephesians, baptized with the baptism of John, hearing from Paul that the baptism of John was insufficient and must be completed by the baptism of Christ, were soon after baptized with it. The same is proved by the following words, verse 6: "And when he had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them," as if to say: They were baptized, and soon after confirmed by Paul they received the Holy Ghost: otherwise there will be no connection of these verses, but they will be loose bundles, and "sand without lime," as the Emperor Caius said of the writings and opinions of Seneca, as Lipsius testifies in his Preface.
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6. AND WHEN HE HAD LAID HIS HANDS UPON THEM (imparting to them the sacrament of Confirmation), CAME (in a visible form of fire or tongues) THE HOLY GHOST UPON THEM (whence), AND THEY SPOKE WITH TONGUES, AND PROPHESIED, — either properly by foretelling the future, or improperly by celebrating the mighty works of God. For these were the effects of the sacrament of Confirmation, not of Baptism, as I showed in chapter II, 4, and chapter VIII, 17.
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8. CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF GOD, — namely concerning the kingdom of heaven, and concerning the ways and means by which we ought to tend toward it, as I said in chapter I, 3, namely through faith, obedience and worship of Christ crucified.
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9. BUT SOME (Jews: for they were from the synagogue, in which Paul was preaching) BELIEVED NOT. — The Syriac version: were enraged. REVILING THE WAY OF THE LORD, — railing against the institution of Christianity and blaspheming Christ crucified. "Hence we learn," says Chrysostom, "that we ought not to mingle with those who revile, but to depart from them. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return, but rather disputed daily; and for this reason chiefly he made them his familiars, that although he was spoken of ill, he nevertheless did not withdraw, nor did he recoil." DISPUTING IN THE SCHOOL OF A CERTAIN TYRANNUS. — The Syriac version, Dionysius, Arias and Mariana think that tyrannus is the proper name of a man so called: indeed Arias thinks the name tyrannus, with the points changed, is the same as Tyrni, or Turni. Thus Tyrannio was called that Grammarian, whom Strabo praises, in book XIII. Perhaps this is that Tyrannus the sophist, whom Suidas writes to have published ten books on the state and division of speech. Thus Baronius. Others take the name tyrannus as an appellative, for a prince, primate or powerful man: whence also in the Roman Bibles it is written in lowercase. Thus Lyra, Cajetan, Vatable, Gagneius and others; as if Paul had chosen this place of a powerful man by design, so that he might protect him by his power against the boldness of the Jews, whence also he remained there and taught for two years. Perhaps he was from the line of Androchos, whom Strabo, in book XIV, asserts to have been the son of Codrus, king of Athens, and to have founded Ephesus and made it the royal seat of the Ionians, and he adds: "Even now all from this line are called kings, and enjoy certain royal honors, such as sitting in the first place at spectacles, wearing purple, and also carrying a staff as a scepter." Then "school" should be taken for a hall, or portico, into which this tyrannus, that is a powerful man, was accustomed to retire for leisure: for σχολάζω means the same as to be at leisure, to rest, to be idle, to linger: whence σχολή is leisure, vacation, cessation, delay, retirement: hence a school of letters is called a school, because letters require leisure. For indeed students and scholars, leaving all other things aside, ought to be wholly devoted to liberal studies. See Brissonius, book XVII On the Signification of Words.
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10. NOW THIS WAS DONE FOR THE SPACE OF TWO YEARS. — Add the three months which Paul spent preaching in the synagogue, verse 8, and you will have two complete years and a third begun by three months. Whence in chapter XX, 31, Paul says that he remained in Ephesus three years, namely incompletely, because he only began the third. Moreover Paul came to Ephesus in the year of Christ 55, of Claudius 43, and departed thence in the year of Christ 57, of Nero 1, after Pentecost. For thus he writes to the Corinthians, Epistle I, chapter xvi, 8: "I will remain," he says, "in Ephesus until Pentecost." Thus Baronius, who also rightly observes that Paul did not remain in Ephesus throughout this two years, but also made excursions to other cities of Asia, evangelizing them. The reason why Paul remained so long in Ephesus was the frequency of the city, idolatry, philosophy, magic. For Ephesus was the metropolis of Asia, and in it was the most celebrated temple of Diana: this stronghold of idolatry therefore Paul undertakes to assault, so that with it subdued, he might easily overcome all the rest. For in Ephesus at this time Apollonius of Tyana, an impostor and enemy of Christ and Paul, established a school of magic. Paul gives this reason writing to the Corinthians, Epistle I, chapter xvi, 8: "I will remain," he says, "in Ephesus: for a great door and evident is opened unto me, and many adversaries." For this reason also, writing afterwards to the Ephesians, he raises his style, speaks profoundly, contemplates sublime things, so as to show that he does not yield to, but surpasses the magicians and philosophers in the depth of wisdom, as I said in the Preface to the Epistle to the Ephesians. Wherefore Haymo there: "As the heart," he says, "in the midst of the belly, so this epistle is placed in the midst of the body of epistles." ALL, — very many, the majority. IN ASIA — Minor: for from all sides they flowed together to Ephesus from Asia, both on account of the fame of the city and of the temple of Diana. Hence Baronius rightly teaches that in the year of Christ 97, the Church of Ephesus was not first founded by St. John, when he, with the other faithful, was commanded to go to Jerusalem, came to Ephesus together with the Mother of God; but was founded by Paul; for Paul writes that this was his custom, Romans xv, 20. Whence also St. Ignatius, writing to the Ephesians, prefers Paul to John in the building up of the Church of Ephesus. And Epiphanius, in heresy 51, says that St. John in his old age took care of the Church of Asia: therefore after Paul.
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11. AND POWERS NOT WHATSOEVER, — not common, but the greatest, as the Syrian says, namely great miracles.
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12. SEMICINCTIA. — Some think this is the same as sudaria, or a kind of them; whence Luke says sudaria or semicinctia. But Oecumenius holds that "sudaria" were head-bands; "semicinctia" however were strophiola, which we call "sudaria," because we wipe sweat with them. Others interpret "semicinctium" as a linen or leather covering, with which craftsmen gird their breast and thighs lest they soil their garments while working; for Paul was indeed a craftsman and tent-maker. They are called "semicinctia" because they gird and cover not the whole body, but half. Thus Salmeron and Lorinus. Finally, you will aptly understand by semicinctia shorter or tighter girdles, or zones or parts of girdles, as it were semi-zones, semi-girdles. Whence Isidorus, lib. XIX: "A cinctus," he says, "is a wide zone, and a semicinctium is a less wide zone, and the smallest of both is a cingulum." Thus Nicephorus, Bishop of Constantinople, among other sacred vestments which he sends to Leo III the Pontiff, names "semicinctia," that is girdles, "variegated with gold," as is evident in the Acts of the Council of Ephesus, cap. xxii. And Petronius, when he describes someone preparing to hang himself, asserts that he prepared semicinctia, that is girdles, for this purpose. Wherefore Martial, in Apophoreto 153, whose title is "semicinctium," describes it thus: "Let the rich man give a tunic; I can gird you. If I were rich, I would give both gifts." These and more things Sanchez. Nicephorus adds, lib. II, cap. xxiv, who interprets semicinctia as thin bands. Note: In the Greek text are Latin words, sudaria and semicinctia, because many similar ones from the Roman language (since Romans were ruling in Greece) had passed into Greek in the age of the Apostles, such as "libertini," Acts VI; "praetorium," Matt. xxvii; "custodia," ibid.; "Niger, Euroaquilo, centurion, title," John xix; "denarius, quadrans, legion, spiculator, linen, colony, scourge," John II; "parchment, census," Matt. xvii; "wrongly," I Cor. xiii; "Artemon, sicarii," Acts xxi. Thus Mariana. DISEASES DEPARTED FROM THEM. — St. Chrysostom, exaggerating these things theoretically, hom. 8 in epist. to Rom. and hom. 6 in epist. I to Cor., adds that the dead revived by the shadow of Paul. Hence it is evident that the ancient use, power and efficacy of holy relics, and not only the bodies of Saints, but also sudaria, garments and other things adjacent to the body are salutary, as St. Augustine relates, lib. XXII De Civitate, cap. viii, concerning flowers touching the bier of St. Stephen, that many sick were restored to health. Thus St. Gregory sent to Constantia Augusta, lib. III, epist. 30, and to others in place of sacred relics a brandeum, that is a veil which had covered or touched the relics of Apostles and Martyrs. Theodoret, in Philotheo, cap. xxi, asserts that oil burning in lamps before the tombs of Martyrs brought health to many by miracle. See more in Baronius here, anno Christi 55.
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13. JEWISH EXORCISTS. — That the Jews before Christ had their own exorcists for expelling demons is evident from this, and from that passage in Matthew xii, 27: "By whom do your children cast them out?" and from Josephus, book VIII of the Antiquities, chapter II, and book VII of the Wars, chapter xxv, and from Epiphanius, heresy 30, where he asserts that they used the name of the tetragram Jehova. Concerning the exorcisms of Solomon, see Josephus in the place cited, and Delrio in his Magics: although St. Thomas, Question VI on Power, article 10, to 3, and from him Francis Victoria, Lectures on Magic, number 28, hold that the exorcisms of Solomon were composed by him through a certain root with an adjuration, after he had become an idolater. Indeed, it is permissible to suspect that these exorcists used magical arts from the fact that Luke says, verse 19: "And many of them who had followed curious arts;" etc. Now only Christians have and ordain exorcists, whose exorcisms, that is, adjurations of demons, are spiritual to them "scourges and torments of stripes," says St. Cyprian, epistle to Demetrian. For Christ gave this power of casting out demons to the Apostles and the Church, Luke x, 19. Therefore Origen errs, tract. 35 in Matthew, where he teaches that it is Jewish to exorcise demons, not Christian, by this argument: it is not permitted to a Christian man by the law of Christ to swear at all, Matthew v, 34, therefore neither to adjure anyone, or to exorcise. But, as the antecedent is false, so also is the consequent, or the conclusion deduced from it. I ADJURE YOU BY JESUS. — For, as St. Chrysostom says, homily 4 on the Praises of St. Paul, "if you invoke Jesus the Nazarene, the demon suddenly flees as from fire." And St. Justin, On the Truth of the Christian Religion: "The demons tremble and fear at the power of His name (Jesus); even today they obey us when adjured by the name of Jesus Christ crucified." And Prudentius, in the Apotheosis against the Jews: "Apollo is tormented / Struck by the name of Christ, nor can he bear / The thunderbolts of the word: they agitate the wretched one with so many stripes of the tongue, / As many as the praised miracles of God Christ resound." The reason is, because the demon has been conquered and cast down by Jesus. Therefore Jesus and His cross he dreads, just as a dog dreads the stick by which it has been struck, and much more the one who strikes, who brandishes the stick against it. St. Dionysius testifies, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, chapter III, that Christians, when after baptism they had fallen into some mortal sin, were accustomed to be vexed by demons. And St. Cyprian, epistle 76: "Often," he says, "some of those who are baptized in health, if they afterwards begin to sin, are shaken by an unclean spirit, so that it is manifest that the devil is excluded from baptism by the faith of the believer; if faith afterwards fails, he returns." This Cyprian says concerning those who apostatize from the faith and from Christ. WHOM PAUL PREACHES. — These exorcists seem to have wished from presumption to imitate Paul in expelling demons by the name of Jesus, so that they might thereby gain applause and profit from the people. Whence St. Chrysostom and St. Cyprian, sermon On the Baptism of Christ, call them mercenaries (quaestuarii). But because they distrusted their own powers, they put forward the name of Paul, whom they saw to be a terror to demons and to expel them. Moreover, because they were Jews, and therefore unbelievers in Christ, for this reason not the devil himself, but the devil prevailed against them and leapt upon them. Some add that they did this cunningly with evil intent, namely to turn men away from Paul and his doctrine, and to draw them to themselves and to Judaism. For if they themselves expelled demons, since they themselves were Jews, they would say that they did this by the power of Judaism and of the Jewish faith, and therefore that Jesus, or the Savior and Christ, is he whom the Jews expect, not whom Paul now preaches has come. If they did not expel them, they would say that the name of Jesus is empty and invalid for expelling demons, and therefore vainly worshipped and invoked, and vainly preached by Paul, and put forward in their exorcisms.
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14. CHIEF OF THE PRIESTS, — one of the chiefs, or high priests. For there were 24 chiefs, or high priests, namely the firstborn of so many families of priests, as I said chapter IV, verse 6.
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15. BUT YOU, WHO ARE YOU? — That is to say, You are not servants of Christ, nor followers of Paul, but our slaves, inasmuch as you are unbelievers in Christ and faithless, seeking gain and applause from the name of Christ: but it is unworthy that a slave should command his master and lord, and expel him from his house. St. Cyprian, in his sermon On Baptism, explains it thus: "We know Christ, and we know Paul, and adjured in the name of Christ whom Paul preaches, we depart; but you we are utterly ignorant of." Chrysostom, however, says that is, You do not believe in Christ, but abusing his name, you fabricate these words: you are not heralds of this name, because you are mine. I therefore acknowledge the lordly dominion of Christ and Paul, not yours: I will therefore punish your audacity and rashness, and as slaves of mine insulting me, I will severely chastise you. "For why," says Chrysostom, "did the evil spirit not say: What is Jesus? He was afraid lest he himself suffer punishment. For he knew that it was granted to him to avenge those whom he had made mockers of this name." In a similar manner Luther, wishing to exorcise a demon, was driven by it into extreme distress, as Staphylus relates Against Smidelinus, page 404, and Bredenbach, Collation VII, chapter 40. On the other hand, St. Hilarion, who, as St. Jerome testifies in his Life, had dominion over demons more than other Saints and expelled many of them, acquired this power over them through contempt of himself, flight from riches and honors: for he held gold as mud. "Often," says St. Jerome, "he changed his place, not from fickleness, but fleeing honor and importunity; for he always desired silence and an ignoble life. He exhorted each one to pass by the figure of this world, and that to be the true life which was purchased by the discomfort of the present life." Seeing the concourse of all orders toward him, he wept. Asked why? "Again," he said, "I have returned to the world and received my reward in my life. Let others marvel at the signs which he performed; let them marvel at incredible abstinence, knowledge, humility: I marvel at nothing so much as that he was able to trample upon that glory and honor. For Bishops, Priests, Monks, and matrons also concurred to it, a great temptation for Christians: but he meditated on nothing but solitude; demons in the possessed everywhere revealed him seeking to hide, but he, grieving, and in a manner raging in vengeance upon himself, scourged them with such insistent prayer that he expelled all of them from the possessed. Nothing in him was so admired by all as that after such great signs and miracles, he had not received even a fragment of bread from anyone in those places. For, inflamed with the confidence of a poor conscience, he rejoiced the more in this and that he had nothing of the world, and that he was thought a beggar by the inhabitants of that place." He had this grace, that from the odor of bodies, garments and those things which anyone had touched, he knew to which demon or vice he was subject. When a certain miser's chickpea was brought near: "Do you not perceive," he said, "the most foul stench, and avarice clinging to the chickpea? Give it to the oxen." Another gave it: but immediately they fled with broken straps. Proceeding to meet a terrible and fierce camel: "Do not terrify me," he said, "devil, with such a mass of body; and in a little fox, and in a camel you are one and the same." Orion, a mighty man, freed by him from a legion of demons, offered him many gifts. When he refused, he said: "Give them to the poor." The Saint said to him: "You," he said, "can better distribute your own, you who walk through cities and know the poor. I who have left mine, why should I seek another's?" And when he grieved that his gifts were refused: "Do not," he said, "be sad, my son. What I do, I do for me and for you. For if I accept these, I too offend God, and the legion will return to you." A possessed girl was brought to the Saint, who, mocking the demon: "Great," she said, "is your strength, you who are held fast by a thread and a thin plate. Tell why you dared to enter a maiden of God?" The demon answered: "That I might preserve that virgin." The Saint said to him: "You would preserve, betrayer of chastity? Why did you not rather enter into him who sent you?" "Why," answered the demon, "should I enter into him, who had my colleague, the demon of love?" With the moon shining, he suddenly sees a chariot with burning horses rushing upon him; and when he had cried out to Jesus, before his eyes the whole procession was suddenly swallowed up by a chasm in the earth. Then he said: "He cast the horse and its rider into the sea." And: "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will glory in the name of the Lord our God." A boy, almost a child, fell into the hands of robbers, who turned to him: "What," they said, "would you do if robbers came to you?" To whom he answered: "A naked man does not fear robbers." And they: "Certainly," they said, "you can be killed." "I can," he said, "I can; and therefore I do not fear robbers, because I am prepared to die."
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16. AND LEAPING UPON THEM, — beating and wounding them with blows and striking them, tearing their garments, mangling them with teeth and nails, attacking them with kicks, and thus wounding them: for they fled naked and wounded from the house. See here, says Chrysostom, what great power the demon has over the bodies of unbelievers and mockers, and from this gather that the same demon exercises similar, indeed greater things upon the soul of the sinner, whom he besieges through sin, possesses, agitates and torments, as it were like a lictor his vile slave. And he adds: "Sin is more grievous than a demon; for the latter indeed makes men humble, but sin makes them proud: moreover it induces a vicious habit in the soul. Thus the angry man nourishes within himself a familiar lictor tormenting him, namely a desire for vengeance. Just as a certain decay and worm, so it gnaws at the root of our mind. Why therefore do you enclose a beast within your bowels? It would be better to have a viper and serpent placed in the heart than anger or envy." WAS MASTER OF BOTH. — Therefore of the seven, two here were exercising exorcism, the others being absent or at rest: hence the demon leaped upon only two. For in Greek already for "both," they have αὐτῶν, that is "of them," as if the demon had leaped upon all seven. But certain Greek codices have ἀμφοτέρων, that is "of both," as Valesius notes.
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18. CONFESSING AND ANNOUNCING THEIR DEEDS. — Luther wrongly translated for "their deeds," "their miracles": for miracles are not our deeds, but God's, who alone is omnipotent, and therefore also a worker of wonders. Whence the Syriac clearly translates, they announced their offenses, and confessed what they had done. Oecumenius, Salmeron, Sanchez and Gagneius here, Bellarmine in book III On Penance, chapter IV; Baronius, Gregory of Valencia, Hosius, Ruard Tapper and others understand this concerning the confession which is made in the sacrament of Penance, who from this prove the necessity of confessing against the heretics. For τὸ "their deeds" signifies that this confession was not general and public, saying: I confess that I am a sinner, as Calvin and Beza wish, but particular, and therefore secret; for in this, not in that, are the individual evil deeds enumerated specifically and particularly by the penitent. Others however understand these things concerning confession prior to baptism. For these seem to have been Gentiles and Jews: of whom it was said in the preceding verse, that struck by that slaughter of the exorcists they magnified the name of the Lord, and consequently believed in Christ. These therefore, before baptism struck with compunction, showed signs of true compunction by publicly announcing their sins, which they had committed in paganism; just as concerning John's baptism it is said, John 1, 5: "And they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins": where in Greek the same verb ἐξομολογούμενοι is used, which is here. Thus Arator, Cajetan and Lorinus, Eusebius in book III of the Demonstration, chapter VIII; Bede in Mark 1; Andrew Vega in book XIII On Justice, chapter XXVIII, and others. The prior opinion seems truer and more genuine. First, because that these confessing were not Gentiles or Jews, but Christians, is evident from the fact that they are called believers, which in that first century was the proper name of Christians. For this is the other part, and another effect, which the ignominy and blow inflicted by the demon upon the Jewish exorcists caused. For in the preceding verse Luke says that it caused fear and glorification in the Gentiles and Jews; but this says that it caused penance and confession in Christians, as it still causes. For Christians struck by some fear and terror of the devil, immediately have recourse to confession, that they may provide for their souls and place their salvation in safety. You will say: Gentiles are called believers, because they were beginning to believe and aspire to baptism. I answer: This cannot be said, because in Greek it is the past tense πεπιστευκότων, that is many of those who had already believed, and consequently had been baptized. Second, because no mention is made here of baptism, which Luke would certainly have made, if he wished to signify the conversion and initiation of the Gentiles (for this is done by baptism). He therefore presupposes that they had been baptized. Add that before baptism scarcely anyone confessed their particular sins: for contrition sufficed, and Paul alone, with Silas and Timothy, would not have been sufficient to hear so many and such great confessions. You will say secondly: It seems incredible that Christians instructed by Paul retained magical books and practiced magic, which nevertheless Luke asserts concerning these confessing in the following verse. I answer: First, in those first conversions of the faithful from paganism to Christianity, not all things could immediately be said by Paul, nor learned and practiced by the faithful: just as even now among the recently converted Gentiles many pagan customs remain, to be gradually unlearned and rooted out: indeed even now among sluggish, cold and rude Catholics it is possible to find superstitious, magical and heretical books. Second, these confessing are different from those devoted to magic and possessors of magical books. This is evident from the adversative word "but." "But many who had followed curious arts," etc. Thus Sanchez. Moreover Stapleton here judges that these confessors first performed secret confession, then public confession of at least some sins. For this was formerly accustomed to be done in public penance, as is evident from the deed of Nectarius, who abolished this public confession at Constantinople on account of the scandal arising from it, as Socrates testifies, lib. VI, cap. XIX. The same thing is suggested by the word ἀναγγέλλειν, that is, openly, to announce publicly. But it is not necessary to assert this: for ἀναγγέλλειν is the same as I announce, as Our author and others translate it, whether this be done publicly or privately and secretly: for ἀναγγέλλω is the same as I report, I indicate, I reveal, I recite, I profess, I pronounce. Nor in those first rude beginnings of the Church does public penance appear to have been in use, but it was introduced late for repairing scandals, which gradually arose as the number of the faithful increased, and was enjoined by the Bishops. But here the faithful confessed freely, so that they might escape the hand of the demon and its vengeance: to which secret and sacramental confession was useful, not public: for thus it would have sufficed and been pleasing to God to confess with a contrite heart. Morally, let the faithful note here that they ought to fortify themselves against all the assaults of Satan by holy confession. For it itself enervates all his powers, uncovers all his frauds, opens all his deceits, dispels all his perplexities. Whence St. Jerome, in Ecclesiastes cap. X: "If anyone," he says, "the serpent the devil has bitten secretly, and has infected him with the poison of sin unknown to anyone, if he who is struck remains silent, and does not do penance, nor wishes to confess his wound to his brother and master, the master who has a tongue for healing cannot easily help him. For if he is ashamed to confess the wound to the physician, what medicine does not know, it does not cure." In the Life of SS. Epictetus and Astius we read this: "Blessed Astius saw a certain black boy with a fiery torch coming forth from his bosom, and saying such things to him: Your confession, Astius, has greatly broken my powers today, and one prayer of yours has rendered me unarmed in all things and desolate." Rufinus narrates, lib. III in the Lives of the Fathers, num. 57, that a certain man was relieved of the temptation of blasphemy by its revelation and confession. The same concerning the temptation of fornication we read in the Lives of the Fathers, lib. V, num. 13: "For nothing," it says, "so exasperates the demon of fornication as if his stimulations be revealed; and nothing so gladdens him as if the thoughts be hidden." Serapion the Abbot in Cassian, Collat. II, cap. X and XI, narrates that he was freed from the temptation of gluttony and the habit of stealing bread through public confession of this theft: "For immediately after," he says, "as if a lamp lit proceeding from my bosom, it filled the cell with such a stench that we could scarcely remain in it." This was the demon who tempted him to theft and to gluttony. Truly the Wise Man, Proverbs XXVIII, 13: "He that hideth his sins shall not prosper." Cassian adds that this was the common doctrine of the Abbots and Elders: that an evil thought, as soon as it creeps in, ought to be revealed to one's Elder. Whence St. Anthony, in the Lives of the Fathers, II, num. 104: "If it can be done," he says, "as many steps as a monk walks, or as many cups of water as he drinks in his cell, he ought to declare to his Superiors, so that he may not go astray in these things." Wherefore John Climacus, in degree 4 on Obedience, writes that monks of ancient times carried in their belt a little book, in which they wrote the thoughts occurring during the day, so that they might reveal them to the Pastor. The same doctrine of spiritual life and as it were principle do St. Basil assign in the Monastic Constitutions and in the Rules more fully discussed, respons. 26; St. Ambrose, lib. III of the Duties, cap. XVI; St. Jerome, Rule of Monks, cap. XXXIV; St. Bernard, tract. On the Order of Life, who also with an apt similitude make the matter clear, indeed demonstrate it. As, they say, air dense and darkened with clouds, when these are poured out by rain, becomes clear and bright, so also through confession, by which affliction as it were is poured out into the bosom of another, the sickness of the mind is emptied. See St. Thomas I II, Quaest. XXXVIII, art. 2. Thus St. Dorotheos, serm. 5, narrates that he was in continual peace and joy of mind, because he revealed all the thoughts of his mind to his spiritual Father. It is memorable what Dominicus Soto writes in IV, dist. XVIII, Quaest. I, art. 1, that the Nurembergers sent legates to Charles V the Emperor, who asked him to sanction by public decree the precept of confession: for they had experienced that, after it had been banished, many frauds, vices and crimes had crept into the city and the commonwealth. "For so long," says Cassian in the place already cited, "his suggestions (of the devil) hold dominion over us, as long as they are hidden in the heart: but immediately when the evil thought has been laid bare, it withers, and before the judgment of discernment is pronounced, that most foul serpent, as if dragged from a dark and subterranean cave by the power of confession into the light, and in a manner brought forth and dishonored, departs." Whence the same, in book IV of the Institutes of those renouncing the world, chapter IX: "A general and evident sign," he says, "of diabolical thought they declare to be, if we are ashamed to open it to an elder. For all iniquity shall stop its mouth," Psalm CVI, 42. St. Gregory, book VII of the Morals, final chapter, and book III of Pastoral Admonition, chapter XV: "Closed wounds," he says, "torment more, because when the corruption that seethes within is cast out for healing, pain is opened, etc. What is the confession of sins but the opening of wounds?" Whence the Psalmist, Psalm XXXI, 3: "Because I was silent," he says, "my bones grew old."
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19. BUT MANY OF THEM WHO HAD FOLLOWED CURIOUS ARTS. — Vatablus, who had practiced curious arts. But the word signifies that this is another narrative from the preceding one of those confessing, as I have said. Whence since those were Christians, these appear to have been Gentiles devoted to magic, or certainly rude Christians, who, fearing lest they be badly punished by the demon of the magicians' hero, as those exorcists did, abjured magic and burned the magical books. Thus Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Bede and the Syrian, who translated, many moreover also from the magi, and Eusebius, lib. II of the Demonstration, cap. VIII. Moreover the Ephesians were devoted to magical arts, as testified by St. Jerome, preface in the epistle to the Ephesians. Whence Apollonius of Tyana opened publicly a school of magical art at Ephesus, and was honored by the Ephesians with a statue and placed among the gods, as testified by Philostratus, lib. IV in his Life, who also in lib. V adds that this happened in the first years of Nero, when Paul was at Ephesus, to whom therefore there was undoubtedly a sharp contest against him. Hence also proverbially Ephesian letters, or marks, are called magical signs, for obtaining victory and warding off dangers, as testified by Suidas; indeed also for expelling demons, as testified by Plutarch in the Symposiacs, lib. VII, Question V. For these marks, says Eustathius in the Odyssey φ, were obscure words like riddles, which were written inscribed on small sewn skins worn on the feet, belt and crown of Diana. Most devoted to magic was Julian the Apostate, who through it lost his empire, life and soul. Valerian also the Emperor, seduced by a magician, from a friend of Christians became their enemy and persecutor, captured by Sapor king of the Persians, and shut up in an iron cage, was a mockery to the world, as much as Bajazet the Emperor of the Turks to Tamerlane. Secondly, Mariana judges that by curious arts are here understood books and workers of alchemy, that is of transmuting metals, for example making gold from bronze, silver from tin. For the practitioners of this art, as Suidas says in the word χυμεία, Diocletian ordered to be burned in Egypt, lest enriched they abuse money. It would be to be wished that magistrates would eliminate this art: for it is nothing else than the loss of money, time, and often fraud. Thirdly, others understand by curious arts astrology and judicial and genethliacal astrologers, who from the horoscope and day of birth, constellation and stars, divine those things which are to happen to each in life and death, against which St. Augustine inveighs, lib. I On Christian Doctrine, cap. XXI, XXII, XXIII, and likewise other Fathers in many places. Wherefore Aquila Ponticus, a celebrated interpreter of Holy Scripture, was cast out by the Church, because he devoted himself to the inspection of nativities and horoscopes of births, says Epiphanius, lib. On Weights and Measures. Indeed Augustus Caesar expelled these Mathematicians from the city, says Dio, lib. XLIX. Again, in the year 12 of Claudius' reign, Christ 54, a senatorial decree was made at Rome concerning the expulsion of Mathematicians from Italy, on the occasion (as it appears) of Junius Scribonianus, who had inquired through the Chaldeans concerning the end of Claudius. "A race of men," says Tacitus, lib. XVII, "faithless to the powerful, deceptive to those who hope, which in our state will always be forbidden, and will be restrained." He was a true prophet. For, as Baronius says, human curiosity itching in mind, and eager for novelty, does this and strives, that those whom emperors and princes have often driven out, may be recalled and reborn. Indeed in the few years in which I was at Rome, I saw many great men deceived by astrologers, while to this one they predicted and promised a longer life, to another a cardinalate, to another the papacy, all of whom the outcome showed to have been deluded by vain hope and falsehood, to their great danger and loss. For while they do not believe they will die unless they first obtain the prelacy which the Mathematicians promised, even when struck by lethal disease, they do not prepare themselves for death: wherefore they die unprepared and improvident, which is often an open fraud of the devil, who through these divinations lies in wait for their souls, and like a wolf gapes, that he may seize and snatch them. Awake, Prelates: "O ye sons of men, why do you love vanity, and seek after lying?" indeed often the destruction not only of the body, but also of the soul. This was understood by Alphonsus, King of Aragon truly wise, who, munificent to all, alone excluded astrologers from his court. He was asked: Why? answered he who was privy to his secrets: "Stars rule and drive on the foolish, but the wise rule over the stars. It is therefore fitting for foolish princes to honor astrologers, not for the wise, among whom Alphonsus holds his name." Thus Aeneas Silvius, lib. IV On the Deeds of Alphonsus, cap. III. Francis Sforza held the same view, who prepared the empire of the Insubrians for himself and his own, to whom all astrologers were always either hateful or contemptible, so far was he from consulting them in his wars and affairs. John Pico, Count of Mirandola, held the same judgment, as can be seen in book II which he wrote against Astrology, chapter II. Indeed astrologers are pernicious to the commonwealth, and they disturb the rule of princes, while they predict and peddle that the princes will soon die, and that others to whom they flatter will succeed them. For who would love, obey, or honor a prince soon to die? And would he not rather seek the favor of another, as if of a new sun about to rise? For this reason the Emperor Vitellius punished these astrologers with death. Hear Suetonius on him, chapter XIV: "He was hostile to none more than to diviners and mathematicians: whoever was reported, he punished with death unheard." THEY GATHERED TOGETHER THE BOOKS AND BURNED THEM. — "That they may avoid fires by fire," says Arator. That same converted magus, of whom St. Augustine himself writes in Psalm LXI, near the end, did the same with magical books: "This man had perished, now sought, found, and brought: he carries with him codices to be burned, by which he had been burned; so that with those cast into fire, he himself may pass into refreshment." Thus the Emperor Honorius and Theodosius ordained that the books of Mathematicians be burned in the sight of Bishops, in the book of Mathematicians, chapter On the Hearing of Bishops. Much more should the books of heretics be burned, as being more harmful, as the same and other Emperors ordained, in the last book, On Heretics of the Theodosian Code. The same was ordained by the Canons and Councils, especially the Council of Trent. See Bellarmine, book On Laymen, chapter XX. THEY FOUND MONEY OF FIFTY THOUSAND DENARII. — The Greek and Syriac versions found five myriads of silver, that is fifty thousand coins. Budaeus, in book V On the As, and others from him reckon this price to have been five thousand gold pieces. Thus at Rome five thousand gold pieces are worth fifty thousand julios, or Spanish reals. For the aureus contains ten julios: but five times ten make fifty. Moreover the denarius weighed a drachma, and was worth one julio, or Spanish real, as I said at the end of the Pentateuch. Let Christians learn here to burn magical books, heretical, and filthy, at whatever price they are valued, even if weighed in gold: because the harm which they inflict cannot be compensated by any gold. For this reason Paul and the Apostles removed or stopped the responses of magicians equally as of idols. This is supported by what Pliny writes, in book III, chapter II, that Nero, with magicians sought from the whole world, could extract no response. Whence also Plutarch wrote a book On the Defect of Oracles. See St. Augustine, book I On Divination of Demons, chapter VI.
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21. PAUL PURPOSED IN THE SPIRIT, — Moved by the instinct of the Holy Spirit. Thus Lyra, Vatable, Cajetan, Dionysius and others; the Syriac version, however, translates it, he purposed in his mind. HAVING PASSED THROUGH MACEDONIA AND ACHAIA. — Paul passed through these regions, both that he might visit and confirm the Churches founded there by him, and that he might collect alms for the poor of Jerusalem, as is evident from II Corinthians VIII and IX. TO GO TO JERUSALEM, — both that he might bring the aforesaid alms to the Saints, and for the sake of piety, on account of the reverence of the place, as Dionysius says, and the visitation of the holy places and of the primitive Church, especially of St. James. For he was not to see that place again in this life. I MUST ALSO SEE ROME. — Because by the instinct of God, says Chrysostom, Paul was moved to go to Rome, that he might establish the Roman Church with St. Peter as the mother and head of the others, and against Simon Magus and Nero, who was preparing the first persecution against Christians, he might contend.
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22. SENDING TIMOTHY AND ERASTUS INTO MACEDONIA, etc., — that they might prepare the way for him to follow, and at the same time make the collection of alms for the people of Jerusalem, as is evident from I Corinthians IV, 17. This Erastus is called the treasurer, that is the quaestor of the city, namely of Corinth, Romans XVI, 23; afterwards he was made Bishop of Philippi, and there crowned with martyrdom, he is read to be inscribed among the Saints in the Martyrology, on the 16th day of July. BUT HE HIMSELF REMAINED FOR A TIME IN ASIA, — namely in Ephesus.
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23. A DISTURBANCE, — Τάραχος, that is a tumult for the most part, says the Syriac version. Whence Paul, explaining its gravity, in II Corinthians chapter I, verse 8: "We were, he says, pressed out of measure, beyond our strength, so that we were weary even of living." "For afflictions, says Chrysostom, draw us away from affection toward the present world. And so immediately we seek death, and we are not lovers of the body, which is indeed the greatest part of philosophy." And he adds many benefits of tribulation and finally concludes: "Great good is affliction: affliction is our teacher." CONCERNING THE WAY OF THE LORD, — concerning the institution of Christ and Christianity.
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24. DEMETRIUS. — He was the chief and leader of the other silversmiths, and perhaps had obtained from the magistrate that no one except himself and his men could make silver shrines of Diana. SILVERSMITH, — ἀργυροκόπος, that is, one who works silver, thus the Syrian: namely a silversmith, as Vatablus says, who is now called a goldsmith or goldworker. For those who work gold also work silver. For ἀργυροκόπος is derived from working silver, unless you prefer to derive it from κόπτω, that is, I cut: whence also the Greeks call a coin κόμμα. MAKING SILVER SHRINES. — What were these? First, some think they were vows and offerings, which were offered to Diana on account of danger averted or benefit received. Second, others think with Chrysostom that they were boxes or cases, in which amulets were carried, namely signs of Diana, or Ephesian letters, which the deceitful priests of Diana gave to those coming to them against fevers, diseases, dangers, or for good fortune and prosperity. Or rather, as Baronius holds, these shrines were the very silver statues of Diana, with their little shrines or compartments. Third and best, these shrines were images or likenesses of the temple of Diana. For they venerated her temple in such a way that they would depict it in images, and would cast its likeness in statues, namely in silver little shrines, upon which they placed the image or statue of Diana; these they then either offered to Diana in the temple; or wore hanging from the neck, or in hats and garments, just as our pilgrims wear images of the Blessed Virgin of Loreto; or certainly they kept them at home in household shrines and oratories, especially if they were solid, not flat and in sheet form. That this is so is evident from the fact that Luke calls them in Greek ναούς, that is, temples, and Polybius ναΐδια, that is, small temples, little temples, namely shrines and small chapels in the form of a temple in which statues of Diana were kept. DIANA. — A goddess so called ἀπὸ τοῦ Διὸς, as it were Jovian, because she was the daughter of Jupiter from Latona. Diana is the moon, so called because, as it were, she makes day by shining at night, as Cicero says, book II of On the Nature of the Gods; just as the moon is called as it were the shining one, because she alone shines at night: whence also she was called the night-shining one. Wherefore Macrobius: Diana, he says, was called as it were Jana, with the letter D added; for the ancients called the moon Jana, as Varro says, in the book On Agriculture. Hence also Horace: "Nor equal or the same the nocturnal form of Diana. / Rightly the growing Noctiluca with torch." Others, however, think "Diana" was called as it were deviana, because hunters are accustomed to go astray through forests: whence she was held to be the guide and goddess of roads. She was also called Lucina and Juno, as Cicero says: Juno, from helping; Lucina because she brings forth birth into light: whom therefore they invoke in childbirth. Whence Virgil: "Chaste Lucina, favor; thy Apollo now reigns." Hence Diana is called by poets light-bringing, bright, girt about, armed, nocturnal, wandering everywhere, modest, whole, virginal, aerial. Or, as Pliny holds, because she presides over the eyes and light, or from a grove (lucus) which she had in Rome on the Esquiline. There were many Dianas, says Cicero; but that most famous one, who was born in the same birth as Apollo, from Jupiter and Latona. She is said to have fled the company of men on account of her love of virginity, and in order to escape the temptations of lust, she dwelt in forests and mountains hunting, content with the company of a few virgins. She carried a bow and quiver, always going about girt, and clothed in a hunting boot: for which reason she was believed to be the goddess of forests and groves. Cicero, in the sixth oration against Verres: "There was," he says, "among the Segestans a bronze statue of Diana, at that time endowed with the greatest and most ancient religious reverence, and finished with singular workmanship and art." And soon after: "It was a very large and lofty image with a robe. Yet in that magnitude there was the age and appearance of a virgin: arrows hung from her shoulder, with her left hand she held a bow, with her right hand she bore a burning torch." Moreover, Diana of the Ephesians was πολύμαζος, that is, many-breasted, as St. Jerome says, in the preface to the epistle to the Ephesians: "So that from the very image itself they might lie, that she was the nurse of all beasts and living things." False therefore and deceitful was the Diana of the Gentiles: true and truthful is the Diana of Christians, namely the Blessed Virgin Mary, surrounded by choirs of virgins, who went into the mountains to consecrate John the Baptist, the hermit. For she is both the daughter of the eternal Father, who brought forth the light of the world, and therefore the star of the sea shining in the night of this age to all the faithful, showing the way to heaven. She is the same who is multimammous, because as the new Eve, mother of the living, she imparts the milk of her grace and consolation to all who invoke her. She herself is "the woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars," Apoc. XII, 1. For what the sun and moon, or Diana, are in the world, that Christ and Mary are in the Church. Whence the Blessed Virgin in this very year, or the next following, in which the worship and temple of Diana began to be overthrown by Paul, leaving the earth went up to heaven, as I shall show below. Diana was called by the Greeks ἀερότομος, as it were a cutter of the air, because the moon, or rather the aether, cuts the air in its passage, as Macrobius says. At this time she cut through the heavens, penetrating chaos, and the Blessed Virgin was exalted above all the choirs of angels. Plato indeed in the Cratylus: Diana, he says, is called ἄρτεμις διὰ τὸ ἄρτεμες καὶ τοῦ ἰοῦ, on account of integrity and modesty, on account of the desire for virginity; or as it were ἀρετῆς ἐφόρος, that is, the inspectress and witness of virtue; or, as Strabo, lib. XIV, from ἀρτεμέας ποιεῖν, that is, because she makes whole and perfect. All which things belong not to Diana of the Gentiles, but to the Christians', namely to the Virgin, the Mother of God, as also that which Sextus Pompeius writes concerning the temple of Diana once built in Rome on the Aventine hill, but now dedicated to God in honor of St. Sabina: "The festival day of servants was considered to be on the Ides of August, because on that day Servius Tullius, born of a slave woman, dedicated a temple to Diana on the Aventine, under whose protection are deer, from whose swiftness fugitives are called deer." This therefore is our Ops (for thus Diana was called from helping), to whom that of Virgil applies: "Ops is borne on wings to the ethereal Olympus." Finally, kings and princes deposited their treasures in the temple of Diana, which no one, not even an enemy plundering the city, dared to touch. Thus the Mother of God is the faithful guardian of virtue and salvation, so that it is impossible for him to perish who diligently commends himself and his affairs to her, as common experience of all teaches, and St. Bernard, hom. 4 super Missus est: "From thy mouth (O Mary, he says) hangs the consolation of the wretched, the redemption of captives, the liberation of the damned, and finally the salvation of all the sons of Adam, thy whole race." The same elsewhere in scattered passages: "Mary, he says, is the violet of humility, the lily of chastity, the rose of charity. To Mary neither the power nor the will of giving gifts to men can be lacking. To Mary's piety faith did not fail, to her voice gravity, to her vow efficacy. Remember to commend to Mary whatever thou preparest to offer to God. Mary is the glory of paradise, the joy of heaven. Mary is the virginal bosom. Mary's virginity is greater than angelic purity. Thinking of Mary, thou errest not; asking Mary, thou despairest not. Through Mary heaven was filled, and hell was emptied. In Mary God placed the sun and moon, Christ and the Church. In the angels found joy in Mary, the just found grace, sinners found pardon in Mary forever. In Mary, through Mary, from Mary the benign hand of the Almighty recreated whatever it had created: without Mary nothing was restored, just as without God nothing was made: through Mary's hands passed whatever God willed us to have." Now as to the temple of Diana at Ephesus, it was so grand and magnificent that it was numbered among the seven wonders of the world. Hear Pliny, lib. XXXVI, cap. XIV: "True admiration of magnificence exists in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, made in two hundred (elsewhere he has four hundred) twenty years by all Asia. They made it on marshy ground, so that it would not feel earthquakes, or fear exhalations. Again, lest the foundations of such a mass be placed on slippery and unstable ground, they laid them down by treading them with charcoal, then with fleeces of wool. The whole temple has a length of CCCCXXV feet, a width of CCXX, columns CXXVII, made by individual kings, sixty feet in height, of which XXXVI were carved." And soon after: "The other ornaments of its work occupy the space of many books." On the day on which Alexander the Great was born, Erostratus set fire to this temple of Diana, so that from this deed of his he might transmit his name to all posterity. Whence they erased his name from all books, but nevertheless it remained surviving. From this fire the augurs conjectured that on that day was born he who would bring destruction to Asia. Finally the Goths under the Emperor Gallienus, invading Asia, completely plundered and burned this temple, as Capitolinus says in the Life of Gallienus.
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25. WHOM (the craftsmen of the shrines of Diana) HAVING CALLED TOGETHER, AND THOSE WHO WERE CRAFTSMEN OF SUCH THINGS. — περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐργάτας, that is, and those who worked about the same things. For besides the craftsmen themselves, there were other workmen, their assistants. For some drew silver into sheets, others melted it, others purified it, others polished it, others painted it, others inscribed it, others adorned it. Pagninus and Vatablus translate, and those who were craftsmen of similar things, as if Demetrius had called together all goldsmiths, sculptors, statuaries, etc., in order to stir up a greater tumult. FROM THIS CRAFT IS OUR ACQUISITION. — The Zurich Bible, from this craft we have gain. For in Greek it is εὐπορία, that is, profit, gain.
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27. NOT ONLY SHALL THIS PART BE IN DANGER FOR US (this lot of ours, this craft of ours, this gain of ours) come into reproach, — namely into disapproval and contempt, so that refuted and confuted by Paul as vain and superstitious it shall be neglected, disapproved and despised by all; and thus we shall be reduced to poverty and die of hunger. Some translate: "we are in danger in this respect." OF GREAT DIANA. — The Gentiles reckoned twelve great gods, six males and as many females, whom Ennius comprises in this couplet: "Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, / Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, Vulcan, Apollo." The other gods were of lesser nations. SHALL BEGIN TO BE DESTROYED HER MAJESTY. — The Interpreter reads μέλλει δὴ. So also Pagninus, Vatablus and others; some, however, read μᾶλλον δὲ, that is, rather indeed, as if to say: Not so much does the loss of profit grieve us, as the honor and worship of Diana: for it will be most bitter for us, and ought to be for all, if her majesty perish among the common people.
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29. IN CONFUSION, — in disturbance, in tumult. AND THEY MADE AN ASSAULT, — ὥρμησαν, that is, they rushed together with one impulse into the theatre, dragging into it Gaius and Aristarchus, so that they might publicly proclaim them and the other Christians there as guilty and sacrilegious and put them to death. Thus Arator, Bede, Hugh and others. This Gaius was a Macedonian, different from Gaius of Derbe, of whom in the following chapter, verse 4. Paul calls Aristarchus his fellow-captive, Colossians IV, 10. He is inscribed among the Saints, on the 4th of August, where we read thus: "At Thessalonica, St. Aristarchus, who was the inseparable companion of Paul, and was ordained by him bishop of the Thessalonians, after long struggles under Nero rested crowned."
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30. BUT PAUL WISHING [to enter]. — St. Chrysostom extols, in homily 7 On the Praises of St. Paul, the greatness of his spirit, in that he sought to enter into the raging crowd of the people to either calm it or die for Christ. For this, he says, befitted the leader of the faithful, that he should go before others in boldness, and in fact show Christians that death for Christ is not to be feared but to be desired. Thus in wars a courageous leader animates the whole army, a timid one intimidates it. Whence that saying: "An army of deer led by a lion is stronger than an army of lions led by a deer." "For Paul," says Chrysostom, "in the ardor of preaching itself more vehement than fire, kindled in himself a flame like rain: he feared not dangers, he was not ashamed of mockeries, but taking on other eyes, namely of charity, and another mind, with much impetuosity like a torrent he rushed forth, drawing and sweeping along all things of the Jews together, etc.; and as if always satisfying God for the time already spent, thus he gathered spiritual gains from everywhere, boldly leaping into a place which was the greatest part of war and full of labors and dangers. But this is wonderful, that, although he was so bold, and as if always girded for battle, and conspiring a certain fire of war, he thus again showed himself so placable to his teachers, that he never offended in such great alacrity of impulse. Whence also when his companions dissuaded him from entering the theatre, he immediately acquiesced." Thus also St. Gregory, book XXXI of the Morals, chapter XIV, or XXIII, compares Paul to a noble horse, which exults in battle: "You may behold," he says, "him excited by the spurs of his rider against armed enemies: such fervor inflamed Paul, when at Ephesus the flame of zeal seized him to burst into the crowds of the theatre."
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32. BUT SOME CRIED OUT ONE THING, OTHERS ANOTHER. — This appears to be an aposiopesis, and something is to be supplied, which the Syriac version explains, when it translates: "but the crowds which were in the theatre were greatly in tumult and some cried out one thing, others another." For, as follows, it was an assembly, that is a gathering and confused crowd of people, as happens in sedition and tumult, when one wants and cries out this thing and another another."
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33. AND THEY DREW ALEXANDER OUT OF THE MULTITUDE. — This Alexander appears to have been a Jew, learned and eloquent, yet joined to Paul in friendship, whom the Jews brought forward into a place suitable for speaking on behalf of their common cause. For that the Ephesians, contending for Diana, were moved and stirred up not only against Christians, but also against Jews, enemies of Diana, is evident from what follows, verse 34. Whence the Syrian translator renders it: "And the multitude of Jews who were there determined from among themselves a man who was a Jew, whose name was Alexander." For among the Ephesians there was a notable blasphemy. Yet he notes the remarkable modesty of Paul, who did not rail against Diana with insults and curses, but spoke her naked truth and exposed it. The Jews did the same, thinking this was a precept, Exodus XXII, 28: "Thou shalt not speak ill of the gods"; although the sense of that place is different, as I have said there. Whence Josephus, book II Against Apion: "Our custom," he says, "is to guard our own, not to accuse others, and that we should neither mock nor blaspheme those who are thought to be gods among others, our lawgiver has openly forbidden us." To this pertains that admonition of St. Augustine, sermon 6 on the Gospel according to Matthew: "First idols in the hearts of men, then in idols and temples are to be broken." From these words it is gathered that this scribe favored Paul and was his friend or well-wisher. AND WHEN THE SCRIBE HAD APPEASED THE MULTITUDES. — This scribe was the Secretary of the city, or counselor of the Magistrate, and as it were his mouth and sense, such as in Belgium are and are called Pensionaries. Whence in Greek he is called γραμματεύς, that is, a doctor of the law, who knows and protects the laws of the city, and informs and directs the Magistrate in these matters. The Syrian translator renders it, prince of the city, as if he were a Chancellor. Some think this scribe was Alexander the Jew. Thus Baronius. More truly others judge him to have been another, and a Gentile: for Luke seems to distinguish them. For Alexander, as a Jew, the multitudes of Gentiles cried out against for two hours. So that he might appease them, a Gentile scribe succeeded, who, praising Diana (which a Jew would not have done), restrained them. Whence Chrysostom calls him an unbeliever. Certainly he was a political and prudent man, who immediately composed the multitudes, such as was Demosthenes, "whom Athens marveled at as a Torrent, and full of moderating the reins of the theater," as Juvenal says, satire 10. For "drew out," in Greek it is ἀποστατίζειν, that is, they first instructed, as Vatablus translates it. Thus we instruct an advocate or patron to conduct our case: whence some think our Interpreter read ἀπελίξαν, that is, they thrust forward. But also μεθορμίζομενος is said of one who is forced to come forward and is thrust out. Baronius, Hugo and others think this Alexander was converted to Christ, but apostatized, and was the one whom Paul with Hymenaeus delivered to Satan for blasphemy, I Timothy 1, 20. But others, such as Cajetan and Arias, judge him to have been different. AND ALEXANDER BECKONED WITH HIS HAND FOR SILENCE. — κατασείσας τὴν χεῖρα, that is, shaking his hand, with hand moved. Thus Persius: "And made silence for the warm crowd, by the majesty of his hand."
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35. KEEPER OF THE TEMPLE. — The Syrian translator: keeper of the temple: in Greek νεωκόρον, that is, the ornament and attendant of the temple. Just as St. Paulinus wished to be keeper and attendant of the temple of St. Felix, whom he therefore celebrated with ten birthday hymns. AND OF THE OFFSPRING OF JUPITER. — In Greek καὶ τοῦ διοπετοῦς, that is, sent down or fallen from Jupiter, namely ἀγάλματος, that is, the image of Diana: thus the Syrian translator, Chrysostom, Pagninus, Vatablus and others. For they feigned that the image of Diana was not made by man, but fallen from heaven, and that this was commonly believed is taught by Suidas in the word Σοῦμνις. Thus superstition was increased by falsehood. So they feigned that the Palladium of Troy and the Ancile of Rome fell from heaven. Our interpreter read τῆς διοπετοῦς, that is, proceeding or descending from Jupiter's Diana. For Homer calls kings διογενεῖς, as if proceeding and born from Jupiter. Perhaps also he read διογενοῦς, that is, begotten by Jupiter.
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37. NOR BLASPHEMING YOUR GODDESS. — He lies diplomatically to calm the people, says Chrysostom. For Paul taught that she was not a goddess, but an empty and fictitious idol.
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38. ASSEMBLIES OF THE FORUM ARE HELD. — In Greek, ἀγοραῖοι from ἀγορά, just as forensic from forum. Who are these? First, the Syrian translator renders them as craftsmen, as if these assemblies were of craftsmen, in which questions and disputes were decided by the Deans of the same craft, as we see happening commonly in Germany, which pertains to the guild of goldsmiths: there it is decided. Second, Oecumenius interprets forensic as common and plebeian judges, who decided the cases of plebeians, just as proconsuls decided those of the rich. Third, forensic are called those things which are done in a public place and assembly, namely in the forum. Just as we commonly call civil cases forensic cases. For among the Romans and in other public judgments were exercised in the forum, as testified by Cicero, Quintilian, book III, and others. Whence forensic is opposed to domestic, as public to private. And we know that Cicero conducted the cases of his clients in the forum, not of merchandise, but of cases which are handled in a public place, as in his forum. Fourth, Baronius from Dionysius of Halicarnassus, book IV, judges that forensic assemblies were those in which on fixed days throughout the year the people gathered for the sacred rites and games of Diana: where then judges were present who would decide and settle disputes. Or rather, he says, according to Luke, "forensic assemblies" were those when the proconsul, stationed in certain cities of the province which seemed to him more suitable for this purpose, on fixed days, either by himself or through legates, hearing the cases of the provincials, exercised judgment and defined them by sentence. Cicero mentions these, book III, epistles 6 and 8, and Josephus, book XIV of the Antiquities, chapter x. Thus in Hungary and other kingdoms more serious disputes and cases are deferred until the diets of the kingdom, in which they are decided by the nobles of the kingdom. The third sense seems clearer and more common than the others.
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39. IF YOU SEEK ANYTHING ELSE, — of greater importance, pertaining to the good and public peace. IT CAN BE SETTLED IN A LAWFUL ASSEMBLY (in the council and diets of the province, or people, lawfully appointed by law or magistrate), — that is, it can be defined, or transacted and settled. Lawful he opposes to tumultuous, which they themselves had stirred up here through sedition. Thus Gagneius, Vatablus and others. Chrysostom adds that these assemblies were accustomed to be held three times a month. But Baronius from Epiphanius, heresy 30, understands by Church the Synagogue of the Jews, as if to say: If you have any question of Jewish law concerning Jews and the Mosaic law, such as this appears to be which you are bringing against Paul the Jew, go to the Synagogue of the Jews, there it will be best decided. For the Jews dwelling in Ephesus were fellow citizens of the same city, and therefore enjoyed the privileges of citizens, and were called Ephesians, as testified by Josephus, book II Against Apion. But thus this scribe would have more irritated the raging people: for he hated the Jews, as enemies of his Diana. Therefore the former sense is clearer.
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40. FOR WE ALSO ARE IN DANGER OF BEING ACCUSED OF SEDITION. — He strikes them with fear of the Emperor and proconsul, who will inquire into the authors of this tumultuous gathering and sedition, and will exact punishment from them. SINCE NO ONE IS GUILTY, — αἴτιος, that is, culpable, as if to say: Since no one is at fault, since there is no one who is a disturber, a traitor to the republic, a seditious person, on account of whom this gathering has been made, so that we might therefore excuse him and give account of him to the proconsul. For it must be an enormous crime on account of which the whole people gathers and rises up. Second, αἴτιος, can be referred not to a person, but to a thing and cause, as if to say: Since there is no cause by which we can excuse this gathering of the people. Thus Gagneius, according to that saying of Eustathius, Odyssey α: Αἴτιος ὁ γράψας αἰτία Καλλιμάχῳ — "He is guilty who ascribes crimes to Callimachus." HE DISMISSED THE ASSEMBLY, — the gathering of the people.
Paul's Combat with Beasts at Ephesus Note: Luke omits much and great things here and elsewhere. For he merely enumerates Paul's journeys and the principal matters accomplished in them in summary fashion. Thus in chapter IX, he omits Paul's journey, recently converted, into Arabia, his return to Damascus after three years, his coming to Jerusalem, the rebuke of Peter, which nevertheless Paul recounts in Galatians I and II. Thus, in I Corinthians XI, 24, Paul says: "Of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one," of which Luke makes no mention whatsoever. And whereas Paul says he was beaten with rods three times, Luke mentions only the single scourging that took place at Philippi, chapter XVI. Concerning the threefold shipwreck; likewise, that Paul says he was in the deep of the sea night and day, Luke has nothing: for the shipwreck which he recounts in chapter XXVII occurred after the epistle to the Corinthians was written. Thus concerning Peter's chair at Antioch and Rome, and his other deeds, there is profound silence in Luke. In like manner here he omitted at Ephesus Paul's combat with beasts, of which Paul, in I Corinthians XV, 32, says: "If according to man (that is, by human boldness, contention and strength, or as far as is possible for man) I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me, if the dead rise not again?" For whereas Theophylactus, Oecumenius, Anselmus and from them other more recent writers (one of whom follows another like sheep following sheep) interpret this combat metaphorically as the contention which Paul had with Demetrius and the silversmiths, whom on account of their savagery and fury, and on account of their carnal and bestial life (in which, devoted to the flesh, they lived as if there were no resurrection and another life in the heavens) he calls beasts, it is certain that they err. For the epistle to the Corinthians, in which he mentions this combat of his, was written at Ephesus, as is evident from the fact that he says, I Corinthians XVI, 8: "But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost." Again, it was written before the contention with Demetrius: for immediately after it he departed from Ephesus, as is evident from chapter XX, 1: thus Baronius and others everywhere. Wherefore some, such as Arias, think that this combat of Paul with beasts was the contest which he had with the Jews and the sons of Sceva the exorcists, verses 9 and 13. But this is less probable. For with the exorcists there was a contest with the devil who leaped upon them, not with Paul who was silent: and with the Jews, hardening themselves against Paul's preaching, he himself did not contend; "but departing from them he separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of a certain tyrant," says Luke. A far greater contest was Paul's with the Jews at Derbe, Lystra, and Corinth, as we have heard in chapter XIV, 45 and seq., and yet nowhere did he call them beasts. Wherefore it seems more true that Paul was literally exposed to beasts at Ephesus. First, because his words already recited properly sound thus. Second, because the other interpretations are improper, nor do they rest on solid foundation. Third, because since very many Martyrs, and many of Paul's disciples and handmaidens, among whom was St. Thecla, were exposed to beasts, it was fitting that Paul himself, their standard-bearer and leader, should go before them in this matter and give them an example. For he himself was tempted and made perfect in all things. Fourth, because thus explain it Theodoret, Ambrose, Arboreus and Mariana, on I Corinthians XV. Chrysostom also favors it, while interpreting beasts as nothing but beasts, although he speaks ambiguously. For he says: "What is 'according to man'? As much ferocity as falls upon men, I fought with beasts." Where he interprets the phrase "according to man," but not the phrase "I fought with beasts," as if it were clear in itself, to be taken as it sounds. Fifth, because for this reason he said, I Corinthians IV, 9: "We are made a spectacle (in Greek θέατρον, that is, a theatre) unto the world, and to angels, and to men," as if to say, Exposed to beasts in a theatre, we have become a spectacle to men, to God and to angels. For in theatres were watched the combats of men and wild beasts, gladiators and beast-shows, as St. Ignatius, a follower of Paul, after him condemned to beasts at Rome by Trajan, brought into the amphitheatre, seeing the crowd of spectators gathered round and greeting them: "O Romans," he said, "I come forth into this theatre, and I become a spectacle to you, not on account of any crime, since I have committed nothing worthy of death; but that through lions I may reach God, and enjoy him, whose insatiable desire holds me." Whence Paul also adds: "We are made as it were the refuse (in Greek ὥσπερ καθάρματα, that is, as anathemas and heads devoted to curses) of this world, the offscouring of all," as if to say, We have become as expiatory victims, the loss of the world, and food for beasts, as if unworthy of this life, light, air and earth, and therefore to be thrust into and buried in the belly of wild beasts. You will say first: It is not credible that Paul properly fought, that is, struggled with beasts, as he himself says, even if he was exposed to them. I answer: Θηριομαχεῖν, that is, to fight with beasts, is the same as to be exposed to beasts: for indeed most of the condemned were thus exposed to beasts, so that they would fight with them for the pleasure of the spectators (for the people were more eager to watch these fights and beast-shows than naked devourings of men); hence "to fight with beasts" is the same as "to be exposed to beasts," as is evident from the Acts of the Martyrs. Whence St. Ignatius, in his second epistle to the Ephesians, says: "That I may deserve to fight with beasts at Rome," that is to be exposed to beasts and to be torn by them. You will say secondly: Paul was a Roman citizen, and therefore by the law of the Romans he could not be condemned to the beasts. I answer that he was exposed to beasts, not by legitimate judge and judgment, but by the fury of the people. Nicephorus relates the deed, lib. II, cap. 25, from the ancient Acts of Paul, which Origen cites and approves, lib. I Periarchon, cap. II: "Truly indeed," he says, "those who described the journeys of Paul recorded that he did and suffered many other things at the same time, and also this when he was at Ephesus. When Hieronymus held the chief position there, Paul preached with great freedom: wherefore Hieronymus testified that he spoke well and eloquently, but that his discourse was not of that time. The people indeed through insolence and fury, having put chains on Paul, shut him in prison, so that he might be exposed to lions to be devoured. There then Eubula and Artemilla, wives of prominent men of Ephesus, taught the faith by Paul (for they came to him at night), ask from him the grace of the divine washing. And so by divine virtue and the ministry of angelic attendance, the darkness of night being illuminated by an abundance of splendor, Paul, freed from iron chains, initiates them in divine baptism at the shore of the sea, and when none of all those to whom the care of custody had been entrusted perceived this, he returns to his chains, in which food for the lions was kept. But indeed a lion of great size and intolerable strength was sent against him, and it ran into the arena, but sat down at Paul's feet. And when likewise other savage beasts were sent in, it did not allow any of them to touch the sacred body raised up and composed in prayer. These things being thus done, suddenly with great noise a violent hail falling beyond the order of nature broke the heads of many men and wild animals at once, and cut off the ear of Hieronymus himself: who then with his people, reconciled to God through Paul, received the saving washing: and that lion, fleeing, escaped into the nearby mountains; and Paul from there crossed over to Macedonia and Greece, and thus finally journeyed to Jerusalem. It is not to be wondered at that Luke did not insert this fight of Paul with beasts into his other acts: for although among the Evangelists John alone commemorates the resurrection of Lazarus, yet there is less reason to doubt concerning its faith and truth." Thus far Nicephorus.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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v. 1 factum est autem cum Apollo esset. Corinthi, ut Paulus peragratis superioribus partibus, τὰ ἀνχτολιχὰ μέρη legit Theoph. (et aliqui.minusc); cf. 18,93, provinciae illae cum Epheso urbibusque maritimis comparatae superiores appellantur, ex illis enim Ephesum venientes veluti descendere, et e mari adeuntes ascendere videntur (Calm.), veniret Ephesum et inveniret quosdam discipulos, cum vocentur simpliciter μαθηταί (et v. ל πιστεύσαντες) quo nomine credentes in Iesum designantur, hi quoque, sicut Apollo, ex doctrina et institutione Ioannis baptistae iam credunt Iesum Messiam (cf. 18,25), sed baptisma christianum nondum receperant. Cum nihil nobis referatur, ubi antea fuerint, quando venerint Ephesum, frivolum est statuere apertam contradictionem cum 18,25, quasi simul cum Apollo debuissent iam edoceri vel saltem ab Aquila et Priscilla ad Paulum adduci , ut Weiss vult. Unde Paulus inductus fuerit, ut quaereret ex eis de sacramento confirmationis accepto nescimus. Forlasse scivit eos iis in regionibus commoratos esse, ubi nemo apostolorum erat, vel in iis quidquam deesse advertit quod ad vim οἱ vigorem vitae christianae pertineret ;
19:2
v. 9 dixitque ad eos : si Spiritum sanctum accepistis credentes? si, particula interrogationis cf. 1,6; 7,1; αἱ tilii dixerunt ad. eum : sed neque si Spiritus sanctus est audivimus; illud est aliqui explicant secundum [oan. 7,39, > quia nec re ipsa ignorare plene Spiritum sanctum poterant , de quo frequens in vetere testamento mentio recurrit, cuius afflatu prophetas vaticinatos fuisse Iudaei omnes norant. Illud novum accidit his conferri in Ecclesia sacramentum quo Spiritus sanctus dabatur; de confirmatione et collato ab illa sancto Spiritu deque donis supra naturam quae per manuum impositionem suppeditantur, ne verbum quidem huc usque audivimus » (Caím.). Quae acceptio in altera lectione exhibetur : si Spiritum sanctum aliqui accipiunt ne audivimus quidem; eandem defendunt 268. Wendt, Bi. - Weiss. Sed quaestio Pauli tamen supponere videtur eos nihil se scire confessos esse de Spiritu sancto, esse scil. Spiritum sanctum personam divinam ab alia persona divina distinctam ;
19:3
v. 3 i//e vero ait : in quo . ergo εἰς «(tin quid (gig) baptizati estis? cur enim quaerit de baptismo? certe non, quia illi responderunt se nihil scire de donis extraordinariis quae dentur ἃ Spiritu sancto. Haec enim acceptio Spiritus sancti non ad baptismum pertinet, sed impositione manuum conferri solebat (8,17). Magna cum admiratione quaerit apostolus; quae admiratio facilius explicatur in illa responsione qua dicunt se ne scire quidem esse Spiritum. Praeterea cum apostolus interroget πιστεύσαντας, omnino supponere censendus est eos iam accepisse baptismum ; audiens itaque eorum responsum eo quem dixi sensu, facile fluit interrogatio, immo necessario : εἰς τί οὖν ἐδαπτίσθητε; si vero respondissent : non audivimus si qui acceperint Spiritum sanctum, potius debuit concludere : ergo manus illis nondum sunt impositae (cf. 8,17), uti statim in v. 6 impositio manuum et acceptio Spiritus coniungitur et a baptismo distinguitur. Quare cum Lap. Deel. Patr. Felt. puto illos nihil scisse de Spiritu sancto. Neque id adeo mirum videri debet. Nam profecto non adeo aperte colligi potest ex vetere testamento Spiritum Dei esse personam divinam ab alia persona divina distinctam; neque enim in locutionibus illis obviis : effundam spiritum meum; dabo spiritum meum in cor eorum; Spiritus Dei insiluit super eum etc. statim deprehenditur hypostasis propria Spiritus; neque ex verbis baptistae Christum baptizaturum esse in Spiritu sancto et igni opus est, ut omnes statim intellexerint esse hypostasin propriam. Praeterea notari oportet Spiritum sanctum in vetere testamento raro dici (cf. Sap. 1,5; 9,17. Eccli. 1,9), neque inde aperte colligi hypostasin. Proinde nullo modo sequitur quod aliqui consequi volunt, illos non Iudaeos sed gentiles esse habendos, si profiterentur se ne scire quidem esse Spiritum sanctum. — Uti ex epistola Augustini ad Vincentium (ep. 93 n. A1; M. 33,343) elucet, Donatistae etiam ad exemplum Pauli provocarunt qui post loannem baptizasset, ut suum rebaptizandi morem commendarent et defenderent; id quod eo loco Augustinus multis refellit. Dicitur baptizari εἰς τί, 810001 εἰς τὸ ξνομα; vide quae dixi ad Matth. 28,19 et vide Cornely, Comment, in 1 Cor. p. 35 et Comment. in ep. ad Rom. p. 315. Neque latinum in quo aliter est interpretandum. Nam in latinitate vulgari promiscue 7n coniungitur cum ablativo et ' accusativo et casus hi inter se permutantur discrimine linguae cultioris neglecto. Qui dixerunt : tn Ioannis baptismate, εἰς τὸ eic. ; א in quo responso est aliquid inconcinni; quid enim est baptizan in cuiuspiam baptismum? nempe si aliter interrogati fuissent , dixissent, opinor, baptizati fuimus a Ioanne; hinc vero cum rogarentur in quid baptizati essent, respondent : in baptisma loannis » (Bee/.). Eos ulterius edocet Paulus assignans baptismi loannis significationem et efferens ad quid tendat illud
19:4
v. & dixt! autem Paulus : Ioannes 00001zavit baptismo poenitentiae populum, ut populum ad poenitentiam excitaret, dicens : in eum qui venturus est post ipsum ut crederent, hoc est in Iesum; baptismo et praedicatione annuntiavit venturum > Messiam et fidem in eum provocare studuit (cf. Matth. 3 11. Marc 1, 8. Luc. 3,16. Ioan. 1,26 seq.). Summatim indicatur eos a Paulo esse - plenius institutos;
19:5
v. 5 Ais auditis baptizati sunt tn nomine Domini εἰς τὸ ἔνομα; vide ad 2,38; additur altera lectione : in remissionem peccatorum, quo etiam plenius discrimen effertur ἃ baptismate poenitentiae. Quod veteres protestantes contenderunt baptismum Ioannis fuisse idem quod baptisma Christi, a recentioribus protestantibus explosum est; contra illos statuebatur canon 1 de baptismo sess. VII Concilii tridentini : si quis dixerit baptismum Ioannis habuisse eandem vim cum baptismo Christi, A. S. Clare alterum sacramentum designatur
19:6
v. 6 et cum tmposutsset illis manus Paulus, venit Spiritus sanctus super eos et loquebantur lingwis et prophetabant; cf. 8,16; 10,46; 9,17 et 13,1 et 1 Cor. 15,3. — Quae hic de Paulo referuntur, aliquam habent similitudinem cum iis quae Petrus fecit 8,17 et 10,44. Unde > critici א contendunt, haec de Paulo esse conficta, ut ea quoque in re Petro aequipararetur (ita Baur, Zeller οἱ nuperrime Hi/g.). Isti epistolas paulinas non nosse videntur. Nam in ecclesiis 8 Paulo fundatis, Thessalonicae , Corinthi, apud Galatas, uti epistolae Pauli testantur, dona et charismata Spiritus sancti fidelibus abunde tribuebantur. Iam ibi Paulus praedicabat, ecclesias fundabat, et impositione manuum Spiritum sanctum baptizatis tribuebat (cf. 2 Tim. 1,6). Si itaque in illis ecclesiis per Pauli praedicationem et manuum impositionem coelestia dona fidelibus obveniebant, quae ratio reperiri poterit negandi vel in dubium vocandi quod hic narratur? Aliam ratiunculam invenit Weizs. ' (p. 351); legitur in
19:7
v. 7 erant autem omnes viri fere duodecim, quo numero dicit sine ullo dubio, immo apertissime alludi ad duodecim apostolos; unde iam patere totam narrationem esse nihil aliud nisi allegoriam, qua doceatur fidem in Christum quam habeant 100860christiani per Paulum demum et eius doctrinam perfici et promoveri ad veram fidem spiritualem et ad communicationem Spiritus. Sed ipse Weiss notat, cum addatur ὡσεὶ, excludi omnem talem numeri significationem, propter quam numerum esse confictum quis cogitare posset. | Ephesi Paulus hospitabatur apud Aquilam et Priscillam (1 Cor. 16, 19) et prius quidem docebat in synagoga (cf. 18,19. 90)
19:8
v. 8 tn£rogressus autem synagogam cum fiducia loquebatur per tres menses disputans διαλεγόμενος 17,9 et suadens de regno Dei, de regno messiano, πείθων « praesens est suadere, non persuadere » (Bl.) ; alii tamen. de effectu persuasionis, alii de studio et conatu loquendi cum omni persuasione accipiunt; cf. 13,43; 15,19; 18,&. Veram itaque indolem regni messiani exponebat, Iudaeos retrahere studens a vana exspectatione gloriae ac dominationis iudaicae. Verum. hanc spem altissime animis impressam sibi eripi aegerrime aliqui tulerunt
19:9
v. 9, cum autem quidam indurarentur et non crederent, crux scandalum Iudaeis illis erat vanitati nationali deditis, maledicentes viam Domini coram multitudine scil. gentium , ut eo modo praedicationem Pauli impedirent apud Graecos (1 Thess. 2,16), discedens ab eis segregavit discipulos a synagoga, ne iam synagogam frequentarent; cf. 18,7 ; quare alium sibi selegit locum ad docendum : quotidie disputans tn schola Tyranni cuiusdam, Tyrannus nomen est proprium (2 Mach. &,50); unus ex satellitibus Herodis eo nomine vocabatur (losephus, Anüq. 16,10,3), etiam apud rabbinos ΟἿΣ] reperitur (cf. Buztorf, Lex. talm. c. 916), Suidas sophistam eius nominis commemorat. Fuerit ille Tyrannus rhetor vel philosophus, qui scholam suam seu auditorium, ubi docebat, pro certis horis Paulo permisit; in altera lectione habetur Paulum docuisse ab hora quinta usque ad decimam (ab hora 11 ad & pomeridianam). Alii putant Tyrannum fuisse doctorem iudaeum qui habuerit quod vocant Beth midrasch , scholam in qua doceri solebant traditiones et earum expositiones. Sed cum Paulus segregaret suos fideles a ludaeis, non est probabile ipsum nunc docuisse in schola privata alicuius rabbi. Ostium mihi apertum est magnum et evidens et adversarii multi; ita scribit ipse de 808 Ephesi commoratione (1 Cor. 16,9). Diu ibi docuit, diutius quam alibi
19:10
v. 10 Aoc autem factum est per biennium, ' ita ut omnes qui habitabant in Asia audirent verbum Domini, Iudaei atque gentiles, Ἕλληνες. Nam Ephesus urbs ob situs opportunitatem augetur quotidie estque emporium Asiae eorum quae sunt intra Taurum maximum (Strabo 15,1,9%; al. 641 al. 950). Erat ibi templum Dianae celeberrimum. Commercii igitur et superstitionis causa homines undique in eam urbem confluxerunt. Paulo praedicante non solum Ephesi coetus fidelium est constitutus, sed pluribus in civitatibus; nam 1 Cor. 16,19 scribit : salutant vos ecclesiae Asiae; idem elucet ex 20, 17. 98 et ex septem illis ecclesiis, de quibus in Apoc., certe etiam aliquae, fortasse omnes, eo iam tempore exortae sunt. Et qua ratione inter multas tribulationes praedicaverit ipse enarrat 20,18 seq. Sed Deus etiam potenter ei adstitit praeclarissima ei testimonia divinae approbationis exhibens
19:11
v. 11 virtutesque non quaslibet οὐ τὰς τυχούσας non vulgares, non modicas (gig), sed eximias, faciebat Deus per manum Pauli,
19:12
v. 19 ita ut etiam super languidos deferrentur a corpore eius τοῦ χρωτὸς ἃ cute eius sudaria et ἢ vel semictnctia ; sudarium linteum est ad sudorem faciei, narium abstergendum ; semicinctium est tegumentum quo opifices anteriorem corporis partem cingere solent, cingulum quod dimidiam corporis partem cingat. Explicat Oec. : sudaria super caput tenduntur, semicinctia in manibus tenent ad abstergendos sudores, lacrimas etc. Notat Beda : « multi nostrum quid semicinctia significent ignorant; verum Gregorius qui nunc est apostolicae sedis antistes, cum esset adhuc archidiaconus sciscitanti amico de Britannia et hoc inter alia rescripsit, genus esse sudarii quo Hebraei utantur in capite ». Paulus opificium suum Ephesi quoque exercens labore manuum sibi sociisque victum parabat (20,34); eius laboribus Deus ita quoque benedicebat (Sa/m.), ut sudaria eius et semicinctia evaderent quasi instrumenta sanationum, uti fimbria vestimenti Christi; et recedebant ab eis languores et spiritus nequam egrediebantur; attende secerni a Luca morbos et spiritus nequam ; illos amotos, hos dici egressos (5,16; 16,18; Patr.). Bene notat Beel. : praesens locus imprimis valet ad defendendum religiosum sacrarum reliquiarum cultum (cf. Lap. Felt.). Et profecto ad praestigia goetarum superanda, ut mentes hominum ab iis artibusque magicis averterentur et vim agnoscerent vere divinam, placuit Dei benignitati sapientissimo consilio operari miracula eximia, manifestissima (cf. Eph. 6,12).
19:13
v. 13 tentaverunt autem quidam et de circumeuntibus Iudaeis exorctstis invocare super eos qui habebant spiritus malos nomen Domini Iesu dicentes : adiuro vos per Iesum quem Paulus praedicat, ut exeatis, addit gig; iam tempore Christi quidam qui non erat ex discipulis ad Iesu nominis invocationem daemonia eiiciebat (Marc. 9,37; Luc. 9,49), qui tamen erat ex credentibus in eum. Hos vero circumvagantes nomen illud usurpasse non fide, sed spe lucri, quia viderant apud Paulum aliosque fideles hoc nomen esse efficax, ex ipsa narratione nobis innuitur (Chr. Salm. Lap.). Ad eiusmodi circulatores (cf. 8,9; 13,6) etiam pertinebant filii Scevae (vide alteram lectionem)
Uti 18,12 seq. spatio commorationis declarato eventus subiungitur qui intra illud tempus contigit, ita hoc loco idem cernitur modus narrandi. Quare nullo pacto sequitur quod Hi/g. aliique (Sorof, van Manen, Spitta, Clemen, Jüngst) volunt, 19,91 connecti non cum antecedentibus, sed adiungi debere ad 19,10. — Fuisse olim apud Iudaeos exorcistas veri nominis patet ex ipsius Iesu verbis (Matth. 19,27. Luc. 11,19). Hoc charisma evangelio promulgato apud Iu- 08605 66858880 et ad fideles transisse certum est. Praeterea fuisse qui variis artibus magicis, cantionibus, herbis adhibitis daemones se pellere posse iactarent atque eiusmodi carmina a Salomone tradita se habere dicerent, losephus narrat (Antiq. 8,2,5 : atque hoc sanationis genus etiamnum apud nos plurimum valet). Tales cum viderent invocato nomine Iesu a Paulo pelli daemones, nomen istud habere vim magicam putabant;
19:14
v. 1& erant autem quidam Iudaei Scevae principis sacerdotum, erat igitur ex familia ex qua aliquis fuerat pontifex (cf. quae dixi ad Matth. 2,4); ceterum in altera lectione (etiam gig) vocatur solum sacerdos, τινὸς cuiusdam Scevae Iudaei septem filài, gig duo filii; in altera lectione hic nullus habetur numerus, qui hoc faciebant; iam subiuugitur eorum more generatim commemorato specialis eventus unus : ingressi ad daemoniacum quendam coeperunt invocare nomen dicentes : denuntiamus tibi per Iesum quem Paulus praedicat, ut exeas. Ita in altera lectione fluit narratio. In nostro textu statim adiungitur ad qui hoc faciebant
19:15
v. 15 respondens autem spiritus nequam dizit eis : Iesum novi et Paulum 0 agnoscit daemon vim ac virtutem, qua nomine Iesu a Paulo pellatur; vos autem qui estis? contemnentis et aspernantis more interrogat, 66 quam parum in se inani illa invocatione et fraudulenter usurpata valeant, statim demonstrat
19:16
v. 16 e£ insiltens in eos homo 8 daemone agitatus, 20426756 explicat Chr. μετὰ ῥύμης ἐπιπηδήσας, 1n quo erat daemonium pessimum et dominatus amborum , unde indicatur unum narrari eventum, quando duo ex illis filiis id tentabant. Neque id in tanta narrationis brevitate offensioni esse debet. Volebant quidem alii ἀμφοτέρων ita explicare, ut congruere possit eventui cui septem filii interfuerint : vel ex septem duos solum esse caesos; vel binos manu prehendens omnes septem superavit, vel ex utraque parte eos aggressus est; at textu ipso haec excluduntur (cf. Wendt); alia lectio αὐτῶν videtur invecta propter v. 1&; invaluit contra. eos ἴσχυσεν xax αὑτῶν vim illis intulit, 44a ut nudt vestimentis vix omnibus exuti (J/.); cf. loan. 91,7. 1 Cor. 5,11. lacob 2,15 et vulnerati effugerent de domo 10/6 en poena gravis pro fraudulenta usurpatione nominis Iesu, qua simul edocebantur nequaquam sonum nominis habere vim quandam magicam. Ex quo eventu tria exstiterunt commoda (v. 17-19) et primo quidem timor ac reverentia nominis Iesu innotuit infidelibus v. 17 0 autem notum factum est omnibus Iudaeis atque gentilibus Ἕλλησιν Graecis (gig) qui habitabant Ephesi et cecidit timor super omnes illos malitiam ac potentiam daemonum exemplo illo perspicientes et magnificabatur nomen Domini Iesu, cuius vim ac virtutem ipsi daemones professi sint et cuius nominis iniusta usurpatio modo terribili sit punita. Unde huius nominis dignitatem extollebant. Altera utilitas redundabat in ipsos fideles multos, qui minus eousque sibi conscii erant quid criminis essel magicas artes adeo late Ephesi regnantes sectari; casus ille filiorum Scevae quos homo 8 daemone agitatus male mulctavit cautiores illos fecit (Calm.)
19:18
v. 18 multique credentium veniebant confitentes et annuntiantes actus suos τὰς πράξεις scil. quae artis magicae professione commiserant (Caíim.)* cf. in v. 19 τὰ πε- ρίεργα πραξάντων; unde syr. confitentes peccata sua. Indicatur confessio actuum particularium, uti patet, non accusatio quaedam generalis. Sed utrum haec facta sit secreto, an publice, non indicatur; pariter fueritne confessio sacramentalis, dissidium est sententiarum, cui tollendo textus ambiguus nihil confert (Caím.). Duo certa sunt : expressam hic haberi certam assertamque τῶν πράξεων confessionem (quod olim Lutherus voluit: annuntiantes miracula sua, iam omnium consensu explosum est), et πολλοὶ τῶν πεπι- στευχότων esse qui fideles iam facti erant antea, non eos qui eo demum eventu conversi essent. lia de fidelibus explicant CAr. Oec. Salm. Lap. Calm. Hake, Felt. Bels. Bl. Weiss etc. Nam, ut Lap. notat, hic designatur alter effectus, quem causavit ignominia et plaga ludaeis exorcistis illata; in versu enim praecedenti dicitur apud ludaeos et Graecos timorem esse excitatum et laudem nominis Iesu; hic vero sermo fit de credentibus. Neque ulla fit mentio eos nunc tandem incepisse credere, cui acceptioni insuper obstat zezirtox^tov. Neque adeo mirum videri debet in tanta magiae ac superstitionis abundantia quae erat Ephesi etiam multos fidelium non statim ab omnibus istis se expedivisse. Habes simile apud Corinthios, quorum multos in tanta morum corruptione etiam luget apostolus qui non egerint poenitentiam, super immunditia et fornicatione (2 Cor. 19,91). Si itaque tales erant Corinthi, Ephesi alios suas πράξεις non statim dimisisse superstitiosas et forte etiam quaestuosas facile credideris; neque enim cum Beel. Patr. de nescio quibus vitiis et flagitiis cogitandum est, quae fidelibus imputari non possent; unde hi verba explicant de iis qui eo eventu ad fidem adducti et scelera sua detestati sint. Terlius erat effectus, ut multi libros magicos destruerent; videbant enim in illo eventu rem esse periculo plenam, si quis quocumque modo cum daemone agere velit
19:19
v. 19 multi autem ez eis qut fuerant curiosa sectati τὰ περίεργα πραξάντων qui artes magicas exercebant; artium curiosarum nomine censentur magia, astrologia divinatrix, fascinationes, praestigia, ars parandi amuleta et magicas illas imagines quibus mala quaeque averruncantur vel propitia sors in ludo coeptisque omnibus asseritur (Ca/m.). Non assignatur certa quaedam classis istorum multorum, sed sermo est generalis, sive fuerint Iudaci, Graeci, fideles, catechumeni, contulerunt libros et combusserunt coram omnibus et computatis pretiis 13llorum invenerunt pecuniam denariorum quinquaginta millium, pretium circa 36000 M monetae germanicae, si denarium atticum supponas (cf. Feit. Wendt, Weiss). Libros intellige volumina papyracea magicis formulis repleta ) 87.( . Nota enim erant et valde celebria ᾿Εἰφέσια γράμματα ; unum specimen exhibet C/emens alex. (Strom. 5,8; M. 9,72) et Hesychtus s. v. ᾿Εφέσιχ γράμματα. Non minus vere quam facete adnotat 21. : « qui summam in maius auctam esse dictitant, velim nos edoceant (scire enim videntur) de pretiis librorum magicorum quae tum fuerint ». Advertit Oec. libros esse combustos quamvis adessent qui eos sibi parare vellent; esse destructos ne quis letiferae corruptionis quae ab illis procederet particeps fieret, et ne quidquam ex huiusmodi criminis pretio acquirerent (sim. TAeopA. Salm.). Eo itaque eventu et tali exemplo res christiana capiebat incrementa
19:20
v. 90 i/a fortiter crescebat verbum Dei et confirmabatur, crescebat extensione, propagatione, dum plures in dies crederent; et eiusmodi miraculis (v. 11.12) et signis et poena in temerarios inflicta veritas altissimas egit radices in animis credentium; ea vel simili formula et narrata absolvere et ad alia transitionem sibi munire solet Lucas (cf. 2,47; 5,33; 1% ; 6,7; 19,24). Paulum non sine multa tribulatione Ephesi laborasse elucet tum ex 20,19 tum ex 1 Cor. 15,30-32 οἱ 16,9. Nihilominus praedicatio eius laetos tulit fructus. Cum itaque 68 in regione evangelium esset firmiter constitutum, nova propagandi confirmandique evangelii consilia animo volvebat
19:21
v. 21 Ais autem erpletis proposuit. Paulus in spiritu, posuit in animo, apud se statuit; cum τίθεσθαι non significet sibi proponere, illud i» τῷ πνεύματι non potest intelligi de Spiritu sancto, ut sat multi volunt (Dion. Cai. Lap.), quamvis negandum non sit eum instinctu Spiritus sancti egisse, transita Macedonia et Achaia, uti ex Epheso Corinthiis quoque scripsit 1 Cor. 16,5, tre Jerusalem, etiam eo consilio, ut collectas eleemosynas perferret 1 Cor. 16,1-3; dicens : quoniam postquam fuero ibi, oportet me et Romam videre, quod desiderium se diu fovisse Rom. 1,9 seq. declarat, quia ut gentium apostolus omnium sit debitor, et Rom. 13,23 fatetur se habere cupiditatem veniendi ad Romanos ex multis iam praecedentibus annis. De priore quodam itineris consilio certiores reddimur ex 2 Cor. 1,15; voluit enim prius ab Epheso navigare Corinthum, dein transire in Macedoniam et iterum adire Corinthios. Sed cum de conditione fidelium Corinthiorum ei afferrentur tristia quaedam (1 Cor. 1,11; 5,1; 6,1), voluit prius per epistolam et per Timotheum, quem ad eos misit, procurare, ut omnia bene disponerentur, ne durius agere cogeretur ;
19:22
v. 92 mittens autem in. Macedoniam duos ez ministrantibus sibi, Timotheum cf. 1 Cor. 4,11 et 16,10. 11 et Erastum estne idem qui Rom. 16,23 nominatur, vel qui 2 Tim. 5,20? hic erat socius itineris Pauli, cum Timotheus solus Corinthiis commendetur, Erastus missus esse videtur ad ecclesias in Macedonia confirmandas; 1056 remansit ad tempus in. Asta; cum enim mitteret Timotheum, voluit Ephesi permanere usque ad pentecosten (1 Cor. 16,8). Sed ob tumultum excitatum coactus est citius Epheso excedere (vide ad 92 Cor. 9,12; 7,5). De periculo quod ipse subiit antequam Epheso proficisceretur, ipse narrat 2 Cor. 1,8-10;
19:23
v. 23 facta est autem illo tempore, postquam misit discipulos duos in Macedoniam, 100170 non minima de via Domini, de via cf. 9,2;
19:24
v. 9& Demetrius quidam nomine, argentarius ἀργυροχόπος argenti cusor, faber argentarius (cf. ler. 6,99 LXX), faciens aedes argenteas Dianae praestabat artificibus non modicum quaestum ; templum igitur celeberrimum Dianae imitatione expressit parvis aediculis argenteis confectis; χιξώρια μιχρά dicunt Chr. Theoph. ; hae aediculae a cultoribus Dianae et peregrinis qui undique ad templum illud confluebant avide emebantur tamquam sacra quaedam pignora et certa contra pericula remedia. Eiusmodi enim amuleta et phylacteria secum gestare solebant, v. g. deae coelestis argenteum breve figmentum, ut loquitur Ammianus Marcellinus (22,13; cf. Diodorus sic. 20,14). Quaerit B/. « sed quomodo Demetrius dici potest arlificibus quaestum praestitisse ipse artifex? itaque 3 inserui (τὸ ποιεῖν »χοὺς γα.) ». Sed quid impedit, quominus Demetrius cogitetur magnam habere officinam ad aediculas conficiendas, in qua occupentur artifices ct alii operarii ? Hisce itaque ipse occasionem praebebat lucri. Querelae eius praeclaro sunt testimonio, quanto cum successu Paulus praedicarit;
19:25
v. 25 quos convocans, artifices scil. qui elegantioribus laboribus vacabant οἱ eos qui huiusmodi erant. opifices περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα qui circa illarum aedicularum fabricam utcumque aliquam operam praestabant, dizit : viri, scitis quia de hoc artificio est nobis acquisitio ἡ εὐπορία opulentia, quaestus (cf. 11,99). Uti 16,19, ita hic quoque lucri diminutio occasio fit persecutionis;
19:26
v. 96 et videtis et auditis, quia non solum Ephesi, sed pene totius Asiae Paulus hic suadens avertit multam furbam dicens : quoniam non sunt dii qui manibus fiunt; in ipsis imaginibus inesse numen vulgus existimabat (cf. 17,29). Demetrius pro re sua prudenter damnum privatum commiscet cum periculo celebritatis illius religiosae urbis de qua Ephesii maxime gloriabantur;
19:27
v. 27 non solum autem haec periclitabitur nobis pars in redargutionem venire i. e. non solum periculum est, ne hoc nostrum opificium et lucrum iacturam faciat existimationis, in contemptum veniat, repudietur, sed et magnae Dianae templum in nihilum reputabitur; > usitate dicitur ἡ θεός (ut v. 37); verum etiam inscriptio Ephesia (Brit. Mus. nr. 481, v. 324) τῇ μεγίστῃ θεᾷ ᾿Εφεσίχ ᾿Αρτέμιδι, itaque formulam sollemnem ἡ με- γάλη θεὰ "A. mira diligentia Lucas conservavit » (B/.). Templum illud magnificentissimum inter septem orbis miracula recensebatur (cf. PAilo Byzantius de septem spectaculis, cum notis... Leonis Allatii, in Thes. Antiq. graec. Gronovii tomo 8 c. 2678 seq. ubi multos vete- - rum locos laudatos invenies; Vigouroux, Le Nouveau Test. et les découvertes archéol., p. 263 seq.). Situm templi eiusque rudera exploravit Wood, Discoveries at Ephesus London 1877. Teste Vitruvio (lib. 7, praefatio) de aede Dianae Ephesi Ctesiphon et Metagenes ediderunt volumen; de ea scripsit P/inius (n. h. 36,91) etc. Gloriam igitur urbis destructum iri ac contemptum conqueritur, si magna Diana oblivione obruetur : sed οἱ destrui incipiet, vira erit ut destruatur maiestas eius quam tota Asia. el orbis colit; > Ephesiam Dianam urbes omnes celebrant et privatim viri eam prac reliquis diis prosequuntur honoribus; tria cius celebritatem auxerunt: magnitudo primum templi, quod cetera omnia hominum opera anteit, Ephesiorum deinde civitatis splendor, et ipsa postrema 0680 claritas » (Pausanias 5,31,8) ;
19:28
v. 28 his auditis repleti sunt ira et exclamaverunt dicentes : magna Diana Ephesiorum, in altera lectione : pleni ira currentes in viam publicam exclamabant etc. Sermone igitur illo audito currunt per civitatem clamantes et honorem deae vindicantes i. e. suo quaestui consulentes. Cum itaque civitatem clamoribus repleant plerisque causain ignorantibus
19:29
v. 99 et impleta est civitas confusione, gig : et confusa est universa civitas; apud LXX αἰσχύνη sacpius dicitur de idolis (Ier. 3, 2; 11,13. 05. 9,10 etc.): unde quod D habet explicari potest : et confusa est civitas ignominiae i. e. civitas deae turpis, ignominiosae, quae appellatio, uti de idolo generatim, ita de imagine Dianae ephesiae congrue dicitur. Nam ibi colebatur non Diana venatrix, sed illa multimammia quam Graeci πολύμαστον vocant , ut scil. ex ipsa quoque effigie mentirentur omnium eam bestiarum et viventium esse nutricem (Hieronymus, praef. תו Comment. ep. ad Ephes. M. 26,441). In theatris conventus haberi solebant ; ita refert Tacitus in Antiochiensium theatro illis consultare morem esse (Hist. 2,80); de Epheso habemus testimonium inscriptionis ita conceptae : φερέτωσαν χατὰ πᾶσαν ἐχυλησίαν εἰς τὸ θέατρον (cf. Bl.; de hoc more in plerisque oppidis obvio plura affert Wetst. ad ἢ. 1.). Theatrum ephesium sua quoque magnitudine celebre erat, qua millia hominum 25 capiebat (Wood, Discoveries p. 63, Felt.); etimpetum fecerunt uno animo in theatrum ὥρμησαν celeriter proruperunt; cuncti statim unanimiter, eodem animorum impulsu, in theatrum concurrunt, ubi scil. more consueto sciebant de variis rebus tractari, rapto Gaio et Aristarcho Macedonibus, comitibus Pauli, quos fortasse obvios habebant et socios peregrinationum (συνεχδήμους) Pauli agnoscebant; ipsum Paulum non invenerint in aedibus ubi commorari soleret (Bee/.);
19:30
v. 30 Paulo autem volente intrare in populum, prodire ad turbam in theatrum, ut verba facturus tumultum sedaret et pro fidelibus peroraret, non permiserunt discipuli civ. εἴων, constanter eum retinebant merito timentes ne caeco turbae furore et illa insania discerperetur. Atque merito illos ita egisse ostenditur quoque
19:31
v. 31 quidam autem et de Asiae principibus qui erant amici eius miserunt ad eum rogantes ne se daret in theatrum; > ἀσιάρχης idem qui etiam ἀρχιερεὺς τῆς ᾿Ασίας, magistratus quotannis ex ditissimis provinciae electus, qui et conventui provinciae praeesset et templum 8 communi Asiae Augusto Pergami dedicatum administraret ludosque cum eo coniunctos ederet. Mox autem plura templa ab eodem communi in pluribus oppidis Caesaribus aedificata sunt, exstiteruntque plures ἀρχιερεῖς et ἀσιάρχαι, qui omnes eo magistratu functi titulum dignitatis retinebant (sicut etiam ἀςχιερεῖς ludaeorum, 4,23). Itaque minime mirum Ephesi, in qua et ipsa düo eius generis templa erant, multos tum viros eo titulo ornatos fuisse » ) 27.(. Et de Trallianorum urbe S/ra£o scribit : habitatur a civibus opulentis, ut ulla asianarum urbium alia, et semper aliqui eorum sunt πρωτεύοντες xazx τὴν ἐπαρχίαν, quos Asiarchas vocant (15,2,49 al. 618, al. 960). Plura exempla praebet Wetst.; similiter in aliis provinciis appellatur idem magistratus Γαλατάρχης, Βιθυνι- ἄρχης etc. (cf. Mommsen, Rom. Geschichte 5 p. 318). Paulus itaque inter nobiles et ditissimos sibi fecerat amicos qui saluti eius prospicerent. Interea in theatro hominum turba promiscua congregala non parva erat confusio
19:32
v. 82 αἰΐὲ autem altitud clamabant; erat enim. ecclesia confusa, turba illa quae sponte convenerat, quae 1/0/22 vocatur, quamvis non esset conventus legitimus, nec concio legitime convocata; et plures nesciebant qua 62 causa convenissent zi τελείους maior illorum pars; ita fieri solet, cum palam vociferantibus aliis alii multi sese adiungunt rei novitate et curiositate illecti;
19:33
v. 33 de turba autem detrazerunt Alexandrum 0550620 hoc loco sensu caret; unde legere oportet vel zgosf. vel 42-66. (D): de- . scendere coegerunt, propellentibus eum Iudaeis; videntur Iudaei sibimet ipsis metuentes voluisse eum furori populari obiicere et ita se ipsos tueri. Unde certe Alexander ludaeo-christianus erat, quem ceteri Iudaei ob fidem susceptam odio habentes libenter furori turbarum exponebant ; Alezander autem manu silentio postulato χατα- σείσας cf. 19,17; 13,16 volebat reddere rationem populo, parabat de 5,14; sed nomen istud erat satis frequens. Putant tamen alii eun, 101586 Iudaeum religione, quem utpote virum eloquentem Iudaei incitarint, ut defensionem apud turbam susciperet (Felt. Wendt, Weiss). Intellexisse quippe Iudaeos, turbam furere contra contemptores Dianae et proinde sibi imminere periculum. At potius putandum erit ludaeos etiam scisse tumultum exortum esse propter fideles et verti utique contra omnes qui non venerentur deam; unde ut sibi consulerent, Iudaeo-christianum popularem suum voluisse eos furenti populo devoveri (Patr. H:zlg. Bl.). ld magis quoque verbis congruit ; προβάλλειν protrudere , obiicere scil. populo. Verum turba Iudaeum loquentem audire minime sustinuit;
19:34
v. 34 quem ut cognoverunt Iudaeum genere esse, vel ex vultu habituque, vel uno alterove clamante : ludaeus est, unus ex eis qui Dianam negant esse deam )2/.(; ἐπιγνόντες, habes nominativum absolutum (cf. Buttmann, Grammatik d. neut. Spr. p. 325) vel anacoluthiam (Bl. Gram. p. 277), voz facta est una omnium quasi per horas duas clamantium : magna Diana Ephesiorum; clamoribus suis magnam esse deam asseverare volunt et acclamationibus aliorum sententiam obruere ; quare bene ad rem acclamatio illa in B bis ponitur. Magistratus urbis turbam tumultuantem et clamantem ad quietem reducere diutius frustra tentabat. Tandem cum ipsis clamoribus vires essent quasi exhaustae et rabies aliquatenus deferbuisset, res melius successit
19:35
v. 95 et cum sedasset scriba turbas ὁ γραμματεύς, nota, quanta accuratione Lucas nomen proprium ac peculiare magistratus norit; nam γραμματεύς (scil. τοῦ δήμου) Ephesi non ut Athenis minister erat vcl populi vel magistratus, sed ipse magistratus et concionum moderator; ita in inscriptione ephes. n. 500 (Greek Inscr. in the Brit. Mus. Ill, II) idem homo et ᾿Ασιάρχης et γραμματεὺς τοῦ δήμου dicitur; ibidem n. 482 5 vc. τ. δ. rogationem fert ad populum )27.; cf. Vigourouz 1. c. p. 282 seq.) ; dixit : viri Ephesti, quis entm est hominum i. e. cur isti clamores ἢ quieti estote : quis entm (cf. γάρ in interrogationibus A/o/z, Devar. II p. 243) qui nesciat Ephestorum civitatem. cultricem esse magnae Dianae lovisque prolis? νεωχόρον, proprie : qui templum verrit; curam templi habet; unde is titulus frequens est urbium quae celebre aliquod fanum habebant (cf. Píato, de legibus 6 p. 759; Xenoph. Anab. 5,3,6). Eum titulum urbis Ephesi etiam inscriptiones produnt; ita Ephesus dicitur νεωχόρος τῆς ᾿Αρτέμιδος in inscriptione apud Wood, App. p. 50 n. 6; item in nummis v. ₪. 'Eoscí(ov τρὶς νεωχόρων xoci τῆς 6 (Bl.); alias inscriptiones, quibus idem titulus urbi eidem tribuitur vide apud Vigouroux 1. c. p. 988. 287. Quod in vulg. additur Ioeisque prolis (gig Iovis) graece est xoi τοῦ 000567006 1. e. simulaeri coelitus delapsi ; simulacrum igitur ligneum Dianae credebatur coelitus esse delapsum, id quod de multis aliis vetustissimis simulacris ferebatur; exempla ex veterum libris habes apud Wetst.; de simulacro Dianae Ephesiae plura prostant apud Gronovtum, Thes. Antiq. gr. tomo 7 p. 362 seq. א Ephesi in aede simulacrum Dianae ex cedro, et ibi et in ceteris nobilibus fanis, propter aeternitatem sunt facta », ita Vitruvius (de archit. 2,9), Plinius autem scribit : « convenit tectum eius (templi Ephesi) esse e cedrinis trabibus ; de ipso simulacro deae ambigitur; ceteri ex ebeno esse tradunt; Mucianus ter consul ex his qui proxime viso eo scripsere, vitigineum et nunquam mutatum, septies restituto templo » (n. ἢ. 16,79); aureum esse (χρυσῷ ὄντι τῷ ἐν 'Ec£co), proin laminis aureis contectum scribit Xenophon (Anab. 5,8,19(. Cum itaque gloria urbis apud omnes sine controversia constet, immerito fieri ait tumultum
19:36
v. 36 cum ergo Ais contradici non possit, oportet vos sedatos esse et. nihil temere agere προπετές temerarium; quid iam nimia praecipitantia egerint exponit sequentibus v. 37 adlegos ἱεροσύλους, proprie templi spoliatores, neque blasphemantes deam vestram ; inde patet, dum plerique clamarent in theatro, aliquos qui comites Pauli corripuerant ad magistratum causam detulisse neque tamen accusationem potuisse probare. Porro artifices quoque temere egisse ait
19:38
v. 38 quod si Demetrius et qui cum eo sunt artifices ol σὺν αὐτῷ τεχνῖται modo loquendi omnino indicari videtur, quod ad v. 9% dixi, Demetrium habuisse magnam officinam in qua artifices occupabantur, /iabent adversus aliquem causam, conventus forenses aguntur, ἀγοραῖοι explicantur ab aliquibus iudices causarum minorum, vel etiam διχολόγοι, oratores, causidici (Oec. Theoph. Patr.); sed cum v. ₪. legamus apud Strabonem : τὰς ἀγοραίους ποιοῦνται xal τὰς διχαιοξοσίας (13,5,19; al. 629; al. 933), retinenda est versio vulg., ἀγοραῖοι σύνοδοι (BI .) , et proconsules sunt (pluralis quem categoriae dicunt); erat Asia provincia proconsularis; accusent 1801060, causam igitur legitime inter se disceptent apud magistratum;
19:39
v. 39 s? guid autem alterius rei quaeritis περαιτέρω, ulterius (gig), praeterea, quod non ad causam spectat forensem, n legitima ecclesia potest absolvi ἐν τῇ ἐννόμῳ ἐχχλησίχ; quae dictio pariter in aliqua inscriptione ephesia legitur (xaxà πᾶσαν ἔννομον ἐχχλησίαν, apud Wood, App. p. 38; Vigourouz l. c. p. 289; Wendt); proin ia conventu legitimo, qualis ex lege certis diebus institui solet. Dein quo efficacius persuadeat , meminit periculi
19:40
v. 40 nam et periclitamur argui seditionis hodiernae accusari seditionis περὶ τῆς σήμερον de hodierno conventu, cum nullus obnoxius sit de quo possimus reddere rationem concursus t1s(tus, ללמ αἰτίου ὑπάρχοντος cum nulla causa exsistat, de qua possimus rationem reddere istius concursus tumultuantium, συστροφῆς ; periculum est, ne de tumultu accusemur; nam curiste concursus factus sit, nullam possumus afferre causam quae proconsuli probetur. In lectione περὶ οὗ οὐ δυνησόμεθα illud περὶ οὗ non potest referri ad antecedens αἰτίου, nam ediceretur contrarium eius quod ille dicere vult, nullam exsistere causam de qua non possimus rationem reddere ; sed debet referri ad totam sententiam antecedentem : de quo (scil. de conventu habito tumultuantium more sine ulla causa) non possimus rationem reddere, et additur declarationis causa vel epexegetice περὶ τῆς συστροφῆς ταύτης, quo nomine demum ἐχχλησία tumultuantium proprie designatur; 6) cum aec dixisset, dimisit ecclesiam; Paulum in maximo fuisse periculo elucet ex 2 Cor. 1,8 seq., id quod hac narratione Lucae non ita effertur.
19:1
… For their part the Apostles, from the very first moment of their preaching, considered the baptism of John as nonexistent and baptized "in the name of Jesus" all who presented themselves, even those who had already previously been baptized by the precursor (Acts 2:38; 19:1-7); because Jesus' peremptory command was directed to all without exception (Mt. 18:19). Therefore the Church, once the errors of the so-called reform had arisen, defined at the Council …
… Moreover, Mark and Luke would not have been with Paul (contrary to Col. 4:10, 14; Philem. 24) in the case of an Ephesian imprisonment, because the former was then probably working with Peter at Rome, and the latter does not narrate in the first person the events of the stay at Ephesus (Acts 19:1-20:1), as he usually does when he is present.
… He therefore promptly saw to having them baptized, and through the imposition of hands they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-7).
… In the same condition as Apollos were a dozen "disciples" when Paul returned to Ephesus in 54 (third journey): he instructed them and they were baptized and joined the nascent community (Acts 19:1-7). The break with the synagogue occurred after three months of disputes about the "kingdom of God"; Paul moved to the school of a certain Tyrannus, one of the many rhetoricians with …
… According to Acts 19:1-7, a group of 12 faithful in Ephesus had received only the baptism of G. B.; the case of Apollos is famous (Acts 18:24-26). Later there is mention of the sects of the Johannites, the …
19:2
1 and 2 Corinthians, Epistles to the
… Moreover, I C. is in perfect agreement with the narrative of Acts (cf. I Cor. 4:17 ff. and 16:5: Acts 19:2, 21; I Cor. 1:14: Acts 18:8; I Cor. 3:6: Acts 18:27 f.). But the internal indication perhaps most decisive is the full authority with which the author of I C. speaks, an authority …
19:3
… Above all, the apostolic catechesis could not have lacked an explicit mention of the Holy Spirit and therefore of the Trinitarian dogma: in fact, Baptism was conferred only on those who also had some knowledge of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 19:3); and the prescribed Trinitarian formula (Mt. 28:19) was of the essence in Baptism. …
19:4
… has the wholly particular purpose of messianic preparation: "After me will come one who is greater than I, and I did not know him; but precisely for this I have come to baptize in water, so that he might be manifested in Israel" (Jn. 1:31; cf. also Acts 19:4). It is therefore a transitory rite, announcing a new order, entirely in function of the Jewish messianic expectation, so alive in those times that false Messiahs were not lacking. …
19:5
… people who ask St. Peter: "what then must we do to be saved?", St. Peter answers: "Do penance and be baptized" (Acts 2:38). When through error the converts receive only the baptism of John, they are rebaptized with the baptism of Jesus Christ (Acts 18:25; 19:5; cf. 10:48; 16:12-15; 22:11-16). In the mind of the first Christians the necessity of baptism was so deeply rooted that the Pastor Hermae extended it even to the righteous of the Old …
… More than on the necessity of the rite (cf. Act. 19, 5), P. insists on pointing out its symbolism; it represents also externally death to the world and the incorporation of the new creature into the Mystical Christ (cf. Rom. 6, 3; Gal. …
19:6
Eldad ('Eldād, "God Has Loved")
E. together with Medad was absent when those around the tent, far from the camp (Ex. 33:7), received from Yahweh the investiture of their office, with manifestations of mystical exaltation (prophetic charism: I Sam. 10:10-13; Acts 10:44-46; 19:6); but he "prophesied" in the same way in the camp. …
… De Baptismo, 8: "Dehinc manus imponitur"; St. Cyprian in his Epist., 74, 1: "Ut manus imponatur in poenitentiam"; whereas the use of the plural is more common both in the New Testament documents (cf. Mt. 19, 13, 15; Mk. 10, 16; Acts 8, 17; 19, 6; Hebr. 6, 2; I Tim. 4, 14; 5, 22; II Tim. 1, 6) and among the Greek writers. …
… after the Apostles: I Cor. 12:28 ff.; 14:1-5, 24, 29, 31 f.; Eph. 2:20; 3:5; 4:11; several times, in the New Testament, these interpreters of God appear, giving predictions, reading the secrets of hearts; bearers of the divine word (Acts 11:27; 19:6; 21:9 f.), they build up, exhort, encourage. …
… The first Christians received the Holy Spirit "per impositionem manus Apostolorum" (Acts 8, 17; 19, 6); Christ affirms that his (eucharistic) flesh is a principle of supernatural life, just as bread is the cause of material life: "qui manducat me et ipse vivet propter me" (Io. 6, …
19:8
Acts 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31; texts concerning the preaching
On the state of Christianity in T., which was perhaps evangelized by the Apostle's co-workers during his stay in Ephesus (ibid. 19:8-10), information is available from the Apocalypse (2:18-29), which, while noting the zeal and goodness of the first converts, alludes with metaphorical expression to the spread of a perverse …
19:9
… It is not clear whether the hall, which, according to a variant of codex D in Acts 19:9, was at Paul's disposal from the fifth hour to the tenth (= 11 a.m.-4 p.m.), was lent to him free of charge. …
19:10
In the New Testament A. (Acts 2:9; 4:9; 16:6; 19:10, 22, 26; 20:4, 16, 18; 21:27; 24:19; 27:2; Rom. 16:5; I Cor. 16:9; II Cor. 1:8; II Tim. 1:15; I Pt. 1:1; Apoc. 1-3) denotes the Roman province of A. (constituted in 129 B.C.), which …
19:11
… near to Jesus just enough to barely touch his garments; or in the press of the first Christians to succeed in touching the garments or the shadows of the Apostles in order to feel uplifted in spirit and often healed in body (Mk. 5:28; 6:56; Acts 5:15; 19:11).
… « imponens ei manus »; ibid. 28, 8 we read that Paul healed the father of the governor of Malta « cum... imposuisset ei manus »; ibid. 5, 12 it is said, in a generic form, that many wonders were wrought among the people « per manus Apostolorum »; ibid. 19, 11 we read that God worked extraordinary miracles « per manum Pauli ».
… Among the crowds drawn to the divine Master there were those who sought to touch his garments to obtain healing (Mk 5:28; 6:56); the first faithful did the same with the garments of the Apostles (Acts 5:15; 19:11). Still in the apostolic age we learn that the faithful of Ephesus brought to the sick the handkerchiefs and belts of St. Paul, and the sick obtained healing (Acts 19:12). Eusebius …
19:12
… 6:56); the first faithful did the same with the garments of the Apostles (Acts 5:15; 19:11). Still in the apostolic age we learn that the faithful of Ephesus brought to the sick the handkerchiefs and belts of St. Paul, and the sick obtained healing (Acts 19:12). Eusebius relates that in Jerusalem the chair of the apostle St. James was displayed (Hist. eccl., VII, 19). One of the jailers of St. Cyprian wanted the tunic of the martyr soaked …
… of God founded by him the expulsion of Satan and his demons (Mt. 12, 28; Lk. 10, 17; 11, 20) and transmits this exorcistic charism to his Apostles and to his Church (Mt. 10, 1; Mk. 16, 17). The Apostles in turn cast out "unclean spirits" (Acts 5, 16; 19, 12-16), and the Church gloried in this victorious power over Satan: "Quid isto opere manifestius? …
19:13
… friendship can be established and toward him there can be no submission (cf. I Cor. 10:20); it is lawful, however, to adjure him imperatively, so that, in the name of God, he cause no harm, whether spiritual or temporal (cf. Mk. 16:17; Lk. 9:1; 10:19; Acts 19:13). This adjuration is properly called exorcism (v.). …
As for the manner of expelling demons from the wretched demoniacs, Jesus alludes to the manner in use among the Jews (Matthew 12:27; Luke 11:19); in Acts 19:13 there is mention of Jewish exorcists; some cast out demons in the name of Jesus (Mark 9:37). To deny the divine cause of the miracle, the Jews accused Jesus of performing the miracle …
… Two years of fruitful apostolic work, which, through the influx of foreigners and the probable sending of disciples to other cities of proconsular Asia (Col. 1:7; 4:13), extended far beyond the boundaries of Ephesus (Acts 19:26), aroused the jealousy of the Jews (Acts 19:13-17) and the concern of those who were economically interested in maintaining the cult of Ephesian Artemis (v. DIANA). …
With the word ἐξορχοστής is designated one who commits perjuries (cf. Acts 19:13; Josephus, Antiq. …
19:14
Sanhedrin (Συνέδριον « Assembly »)
in office, those already possibly deposed and, in all likelihood, also the members of the families from which the highest religious office was customarily chosen (cf. Jn. 18:19; Acts 4:6; 19:14). The "elders" (οἱ πρεσβύτεροι) represented the lay aristocracy; they were the "most distinguished personages" (Flavius Josephus, Vita, 9). The "scribes" (οἱ γραμματεῖς) brought …
19:18
… This conclusion extends also to the texts Acts 19:18 and 1 Jn. 1:9, which, especially in the polemic against the Protestants, were also brought forward by Catholic authors.
19:19
The prophetic writings abound in reproaches against recourse to magic (cf. Hos. 4:12; Is. 2:6; 3:2 f.; 57:3; Jer. 27:9; Mal. 3:5), and this aversion persists in the writings of the New Testament (Acts 8:9; 13:6, 10; 19:19). This shows how deeply rooted in the people was the tendency toward magic; in the Hellenistic era it is evident also from the numerous Greek magical papyri, in which formulas with …
19:22
Apostles (Gr. Ἀπόστολος "Sent One", from ἀποστέλλω)
… (Rengstorf, p. 422, 33 ff.; H. Lietzmann, An die Römer, 4th ed. Tübingen 1933, p. 24). It seems that here too the Jewish sense of šeliḥim "emissaries" recurs, as for the two (Timothy and Erastus) in Act. 19:22.
ERASTUS. - A name that occurs three times in the New Testament: 1) Acts 19:22; 2) Rom. 16:23; 3) 2 Tim. 4:20; but it is uncertain whether these refer to one, two or three individuals. …
… mentioned in Acts 20:2; in all likelihood, after the end of the first Roman imprisonment (1 Tim 1:3). Besides these visits, there were epistolary relations between Paul and Philippi (v. FILIPPESI, EPISTOLA 31) and by means of envoys from both sides (Acts 19:22, 29; Phil 2:19-20).
19:23
1 and 2 Corinthians, Epistles to the
… Pentecost is not far off: 16:8) the second year of work in this city was ending and magnificent prospects were opening up in Asia; but incipient reactions were also making themselves felt, which were later to culminate in the riot of the silversmiths (Acts 19:23-40).
… Christian, or gathering others whom they converted to the faith, since Paul names, both at Rome and at Ephesus, "the church of their house" (I Cor. 16:19; Rom. 16:4). At the risk of their lives they freed St. Paul from death, probably at Ephesus (Rom. 16:4; Acts 19:23 ff.).
1. Orefice di Efeso, che suscitò il tumulto contro s. Paolo (Act. 19, 23-40).2. Demetrius of Ephesus, warmly recommended by St. John in his letter to Gaius (III John 12). Some identified him with the aforementioned converted silversmith.
And it was the silversmiths, with Demetrius at their head in the guise of agitator, who rose up in tumult against Paul (Acts 19:23-41), whose preaching threatened to seriously harm the interests of the trade. …
19:24
… According to Acts 19:24 ff., reproductions of the temple and of the goddess were used as amulets. …
DIANA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. - With D. the Vulgate renders in Acts 19:24, 27 ff., 34 ff., the Ἄρτεμις of the original text.
… collaborators, carried out intense activity also in the neighboring cities (ibid. 18:24 - 19:40). The effectiveness of his preaching is shown by the agitation of the silversmith Demetrius, who saw his trade in statuettes of the goddess Artemis compromised (ibid. 19:24). At Ephesus Paul likewise suffered much and will say metaphorically that he had to fight with wild beasts (I Cor. 15:32); a real imprisonment (v.) is more than probable, perhaps reflected …
19:26
… Two years of fruitful apostolic work, which, through the influx of foreigners and the probable sending of disciples to other cities of proconsular Asia (Col. 1:7; 4:13), extended far beyond the boundaries of Ephesus (Acts 19:26), aroused the jealousy of the Jews (Acts 19:13-17) and the concern of those who were economically interested in maintaining the cult of Ephesian Artemis (v. DIANA). …
19:29
Dragged along with Gaius (v.) into the theater by the crowd enraged against Paul, he ran the risk of being massacred (Acts 19:29). He then followed the Apostle throughout the journey into Macedonia and Greece, and returned with him to Jerusalem, where Paul was arrested (Acts 20:4). As his prisoner he traveled …
2. - A C. of Macedonia was arrested at Ephesus during the riot of the silversmiths (Acts 19:29), together with Aristarchus, also of Macedonia.
19:31
From A. (a proconsular province) derives the term Asiarch (Acts 19:31; as elsewhere the Bithyniarch, the Galatarch), a magistrate who, in the presence of the proconsul, presided at Ephesus over the annual provincial assembly of the delegates of all the …
… Indeed, while Paul was preparing to leave Asia, Demetrius and the guild of the silversmiths provoked the riot, on which occasion some Asiatic friends of his also worked in Paul's favor (Acts 19:31). On the question whether Paul suffered at Ephesus a prolonged imprisonment, followed by a condemnation to the beasts (cf. 1 Cor. 15:32), and whether he wrote the captivity letters …
19:33
… It is known from Mk. 15:21 that S. was "the father of Alexander and Rufus": the former is probably the one mentioned in Acts 19:33, and Rufus (v.) was perhaps that distinguished person of the Christian community of Rome, whose mother — that is, on this hypothesis, the wife of S. — is called by St. Paul his own …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Rheims 1582), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.