Acts 19
Paul spends two years in Ephesus, teaching daily in a lecture hall until the whole province of Asia has heard; then the silversmiths' guild stages a riot to protect the trade in Diana's shrines.
Summary
Paul arrives in Ephesus and finds twelve disciples who have not heard that the Holy Spirit had been given; they had received only John's baptism. Paul baptizes them in the name of Jesus and lays his hands on them; the Holy Spirit comes on them and they speak in tongues and prophesy. He enters the synagogue and speaks boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading about the kingdom of God. When some become stubborn and continue in unbelief, he withdraws from the synagogue, taking the disciples with him, and reasons daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This continues for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, hear the word of the Lord. God does extraordinary miracles through Paul — even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched his skin are carried to the sick and the diseases leave them. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva try to invoke the name of Jesus over a man with an evil spirit: I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims. The evil spirit answers: Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you? The man in whom the evil spirit is leaps on them, masters them all, and they flee naked and wounded. This becomes known throughout Ephesus and great fear falls on everyone. Many who are now believers come, confessing and disclosing their practices. Many who practised magic bring their books together and burn them before everyone. The value of the books is calculated at fifty thousand silver coins. The word of the Lord grows and prevails mightily.
The silversmith Demetrius, who makes silver shrines of Artemis (Diana), calls together the craftsmen and says: men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. There is danger not only that our trade will come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing, and she will be deposed from her magnificence. On hearing this they are enraged and cry out: great is Artemis of the Ephesians! The city is filled with confusion; they rush together into the theatre, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who are Paul's travel companions. Paul wishes to go in to the crowd but the disciples do not let him; even some of the Asiarchs, who are his friends, send word urging him not to venture into the theatre. Inside, the assembly is in confusion: some cry one thing, some another, and most do not know why they have come. The Jews push Alexander forward to make a defense; when the crowd sees he is a Jew, they shout for two hours: great is Artemis of the Ephesians! The town clerk finally quiets the crowd: men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the keeper of the temple of the great Artemis? These men have neither robbed the temple nor blasphemed our goddess. If Demetrius has a complaint against anyone, the courts are open; let the matter be settled in the regular assembly. If you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. He dismisses the assembly.
- Acts 1Chapter 1 is a prologue and a hinge.
- Acts 2Pentecost is the structural and theological engine of the whole book.
- Acts 3Chapter 3 is the first miracle narrative in Acts, and its structure follows a pattern the book will repeat: the sign, the crowd, the sermon, and the opposition (which comes in chapter 4).
- Acts 4Chapter 4 is the first formal opposition scene in Acts, and it establishes a pattern: arrest, interrogation, the apostles' refusal, release, prayer, and the Spirit's confirmation.
- Acts 5Chapter 5 is one of the most dramatically concentrated in the book.
- Acts 6Chapter 6 is transitional but efficient.
- Acts 7Chapter 7 is the theological and dramatic climax of the Jerusalem section.
- Acts 8Chapter 8 is the first chapter of the middle section — Judea and Samaria — and it works by juxtaposition.
- Acts 9Chapter 9 contains the first telling of Paul's conversion (the other two are in chapters 22 and 26), and it is worth reading all three consecutively to see how Luke shapes each one for its audience.
- Acts 10Chapter 10 is the structural pivot of the first half of Acts and one of the most carefully constructed chapters in the New Testament.
- Acts 11Chapter 11 has two movements.
- Acts 12Chapter 12 is the last major Peter chapter in Acts, and it works as a deliberate counterpoint to the Herod material.
- Acts 13Chapter 13 is the beginning of the long Pauline section, and it opens with a scene worth pausing over: the Spirit speaks during a worship service in Antioch — while they are worshipping and fasting — and sets Barnabas and Saul apart for a specific but unnamed work.
- Acts 14Chapter 14 completes the first missionary journey and its most memorable episode is the Lystra scene (verses 8-20).
- Acts 15Chapter 15 is the structural centre of Acts and one of the most important chapters in the New Testament.
- Acts 16Chapter 16 is one of the richest in Acts.
- Acts 17Chapter 17 covers three cities and demonstrates the range of Paul's rhetorical repertoire.
- Acts 18Chapter 18 is relatively measured in tone after the drama of chapter 17.
- Acts 19Chapter 19 is the longest account of Paul's settled ministry in any city and falls into two parts.
- Acts 20Chapter 20 is the most elegiac in Acts.
- Acts 21Chapter 21 is the beginning of the long arrest sequence that occupies the rest of the book.
- Acts 22Chapter 22 is the second telling of Paul's conversion (the first is in chapter 9, the third in chapter 26).
- Acts 23Chapter 23 is structurally a thriller: the Sanhedrin hearing (verses 1-10), the night vision in the barracks (verse 11), the assassination plot (verses 12-22), and the extraordinary military escort to Caesarea (verses 23-35).
- Acts 24Chapter 24 is the first of three formal hearings in Acts — before Felix (24), before Festus (25), and before Agrippa (26) — and it establishes the pattern the others follow: Jewish accusation, Paul's defence, Roman incomprehension of the internal religious question, and a procedurally inconclusive result.
- Acts 25Chapter 25 is a pivot chapter.
- Acts 26Chapter 26 is the third and final telling of Paul's conversion (compare chapters 9 and 22) and the most rhetorically elaborate.
- Acts 27Chapter 27 is one of the most detailed sea narratives in ancient literature and is written in the first person plural (the we-passage resumes at verse 1), which gives it its immediacy.
- Acts 28Chapter 28 is the ending the book has been building toward, and it rewards slow reading.