Acts 19 is the nineteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...

. It records part of the third missionary journey of Paul. The author of the book containing this chapter is anonymous but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 41 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: *

Papyrus 38 Papyrus 38 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), designated by 𝔓38, is an early copy of part of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Acts of the Apostles, it contains only Acts 18:27-19:6.12-16. The manuscript paleographi ...

(~AD 250) *

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(325–350) *

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus ( Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts ...

(330–360) * Codex Bezae (~400) *

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(400–440) *

Codex Laudianus Codex Laudianus, designated by Ea or 08 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), α 1001 ( von Soden), called ''Laudianus'' after the former owner, Archbishop William Laud. It is a diglot Latin — Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, p ...

(~550)

Locations

This chapter mentions the following places (in the order of appearance): *

Corinth Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part ...

* Ephesus * Asia (Roman province) *

Macedonia Macedonia most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...

Achaia Achaea () or Achaia (), sometimes transliterated from Greek as Akhaia (, ''Akhaïa'' ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Western Greece and is situated in the northwestern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. T ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Timeline

This part of the third missionary journey of Paul took place in ca. AD 53–55.

Paul's ministry in Ephesus (19:1–22)

This part covers Paul's long stay (almost 3 years) in Ephesus, where he encountered "some disciples" of

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

and confronted the influence of magic and occult in that city.

Verse 4

:''Then Paul said, " John indeed baptized with a

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religi ...

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

".'' "Believe ''on'' him" is the translation used by the King James Version and New King James Version. The more natural phrase "believe ''in'' him" is used by the New American Standard Bible.

Verse 5

:''When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.''

Verse 14

: ''Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so (i.e. attempted to heal using the name of the Lord Jesus).''

Sceva Sceva ( grc-gre, Σκευᾶς, Skeuas) was a Jew called a " chief priest" in , although whether he was a chief priest is disputed by some writers. Although there was no high priest in Jerusalem by this name, some scholars note that it was not unco ...

( grc-gre, Σκευᾶς, Skeuas) was a Jew called a "chief priest" ( gr, ιουδαιου αρχιερεως). Some scholars note that it was not uncommon for some members of the Zadokite clan to take on an unofficial high-priestly role, which may explain this moniker. However, it is more likely that he was an itinerant exorcist based on the use of the Greek term ( grc-gre, περιερχομένων, perierchomenōn) "going from place to place" in . In this verse, it is recorded that he had seven sons who attempted to exorcise a demon from a man in Ephesus by using the name of Jesus as an invocation. This practice is similar to the Jewish practice, originating in the Testament of Solomon, of invoking Angels to cast out demons. Sorcery and exorcism are mentioned several times in Acts:

Simon Magus Simon Magus ( Greek Σίμων ὁ μάγος, Latin: Simon Magus), also known as Simon the Sorcerer or Simon the Magician, was a religious figure whose confrontation with Peter is recorded in Acts . The act of simony, or paying for position, i ...

and Elymas Bar-Jesus, and divination is illustrated by the girl at Philippi. "She was regarded as spirit-possessed, and it was the spirit who was addressed and expelled by Paul in ".

Verse 15

: ''And the evil spirit answered and said, “

I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”'' This evil spirit had heard of both Jesus and Paul, but not of the seven sons of Sceva, which soon received 'such a beating' from the spirit 'that they ran' (); theologia
Conrad Gempf
argues that this shows that power over evil spirits does not work in a mechanical way in the ''name'' of Jesus, but because one knows Jesus and, more importantly, is known by him.

Verse 19

:''Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.'' *"50,000 pieces of silver": or "50,000 drachmas" (1 drachma represents the average wage for a day) representing over 135 years' wages.

Verse 21

:''When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through

and

, to go to

, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see

".'' Paul has already intended to have his trip to Jerusalem followed with a trip to Rome.

The riot in Ephesus (19:23–45)

The amount of money in the scroll-burning incident ( 19:19) must have stirred many people, whole livelihood (that is dependent on the selling of religious objects) is threatened by the successful growth of the Christian church, and now is bolstering a serious opposition.

Verse 29

:''So the whole city was filled with confusion, and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's travel companions.'' *" Aristarchus": One of Paul's travel companions, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, who is known from some references in the Acts of the Apostles ( 19:29; 20:4; 27:2) and Colossians 4:10.

Verse 33

:''And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander motioned with his hand, and wanted to make his defense to the people.'' NKJV *"Alexander": was "to make a defense" for the Jews in order to distance themselves from the Christians. Could be the Alexander of 1 Timothy 1:20 and maybe the

Alexander the Coppersmith Alexander the Coppersmith (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ χαλκεὺς) is a person in the New Testament, mentioned by Paul in 2 Timothy 4:14, which states, "Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his ...

of 2 Timothy 4:14.

References

Sources

* *

External links

* King James Bible – Wikisource
English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
Multiple bible versions at ''Bible Gateway''
(NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.) {{Acts of the Apostles 19