Acts 19:27

τοῦτο … τὸ μέρος, sc., τῆς ἐργασίας ἡμῶν, Acts 19:25, Grimm-Thayer this branch of their trade, which was concerned with the making of the shrines. Others take μέρος = trade, the part assigned to one. κινδυνεύει : “the most sensitive part of ‘civilised' man is his pocket,” Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 277, and the opposition thus naturally came not from the priests as instigators of the riot against Paul, but from the fact that trade connected with the Artemis-worship was endangered; so at Philippi, “when the masters saw that the hope of this was gone,” Acts 16:19; see Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 129 ff., as against Hicks. “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; it was not for their religion, because they thought that in danger; no, it was for their lucrative craft, that it would have nothing to work upon,” Chrys., Hom., xlii., εἰς ἀπελεγμὸν ἐλθεῖν : noun, not found either in classical Greek or in the LXX; the verb ἀπελέγχειν is found in Malachi 2:11; Malachi 2:11 (cf. Symm., Psalms 119:118), and ἐλεγμός is not uncommon in LXX, confutatio, repudiatio (for the phrase cf. Mark 5:26), in contemptum venire, Wetstein; but in redargutionem venire, Vulgate. ἀλλὰ καὶ : the utilitarian aspect of the appeal stands first, but speciously seconded by an appeal to religious feelings (“non tam pro aris ipsos quam pro focis pugnare,” Calvin). τῆς μεγ. θεᾶς Ἀ.: St. Luke appears to have retained the precise title of the goddess, according to the witness of the inscription; “Diana” (Ramsay), Hastings' B.D., p. 605, so Blass, in loco. τὸ … ἱερὸν : the Temple of Artemis was burnt to the ground by the fanatic Herostratus in B.C. 356 on the night of the birth of Alexander the Great, but its restoration was effected with great magnificence, and it was regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world. Its dimensions are given by Pliny, xxxvi., 95. For references, and a description of its worship, see C. and H., p. 422, small edition; Renan, Saint Paul, p. 427; Ramsay, “Diana,” u. s.; Wood's Ephesus, pp. 4 45; Greek Inscrip. at British Museum, iii., 1890, and for a complete account of the temple, its structure, and literature relating to its history and site, B.D. 2, “Ephesus”. So sumptuous was the magnificence of this sanctuary that it could be said ὁ τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος ναὸς ἐν Ἐφέσῳ μόνος ἐστὶ θεῶν οἶκος, Philo Byz., Spect. Mund., 7, and the sun, so the saying ran, saw nothing in his course more magnificent than Diana's temple. εἰς οὐδὲν λογ., cf. for a similar phrase LXX, Isaiah 40:17, Wis 3:17; Wis 9:6 (εἰς om. 1), and Dan. Theod., iv., 32. The verb λογίζομαι is also frequent in St. Paul with εἰς and the accusative. τε καὶ, cf. Acts 21:28, not correlative, but: “ and that she should even,” etc., Simcox, Language of the New Testament, p. 163. τὴν μεγαλειότητα, see critical note, if we read the genitive, “and that she should even be deposed from her magnificence,” R.V., cf. Winer-Schmiedel, xxx., 6. Grimm-Thayer regards the genitive as partitive, aliquid de majestate ejus, as if it was inconceivable that all her magnificence should be lost: so Meyer, Zöckler, Weiss, cf. Xen., Hellen., iv., 4, 13; Diod. Sic., iv., 8. But Wendt (as against Meyer) regards τὸ ἱερόν as the subject; cf. 1 Timothy 6:5. The word is used, Luke 9:43, of the majesty of God, cf. 2 Peter 1:16 (Friedrich, p. 30); in LXX, Jeremiah 40 (33):9; Esther 1:5; Esther 1:5; 1Es 4:40, Daniel 7:27. ὅλη ἡ Ἀσία : “multitudo errantium non efficit veritatem”: Bengel. The temple was built by contributions from the whole of Asia, tota Asia exstruente, Pliny, Nat. Hist., xvi., 40, so that the goddess was evidently held in veneration by the whole province, cf. ibid., 36:21; Liv., i., 45. According to the testimony of Pausanias, iv., 31, 8; cf. Xen., Anab., v., 3, 4, no deity was more widely worshipped by private persons (Wetstein, Ramsay, Blass), see also Apuleius, 2, quoted by Mr. Page from Wordsworth. For the way in which the imperial government allied itself with the Artemis worship and the revival of paganism in the second century, and the universal honour paid to Artemis by Greek and barbarian alike, cf. Greek Inscriptions of the British Museum (Hicks), iii., pp. 135, 145. οἰκουμένη, see above on Acts 11:28. Plumptre points out that the language is almost identical with that of Apuleius (perhaps from this passage): “Diana Ephesia cujus nomen unicum … totus veneratur orbis”.