Acts 19:11-20
Review:
Background
Text
The Sons of Sceva
11 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.
19:12 handkerchiefs or aprons … his skin. That is, sweat cloths or work aprons that Paul uses as he works at making tents or awnings (18:3). As a touch of faith on the hem of Jesus’ garment brought healing to a woman (Luke 8:44, 48) and Peter’s shadow was apparently instrumental in healing others (Acts 5:15, 16), so now in a pagan city God attests the truth of His gospel and the authority of His messenger with “extraordinary miracles” (19:11).
to the sick. This is not Paul’s doing; because of their pagan religious background, the Ephesians are used to employing superstitious means (v. 19). God accommodates His gracious work to their ignorance.
13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.”
evil spirits. In ancient times, it was common practice to use magical names to drive out evil spirits. Jews in Ephesus presume “to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus” over those possessed, trying to imitate what Paul does (v. 12; 16:18). As the site of the famous temple of Artemis (v. 24 note), Ephesus attracted religious (pagan) pilgrims from throughout the empire. Papyri containing lists of divine names to be invoked in exorcisms, traced to Ephesus, have been found across the Mediterranean world.
19:15 but who are you?
14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”
Sceva, a Jewish chief priest The book of Acts is the only source to mention this person.
The seven sons of Sceva, incidentally, are as much of a puzzle as the disciples of John at Ephesus. There never was an official Jewish high priest called ‘Sceva’, and it’s possible that these were Jews who, living in pagan territory for a long time, had developed a kind of mixed economy of Jewish and pagan religion, ritual and magic.
16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.
who are you Even the evil spirit recognizes the unique authority of Jesus’ name. Because the sons of Sceva were not servants of the true God, the evil spirit essentially proclaims that they are illegitimately using Jesus’ name.
19:16 subdued The possessed man is able to overpower the sons of Sceva; they were not able to use the name of Jesus because they lacked genuine faith in Him. Compare Matt 7:22–23.
18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
The most striking example of God’s power at work in the region is, of course, the burning of the costly magic books, and the confession and renunciation by those who had been practising magic—again, something Luke is glad to emphasize, in line with the earlier stories of individual magicians. But the mention of the money in verse 19 ought to run up, for us, a little warning flag. As we found in Philippi, when the gospel begins to have a financial impact, trouble will be just around the corner.
19:19 fifty thousand silver coins The Greek text here could refer to drachmas or to denarii, two different kinds of silver coins. They were both a worker’s daily wage, so this amount would equal approximately 135 years’ worth of wages