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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Acts 19:35 - 19:35
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The town-clerk (ho grammateus). Ephesus was a free city and elected its own officers and the recorder or secretary was the chief magistrate of the city, though the proconsul of the province of Asia resided there. This officer is not a mere secretary of another officer or like the copyists and students of the law among the Jews, but the most influential person in Ephesus who drafted decrees with the aid of the stratāgoi, had charge of the city’s money, was the power in control of the assembly, and communicated directly with the proconsul. Inscriptions at Ephesus give frequently this very title for their chief officer and the papyri have it also. The precise function varied in different cities. His name appeared on the coin at Ephesus issued in his year of office.
Had quieted the multitude (katasteilas ton ochlon). First aorist active participle of katastellō, to send down, arrange dress (Euripides), lower (Plutarch), restrain (papyrus example), only twice in the N.T. (here and Act 19:36, be quiet), but in lxx and Josephus. He evidently took the rostrum and his very presence as the city’s chief officer had a quieting effect on the billowy turmoil and a semblance of order came. He waited, however, till the hubbub had nearly exhausted itself (two hours) and did not speak till there was a chance to be heard.
Saith (phāsin). Historical present for vividness.
How that. Merely participle ousan and accusative polin in indirect discourse, no conjunction at all (Robertson, Grammar, pp. 1040ff.), common idiom after ginōskō, to know.
Temple-keeper (neōkoron). Old word from neōs (naos', temple, and koreō, to sweep. Warden, verger, cleaner of the temple, a sacristan. So in Xenophon and Plato. Inscriptions so describe Ephesus as neōkoron tēs Artemidos as Luke has it here and also applied to the imperial cultus which finally had several such temples in Ephesus. Other cities claimed the same honour of being neōkoros, but it was the peculiar boast of Ephesus because of the great temple of Artemis. A coin of a.d. 65 describes Ephesus as neōkoros. There are papyri examples of the term applied to individuals, one to Priene as neōkoros of the temple in Ephesus (Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary).
And of the image which fell down from Jupiter (kai tou diopetous). Supply agalma (image), “the from heaven-fallen image.” From Zeus (Dios) and petō (piptō, pipetō), to fall. Zeus (Jupiter) was considered lord of the sky or heaven and that is the idea in diopetous here. The legend about a statue fallen from heaven occurs concerning the statue of Artemis at Tauris, Minerva at Athens, etc. Thus the recorder soothed the vanity (Rackham) of the crowd by appeal to the world-wide fame of Ephesus as sacristan of Artemis and of her heaven-fallen image.