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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Acts 19:37 - 19:37
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Neither robbers of temples (oute hierosulous). Common word in Greek writers from hieron, temple, and sulaō, to rob, be guilty of sacrilege. The word is found also on inscriptions in Ephesus. The Jews were sometimes guilty of this crime (Rom 2:22), since the heathen temples often had vast treasures like banks. The ancients felt as strongly about temple-robbing as westerners used to feel about a horse-thief.
Nor blasphemers of our goddess (oute blasphāmountas tān theon hēmōn). Nor those who blasphemed our goddess. That is to say, these men (Gaius and Aristarchus) as Christians had so conducted themselves (Col 4:5) that no charge could be placed against them either in act (temple-robbery) or word (blasphemy). They had done a rash thing since these men are innocent. Paul had used tact in Ephesus as in Athens in avoiding illegalities.