34 But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.



Ver. 34. That he was a Jew] The Jews were generally hated of the Gentiles, and especially after their return from the Babylonish captivity, because they cried down all gods and religions but their own, and would never be drawn again to worship other gods, for which sin they had so exceedingly smarted. At this day the Jews, for their inexpiable guilt in crucifying Christ and their implacable hatred to his people, are by a common consent of nations banished out of the world, as it were. The very Turks themselves so hate the Jews for their crucifying Christ, that they used to say in detestation of a thing, Iudaeus sim, si mentiar, I would I might die a Jew then. Neither will they permit a Jew to turn Turk, unless he be first baptized.



All with one voice cried out, &c.] So the Papists cry up, ad ravim usque, their Lady of Loretto, of Sichem, of Walsingham, &c., and have nothing in their mouths so much as the Church, the Church; wherein, like oyster wives, they do easily out cry us.