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Act_19:11-12. Οὐ τὰς τυχούσ .] not the usual, i.e. distinguished, not to be compared with those of the Jewish exorcists (Act_19:13). Comp. Act_28:2. The opposite: μικραὶ καὶ αἱ τυχοῦσαι πράξεις , Polyb. i. 25. 6. On τυχών , in the sense of vulgaris, see generally, Vigerus, ed. Hermann, p. 364; and on the very frequent connection by way of litotes with οὐ , see Wetstein in loc.; Valckenaer, p. 559 f.; from Philo, Loesner, p. 219. Comp. 2Ma_3:7.
ὥστε καὶ κ . τ . λ .] so that also (among other things) towels and aprons were brought to the sick from his skin, and (thereby) the ailments were removed from them, etc.
σιμικίνθιον , not preserved elsewhere, the Latin semicinctium, is explained either as a handkerchief (Oecumenius: ἐν ταῖς χερσὶ κατέχουσι … πρὸς τὸ ἀπομάττεσθαι τὰς ὑγρότητας τοῦ προσώπου , οἷον ἱδρῶτας , πτύελον , δάκρυον κ . τὰ ὅμοια , comp. Theophylact and Suicer, Thes. II. p. 959), or usually as an apron, in favour of which is the etymology, and Martial, Epigr. xiv. 151. Very probably it was a linen apron ( ἀμφότερα λινοειδῆ εἰσι , Schol. ap. Matth.), which workmen or waiters (Pignor. de serv. p. lxxv.) wore after laying aside their upper garment, and which, when they had it on, they likewise used for the purpose remarked by Oecumenius.
ἀπὸ τοῦ χρωτὸς αὐτοῦ ] so that they had just been used by him and been in contact with his skin. Luke, who also here (comp. Luk_4:40 f. al.) distinguishes the ordinary sick from the possessed, represents the healing of the former and the deliverance of the latter as an effect, which was brought about by the cloths laid on them; for ὥστε down to ἐκπορ . forms together the description of a peculiar kind of those unusual miraculous δυνάμεις . Purely historical criticism, independent of arbitrary premisses laid down à priori, has nothing to assail in this view, as the healing power of the apostle, analogous to the miraculous power of Jesus, might through his will be transmitted by means of cloths requested from him to the suffering person, and received by means of the faith of the latter. The truth of the occurrence stands on the same footing with the N.T. miraculous cures in general, which took place through the will of the worker of miracles, partly with and partly without sensible transmission. By relegating the matter from the historical domain of miracles, which is yet undoubtedly to be recognised in the working of Paul (Rom_15:19; 2Co_12:12), to the sphere of legends as to relics (Baur, Zeller), with comparison of Act_5:15, or to that “of the servants’ rooms and houses behind” (Hausrath), the narrative of our passage is easily dismissed, but not got rid of, although a more special embellishment of it by the importunity of those seeking help, and by the pouring out of the sweat of the apostle as he worked (Baumgarten), of which the text indicates nothing, is to be set aside.