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19. ἱκανοὶ δὲ τῶν τὰ περίεργα πραξάντων, and not a few (so R.V. to make a distinction from the πολλοί of Act 19:18) of them which used curious arts. The τὰ περίεργα were magic, jugglery and all such practices as make pretence to supernatural agency. The word is used of magic arts both in classical and patristic Greek, and the kindred verb is used of Socrates (Plato, Apol. 8) because of his statement concerning his inward spiritual monitor or dæmon. Cf. also Sir 3:23, ἐν τοῖς περισσοῖς τῶν ἔργων σου μὴ περιεργάζου, where the whole warning is against prying into things too hard for a man.
συνενέγκαντες τὰς βίβλους, having brought their books together. We have seen above that the Jews had receipts for incantations and exorcisms professedly dating back to the days of Solomon, and among the heathen population of Ephesus such writings were vastly abundant. Indeed Ἐφέσια γράμματα ‘Ephesian letters’ was a common expression, signifying charms composed of magic words and worn as amulets, and supposed to be efficacious against all harm. We are told of a wrestler who could not be thrown while he wore such a charm, but who was easily overcome when it was taken away. Some of these amulets were said to be composed of the letters which were upon the crown and girdle and feet of the statue of Artemis in the temple at Ephesus. See Farrar’s St Paul, II. 26, and the authorities there quoted.
κατέκαιον ἐνώπιον πάντων, burned them in the sight of all men, i.e. where all might see who were there. We must remember that what they burnt were rolls of written material, not books after the modern fashion, which are extremely difficult to burn. Such a burning pile must have attracted much notice, and was a proof that the descent of the Holy Ghost (Act 19:6) had wrought in Ephesus in the same way as aforetime in Jerusalem.
καὶ συνεψήφισαν τὰς τιμὰς αὐτῶν, and they counted the price of them. And in the sacrifice we must think not only of the cost of the books, but of the hopes of gain which were thrown also into the fire by those to whom ‘curious arts’ had been a revenue.
καὶ εὗρον ἀργυρίου μυριάδας πέντε, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. As the scene of this abjuration was among a Greek population, it is almost certain that the Attic drachma is the coin in which the reckoning is made. As 24 of these were a little more in value than our English pound, we may consider that more than two thousand pounds worth of rolls and slips of magic treatises was consumed.
As an example of the omission of the coin in which a sum is reckoned, cf. the English ‘ten thousand a year.’