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27. οὐ μόνον δὲ τοῦτο κινδυνεύει ἡμῖν τὸ μέρος εἰς ἀπελεγμὸν ἐλθεῖν, and not only is this our craft in danger to be set at nought, τὸ μέρος = the portion or share which we make by our trade. ἀπελεμός seems to be found only here. The simpler form ἐλεγμός, in the sense of rebuke, is not uncommon in the LXX.
On this Chrysostom comments thus: ὅρα παρ' ἐχθρῶν τὰς μαρτυρίας τοῖς ἀποστόλοις γινομένας. ἐκεῖ μὲν ἔλεγον, ἰδοὺ πεπληρώκατε τὴν Ἱερουσαλήμ τῆς διδαχῆς ὑμῶν. ἐνταῦθα ὅτι μέλλει καθαιρεῖσθαι τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος ἡ μεγαλειότης. τότε οἱ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἀναστατώσαντες ἤκουον, ὅτο οὗτοι καὶ ἐνθάδε πάρεισι, νῖν ὅτι κινδυνεύει ἡμῖν τοῦτο τὸ μέρος εἰς ἀπελεγμὸν ἐλθεῖν. οὕτω καὶ Ἰουδαῖοι ἐπὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἔλεγον. ὅρατε ὅτι ὁ κόσμος ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ ὑπάγει.
τὸ τῆς μεγάλης θεᾶς ἱερὸν Ἀρτέμιδος, the temple of the great goddess Diana (Artemis). This was one of the wonders of the ancient world, and the glory and pride of all the Ephesians, and the recent explorations of Mr Wood (see Wood’s Ephesus) have made us aware of the grandeur of the edifice and the consequent reason for this pride. Even the fragments of the architecture in the British Museum make it plain that the whole temple must have been a work of unsurpassed magnificence. No expense had been spared on its building, and the munificence of worshippers maintained it in full splendour. It was also used as a divinely-secured treasure-house, and those who made use of it in this way no doubt paid liberally for the protection. Tradition said, as it said of many another heathen idol, that the image in the shrine fell down from heaven. The description of this image (see Act 19:24) is taken from coins which were current at the date when the Acts of the Apostles was written.
εἰς οὐθὲν λογισθῆναι, should be made of no account, as would be the case if men began to think that they were no gods which were made with hands. In his eagerness to save the trade, Demetrius forgets to put forward what the townclerk mentions afterwards (Act 19:35), that the image was held to have come down from heaven. He is only interested in the support of what supplied his wealth.
καὶ καθαιρεῖσθαι τῆς μεγαλειότητος αὐτῆς, should even be deposed from her magnificence. μεγαλειότης is sometimes used for the ‘mighty power’ of God, cf. Luk 9:43, and the ‘majesty’ of Christ, cf. 2Pe 1:16.
The collocation in the same clause of τε καί here and in Act 21:28 in the sense of and even is very unusual, and not found in classical Greek, where these particles unite different clauses as both … and. See Winer-Moulton, p. 548.
ἣν ὅλη ἡ Ἀσία καὶ ἡ οἰκουμένη σέβεται, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth; for wealth from the East as well as from Greece and Rome was bestowed at this gorgeous shrine.