Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 19:8-20, The lecture hall and the burned books
In Ephesus Paul teaches daily in the hall of Tyrannus for two years, and even cloths that touched him bring healing. When the sons of Sceva try to use Jesus' name as a spell, the spirit overpowers them, and believers burn their magic books in public.
Acts 19:8-20, in every translation this tool compares.
After three months of synagogue debate in Ephesus, Paul moves his daily teaching to a rented lecture hall belonging to Tyrannus and keeps at it for two years, so the message reaches the whole province. Unusual healings follow, even through cloths that had touched him. When seven sons of a priest named Sceva try using Jesus' name as a formula against a demon, the possessed man overpowers them. Shaken, many believers confess their magical practices and burn costly scrolls of spells in public.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sages-and-philosophers\/","n":"Philosophers and their schools","s":"Stoics, Epicureans and other schools taught a whole way of life in lecture halls and marketplaces. A traveling teacher with a message about God would be heard, and judged, as one more philosopher.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/unclean-spirits\/","n":"Unclean spirits and exorcists","s":"Spirits that defiled and harmed people. Exorcists of the day used names, oaths, spells and foul smells to drive them out. Jesus gave an order.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/magic-and-sorcery\/","n":"Magic and sorcery","s":"Spells, charms and incantations were sold and used across the ancient world, by Jews as well as pagans, and many feared the evil eye. People told a sorcerer, who worked in secret and for pay, from a holy man who acted openly.","r":""}
Philosophers lectured in rented halls, and public life in Ephesus ended around noon, so Paul may have used the hall in the midday hours; some manuscripts add the hours eleven to four (Keener and his notes; the ESV Study Bible). The handkerchiefs and aprons were probably sweat rags and work aprons; the ESV Study Bible insists they were not magical objects, while Keener notes that magicians often healed by such means. Ephesus was a center of magic: amulets bore the Ephesian letters, six magical names, and Arnold tells of an Ephesian wrestler at Olympia who lost three bouts once the referee found one on his ankle; Keener writes that "rolls of these formulas are called Ephesia grammata, or Ephesian writings." Sceva, a Latin name, probably claimed the high priestly title for himself, since no high priest bore that name (Keener and his notes; Wright). Spells were believed to work only while secret, so divulging them destroyed their power (Keener and his notes). Arnold reads those who burned their books as people who had already believed, tempted back to old ways. Fifty thousand drachmas came to about fifty thousand days' wages (Keener; the ESV Study Bible).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 19:8-9, 19:11-12, 19:13-20, 19:13, 19:14, 19:18 and 19:19-20
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 19:9, 19:12, 19:13, 19:14 and 19:19
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Acts 19:9, 19:12 and 19:19
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Acts 19:9 and 19:14
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 1, Magic and Divination, sections The Uses for Magic and The Burning of the Magical Books in Ephesus: Acts 19
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part Two, comment on Acts 19:11-22
