Acts 19:21 - Meaning and Application

Paul’s troubles at Ephesus came just as he was planning to move on and do more work elsewhere. He had wide plans for God, and he wanted his influence to reach as far as possible. After spending more than two years at Ephesus, he planned to visit the churches in Macedonia and Achaia, especially Philippi and Corinth, the main cities of those areas (Acts 19:21). He had started churches there, and he now wanted to see how they were doing. He meant to correct what was wrong and strengthen what was going well.

From there, he planned to go to Jerusalem to visit the believers there and report how the Lord had blessed his work. Then he meant to go to Rome, not just to see the famous city, but to see the Christians there and help them (Romans 1:11). The believers in Rome were the true glory of that city, and Paul longed to visit them. Some think he planned this after Emperor Claudius died, since Claudius had once driven Jews out of Rome (Acts 18:2).

Paul also sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia to tell the churches he was coming and to help prepare the offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem. Soon after, he wrote the first letter to the Corinthians, planning to follow it himself, as he later said, “I sent Timothy to you, but I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills” (1 Corinthians 4:17, 19). For the time being, he stayed in the area around Ephesus and kept planting churches.

Paul was also pushed along by the troubles he met at Ephesus. It is surprising that he had been quiet there for so long, though he had probably faced earlier hardships not recorded here. In one of his letters from this time, he said he had “fought with wild beasts” at Ephesus (1 Corinthians 15:32), which likely refers to being forced into the theater to face wild animals. He also spoke of the heavy troubles that came to him in Asia, where he felt sure he would die and “received a sentence of death within himself” (2 Corinthians 1:8, 9).

In the account here, however, Paul was more frightened than harmed. A great uproar broke out over “the Way,” meaning the Christian faith (Acts 19:23). Some writers say the false teacher Apollonius of Tyana was in Ephesus around this time, but Luke does not mention him, likely because his opposition to the gospel was too small to matter. The real disturbance came from a different source, and the details are important.

A silversmith named Demetrius, probably a leading man in that trade, complained that Paul and the other preachers were turning people away from the worship of Diana and hurting the business of the men who made silver models for her temple. These models may have been silver images of the temple, or small shrines people could carry home, like the small devotional objects used in later false worship. Travelers who came to worship at Ephesus would buy these on the way home, both as keepsakes and to impress their friends. This shows how craftsmen, and even shrewder men above the level of ordinary craftsmen, can profit from people’s superstition and use it for their own gain.

Demetrius did not bring his complaint to the magistrates. He called together the craftsmen and other workers in the same trade, men who cared mainly about their own profit. He tried to stir them up against Paul, knowing they would react with anger rather than reason.

His speech was open and forceful. First, he argued that the business of making silver shrines for Diana was necessary and must be protected (Acts 19:25). He told them this trade gave them not only food and wages, but wealth, comfort, and the means to live well. So, he said, they must not let the trade fall into disrepute. It is natural for people to defend the source of their income, whether it is right or wrong, and many have opposed the gospel for that very reason. They resist Christ because the gospel calls them away from dishonest trades, even when those trades bring in much money.

Then Demetrius accused Paul of persuading people not to worship idols. In the charge as Luke records it, Paul had said, “Those are no gods which are made by human hands” (Acts 19:26). What could be plainer than that? The prophets had already made the same point: if a craftsman makes it, then it cannot be God. Our first and truest idea of God is that he exists on his own and depends on nothing. Everything else receives its life from him and depends on him. So anything made by human imagination and human hands cannot be a god.

Yet this should be seen as an heretical and godless idea, and Paul as a criminal for holding it. The crowd could not really prove anything against the doctrine itself. Their real complaint was the effect it had: not only in Ephesus, the main city, but almost all through Asia, the Roman province in which they lived, Paul had persuaded many people, especially in the countryside, to turn away from the worship of Diana. That meant there was no longer such a demand for the silver shrines, and they were not selling for such good prices.

People will still defend what is obviously foolish and false, if human law, money, and old custom support it. Here, they were sticking up for the claim that things made by human hands are gods, even though the lie was plain enough. The force of this kind of error often comes not from truth, but from profit and habit.

He also reminded them that their business was in danger of declining. Anything that touched their trade struck them in a very sensitive place. In effect, he was saying, “If this teaching spreads, we are ruined. We may as well shut up shop. Our craft will be pushed aside, exposed as superstition, and treated as a cheat on the public. Our share in the trade will not only be lost, it will bring us into trouble, and we shall become not only poor, but guilty men.” The word translated “craft” can also mean their share of trade or business.

He also pretended to have great zeal for Diana, the goddess worshiped at Ephesus, and a deep concern for her honor. It was not enough, he said, that their business was in danger. What really troubled him was that the temple of the great goddess Diana might be despised and her splendor destroyed. He claimed that all Asia, and indeed the whole world, worshiped her. This shows what Diana worship had to offer in its own defense, and what its most devoted supporters could say for it.

First, it had outward splendor on its side. The beauty and magnificence of the temple were what drew them in and held them there. They could not bear the thought of anything that would lessen that glory, much less destroy it. Second, it had numbers on its side. They could say, “All Asia and the world worship her,” and imagine that this alone proved the worship true. In the same way, because the whole world follows the beast, the dragon, the devil, who is called the god of this world, gives him power, his throne, and great authority (Revelation 13:2-3).

The crowd’s response to this complaint was strong. The complaint came from a trade worker, and it was meant to stir up the common people. It worked. On this occasion they showed a great anger against the gospel and its preachers. They were full of rage and fury (Acts 19:28). The craftsmen had gone completely wild when they were told that both their trade and their idol were in danger.

They also showed a strong loyalty to the honor of their goddess. They cried out, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” In other words, “We are determined to stand by her, and we will live and die defending her.” If anyone dared to dishonor her or threaten her destruction, they were ready to oppose him. Paul might prove as much as he liked that things made by hands are not gods, but they were still set on saying, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” They meant to defend the religion they had inherited from their fathers.

This is how people naturally walk in the name of their own god, and think well of their own religion. How much more should the servants of the true God do the same, since they can say, “This God is our God forever and ever” (Psalm 48:14). But false zeal quickly led them into confusion. The whole city was filled with disorder (Acts 19:29). This is the common result of hot devotion to a false religion. It throws everything into chaos, pushes reason off the throne, and puts passion in its place. People rush together without even understanding one another, and often without understanding themselves.

Then the mob went further. They seized some of Paul’s companions and dragged them into the theater (Acts 19:29). Some think they meant to make them fight with beasts, as Paul had done at times; others think they only wanted to abuse them and make a public show of them. The men they seized were Gaius of Derbe (Acts 20:4) and Aristarchus, who is also mentioned in Colossians 4:10. They had come with Paul from Macedonia, and their only offense was that they traveled with him in both service and suffering.

Paul himself had escaped being seized. When he saw his friends in trouble because of him, he wanted to go in to the crowd and offer himself, if needed, rather than let his friends suffer for his sake. This showed a generous spirit and a heart that loved his neighbor as himself. But his friends would not allow it. It was more fitting for him to offer himself than for them to let him do it. They could say to Paul, as David’s servants said to David when he was about to expose himself in public service, “You are worth ten thousand of us” (2 Samuel 18:3).

Other friends stepped in as well to stop him from walking straight into danger. They feared the crowd would treat him even worse than Gaius and Aristarchus, because they saw him as the leader of the whole movement. So they thought it better that those two should bear the first blow than that Paul should enter the theater (Acts 19:31). Among these friends were some of the chief men of Asia, called Asiarchs. Some scholars say they were leading priests, while others say they were leaders of public games. We are not told whether they had become Christians or were only kindly disposed toward Paul, but they were his friends.

Dr. Lightfoot suggests that they had kept a warm respect for Paul ever since he had fought with beasts in their theater, and they feared he would be abused again. This is a kind and wise service, to care more for the lives and comfort of good men than they care for themselves. Paul’s friends were right to stop him. It would have been a very dangerous step, likely to cost him his life. So Paul was overruled in this matter, and we are taught here to stay out of danger as long as we can, so long as we do not leave the path of duty. We may be called to lay down our lives, but we are not called to throw them away. It would have suited Paul better to risk himself in a synagogue than in a theater.

The mob was completely confused. Some shouted one thing and some another, depending on their feelings, their passions, and perhaps the rumors they had heard (Acts 19:32). Some cried out against the Jews, others against Paul, but the crowd was in chaos because they did not understand one another.

They argued with each other and were ready to turn on one another, but they did not even understand their own cause. Most of them did not know why they had gathered. They did not know what had started the riot, who was responsible, or even what business they had there. In such moments, many people come only to see what is happening. They follow the noise, follow the crowd, and grow into a large mob very quickly.

The Jews tried to involve themselves in the uproar, though in other places they had often been the ones to start such riots. Here in Ephesus, however, they did not have enough influence to stir up the crowd themselves. Still, once the mob was moving, they had enough hostility to join in (Acts 19:35). So they pulled Alexander forward, urging him to speak for the Jews against Paul and his companions.

In effect, they wanted him to say, “You have heard what Demetrius and the silversmiths say against them as enemies of our religion. Now let us speak against Paul as an enemy of our religion.” The Jews encouraged him and promised to stand with him. They thought this was necessary to defend themselves. So his speech is called an apology, meaning a defense, not just for himself, but for the Jews as a whole, whom Diana’s worshipers saw as enemies too.

They wanted everyone to know that they were just as much against Paul as the idol makers were. People who are eager to separate themselves from Christ’s servants now, and afraid of being taken for them, will be judged that way in the end. Alexander waved his hand, wanting the crowd to hear him against Paul. It would have been strange if a persecution against Christians had not involved Jews somewhere in it. If they could not begin the trouble, they were willing to help it along, and so share in other people’s sins.

Some think this Alexander had once been a Christian but had turned back to Judaism, and that is why he was brought forward as a fitting accuser of Paul. They connect him with Alexander the coppersmith, who did Paul much harm (2 Timothy 4:14), and whom Paul handed over to Satan, meaning to God’s judgment and discipline, in 1 Timothy 1:20.

This only made the accusers stop pressing charges against Paul’s friends and turn instead to loud praise of their goddess (Acts 19:34). When they realized Alexander was a Jew, and therefore an enemy of Diana’s worship, they refused to hear him. The Jews had now grown into a deep hatred for idols and idol worship, so the crowd would not listen to anything he said, whether for or against Paul.

Instead, they began shouting, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” Whoever attacked her, whether Jew or Christian, they were ready to answer with the same cry. She was their Diana, and they took pride in having her temple among them. They claimed her greatness because she was widely honored, and because their temple was more famous and splendid than any other. This was the only response for two hours.

They thought this was enough to prove Paul wrong, as if shouting could answer the truth that gods made by human hands are not gods at all. In this way, some of the most holy truths are often silenced by noise, anger, and crowd fury. People long ago said idolaters were mad about their idols, and this was a clear example. Diana had made Ephesus important, because the city grew rich from the many people who came from all over to her temple. So they did all they could to protect her shrinking honor by crying, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.”

The uproar was finally calmed and broken up by the wisdom and watchfulness of the town clerk, the city secretary or recorder. He was the official keeper of public records, and he had great difficulty getting the crowd quiet enough to hear him. When he finally did, he spoke calmly, giving an example of the saying that wise words are heard quietly more than the loud shouting of a foolish ruler (Ecclesiastes 9:17).

He first soothed them by admitting that Diana was indeed the famous goddess of the Ephesians (Acts 19:35). They did not need to shout so loudly to defend a fact that nobody denied. Everyone knew that the city of Ephesus was devoted to the great goddess Diana. The word used here means that the city, as a public body, had official responsibility for her worship, to care for her temple and receive those who came to honor her.

In a sense, Ephesus was the caretaker of the great goddess Diana. The city seemed more like Diana’s protector than Diana was the city’s protector. Idol worshipers worked hard to maintain the honor of gods made by human hands, while the worship of the true and living God was ignored. Few nations or cities take pride in protecting that worship. The temple of Diana at Ephesus was rich and impressive, but they seem to have valued Diana’s image even more than the temple itself, because they said it had fallen from Jupiter and therefore was not made by human hands. This shows how easily superstitious people can be deceived by clever fraud.

Because the image had stood there from ancient times and no one could say who made it, they made the people believe it had fallen from Jupiter. The town clerk said very seriously, though whether he truly believed it or not is uncertain, that these things could not be denied, because they had been accepted everywhere and would not harm the city if challenged. Some understand him to mean, “Since the image of Diana fell from Jupiter, as we all believe, then what is said against gods made with hands does not affect us at all.”

Then he warned them against using violence and causing a disturbance, since their religion did not need such methods and could gain no real advantage from them (Acts 19:36). “You ought to be calm,” he said, “and do nothing rashly.”

This is a good rule to keep at all times, in private life and in public matters. We should not act too quickly or rush into things. Instead, we should take time to think, stay calm, and keep reason in control while passion stays in check.

We should be ready to use this counsel when we see disorder around us, or when we feel it rising in ourselves. It is better to be quiet and avoid rash action, because many things done in haste are later regretted.

The town clerk also cleared Paul and his companions of the false charges against them (Acts 19:37). He basically said, “You have brought these men here and are ready to tear them apart, but what wrong have they actually done? What can you prove against them?” He pointed out that they were not temple robbers and had not stolen anything dedicated to Diana. They had not attacked Diana’s temple or its wealth, and they had not insulted the goddess or abused her worshipers.

Why should such violence be used against people who, though they did not agree with them, had not answered with harsh words? They were calm, so why should the crowd be angry? The real target of Paul’s message was the idol in people’s hearts. If that idol fell, the idol in the temple would fall too.

Those who preach against idol worship have truth on their side, and they should firmly hold to it and press it on people’s consciences. But they must not behave like robbers or use foul language against those worshipers. They should teach with gentleness, not with anger and abuse, toward those who oppose them. God’s truth does not need human lies, and it does not need angry heat. The anger of people does not produce the righteousness of God.

The town clerk then sent them to the proper legal channels, which should always take priority over mob violence, especially in well-ordered nations. It is a great mercy to live in a country where there are laws to keep peace, courts to handle wrongs, and remedies for injuries.

If the complaint is about a private wrong, the proper place is the judges and the courts, which meet openly at set times. If Demetrius and the silversmiths feel injured, or think some legal right has been violated, they should bring a case. Let them file their charges and let the matter be fairly heard. The law is open, and there are officials to hear both sides and decide justly. Everyone should accept that decision and not act as their own judge or stir up the crowd.

The law is useful when used rightly, as the last means for finding a disputed right or recovering one that has been denied.

If the matter concerns a public grievance, something affecting the government or common life, it should be handled, not by a noisy crowd, but by a lawful public meeting (Acts 19:39). Such matters should be settled in an orderly assembly called in the proper way by those in authority. Private people should not interfere in public affairs in a way that gets ahead of the proper rulers. We already have enough to do to look after our own concerns.

The town clerk also warned them about the danger they had brought on themselves by this riot (Acts 19:40). They might be called to account for the day’s uproar, and even reported to the emperor’s court as a restless and rebellious city. He told them they had no real reason for this gathering and no excuse for the disorder. They could not justify breaking the peace by saying others broke it first and they were only defending themselves.

Most people fear human judgment more than God’s judgment. How much better it would be if we would use that same warning to quiet our sinful desires and passions. We should remember that we will soon answer to the Judge of heaven and earth for all our disorder. We may be called to account for today’s uproar in our hearts and homes, and we will have no good answer if there is no real cause for our anger or no good reason for our violence.

As we must hold back sinful desires, we must also restrain our passions with the thought that God will bring every work into judgment (Ecclesiastes 11:9). We should live like people who must give account.

After showing the crowd the foolishness of their riot and the danger that could follow, he told them to break up at once (Acts 19:41). He dismissed the assembly, and they went home.

Here we see how God’s overruling providence preserves public peace by controlling the minds of men. In this way, the world is kept from total chaos, and people are restrained from acting like the fish of the sea, where the stronger eat the weaker. If we think about how fierce and untamed a mob can be, we have reason to thank God that we are not always under its power.

He stills the noise of the sea and the roar of its waves, and he also stills the uproar of the people (Psalm 65:7). We also see how many ways God has of protecting his people. This town clerk may not have been a friend to Paul or to the gospel he preached, yet God used his human sense and caution to serve his own purpose. Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them from them all.