In-Depth Bible Study Notes For Acts 19:1-22

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In-Depth Bible Study Notes For Acts 19:1-22

Verses 1-22 describes Paul's time in Ephesus, including a famous story where the seven sons of Sceva attempt to cast out demons in the name of Jesus, without knowing Jesus.
Verses 23-41 describes a riot in Ephesus instigated by craftsmen who make idols for the temple of Artemis.

Read Acts 19:1-2. Apollos leaves Ephesus and moves to Corinth during Paul's absence. As we just read during our "Apollos rabbit trail" he does later get hooked up with Paul. The phrase "took the road through the interior" means that Paul came by the upper Phrygian route approaching Ephesus from a more northerly direction. { Show on flannel map } What about these disciples? As we will read in verse 7, there are twelve and they seem to have been followers of Jesus, but indirectly through John the Baptist or some of his followers. Or perhaps they had received their teaching from Apollos himself in his earlier state of partial understanding. Like Apollos, they had a limited understanding of the gospel. They have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.

Read Acts 19:3-4. Paul provides a good summary of John the Baptist's teaching by saying it was a baptism of repentance. As my commentary says: "It was preparatory and provisional, stressing man's sinfulness and thus creating a sense of need for the gospel. John's baptism looked forward to Jesus, who by his death would make possible the forgiveness of sins." If we go back in time and look at when John was baptizing, it assuming repentance and in fact he refused to baptize some of the Pharisees and Sadducees because the failed to give evidence of repentance. Read Matthew 3:4-11.

We need to understand, then, that these disciples in Ephesus had been taught correctly, to the limit of what their teachers had known, and had honored God by repenting through the act of water baptism. But now God has sent Paul to give them "the rest of the story", as they say, and to complete the process, by telling the good news of Jesus and of the power of the Holy Spirit. As we just read in Matthew, John the Baptist did know about the Holy Spirit, but apparently that aspect of his teaching wasn't as widely known, for these men didn't know about Him.

Read Acts 19:5-7. Now here I am unclear whether they were water baptized again, or whether the baptism spoken of here was when they received the Holy Spirit and began speaking and tongues and prophesizing. In any case, I think it is clear that they have now accepted Jesus as their personal savior and that the Holy Spirit now dwelt with them. As an interesting contrast, if we go back in time to when Peter first started witnessing to Gentiles in Caesarea, we find people being filled with the Spirit, first, then being water baptized! Read Acts 10:44-48.

Read Acts 19:8. Paul continues his pattern of teaching, whenever possible he goes first to the synagogue to teach to the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles who attend.

Read Acts 19:9. As had happened in almost every other city, eventually some of the Jews that attend the synagogue become offended and begin to speak badly about "the Way" or the gospel. So Paul leaves and finds another place to teach, the lecture hall of Tyrannus. Apparently it is unclear whether Tyrannus is a place (my study Bible implies this) or a person (my interactive commentary seems to feel he is a person). My commentary provides some valuable information: "probably a school used regularly by Tyrannus, a philosopher or rhetorician. [Regular] instruction was probably given in the cooler, morning hours. One Greek manuscript adds that Paul did his instructing from 11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. This would have been the hot time of the day, but the hall was available and the people were not at their regular work." If we go with the belief that Tyrannus is a person the fact that Tyrannus allows Paul to use his hall is interesting: perhaps Tyrannus himself becomes a believer, or perhaps it was a simple business arrangement, that he allowed Paul to use the hall during off-hours. By this time, I think we can safely assume, there were a significant number of believers in Ephesus, so such a place would have been needed if Paul wanted to be able to teach them all together, rather than in small house churches.

BTW, I found it ironic that "Tyrannus" means "tyrannical; despotic, oppressive, unjust."! Paul ends up leaving the "holy" men of the synagogue and is met with compassion and help by a Gentile "tyrant"!

Read Acts 19:10. My commentary provides some valuable information about this verse: Two years and three months was the longest stay in one missionary location that Luke records. By Jewish reckoning, any part of a year is considered a year; so this period can be spoken of as three years. One of the elements of Paul's missionary strategy is seen here. Many of the cities where Paul planted churches were strategic centers that, when evangelized, served as focal points from which the gospel radiated out to the surrounding areas. Other examples are Antioch in Pisidia, Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth. { Show cities on flannel map }

Read Acts 19:11-12. My commentary was depressingly brief about this, only saying that the handkerchiefs and aprons mentioned here were probably ones used during his leather (tent) making (one would have been tied around his head, another around his waist). We have a similar story of Peter's shadow: Read Acts 5:15 and the edge of Jesus' cloak. Read Matthew 9:20-22. I don't think that these items had any magical qualities, but they did represent direct contact between Jesus or one of the disciples. I would expect it was belief in Jesus, in each case, that instigated the healing. { Put up symbol of lecture hall/handkerchief on flannel map }

I found the next story both funny and tragic. Whenever God shows real power, there is always going to be people who covet that power, for the power sake, not because they want to serve God. Or people who are jealous of that power and want to destroy or steal it. We've had at least two other examples up to this point, both from self-styled "magicians." Remember Simon the Sorcerer? Read Acts 8:9-24. As we read, we can see that though Simon tried to buy the power, at least he was honest in his covetousness! (if one can say such a thing!) and there is hope he did eventually repent. Then we had Elymas the sorcerer (also known as Bar-Jesus) who was jealous of Paul and Barnabas' influence over the proconsul Sergious Paulus. Read Acts 13:6-12. Elymas' motivation was not covetousness, but rather jealousy, and God acted even more dramatically in his life, bringing temporary blindness. From these two examples I think it is safe to say that magicians, sorcerers, exorcists (as we will meet in our next story) were common and "honored" positions in that culture.

Read Acts 19:13. I couldn't help noticing that the scripture says "tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus." Since they weren't followers of Jesus, they didn't have the right to call on His Name! But they knew that Paul had power, so they tried to use his name, as well.

Read Acts 19:14. Sceva may have been related to the high priest's family in Jerusalem or the man may have taken this title for himself as a way to impress people. What I found sad, in part, was that this man had been blessed with seven sons, and all of them had been drawn into this dishonest family business! They had no real power to exorcise demons, but they would have taken advantage of people with possessed loved ones who would have been willing to pay on the slim hope that their child or relative could be released.

Read Acts 19:15. Demons aren't stupid. They know where the real power is and know immediately whether or not they have to obey you. These men were calling on the name of Jesus, however, as we said, because they didn't have a relationship with Christ it was meaningless. After all, the demon itself says "Jesus" without being harmed. And the demon, too, had heard about Paul - so it knew that others of its kind had been banished by the Holy Spirit residing in Paul - but it only had contempt for these seven men.

Read Acts 19:16. The man who was possessed, with this demon controlling him, was strong enough to beat up seven other men! Frightening. Apparently possession can give a person incredible strength. We have another example of this, with the demon-possessed man who lived in cemetery, among the tombs. Read Mark 5:1-8.

We don't hear anything else about this possessed man here in Acts, but I can't help hoping that later Paul or one of the other believers visited him and cast out the demon. It would be sad to think that this poor man was left in this possessed state.

Read Acts 19:17. I would imagine that such a story would have considerable power. People would have realized that the name of Jesus is not something you can manipulate and use - like some sort of magic spell, like these men were trying to do. It's horrible how today the Lord's name is regularly blasphemed.

Read Acts 19:18. I think this verse is so important because it shows active repentance and confession. I don't think we've seen that demonstrated very often in Acts so far, though I do not doubt it occurred regularly. There is more to being a follower of Christ than simply accepting His sacrifice - there needs to be a commitment to want to change one's ways and live in a way pleasing to God. Luke isn't specific about what these "evil deeds" are, but we can probably guess from the next verse that much of it involved sorcery and magic, which very common in Greek culture.

Read Acts 19:19-20. My commentary says that such documents bearing alleged magical formulas and secret incantations have been unearthed at Ephesus. It seems that Ephesus was the center for magical incantations (practicing sorcery). A "drachma" was a silver coin worth about a day's wages. So, say, you made 0 a day, the scrolls would be worth million in today's money! Whenever something hits the pocketbook in such dramatic fashion we have a good sign there was true repentance. { Put symbol for burning scrolls on flannel board }

Read Acts 19:21. Here we have Paul talking about future travels. He does not leave Ephesus at this point. Macedonia and Achaia, remember, are provinces. { Point these out on flannel map }

Read Acts 19:22. Timothy we know already, but who is Erastus? It is actually a somewhat common name, but assuming there is only one associated with Paul, he is mentioned two more times in the Bible. Read Romans 16:23. The "city" mentioned here is Corinth and my commentary tells us at Corinth archaeologists have discovered a reused block of stone in a paved square, with the Latin inscription: "Erastus, commissioner of public works, bore the expense of this pavement." He is mentioned only one more time: 2 Timothy 4:20. So here in Acts it appears that Erastus leaves Ephesus and returns to Corinth by way of Macedonia with Timothy.

To be continued...

Sources
Editors. Compton's Interactive Bible (software)
Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford (notes). The Student Bible. NIV Version

Written by Gail_Sanders

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