Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Paul returns to Ephesus: there he baptizes and confirms about twelve disciples of John. Secondly, verse 7, for three months he preaches in the synagogue, then in the school of Tyrannus for two years, and confirms his words with miracles, so that by his handkerchiefs alone he heals the sick and casts out demons — which, while the sons of Sceva the Jews try to imitate, they are set upon by the demon: whereupon many condemn magic and burn magical books. Thirdly, verse 23, Demetrius the silversmith of Diana stirs up a tumult against Paul, which the town-clerk quiets.
Vulgate Text: Acts 19:1-40
1. And it came to pass, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples. 2. And he said to them: Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? And they said to him: Nay, we have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Spirit. 3. And he said: In what then were you baptized? Who said: In John's baptism. 4. Then Paul said: John baptized the people with the baptism of repentance, saying: That they should believe in Him who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus. 5. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. 7. And all the men were about twelve. 8. Entering into the synagogue, he spoke boldly for three months, disputing and persuading concerning the kingdom of God. 9. But when certain men were hardened and did not believe, speaking evil of the way of the Lord before the multitude: departing from them, he separated the disciples, daily disputing in the school of a certain Tyrannus. 10. And this was done for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Gentiles. 11. And God wrought no ordinary miracles by the hand of Paul: 12. so that even handkerchiefs and aprons were brought from his body upon the sick, and diseases departed from them, and wicked spirits went out. 13. Now some also of the wandering Jewish exorcists attempted to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying: I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. 14. And there were certain Jews, seven sons of Sceva, a chief priest, who did this. 15. And the wicked spirit, answering, said to them: Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you? 16. And the man in whom the worst demon was, leaping upon them and overpowering both of them, so prevailed against them that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17. And this became known to all the Jews and Gentiles dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18. And many of those who believed came confessing and declaring their deeds. 19. Many also of those who had followed curious arts brought together their books and burned them before all, and reckoning up the prices of them, they found the money to be fifty thousand denarii. 20. So mightily grew the word of God and was confirmed. 21. And when these things were ended, Paul proposed in spirit, having passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying: After I have been there, I must also see Rome. 22. So sending into Macedonia two of them who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself remained for a time in Asia. 23. Now at that time there arose no small disturbance concerning the way of the Lord. 24. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, making silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain to the craftsmen; 25. whom he called together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said: Men, you know that our gain is from this craft; 26. and you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul, by persuading, has turned aside a great multitude, saying that they are no gods who are made with hands. 27. And not only is this our craft in danger of coming into disrepute, but also the temple of the great Diana shall be counted for nothing; and her majesty, whom all Asia and the world worships, shall begin to be destroyed. 28. Having heard these things, they were filled with anger and cried out, saying: Great is Diana of the Ephesians. 29. And the whole city was filled with confusion; and they rushed with one accord into the theater, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus of Macedonia, Paul's companions. 30. When Paul wanted to go in among the people, the disciples did not permit him. 31. Some also of the rulers of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him desiring that he would not venture himself into the theater. 32. Some therefore cried one thing, some another: for the assembly was confused, and the greater part knew not for what cause they had come together. 33. And they drew Alexander out of the crowd, the Jews pushing him forward. And Alexander, beckoning with his hand for silence, wished to render an account to the people. 34. But as soon as they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for about two hours cried out: Great is Diana of the Ephesians. 35. And when the town-clerk had appeased the crowds, he said: Men of Ephesus, what man is there that does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple-keeper of the great Diana, and the offspring of Jupiter? 36. Seeing then that these things cannot be contradicted, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly. 37. For you have brought these men here, who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of your goddess. 38. But if Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a matter against any man, the courts are in session and there are proconsuls: let them accuse one another. 39. And if you inquire concerning anything else, it may be determined in a lawful assembly. 40. For we are even in danger of being accused of today's riot, since there is no one guilty on whose account we might render an account of this concourse. And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.
Verse 1: Having Passed Through the Upper Regions; Certain Disciples
1. HAVING PASSED THROUGH THE UPPER REGIONS, — Galatia and Phrygia, after he had returned from Jerusalem to Antioch, about which see the preceding chapter, verse 23.
CERTAIN DISCIPLES. — Cajetan is of the opinion that these had been converted and baptized with the baptism of John by Apollos. For Apollos had been at Ephesus before Paul, and knew only the baptism of John, as in the preceding chapter, verses 24 and 25. But this is contradicted by the fact that at Ephesus Apollos had been more fully instructed about Christ and the baptism of Christ by Aquila, ch. xviii, v. 26; wherefore, if these had been his disciples, he would certainly have instructed them more fully about Christ, and would have seen to it that they were baptized with the baptism of Christ. Add to this that the baptism of John lasted only until Christ: for it led and tended to Him, and therefore was conferred by John alone, not by his disciples or successors, as St. Augustine teaches, Tract. 5 on John, and St. Cyril, bk. II on John, ch. LVII, and this is sufficiently gathered from John I, 33, and III, 23.
I say therefore that these were baptized by John the Baptist himself twenty years before, in Judaea. For, when they had gone up from Asia to Jerusalem according to custom for the feast day, and had heard the preaching of John, they received his baptism, and from him learned that they should believe in Christ who was soon to come; then returning home into Asia, they had heard nothing further concerning the things done in Judaea by John and by Christ: wherefore they now hear these things from Paul. So Chrysostom and others to be cited presently.
Verse 2: Have You Received the Holy Spirit; Believing; But We Have Not So Much As Heard Whether There Be a Holy Spirit
2. HAVE YOU RECEIVED THE HOLY SPIRIT, — that is, Have you been confirmed with the sacrament of Confirmation? for in that sacrament the Holy Spirit was originally given visibly, as I said in chapter VIII. For, since they said they were disciples of Christ, to whom they had been sent by John, Paul supposed that they had been baptized with the baptism of Christ; but he doubted whether they had been confirmed, because at Ephesus there had been no Bishop, whose office alone it is to confer the sacrament of Confirmation. Hence he adds:
BELIEVING. — In Greek πιστεύσαντες, that is, after you had believed, and consequently were baptized. So Pagninus, the Zurich version, and others.
BUT WE HAVE NOT SO MUCH AS HEARD WHETHER THERE BE A HOLY SPIRIT. — Hence it is clear that John's baptism was different from Christ's baptism, as the Council of Trent defines against Calvin and the heretics, sess. 7, ch. 1 On Baptism. For the baptism of Christ is conferred with the invocation of the Holy Trinity, saying: "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." But John's baptism was conferred only in the name of Christ who was to come, as will appear at v. 4; and therefore these men had not heard the name of the Holy Spirit. See Bellarmine, On Baptism, ch. xix and xxi. Wrongly, therefore, St. Cyprian in his Epistle 73 to Jubaianus took from the rebaptism of these men an argument for rebaptizing heretics: which error, St. Augustine says (Epist. 48), "he purged away with the sickle of his passion." The Centuriators feign something worse, bk. II, ch. IV, under the heading On Baptism, as does Chemnitz in his Examination of the Council of Trent, under the same head, namely that John the Baptist baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, but that these men had not received John's true baptism, but a mutilated and vitiated one. For they themselves expressly assert that they had been baptized with John's baptism, nor does Paul doubt of its truth, but rather presupposes that it was true. But he adds that John's baptism was only a symbol of repentance, and therefore insufficient for the remission of sins; for Christ alone provides that in His own baptism.
Verse 3: In What
3. IN WHAT, — εἰς τί, that is, "into what," i.e., "in what," namely, in what baptism: for they answer, "in John's baptism"; for εἰς is often taken for ἐν. Otherwise, properly, "into what," that is, "into whom," as, whose name being invoked "have you been baptized?" Beza and Bucer unskillfully and inappropriately interpret baptism here as meaning John's doctrine apart from the baptism — as if the sense were: "In what were you baptized?" that is, Whose doctrine have you been taught, by whom were you instructed? to which those men answer: "in John's baptism," that is, we were trained in John's school and discipline, but not baptized by him. They do this because they hold that the baptism of John was the same as the baptism of Christ. Therefore, lest they make Paul — who saw to it that these men were baptized with the baptism of Christ — into an Anabaptist, they say that these men had not been baptized with the baptism of John, or of Christ, as they themselves think. Here see what spirit drives the heretics — namely, that of the envious Lucifer, who blinds them and drives them into a giddy whirl. For, in order to diminish Christ and His Sacraments, they confound them with the old ones and with those of St. John — nay, they equate and identify the latter with the former.
But nowhere in Scripture or in the Fathers is doctrine called baptism: for it is one thing to teach, another to baptize. Who ever supposed that to be baptized with a baptism is the same as to be taught a doctrine? Secondly, that baptism is here taken in its proper sense is plain from what follows: "But Paul said: John baptized the people with the baptism of repentance." Again: "On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus"; where it is clear that baptism is taken properly for sacramental washing, not for doctrine. Therefore a little before also, when he says that they were baptized with John's baptism, he takes baptism properly. For he opposes Christ's baptism to John's baptism, and orders those baptized with John's baptism to be baptized with the baptism of Christ. Therefore it is clear that John's baptism was different from Christ's baptism, and far inferior to it — unless we wish to make Paul an Anabaptist. Thirdly, this is the teaching and explanation of St. Chrysostom here; St. Augustine in his book On the One Baptism, ch. vii; St. Jerome on chapter II of Joel; Tertullian, On Baptism, ch. x; Origen, bk. VIII on John, and others everywhere. Fourthly, because in Greek there is μέν, which demands an expressed or implied antithesis. Hence it calls for δέ after it, as if to say: John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, but Christ baptizes with the baptism of the remission of sins, of justice and of salvation.
For Beza wrongly refers the μέν to the δέ which occurs in v. 5 in the Greek, where it is said: ἀκούσαντες δέ, that is, "and hearing, they were baptized." For Paul's incomplete sentence cannot be completed by a historical statement about something done by others — namely, those who were baptized — but must be supplied by Paul's own unexpressed clause. Otherwise we must say that τὸ μέν is enclitic and redundant, as it is redundant at ch. I, 1, and elsewhere. See Bellarmine, On Baptism, ch. xxii, where he refutes various other evasions of others.
Verse 4: John Baptized with the Baptism of Repentance; Saying: That They Should Believe in Him Who Was to Come After Him
4. JOHN BAPTIZED WITH THE BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE. — That is, with a baptism that was the symbol, stirring up, and public profession of repentance, for the obtaining of remission of sins through the baptism of Christ to be received. See what I said on ch. I, 5. Hence it follows that infants and children, incapable of reason and repentance, were not baptized with John's baptism, but only adults, as being capable of reason and repentance. So Suarez, and others everywhere. It is otherwise with the baptism of Christ, which is conferred on little ones for the remission of original sin.
SAYING: THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE IN HIM WHO WAS TO COME AFTER HIM. — From this St. Jerome on ch. II of Joel, St. Thomas, the Master of the Sentences, Bonaventure, Palatius and others gather, on IV, dist. II, that this was the formula of John's baptism: "I baptize thee into Him who is to come, that thou mayest believe, that is, in Jesus Christ," whom I will soon show to you. But in baptizing Christ, He said: "I baptize Thee in Thy name, who art to come," says Palatius. Here note that this formula is hortatory, and therefore was not properly the form of a Sacrament (for this is proper to the Sacraments of the New Law, which, being perfect, arise out of matter and form), but was in the manner of a form. For it was properly an exhortation to repentance and faith in Christ. So teach Durandus, Gabriel, Soto, and from them Francisco Suarez, III part., Quaest. XXXVIII, dist. xxv, sect. 1. Note: the phrase "who is to come" is a periphrasis for the Messiah or Christ, as I said on Genesis XLIX, 12. Hence the Greek and Syriac add: that is, in Jesus Christ.
Verse 5: On Hearing These Things, They Were Baptized
5. ON HEARING THESE THINGS, THEY WERE BAPTIZED. — Beza contends that these are words not of Luke but of Paul, for the narrative begun in the preceding verse is here completed, as if Paul said: Many of the people, when they had heard John's words, were baptized by him in the name of Christ. But that these are the words not of Paul but of Luke is plainly required by the whole sequence of the narrative, which is historical — namely, that these twelve Ephesians, baptized with John's baptism, when they heard from Paul that John's baptism was insufficient and had to be completed by the baptism of Christ, were immediately baptized with that baptism. The same thing is proved by the words that follow, v. 6: "And when he had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them," that is: they were baptized, and then, being confirmed by Paul, they received the Holy Spirit. Otherwise there would be no connection between these verses, but they would be "a broom loosened," and "sand without lime," as the Emperor Caius said of the writings and sentences of Seneca, according to Lipsius in his Prooemium.
Verse 6: And When He Had Laid His Hands Upon Them
6. AND WHEN HE HAD LAID HIS HANDS UPON THEM (imparting to them the sacrament of Confirmation), the HOLY SPIRIT CAME (in the visible form of fire or of tongues) UPON THEM (and thereupon), AND THEY SPOKE WITH TONGUES AND PROPHESIED — either properly, by foretelling future things, or improperly, by celebrating the mighty works of God. For these were the effects of the sacrament of Confirmation, not of Baptism, as I have shown on ch. II, 4, and ch. VIII, 17.
Verse 8: Concerning the Kingdom of God
8. CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF GOD, — namely, concerning the kingdom of heaven, and the ways and means by which we ought to strive toward it, as I said at ch. I, 3 — namely, through faith, obedience, and worship of Christ crucified.
Verse 9: But When Certain Men Did Not Believe; Speaking Evil of the Way of the Lord; Disputing in the School of a Certain Tyrannus
9. BUT WHEN CERTAIN MEN (Jews: for they were from the synagogue in which Paul was preaching) DID NOT BELIEVE. — The Syriac has: were enraged.
SPEAKING EVIL OF THE WAY OF THE LORD, — reviling the institution of Christianity and blaspheming Christ crucified. "From this we learn," says Chrysostom, "that we ought not to mingle with those who curse, but to depart from them. When he was being cursed, he himself did not curse in return, but rather disputed daily; and for this reason most of all he made men his familiar friends, because although he heard evil spoken, he still did not withdraw nor draw back."
DISPUTING IN THE SCHOOL OF A CERTAIN TYRANNUS. — The Syriac, Dionysius, Arias and Mariana consider that Tyrannus is the proper name of a man so called: indeed, Arias thinks that the name "tyranni," with altered vowel points, is the same as "Tyrni" or "Turni." Thus was named Tyrannio, that Grammarian whom Strabo praises, bk. XIII. Perhaps this is that Tyrannus the sophist whom Suidas writes to have published ten books on the position and division of discourse. So Baronius. Others take the name "tyrant" as an appellative, for a prince, a chief, or a powerful man: whence in the Roman Bibles it is written with a small letter. So Lyranus, Cajetan, Vatablus, Gagneus, and others; as though Paul chose this place of a powerful man by design, so that the man might, by his power, defend him against the boldness of the Jews, and so he remained there for two years and taught. Perhaps he was of the stock of Androchus, whom Strabo, bk. XIV, asserts to have been the son of Codrus, king of Athens, and to have founded Ephesus and made it the royal seat of the Ionians; he adds: "Even now all of this family are called kings, and enjoy certain royal honors, such as sitting in the first place at public spectacles, wearing purple, and carrying a staff in place of a scepter." Then "school" is to be taken for a hall, or a portico, into which this tyrant — that is, powerful man — was accustomed to retire for leisure: for σχολάζω is the same as "I am at leisure, I rest, I take a holiday, I tarry"; whence σχολή is leisure, vacation, cessation, delay, retreat: hence a place of literary training is called a "school," because letters require leisure. For students and scholars, all other things set aside, ought to devote themselves entirely to liberal studies. See Brisson, bk. XVII On the Meaning of Words.
Verse 10: And This Was Done for Two Years; All; In Asia
10. AND THIS WAS DONE FOR TWO YEARS. — Add the three months during which Paul spent preaching in the synagogue, v. 8, and you will have two full years, and a third begun by three months. Hence in ch. XX, 31, Paul says he stayed three years at Ephesus, that is, incompletely, because he only began the third. Moreover, Paul came to Ephesus in the year of Christ 55, of Claudius 43; he departed thence in the year of Christ 57, of Nero 1, after Pentecost. For so he writes to the Corinthians, Epist. I, ch. xvi, 8: "I will remain," he says, "at Ephesus until Pentecost." So Baronius, who also rightly notes that during this two-year period Paul did not continuously remain at Ephesus, but also went out to other cities of Asia, evangelizing them. The reason why Paul stayed so long at Ephesus was the city's populousness, its idolatry, philosophy, and magic. For Ephesus was the metropolis of Asia, and in it was the most famous temple of Diana: this stronghold of idolatry Paul undertook to storm, so that, it being subdued, he might easily overcome all the rest. For around this time Apollonius of Tyana, the impostor, enemy of Christ and of Paul, established a school of magic at Ephesus. Paul gives this reason when writing from Ephesus to the Corinthians, Epist. I, ch. xvi, 8: "I will remain," he says, "at Ephesus: for a great and evident door is opened to me, and many adversaries." For this reason also, writing afterwards to the Ephesians, he raises his style, speaks profoundly, contemplates sublime things, in order to show that in depth of wisdom he does not yield to, but surpasses, the magicians and philosophers, as I said in the Prooemium to the Epistle to the Ephesians. On this account Haymo says in the same place: "As the heart is in the middle of the belly, so this epistle stands in the middle of the body of the epistles."
ALL, — almost all, very many.
IN ASIA — Minor: for from every quarter of this Asia people flowed together to Ephesus, both because of the city's fame and because of the fame of Diana's temple. Hence Baronius rightly teaches, in the year of Christ 97, that the Ephesian Church was not founded originally by St. John — when he, with the other faithful, being ordered to leave Jerusalem, came to Ephesus together with the Mother of God — but by Paul; for Paul writes that it was his custom, Rom. xv, 20. Whence also St. Ignatius, writing to the Ephesians, sets Paul before John in the building up of the Ephesian Church. And Epiphanius, Heresy 51, says that St. John in his old age had charge of the Church of Asia: therefore after Paul.
Verse 11: And No Ordinary Miracles
11. AND NO ORDINARY MIRACLES, — not common ones, but the greatest, says the Syriac, namely great miracles.
Verse 12: Aprons; Diseases Departed from Them
12. APRONS (semicinctia). — Some think them to be the same as handkerchiefs (sudaria), or a kind of them; whence Luke says, "handkerchiefs or aprons." But Oecumenius holds that the "handkerchiefs" were headbands, and the "aprons" were the little cloths which we call "handkerchiefs," because with them we wipe away sweat. Others interpret "semicinctium" as a linen or leather covering with which craftsmen gird their chest and thighs, lest in working they stain their clothing; for Paul was a craftsman and tentmaker. They are called "semicinctia" because they do not encircle and cover the whole body, but only half of it. So Salmerón and Lorinus. Finally, you will appropriately take "semicinctia" as shorter or narrower belts, or parts of a belt or girdle — as it were half-belts, half-girdles. Hence Isidore, bk. XIX: "A girdle (cinctus)," he says, "is a broad band, and a semicinctium is a less broad band, and a cingulum is the smallest of both." Thus Nicephorus, Bishop of Constantinople, among other priestly vestments which he sends to Pope Leo III, names "semicinctia," that is girdles "variegated with gold," as appears in the Acts of the Council of Ephesus, ch. xxii. And Petronius, when he describes a certain man preparing to hang himself, says that he prepared semicinctia, that is, girdles, for this purpose. Hence Martial, in Apophoreta 153, which is entitled "semicinctium," describes it thus:
"Let the rich man give the tunic, I can gird you about. Were I rich, I would give both gifts."
These and more in Sánchez. Add Nicephorus, bk. II, ch. xxiv, who interprets "semicinctia" as thin bands. Note: In the Greek text the Latin words sudaria and semicinctia are used, because many similar words had passed from the Roman language (the Romans being dominant in Greece) into the Greek of the Apostles' age — such as "libertini," Acts VI; "praetorium," Matt. xxvii; "custodia," ibidem; "Niger, Euroaquilo, centurion, titulus," John xix; "denarius, quadrans, legion, spiculator, linteum, colonia, flagellum," John II; "membrana, census," Matt. xvii; "perperam," I Cor. xiii; "Artemon, sicarii," Acts xxi. So Mariana.
DISEASES DEPARTED FROM THEM. — St. Chrysostom, heightening this theoretically, in Hom. 8 on the Epistle to the Romans, and Hom. 6 on I Corinthians, adds that by Paul's shadow the dead were brought back to life. Hence appears the ancient use, power, and efficacy of the holy relics — and not only the bodies of the Saints, but also handkerchiefs, garments, and other things adjacent to their bodies were salutary, as St. Augustine relates, bk. XXII On the City, ch. viii, concerning the flowers that touched the bier of St. Stephen: by these many sick persons were restored to health. So St. Gregory, to Constantia Augusta, bk. III, Epistle 30, and to others sent a "brandeum," that is, a veil which had covered or touched the relics of the Apostles and Martyrs, in place of sacred relics. Theodoret, in Philotheus, ch. xxi, asserts that the oil burning in lamps before the tombs of the Martyrs brought health by miracle to many. See more in Baronius here, year of Christ 55.
Verse 13: Jewish Exorcists; I Adjure You by Jesus; Whom Paul Preaches
13. JEWISH EXORCISTS. — That the Jews before Christ had their own exorcists to expel demons is evident from this, and from that passage of Matt. xii, 27: "By whom do your sons cast them out?" and from Josephus, bk. VIII Antiquities, ch. II, and bk. VII of the War, ch. xxv, and from Epiphanius, Heresy 30, where he asserts that they used the tetragrammaton name Jehovah. About Solomon's exorcisms, see Josephus in the place cited, and Del Rio in his Disquisitions on Magic: although St. Thomas, Quaest. VI on Power, art. 10, ad 3, and from him Francisco de Vitoria, Relectiones de magia, n. 28, hold that Solomon's exorcisms — by a certain root together with adjuration — were composed by him after he became an idolater. Indeed that these exorcists used magical arts may be suspected from what Luke says, v. 19: "And many of those who had followed curious arts," etc. Now only Christians have and ordain exorcists, whose exorcisms — that is, adjurations of demons — are their spiritual "scourges and torments of blows," as St. Cyprian says in his Epistle to Demetrianus. For Christ gave this power of casting out demons to the Apostles and to the Church, Luke x, 19. Origen is wrong, then, in Tractate 35 on Matthew, where he teaches that to exorcize demons is a Jewish practice, not a Christian one, on this argument: a Christian man, by the law of Christ, is not permitted to swear at all, Matt. v, 34, therefore neither to adjure anyone, nor to exorcize. But as the antecedent is false, so also is the consequent, or the conclusion deduced therefrom.
I ADJURE YOU BY JESUS. — For, as St. Chrysostom says, Hom. 4 In Praise of St. Paul, "If you invoke Jesus of Nazareth, the demon suddenly flees as from fire." And St. Justin, On the Truth of the Christian Religion: "The demons tremble and dread the power of that Name (Jesus); even today by the name of Jesus Christ crucified they, being adjured, obey us." And Prudentius, in the Apotheosis against the Jews:
"Apollo is tormented, struck by the Name of Christ, nor can he bear the thunderbolts of the Word: as many blows of the tongue vex the wretch as the praised miracles of God's Christ resound."
The reason is that the demon has been conquered and cast down by Jesus. He therefore dreads Jesus and His cross, just as a dog dreads the stick with which it has been struck, and much more the one who strikes, who shakes the stick at him. St. Dionysius testifies, Eccl. Hierarchy, ch. III, that it was customary for Christians, when after Baptism they had fallen into some mortal sin, to be vexed by demons. And St. Cyprian, Ep. 76: "Often," he says, "some of those who are baptized whole, if afterwards they have begun to sin, are shaken by the return of the unclean spirit — so that it is clear that the devil is excluded in baptism by the faith of the believer, and, if faith afterwards fails, he returns." Thus Cyprian, speaking of those who apostatize from faith and from Christ.
WHOM PAUL PREACHES. — These exorcists appear to have wished, out of presumption, to imitate Paul in casting out demons through the name of Jesus, so as to make for themselves from this both applause and gain among the people. Hence St. Chrysostom and St. Cyprian, in his sermon On the Baptism of Christ, call them mercenary (quaestuarii). But because they distrusted their own strength, they put forward the name of Paul, whom they saw to be a terror to the demons and to expel them. Moreover, because they were Jews, and therefore unbelievers in regard to Christ, for that very reason they themselves did not prevail over the devil, but the devil prevailed over them and sprang upon them. Some add that they did this cunningly, with evil guile — namely, in order to turn men away from Paul and his doctrine, and to draw them to themselves and to Judaism. For if they themselves expelled demons, since they were Jews, they would say that they did this by the power of Judaism and of the Jewish faith, and consequently that Jesus — that is, the Savior and Christ — is He whom the Jews await, not He whom Paul preaches as already having come. If they did not expel them, they would say that the name of Jesus was empty and powerless to expel demons, and therefore that He was worshiped and invoked in vain, and preached in vain by Paul, and was put forward in vain in their exorcisms.
Verse 14: Of a Chief of the Priests
14. OF A CHIEF OF THE PRIESTS, — one of the chiefs, or high priests. For there were 24 chiefs, or high priests, namely the firstborn of the same number of priestly families, as I said on ch. IV, verse 6.
Verse 15: But Who Are You?
15. BUT WHO ARE YOU? — that is: You are not servants of Christ, nor Paul's followers, but our slaves, being unbelievers in Christ and unfaithful, seeking gain and applause from Christ's name: and it is unworthy that a slave should command his own master and lord, and drive him from his own house. St. Cyprian, in his sermon On Baptism, explains it thus: "We know Christ, and we are acquainted with Paul, and being adjured in the name of Christ whom Paul preaches, we go out; but you we do not know at all." But Chrysostom: as if to say, You do not believe in Christ, but by His name abusing it, you contrive these words: you are not heralds of this name, because you are mine. Therefore I acknowledge the lordly command of Christ and of Paul, but not yours: I will therefore punish your boldness and rashness, and, as my slaves insulting me, I will severely chastise you. "Why," says Chrysostom, "did not the evil spirit say: What is Jesus? He was afraid of receiving punishment himself. For he knew that it was granted him to avenge himself on those whom he had made mockers of this name."
In a similar way Luther, when he wished to exorcise a demon, was set upon by him and reduced to the utmost straits, as Staphylus relates in his work Against Smidelinus, p. 404, and Bredembach, Collation VII, ch. xl. On the contrary, St. Hilarion, who, as St. Jerome bears witness in his Life, ruled over demons beyond the other Saints and expelled very many of them, acquired this authority over them by contempt of self and by flight from wealth and honors: for he held gold as mud. "Often," St. Jerome says, "he would change his location, not from levity, but fleeing honor and importunity; for he always desired silence and a lowly life. He urged each one to pass over the fashion of this world, and that that is the true life which is earned by the inconvenience of the present life." Seeing the throngs of every rank running to him, he wept. When asked why, "Again," he said, "I have returned to the world and received my reward in my lifetime. Let others marvel at the signs he wrought; let them marvel at his incredible abstinence, learning, and humility: I am astonished at nothing so much as that he was able to trample underfoot that glory and honor. For Bishops, Priests, Monks, and also matrons — a great temptation to Christians — were running to him; but he meditated on nothing except solitude. The demons in possessed persons everywhere were betraying him, wishing to hide; but he, grieving, and in a manner raging in self-avengement, flogged them with such earnestness of prayers that he expelled them all out of the possessed. And in him nothing caused more universal wonder than that, after so many signs and miracles, he did not accept even a morsel of bread from anyone in those places. For, kindled by the confidence of a poor conscience, he rejoiced all the more both that he had nothing of this world and that by the inhabitants of that place he was considered a beggar." He had this grace, that from the smell of bodies, garments, and things that someone had touched, he knew to which demon or vice that person was subject. When someone set before him the chickpeas of a certain miser: "Do you not perceive," he said, "the most foul stench, and that in the chickpea avarice clings? Give them to the oxen." Another gave them: but the oxen at once broke their halters and fled. As a terrible and fierce camel was advancing toward him: "You do not terrify me, devil," he said, "with so great a bulk of body; in the little fox and in the camel you are one and the same." Orion, a powerful man, freed by him from a legion of demons, offered him many gifts. When he refused, he said: "Give them to the poor." To whom the Saint said: "You can better distribute your own goods, you who walk through the cities and know the poor. Why should I, who have forsaken my own, covet what belongs to others?" And when that man grieved that his offerings were refused: "Do not," he said, "be troubled, O son. What I do, I do for myself and for you. For if I accept these things, I also will offend God, and the legion will return to you." A girl possessed by a demon was brought to the Saint, and, mocking the demon, he said: "Great is your strength, you who are bound tight by a thread and a thin plate. Tell me why you dared to enter a maiden of God?" The demon answered: "That I might guard that virgin." To whom the Saint: "You guard, you betrayer of chastity? Why did you not rather enter the one who sent you?" "To what end," the demon replied, "should I enter him who had my colleague, the demon of love?" As the moon shone, he saw unexpectedly a chariot with fiery horses rushing upon him; and when he had called upon Jesus, before his eyes by a sudden opening of the earth the whole procession was swallowed up. Then he said: "The horse and rider He cast into the sea." And: "These in chariots, and these in horses, but we in the name of the Lord our God shall be magnified."
A boy scarcely surviving fell among brigands, who, turning to him, said: "What, pray, would you do if brigands came upon you?" To whom he answered: "A naked man fears no brigands." And they said: "Surely, you can be killed." "I can," he said, "I can; and therefore I fear no brigands, because I am ready to die."
Verse 16: And Leaping Upon Them; Prevailing Over Both
16. AND LEAPING UPON THEM, — pounding them with fists and blows and tearing apart their garments, rending them with teeth and nails, striking with heels, and thus wounding them: for they fled naked and wounded from the house. See here, says Chrysostom, how great power the demon has over the bodies of unbelievers and scoffers, and from this infer that he exercises similar and even greater power over the soul of a sinner, which through sin he besets, possesses, agitates, and tosses, like a lictor treating his own cheap slave. And he adds: "Sin is more grievous than a demon; for a demon indeed makes men humble, but sin makes them proud: moreover it introduces a vicious habit into the soul. So the angry nourish within themselves a familiar lictor torturing them, namely the desire for revenge. For just as rot and a moth gnaw the root of our mind, why do you enclose a wild beast within your own entrails? It would be better to have a viper and a serpent placed in the heart than anger or envy."
PREVAILING OVER BOTH. — Of the seven, therefore, two were here practicing exorcism, with the others absent or at rest: hence the demon leapt upon those two only. In Greek, instead of "of both," some have αὐτῶν, that is, "of them," as though the demon had leapt upon all seven. But certain Greek codices have ἀμφοτέρων, that is, "of both," as Valesius notes.
Verse 18: Confessing and Declaring Their Deeds
18. CONFESSING AND DECLARING THEIR DEEDS. — Luther wrongly translates "their deeds" as "their miracles": for miracles are not our deeds, but God's, who alone is all-powerful, and therefore also a wonder-worker. Hence the Syriac clearly translates, "they renounced their offenses and confessed what they had done." These things are taken to refer to the confession made in the sacrament of Penance by Oecumenius, Salmeron, Sanchez, and Gagnejus here, Bellarmine, book III On Penance, chapter IV; Baronius, Gregory of Valentia, Hosius, Ruardus Tapperus, and others, who from this passage prove the necessity of confession against the heretics. For the phrase "their deeds" signifies that this confession was not general and public — as if saying: I confess that I am a sinner, as Calvin and Beza would have it — but particular, and therefore secret; for in the latter, not in the former, are enumerated in detail and individually each evil act by the penitent. Others, however, take this as referring to the confession made prior to baptism. For these men appear to have been Gentiles and Jews: of whom he said in the preceding verse that, struck by that slaughter of the exorcists, they magnified the name of the Lord, and consequently believed in Christ. These men, therefore, stricken before baptism, showed signs of true compunction by publicly declaring their sins which they had committed in paganism; just as it is said of John's baptism, John 1:5: "They were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins": where the Greek has the same word ἐξομολογούμενοι as here. So Arator, Cajetan and Lorinus, Eusebius, book III of the Demonstration, chapter VIII; Bede, on Mark 1; Andreas Vega, book XIII On Justice, chapter XXVIII, and others.
The former opinion seems truer and more genuine. First, because it is clear that those confessing were not Gentiles or Jews, but Christians, from the fact that they are called "believers," which in that first century was the proper name of Christians. For here we have another part, and another effect, which was caused by the ignominy and blow inflicted on the Jewish exorcists by the demon. For in the preceding verse Luke says that it caused fear and doxology among the Gentiles and Jews; but here he says that among the Christians it caused penance and exomologesis, as it still does now. For Christians, stricken by some fear and diabolical terror, immediately have recourse to exomologesis, so as to provide for their soul and place its salvation in safety.
You will say: the Gentiles are called "believers" because they were beginning to believe and to aspire to baptism. I reply: this cannot be said, because in the Greek it is the perfect tense πεπιστευκότων, that is, "many of those who had already believed," and were consequently baptized. Second, because no mention of baptism is made here, which Luke surely would have made if he had wished to signify the conversion and initiation of Gentiles (for this is done by baptism). Therefore he presupposes that they had been baptized. Add to this that originally, before baptism, scarcely anyone confessed his sins in particular: for contrition sufficed, and Paul alone, together with Silas and Timothy, would not have sufficed for hearing the confessions of so many and so great people.
You will say secondly: it seems incredible that Christians instructed by Paul would still have kept magical books and devoted themselves to magic, which nevertheless Luke asserts of these confessors in the following verse. I reply: First, in those earliest conversions of the faithful from paganism to Christianity, not everything could be said at once by Paul, nor could everything be learned and practiced by the faithful: just as even now among recently converted Gentiles many pagan customs remain, to be gradually unlearned and uprooted; indeed even now among lazy, lukewarm, and uncultivated Catholics, superstitious, magical, and heretical books are to be found. Second, these confessors are distinct from those given to magic and the possessors of magical books. This is clear from the adversative word autem (but). "But many of those who had followed curious arts," etc. So Sanchez.
Moreover Stapleton here holds that these confessors first performed a secret confession, and then a public one of at least some of their sins. For that this was once customary in public penance is clear from the act of Nectarius, who abolished this public confession at Constantinople because of the scandal that arose from it, as Socrates testifies, book VI, chapter XIX. The same is hinted at by the word ἀναγγέλλειν, that is, to announce openly, publicly. But it is not necessary to assert this: for ἀναγγέλλειν is the same as "I announce," as Our Version and others translate, whether it be done publicly or privately and secretly: for ἀναγγέλλω means the same as "I report, indicate, declare, recite, profess, pronounce." Nor does public penance seem to have been in use in those first rough beginnings of the Church, but was introduced later to repair scandals which, as the number of the faithful grew, gradually arose, and was enjoined by the bishops. Here however the faithful confessed freely, so as to escape the demon's hands and revenge: for which secret and sacramental confession was useful, not public: for thus it would have sufficed and been enough before God to confess with a contrite heart.
Morally: let the faithful note here that they arm themselves against all the assaults of Satan by sacred confession. For it weakens all his forces, uncovers all his frauds, opens all his snares, and dispels all his perplexities. Whence St. Jerome, on Ecclesiastes chapter X: "If the serpent the devil," he says, "has secretly bitten anyone, and has infected him with the poison of sin without anyone being aware, if the one struck keeps silent and does not do penance, nor is willing to confess his wound to a brother and master, the master who has a tongue for healing will not easily be able to profit him. For if he is ashamed to confess his wound to a doctor, what the medicine does not know, it does not cure."
In the Life of Saints Epictetus and Astion we read the following: "Blessed Astion saw a certain black boy going out from his bosom with a fiery torch, and saying such things to himself: Your confession, Astion, has today ground down my great powers, and one prayer of yours has rendered me unarmed and desolate in all things." Rufinus relates, book III of the Lives of the Fathers, number 57, that a certain man was relieved of a temptation to blasphemy by the revelation and confession of it.
The same we read concerning a temptation of fornication in the Lives of the Fathers, book V, number 13: "For nothing," he says, "so exasperates the demon of fornication as when his stirrings are revealed; and nothing so delights him as when thoughts are concealed." Abbot Serapion in Cassian, Conference II, chapters X and XI, relates that he was delivered from a temptation of gluttony and a habit of stealing bread through the public confession of this theft: "For immediately afterward," he says, "as if a lamp kindled and going forth from my bosom, it filled the cell with so great a stench that we could scarcely remain in it." This was the demon who was tempting him to theft and gluttony. Truly the Wise One says, Proverbs XXVIII, 13: "He who hides his sins shall not be directed." Cassian adds that this was the common doctrine of the Abbots and Elders: an evil thought, as soon as it creeps in, must be revealed to one's Elder. Whence St. Anthony, in the Lives of the Fathers, II, number 104: "If it can be done," he says, "how many steps a monk walks, or how many cups of water he drinks in his cell, he must declare to his Superiors, that he may not be led astray in these things."
Wherefore Climacus, in step 4 On Obedience, writes that the monks of ancient times used to carry in their belt a little book in which they wrote down the thoughts occurring each day, so as to reveal them to the Pastor. The same doctrine and, as it were, principle of the spiritual life is set forth by St. Basil in his Monastic Constitutions and in the more extensive Rules, response 26; St. Ambrose, book III On Duties, chapter XVI; St. Jerome, Rule for Monks, chapter XXXIV; St. Bernard, treatise On the Order of Life, who indeed by an apt similitude declare, nay demonstrate, the matter. Just as, they say, the air thick with clouds and darkened becomes clear and whitens when these are poured out in rain, so also through confession, by which affliction is as it were poured out into another's bosom, the sickness of the mind is emptied. See St. Thomas I II, Question XXXVIII, article 2.
Thus St. Dorotheus, in sermon 5, relates that he was in continual peace of mind and joy, because he revealed all the thoughts of his mind to his spiritual Father.
It is a memorable thing that Dominic Soto writes in IV, distinction XVIII, Question I, article 1, that the people of Nuremberg sent envoys to Emperor Charles V to ask him to establish by public decree the precept of confession: for they had experienced that, after it had been banished, many frauds, vices, and crimes had crept into the city and commonwealth.
"So long," says Cassian in the place already cited, "do his (the devil's) suggestions rule over us as they are concealed in the heart: for as soon as an evil thought has been brought to light, it withers, and before the judgment of discretion is pronounced, the most foul serpent, as it were from a dark and subterranean cave, drawn out by the power of confession into the light, and in a manner led forth and disgraced, departs." Whence the same, book IV On the Institutes of the Renunciant, chapter IX: "They pronounce it to be a general and evident sign of a diabolical thought," he says, "if we are ashamed to disclose it to an elder. For all iniquity shall stop its mouth," Psalm CVI, 42. St. Gregory, book VII of Morals, last chapter, and book III of Pastoral Admonitions, chapter XV: "Closed wounds," he says, "torment more; for when the rot that seethes within is cast out unto healing, the pain is opened up, etc. What is the confession of sins, except the bursting of wounds?" Whence the Psalmist, Psalm XXXI, 3: "Because I was silent," he says, "my bones grew old."
Verse 19: And Many of Them Who Had Followed Curious Things; They Brought Together Their Books and Burned Them; They Found the Money to Be Fifty Thousand Denarii
19. AND MANY OF THEM WHO HAD FOLLOWED CURIOUS THINGS. — Vatablus: who had practiced curious arts. The word autem (but) signifies that this is a different narrative from the previous one about those who confessed, as I said. Hence, since those were Christians, these seem to have been Gentiles devoted to magic, or certainly uncultivated Christians who, fearing that they might be harshly punished by the demon, the master of the magicians, like those exorcists, renounced magic and burned their magical books. So Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Bede, and the Syriac, which renders: "Moreover, many also from among the magicians"; and Eusebius, book II of the Demonstration, chapter VIII. Furthermore the Ephesians were given over to magical arts, as St. Jerome testifies in his preface to the Epistle to the Ephesians. Hence Apollonius of Tyana at Ephesus publicly opened a school of the magic art, and was given a statue by the Ephesians and enrolled among the gods, as Philostratus testifies in book IV of his Life, and who adds in book V that this occurred in the first years of Nero, when Paul was at Ephesus, with whom therefore there is no doubt he had a fierce contest.
Hence also, proverbially, Ephesian letters, or marks, are called magical signs, used for obtaining victory and driving away dangers, as Suidas testifies; and also for expelling demons, as Plutarch testifies in the Symposiacs, book VII, Question V. For these marks, says Eustathius on Odyssey φ, were obscure words like riddles, which were carried inscribed on sewn little patches of skin placed on the feet, the girdle, and the crown of Diana. Julian the Apostate was most devoted to magic, through which he lost his empire, his life, and his soul. The Emperor Valerian too, seduced by a magician, from being a friend of the Christians became their enemy and persecutor, was captured by Sapor, king of the Persians, and shut in an iron cage, and was a laughingstock to the world, just as Bajazet the Turkish Emperor was to Tamerlane.
Secondly, Mariana thinks that by "curious things" here are understood the books and craftsmen of alchemy, that is, of transmuting metals, e.g., of making gold from copper, silver from tin. For Diocletian, as Suidas says under the word χυμεία, ordered the craftsmen of this art to be burned in Egypt, lest enriched they should abuse their wealth. It would be desirable that the Magistrates eliminate this art: for it is nothing other than a wasting of money, of time, and often imposture.
Thirdly, others take "curious things" to mean judicial astrology and astrologers and genethliacs, who from the horoscope and birthday, the constellation and the stars, divine the things that will befall each person in life and death, against which St. Augustine inveighs in book I On Christian Doctrine, chapters XXI, XXII, XXIII, and elsewhere other Fathers. For this reason Aquila of Pontus, the famous interpreter of Holy Scripture, was cast out of the Church, because he was engaged in examining nativities and the horoscopes of births, as Epiphanius says in his book On Weights and Measures. Indeed Augustus Caesar expelled these Mathematicians from the city, as Dio says, book XLIX. Again, in the 12th year of Claudius's reign, the 54th of Christ, a decree of the Senate was made at Rome for expelling the Mathematicians from Italy, on the occasion (as it seems) of Junius Scribonianus, who had inquired through the Chaldeans into the end of Claudius. "A class of men," says Tacitus in book XVII, "faithless to the powerful, deceitful to the hopeful, which in our state will always be forbidden and will always be retained."
He was a true prophet. For as Baronius says, human curiosity, itching in the mind and greedy for novelty, works and busies itself so that those things which emperors and princes have again and again suppressed, are called back and reborn. Indeed, in the few years I was in Rome, I saw many great men deceived by astrologers, while they foretold and promised to this one a longer life, to that one a cardinalate, to another the papacy, and the outcome taught that all these had been deceived by vain hope and falsehood, to their great danger and loss. For while they do not believe they will die until they have first obtained the preferment which the Mathematicians promised, even when struck by a lethal illness, they do not prepare themselves for death: whence they die unprepared and improvident, which is often the open fraud of the devil, who through these divinations lies in wait for their souls and, like a wolf, gapes to seize and carry them off. Awake, O Prelates: "Sons of men, why do you love vanity and seek falsehood?" Nay, often it is the destruction not only of the body, but also of the soul. Alphonsus, the truly wise king of Aragon, knew this, who being generous to all, kept only astrologers away from his court. When asked why, he replied — one privy to his secrets — "The stars rule and drive fools, but the wise command the stars. It follows, therefore, that fools, not wise princes, honor astrologers, and among these wise ones Alphonsus reckons his own name." Thus Aeneas Sylvius, book IV On the Deeds of Alphonsus, chapter III.
The same opinion was held by Francesco Sforza, who won for himself and his family the rule of the Insubres (Lombards), to whom all astrologers were always either hateful or contemptible, so far was he from consulting them in his wars and affairs.
The same judgment was held by Giovanni Pico, Count of Mirandola, as can be seen in book II which he wrote against Astrology, chapter II. Indeed astrologers are harmful to the commonwealth, and disturb the government of princes, when they foretell and peddle that they will soon die, and that others whom they flatter will succeed them. For who would love, obey, or cherish a prince soon to die? And not rather seek the favor of another, as of a new sun about to rise? Wherefore the Emperor Vitellius punished these astrologers with death. Hear Suetonius on him, chapter XIV: "To none was he more hostile than to soothsayers and mathematicians: as each one was denounced, he punished him capitally without a hearing."
THEY BROUGHT TOGETHER THEIR BOOKS AND BURNED THEM. — "That they might avoid fires by fires," says Arator. The same was done with magical books by that magician converted by St. Augustine, concerning whom he himself writes thus at the end of Psalm LXI: "This man had perished; now, being sought, has been found, and brought back: he carries with himself the codices to be burned, by which he was going to be burned; that those being cast into the fire, he himself may pass into a place of refreshment." Thus the Emperors Honorius and Theodosius decreed that the books of the Mathematicians should be burned in the sight of the Bishops, in the book On Mathematicians, chapter On the Hearing of Bishops. Much more should the books of heretics be burned, as being more harmful, as the same and other Emperors decreed, in the last book On Heretics of the Theodosian Code. The Canons and Councils decreed the same, especially the Tridentine. See Bellarmine, book On the Laity, chapter XX.
THEY FOUND THE MONEY TO BE FIFTY THOUSAND DENARII. — The Greek and Syriac: they found it to be five myriads of silver, that is, fifty thousand coins. Budaeus, book V On Coinage, and others following him reckon this sum to have been five thousand gold pieces. Thus at Rome five thousand gold pieces equal fifty thousand julios or Spanish reales. For a gold piece contains ten julios, and five times ten make fifty. Moreover the denarius weighed a drachma and was worth one julio, or Spanish real, as I said at the end of the Pentateuch. Let Christians learn here to burn magical, heretical, and filthy books, however costly they may be reckoned, even if they be weighed against gold: because the harm they inflict can be compensated by no amount of gold. For this reason Paul and the Apostles removed or silenced the responses of magicians no less than of idols. To this purpose is what Pliny writes in book III, chapter II, that Nero, having summoned magicians from throughout the world, could extort no response from them. Hence Plutarch also wrote a book On the Failure of the Oracles. See St. Augustine, book I On the Divination of Demons, chapter VI.
Verse 21: Paul Proposed in the Spirit; Having Passed Through Macedonia and Achaia; To Go to Jerusalem; I Must Also See Rome
21. PAUL PROPOSED IN THE SPIRIT, — moved by the Holy Spirit. So Lyra, Vatablus, Cajetan, Dionysius, and others; but the Syriac translates, he proposed in his own mind.
HAVING PASSED THROUGH MACEDONIA AND ACHAIA. — Paul passed through here, both to visit and confirm the churches which he had founded there, and to collect alms for the poor of Jerusalem, as is clear from II Corinthians VIII and IX.
TO GO TO JERUSALEM, — both that he might carry the aforementioned alms to the Saints, and for the sake of piety, on account of reverence for the place, says Dionysius, and to visit the holy places and the primitive Church, especially St. James. For he was not going to see them again in this life.
I MUST ALSO SEE ROME. — For, by the prompting of God, says Chrysostom, Paul was being driven to Rome, so that with St. Peter he might set up the Roman Church as mother and head of the rest, and that he might contend against Simon Magus and Nero, who was fitting out the first persecution against the Christians.
Verse 22: Sending into Macedonia, Timothy and Erastus; He Himself Remained for a Time in Asia
22. AND SENDING INTO MACEDONIA, etc., TIMOTHY AND ERASTUS, — that they might prepare the way for him as he was to follow, and at the same time make the collection of alms for the people of Jerusalem, as is clear from I Corinthians IV, 17. This Erastus is called arcarius, that is, treasurer of the city, namely of Corinth, Romans XVI, 23; afterwards he was made Bishop of Philippi, and there crowned with martyrdom, he is listed among the Saints in the Martyrology, on the 16th of July.
HE HIMSELF REMAINED FOR A TIME IN ASIA, — namely at Ephesus.
Verse 23: Disturbance; Concerning the Way of the Lord
23. DISTURBANCE, — Τάραχος, that is, usually a tumult, says the Syriac. Hence Paul, explaining its gravity, II Corinthians chapter I, verse 8: "We were burdened," he says, "above measure, above strength, so that we were weary even of living." "For afflictions," says Chrysostom, "draw us away from affection toward the present world. And so we at once seek death, and are not lovers of the body, which is indeed the greatest part of philosophy." And he adds many advantages of tribulation and finally concludes: "Affliction is a great good: our pedagogue is affliction."
CONCERNING THE WAY OF THE LORD, — concerning the rule of life of Christ and of Christianity.
Verse 24: Demetrius; Silversmith; Making Silver Shrines; Diana
24. DEMETRIUS. — He was the head and chief of the other goldsmiths, and perhaps had obtained from the magistrate that no one besides himself and his own should be able to strike little shrines of Diana.
SILVERSMITH, — ἀργυροκόπος, that is, one who strikes silver, so the Syriac: namely a silversmith artisan, says Vatablus, who is now called aurifaber or aurifex (goldsmith). For those who strike gold also strike silver. For ἀργυροκόπος is so called from working silver, unless you prefer to derive it from κόπτω, that is, "I cut": whence also the Greeks call a coin κόμμα.
MAKING SILVER SHRINES. — What were these? First, some think they were vows and votive offerings which they offered to Diana for danger averted, or for a benefit received. Second, others think with Chrysostom that they were little boxes or cases in which amulets were carried, such as signs of Diana, or Ephesian letters, which the deceitful priests of Diana gave to those who came against fevers, diseases, dangers, or for a happy lot and fortune. Or rather, as Baronius holds, these shrines were the silver statues of Diana themselves, with their little chapels or receptacles. Thirdly and best, these shrines were images, or replicas, of the temple of Diana. For they venerated her temple so, that they would represent it in images, and cast its likeness in statues, namely in little silver shrines, on which they would set the effigy or statue of Diana; they would then either offer these to Diana in the temple, or carry them hung about the neck, or on caps and garments, just as our pilgrims carry images of the Blessed Virgin of Loreto; or certainly they placed them at home in their household shrines and oratories, especially if they were solid, not flat and on a plate. That this is so is clear from the fact that Luke in Greek calls them ναούς, that is, "temples," and Polybius ναΐδια, that is, "little temples," "templets," namely shrines and little chapels in the form of a temple in which statues of Diana were kept.
DIANA. — A goddess so called ἀπὸ τοῦ Διὸς, as it were "Jovian," because she was the daughter of Jupiter by Latona. Diana is the moon, so named because she makes as it were day by shining at night, says Cicero, book II On the Nature of the Gods; just as the moon (luna) is called "as it were shining alone" (lucens una), because at night she alone shines: whence she is also called "night-shiner" (noctiluca). Wherefore Macrobius: Diana, he says, is called as it were Jana, with the letter D added; for the ancients called the moon Jana, says Varro, book On Country Matters. Hence also Horace: "Nor equal or the same is the form of nocturnal Diana. / Duly increasing the Night-shiner with her torch."
Others however think "Diana" is so called as if deviana, because hunters are accustomed to stray through the woods: whence she was held to be guide and goddess of the roads. She is also called Lucina and Juno, says Cicero: Juno, from "helping"; Lucina, because she brings offspring into the light: for which reason they invoke her in childbirth. Hence Virgil: "Chaste Lucina, be gracious, your Apollo now reigns." Hence Diana is called by the Poets light-bringer, bright, girded, armed, nocturnal, everywhere-wandering, modest, whole, virginal, airy. Or, as Pliny, because she presides over the eyes and over the grove, or from the grove (lucus) which she had at Rome on the Esquiline. There were many Dianas, says Cicero; but the most famous is she who was born in the same birth with Apollo, from Jupiter and Latona. She is said, out of love for virginity, to have fled the company of men, and, to escape the temptations of lust, she dwelt hunting the woods and mountains, content with the company of a few virgins. She carried a bow and quiver, always proceeding girded, and clothed with a buskin: for which reason she was believed to be the goddess of woods and groves. Cicero, sixth oration Against Verres: "There was," he says, "among the Segestans a bronze image of Diana, endowed with the greatest and most ancient reverence, and perfected by singular workmanship and skill." And shortly after: "It was a quite ample and lofty figure with a robe. Yet within that grandeur was the age and appearance of a maiden: arrows hung from her shoulder, with her left hand she held a bow, with her right she bore a burning torch." Moreover the Diana of the Ephesians was πολύμαζος, that is, "many-breasted," says St. Jerome, preface to the Epistle to the Ephesians: "That they might pretend from the very image that she was the nurse of all beasts and living things."
Therefore false and deceitful was the Diana of the Gentiles: the true and truthful Diana of the Christians is the Blessed Virgin Mary, surrounded by virgin choirs, who went into the hill country to consecrate John the Baptist, the hermit-dweller. For she is the daughter of the eternal Father, who brought forth the light of the world, and therefore, as the Star of the Sea shining in the night of this age to all the faithful, shows the way to heaven. She herself is "many-breasted," because, as the new Eve, the mother of the living, she imparts the milk of her grace and consolation to all who call upon her. For she herself is "the woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars," Apocalypse XII, 1. For what the sun and the moon or Diana are in the world, Christ and Mary are in the Church. Hence the Blessed Virgin, in this very year, or in the one immediately following, in which the worship and the temple of Diana began to be overthrown by Paul, leaving the earth went up into heaven, as I will show below. Diana is called by the Greeks ἀερότομος, as it were "cleaver of the air," because the moon cleaves the air — or rather the aether — in her movement, says Macrobius. At this time the Blessed Virgin cleaved the heavens by penetrating the chaos, and was exalted above all the choirs of angels.
But Plato in the Cratylus says: Diana is called ἄρτεμις from ἄρτεμες and ἰοῦ, because of the desire for virginity, that is, on account of wholeness and modesty, on account of the desire of virginity; or as it were ἀρετῆς ἐφόρος, that is, "overseer and conscious of virtue"; or, as Strabo says, book XIV, from ἀρτεμέας ποιεῖν, that is, "because she makes men whole and perfect." All of which applies not to the Diana of the Gentiles, but to the Virgin Mother of God, the Diana, I say, of the Christians. So too what Sextus Pompeius writes concerning the temple of Diana once built at Rome on the Aventine hill, but now dedicated to the true God in honor of St. Sabina: "The Ides of August was reckoned a feast day of slaves," he says, "because on that day Servius Tullius, born of a slave woman, dedicated a shrine of Diana on the Aventine, under whose protection are the deer, from whose swiftness they call fugitives 'deer.'" She then is our Opis (for so Diana is called, from "helping"), to whom applies that verse of Virgil: "Opis is borne on wings to the ethereal Olympus." Finally, kings and princes deposited their treasures in the temple of Diana, which no one, not even an enemy sacking the city, dared to touch. Thus the Mother of God is the faithful guardian of virtue and salvation, so that it is impossible that he should perish who diligently commends himself and his own to her, as the common experience of all teaches, and St. Bernard, homily 4 on Missus est: "From Your mouth (O Mary," he says) "hangs the consolation of the wretched, the redemption of the captive, the liberation of the damned, and indeed the salvation of all the sons of Adam, of Your whole race."
The same, scattered in other places: "Mary," he says, "is the violet of humility, the lily of chastity, the rose of charity. Neither the power nor the will to give gifts to men can be lacking to Mary. To Mary's piety was lacking neither faith, nor weight of voice, nor effectiveness of will. Remember to commend to Mary whatever you prepare to offer to God. Mary is the glory of paradise, the joy of heaven. Mary is the virgin womb. Mary's virginity is greater than angelic purity. Thinking of Mary, you do not err; asking of Mary, you do not despair. Through Mary heaven has been filled, and hell emptied. In Mary God placed the sun and the moon, Christ and the Church. In Mary the angels found joy, the just grace, sinners pardon for eternity. In Mary, through Mary, from Mary, the kind hand of the Almighty refashioned whatever He had created: without Mary nothing was restored, just as without God nothing was made: through Mary's hands there passed whatever God wished us to have."
Now as regards the Ephesian temple of Diana, it was so august and magnificent that it was numbered among the seven wonders of the world. Hear Pliny, book XXXVI, chapter XIV: "As the true wonder of magnificence there stands the temple of Diana of Ephesus, built by all Asia in two hundred (elsewhere he has four hundred) and twenty years. They made it on marshy ground, that it might not feel earthquakes, or fear vapors. Again, lest the foundations of so great a mass be laid on slippery and unstable ground, they laid them down first on trampled charcoal, then on fleeces of wool. To the whole temple's length is 425 feet, its width 220 feet, with 127 columns, made by individual kings, sixty feet in height, of which 36 are carved." And shortly after: "The other ornaments of this work would fill many books." On the day Alexander the Great was born, Herostratus set fire to this temple of Diana, that by this crime he might transmit his name to all posterity. Hence they erased his name from all books, but nevertheless it survived. From this fire the augurs inferred that on that day was born one who would bring destruction to Asia. Finally the Goths, invading Asia under the Emperor Gallienus, completely plundered and burned this temple, says Capitolinus in the Life of Gallienus.
Verse 25: Whom He Called Together, and Those Who Were Workmen of Such Things; By This Craft We Have Our Gain
25. WHOM (the craftsmen of the little shrines of Diana) HAVING CALLED TOGETHER, AND THOSE WHO WERE WORKMEN OF SUCH THINGS. — περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐργάτας, that is, "and those who worked in the same kinds of things." For besides the craftsmen themselves there were other workmen, their assistants. For some beat silver into sheets, some melted it, some purified it, some polished it, some painted it, some inscribed it, some decorated it. Pagninus and Vatablus translate "and those who were workmen in similar things," as though Demetrius called together absolutely all goldsmiths, sculptors, statuaries, etc., in order to stir up a greater tumult.
BY THIS CRAFT WE HAVE OUR GAIN. — The Zurich Bible: "from this craft we have our profit." For the Greek is εὐπορία, that is, "profit, gain."
Verse 27: But Not Only Will This Part of Ours Be Endangered; Of Great Diana; Her Majesty Will Begin to Be Destroyed
27. BUT NOT ONLY WILL THIS PART OF OURS BE ENDANGERED (this lot of ours, this craft of ours, this gain of ours) of coming into disrepute, — namely into rejection and contempt, so that, being refuted and disproved by Paul as vain and superstitious, it will be neglected, rejected, and despised by all; and thus we will be reduced to poverty and die of hunger. Some translate: "we are in danger on this account."
OF GREAT DIANA. — The Gentiles numbered twelve great gods, six male, as many female, whom Ennius comprises in this couplet: "Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, / Mercury, Jove, Neptune, Vulcan, Apollo." The other gods were of the lesser peoples.
HER MAJESTY WILL BEGIN TO BE DESTROYED. — The Translator reads μέλλει δὴ. So too Pagninus, Vatablus, and others; yet some read μᾶλλον δὲ, that is, "but rather," as if to say: It is not so much the loss of gain that torments us as the honor and worship of Diana: for it will be most bitter to us, and ought to be to all, if her majesty should perish among the common people.
Verse 29: With Confusion; And They Made an Onrush
29. WITH CONFUSION, — with disturbance, tumult.
AND THEY MADE AN ONRUSH, — ὥρμησαν, that is, "with a single rush they ran together into the theater," dragging into it Gaius and Aristarchus, so as publicly to declare them and other Christians there guilty and sacrilegious, and to slay them. So Arator, Bede, Hugh, and others. This Gaius was a Macedonian, other than Gaius of Derbe, concerning whom in the next chapter, verse 4. Aristarchus Paul calls his "fellow-captive," Colossians IV, 10. He is enrolled among the Saints on the 4th of August, where we read thus: "At Thessalonica, St. Aristarchus, who was the inseparable companion of Paul, and was ordained by him Bishop of the Thessalonians; after long contests under Nero, having been crowned, he rested."
Verse 30: And When Paul Wished to Enter
30. AND WHEN PAUL WISHED [to enter]. — St. Chrysostom, homily 7 On the Praises of St. Paul, extols the greatness of his soul, in that, though sought for death, he wished to enter into the raging crowd of the people, either to calm it or to die for Christ. For this, he says, befitted the leader of the faithful, to go before the others in boldness, and to show Christians in very deed that death for Christ is not to be feared, but sought. So too in wars a courageous leader encourages the whole army, a timid one dismays it. Whence that saying: "An army of deer led by a lion is stronger than an army of lions led by a deer." "For Paul," says Chrysostom, "more vehement than fire itself in his zeal for preaching, himself kindled a flame of rain upon himself: he feared no dangers, was ashamed of no mockeries, but taking on other eyes — those of charity indeed — and another mind, he burst in with much force like a torrent, sweeping and rolling up all things of the Jews alike, etc.; and as though he were always making satisfaction to God for time already past, so he gathered spiritual gains everywhere, leaping confidently into the place that was the greatest part of the war and full of labors and dangers. And this is wonderful: that although he was so bold, and as it were always girded for battle, and breathing forth a certain fire of war, he showed himself in turn so yielding to his teachers that he never offended in such a great impulse of eagerness. Hence also, when his own dissuaded him from entering the theater, he at once acquiesced." So too St. Gregory, book XXXI of Morals, chapter XIV, or XXIII, compares Paul to a noble horse which exults in battle: "One may behold him," he says, "roused by his rider's spurs against armed enemies: so great was the fervor that kindled Paul when at Ephesus the flame of zeal was carrying him to burst into the crowds of the theater."
Verse 32: And Others Were Crying Out Other Things
32. AND OTHERS WERE CRYING OUT OTHER THINGS. — It seems to be an aposiopesis, and something must be supplied, which the Syriac explains when it translates: "But the crowds who were in the theater were in great tumult, and some were crying out one thing, others another." For, as follows, there was an "Ecclesia," that is, an assembly of the people and a confused crowd, as happens in sedition and tumult, when one wants and cries out one thing, another another.
Verse 33: And They Drew Alexander Out of the Crowd; And When the Scribe Had Appeased the Crowds; But Alexander, Having Requested Silence with His Hand
33. AND THEY DREW ALEXANDER OUT OF THE CROWD. — This Alexander seems to have been a Jew, learned and eloquent, yet joined to Paul in friendship, whom the Jews drew forth into a place suitable for pleading the common cause. For that the Ephesians, contending for Diana, were stirred up and incited not only against the Christians but also against the Jews, the enemies of Diana, is clear from what follows, verse 34. Hence the Syriac translates: "But the people of the Jews who were there appointed from among themselves a Jewish man, whose name was Alexander." For there was notable blasphemy among the Ephesians. Yet he notes the remarkable modesty of Paul, who did not tear Diana down with insults and curses, but spoke and exposed the plain truth about her. The Jews did the same, supposing this was the precept of Exodus 22:28: "Thou shalt not detract from the gods;" although that passage has another sense, as I have said there. Hence Josephus, in book II Against Apion: "Our custom," he says, "is to guard our own things, not to accuse those of others, so that the lawgiver has plainly forbidden us either to laugh at or to blaspheme those who are considered gods among others." To this bears the admonition of St. Augustine, Sermon 6 on the Gospel according to Matthew: "First the idols must be broken in the hearts of men, then in the idols and temples themselves." From these words it is gathered that this scribe was favorable to Paul and was his friend or well-wisher.
AND WHEN THE SCRIBE HAD APPEASED THE CROWDS. — This scribe was the Secretary of the city, or councillor of the Magistrate, and as it were his mouth and sense, such as in Belgium are called Pensionaries. Hence in Greek he is called γραμματεύς, that is, a doctor of law, who knows and guards the laws of the city, and informs and directs the Magistrate in them. The Syriac renders it, "prince of the city," as though he were a Chancellor.
Some suppose this scribe was Alexander the Jew. So Baronius. Others more truly judge him to have been another, and a Gentile: for Luke seems to distinguish them. For against Alexander, being a Jew, the Gentile crowds shouted for two hours. Therefore, to appease them, a Gentile scribe succeeded, who by praising Diana (which a Jew would not have done) restrained them. Hence Chrysostom calls him an infidel. Indeed he was a politic and prudent man, who at once composed the crowds, such as was Demosthenes, "whom Athens admired as a Torrent, and as one holding the reins of the full theater," says Juvenal, Satire 10.
For instead of "drew him out," the Greek has ἀποστατίζειν, that is, "they first instructed," as Vatablus renders it. So we instruct an advocate or patron to plead our cause: whence some think our Interpreter read ἀπελίξαν, that is, "they thrust forward." Yet also μεθορμίζομενος is said of one who is compelled to come forward and is pushed out. Baronius, Hugo and others think this Alexander was converted to Christ, but apostatized, and was the one whom Paul with Hymenaeus delivered to Satan for blasphemy, 1 Timothy 1:20. But others, such as Cajetanus and Arias, judge him to have been different.
BUT ALEXANDER, HAVING REQUESTED SILENCE WITH HIS HAND. — κατασείσας τὴν χεῖρα, that is, waving the hand, with the hand moved. So Persius: "And to have made silences for the heated crowd, by the majesty of the hand."
Verse 35: To Be a Worshipper; And of the Offspring of Jupiter
35. TO BE A WORSHIPPER. — The Syriac, "to be a sacristan": in Greek νεωκόρον, that is, an adorner and administrator of the temple. As St. Paulinus wished to be the keeper and sacristan of the temple of St. Felix, whom accordingly he celebrated with ten birthday hymns.
AND OF THE OFFSPRING OF JUPITER. — In Greek καὶ τοῦ διοπετοῦς, that is, sent down from Jupiter, or fallen down, namely ἀγάλματος, that is, of the image of Diana: so the Syriac, Chrysostom, Pagninus, Vatablus and others. For they imagined that the image of Diana was not fashioned by a man, but fallen from heaven, and that this was commonly believed is taught by Suidas under the word Σοῦμνις. Thus superstition was increased by a lie. Thus they imagined the Trojan Palladium and the Roman Ancile to have fallen from heaven. Our translator reads τῆς διοπετοῦς, that is, of Diana coming forth from Jupiter, or descending. For Homer calls kings διογενεῖς, as though come forth and sprung from Jupiter. Perhaps he also reads διογενοῦς, that is, born of Jupiter.
Verse 37: Nor Blaspheming Your Goddess
37. NOR BLASPHEMING YOUR GODDESS. — He lies officiously to pacify the people, says Chrysostom. For Paul taught that she was not a goddess, but an empty and fabricated idol.
Verse 38: Forum Sessions Are Held
38. FORUM SESSIONS ARE HELD. — In Greek, ἀγοραῖοι from ἀγορά, just as forenses (forum-men) from "forum." Who are these? First, the Syriac renders it, "they are craftsmen," as if these assemblies were of craftsmen, in which questions and disputes of the same craft were decided by the Deans, as we see happening everywhere in Germany, which belongs to the guild of goldsmiths: there it is decided.
Secondly, Oecumenius interprets forenses as common and plebeian judges, who decided the cases of the commoners, just as the proconsuls those of the rich.
Thirdly, they are called forenses which are done in a public place and assembly, namely in the forum. Just as commonly we call civil cases "forum matters." For among the Romans, public judgments and others were held in the forum, as Cicero, Quintilian in book III, and others testify. Hence "forensic" is opposed to "domestic," as public to private. And we know that Cicero pleaded the causes of his clients in the forum — not the forum of saleable goods, but of cases, which are handled in a public place, as in their own forum.
Fourthly, Baronius, from Dionysius of Halicarnassus, book IV, judges these "forum sessions" to have been those in which, on fixed days throughout the year, the people assembled for the sacred rites and games of Diana: where judges then were at hand to decide and settle disputes. Or rather, he says, in Luke, "forum sessions" were those when the proconsul, stationed on certain days in certain cities of the province which seemed more convenient for carrying this out, would hear the cases of his fellow provincials, either by himself or through legates, and exercise judgments and define them by sentence. Cicero mentions these in book III, epistles 6 and 8, and Josephus in book XIV of Antiquities, chapter 10. Thus in Hungary and other kingdoms, more serious suits and cases are deferred until the diets of the realm, in which they are decided by the nobles of the realm. The third sense seems clearer than the others and more common.
Verse 39: But If You Seek Anything of Another Matter
39. BUT IF YOU SEEK ANYTHING OF ANOTHER MATTER, — of a graver matter, pertaining to the public good and peace. IN A LAWFUL ECCLESIA (in an assembly and diet of the province, or of the people, lawfully called by the law or the Magistrate) IT CAN BE DECIDED, — that is, defined, or transacted and composed. He opposes "lawful" to the tumultuous one which they themselves had stirred up here through sedition. So Gagneius, Vatablus and others. Adds Chrysostom that these assemblies were customarily held three times a month. But Baronius, from Epiphanius, heresy 30, understands by "Ecclesia" the Synagogue of the Jews, as if to say: If you have any Jewish question concerning the Jews and the Mosaic law, such as this seems to be which you bring against Paul the Jew, go to the Synagogue of the Jews; there it will best be decided. For the Jews dwelling at Ephesus were citizens of the same city, and therefore enjoyed the privileges of citizens, and were called Ephesians, as Josephus testifies in book II Against Apion. But thus this scribe would have more irritated the raging people: for he hated the Jews, as enemies of his Diana. Therefore the former sense is plainer.
Verse 40: For We Are in Danger of Being Accused of Sedition; Since There Is No One Liable; He Dismissed the Ecclesia
40. FOR WE ARE IN DANGER OF BEING ACCUSED OF SEDITION. — He strikes them with fear of the Emperor and the proconsul, who will make inquiry into the authors of this tumultuous gathering and sedition, and will exact penalties from them.
SINCE THERE IS NO ONE LIABLE, — αἴτιος, that is, guilty, as if to say: Since no one is at fault, since there is no disturber, betrayer of the republic, seditious man, on whose account this gathering was made, so that we may on that account excuse him, and give a reason for it to the proconsul. For it must be a monstrous crime on account of which the whole people runs together and rises up. Secondly, αἴτιος can be referred not to a person but to a thing and cause, as if to say: Since there is no cause through which we can excuse this running together of the people. So Gagneius, according to that saying of Eustathius, Odyssey α: Αἴτιος ὁ γράψας αἰτία Καλλιμάχῳ — "He is guilty who ascribes crimes to Callimachus."
HE DISMISSED THE ECCLESIA, — the assembly of the people.
Paul's Fight with Beasts at Ephesus
Note: Luke here and elsewhere omits many great things. For he only recounts summarily the journeys of Paul and the main heads of what was done in them. Thus in chapter IX he omits the journey of Paul, recently converted, into Arabia, his return to Damascus after three years, his going up to Jerusalem, and his rebuke of Peter, which nevertheless Paul recounts in Galatians I and II. So, in 1 Corinthians 11:24, Paul says: "From the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes save one," of which Luke says not a word. And although Paul says he was beaten with rods three times, Luke mentions only one flogging made at Philippi, chapter XVI. Of his triple shipwreck; likewise, of what Paul says that he was night and day in the depth of the sea, Luke has nothing: for the shipwreck which he recounts in chapter XXVII happened after the epistle to the Corinthians was written. Thus of the Antiochene and Roman chair of Peter, and of his other deeds, there is deep silence in Luke. In like manner, here at Ephesus he omitted Paul's fight with beasts, concerning which Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:32, says: "If according to man (that is, by human boldness, contention and strength, or as much as is possible for man) I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me, if the dead rise not again?" For as to the fact that Theophylact, Oecumenius, Anselm, and from them other more recent writers (one of whom follows another, as sheep follows sheep) take this fight metaphorically for the contention which Paul had with Demetrius and the silversmiths, whom, on account of their savagery and fury, and on account of their carnal and bestial life (by which, given over to the flesh, they so lived as if there were no resurrection and other life in heaven), he calls beasts — it is certain that they err. For the epistle to the Corinthians, in which he mentions this fight of his, was written at Ephesus, as is clear from what he says, 1 Corinthians 16:8: "But I shall remain at Ephesus until Pentecost." Again, it was written before the contention with Demetrius: for after it he at once departed from Ephesus, as is clear from chapter XX:1: so Baronius and others everywhere. Wherefore some, such as Arias, judge this fight of Paul with beasts to have been the contest he had with the Jews and the sons of Sceva the exorcists, verses 9 and 13. But that is less probable. For the exorcists had a contest with the devil, who leapt upon them, not with Paul who was silent: and with the Jews hardening themselves against Paul's preaching, he himself did not contend; "but departing from them, he separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus," says Luke. A far greater contest Paul had with the Jews in Derbe, Lystra, and Corinth, as we heard in chapter XIV, 45 and following, and yet he nowhere called them beasts.
Therefore it seems truer literally that Paul at Ephesus was exposed to the beasts. First, because his words just recited properly sound this way. Secondly, because other expositions are improper and do not rest on solid foundation. Thirdly, because since very many Martyrs, and many disciples both men and women of Paul — among whom was St. Thecla — were exposed to beasts, it was fitting that Paul also, as their standard-bearer and leader, should go before them in this matter and give an example. For he himself was tried and perfected in all things. Fourthly, because so explain Theodoret, Ambrose, Arboreus, and Mariana on 1 Corinthians XV. Chrysostom also favors this, since he interprets "beasts" as none other than beasts, though he speaks ambiguously. For he says: "What is 'according to man'? As much of savagery as falls upon men — I fought against beasts." Where he interprets τό "according to man," but not τό "I fought with beasts," as though clear in itself and to be taken as it sounds. Fifthly, because for that reason he said, 1 Corinthians 4:9: "We are made a spectacle (in Greek θέατρον, that is, theater) to the world, and to angels, and to men," as if to say: Exposed to beasts in the theater, we have been made a spectacle to men, to God, and to angels. For in theaters there were watched the fights of men and beasts, gladiators and beast-sports, just as St. Ignatius, a follower of Paul, later condemned at Rome by Trajan to the beasts, brought forth into the amphitheater, seeing the surrounding crowd of spectators, and greeting them said: "O Romans, I come forward into this theater, and am made a spectacle to you, not for any crime, since I have committed nothing worthy of death; but that through the lions I may come to God, and enjoy Him, by whose insatiable desire I am held." Hence Paul also adds: "We have been made as the filth (ὥσπερ καθάρματα, that is, as anathemas and heads devoted to curses) of this world, the offscouring of all," as if to say: We have been made as piacular victims, the refuse of the world, and fodder for beasts, as though unworthy of this life, light, air, and earth, and therefore to be thrust down and buried in the bellies of wild beasts.
You will say first: It is not credible that Paul properly fought, that is, battled, with beasts, as he himself says, even granting that he was exposed to them.
I answer: Θηριομαχεῖν, that is, to fight with beasts, is the same as to be exposed to beasts: for since most of the accused were exposed to beasts in such a way that they fought with them for the pleasure of the spectators (for the people were more eager to see these fights and beast-sports than mere devourings of men); hence "to fight with beasts" is the same as "to be exposed to beasts," as is clear from the Acts of the Martyrs. Hence St. Ignatius, Epistle II to the Ephesians, says: "That I may deserve to fight with beasts at Rome," that is, to be exposed to beasts and torn to pieces by them.
You will say secondly: Paul was a Roman citizen, and therefore by Roman law could not be condemned to the beasts.
I answer that he was exposed to the beasts, not through a lawful judge and judgment, but through the fury of the people. Nicephorus recounts the event in book II, chapter 25, from the ancient Acts of Paul, which Origen cites and approves in book I of Periarchon, chapter 2: "But truly indeed," he says, "those who described the journeys of Paul have handed down to memory that he did and suffered very many other things, and this too when he was at Ephesus. When Hieronymus held the chief place there, Paul preached with great freedom: whereupon Hieronymus testified that he spoke well and eloquently, but that his speech was not of those times. The common people, indeed, through insolence and fury, cast fetters upon Paul and shut him in prison, so that he might be exposed to be devoured by lions. Then Eubula and Artemilla, wives of prominent men of Ephesus, having been instructed in the faith by Paul (for they came to him by night), ask from him the grace of the divine bath. And so by divine power and the ministry of an angelic escort, with the darkness of night illuminated by an abundance of splendor, Paul, freed from the iron fetters, initiates them by divine baptism on the seashore, and when none of all those to whose care the guarding was entrusted perceived it, he returns to his chains, in which he was being kept as food for the lions. But when a lion of huge size and unbearable strength was let loose against him, it did indeed run out into the arena, but sat at Paul's feet. And when likewise other savage beasts were let in, not one dared even to touch the sacred body, raised up and composed in prayer. These things being thus done, suddenly with a great crash a certain violent hail falling beyond the order of nature crushed the heads of many men and wild animals together, and cut off the ear of Hieronymus himself: who afterwards, with his own, being reconciled to God through Paul, received the saving bath. That lion, meanwhile, fleeing, escapes to the nearest mountains; and Paul from there crossed over to Macedonia and Greece, and thus at last sets out for Jerusalem. It is not to be wondered at that Luke did not insert this fight of Paul with the beasts among his other acts: for although of the Evangelists only John recalls the raising of Lazarus, yet there is the less doubt of its truth and faithfulness." Thus far Nicephorus.