23 About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. 24 A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. 25 He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”
28 When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theater together. 30 Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. 31 Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater.
32 The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. 33 The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander to the front, and they shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people. 34 But when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: “Fellow Ephesians, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven? 36 Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to calm down and not do anything rash. 37 You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. 38 If, then, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. 39 If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. 40 As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what happened today. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.” 41 After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.
Dig Deeper
Anyone who is somewhat familiar with the city of Las Vegas in the United States knows that the nickname of that town is “sin city.” It has a wild reputation for casinos, strip clubs, and the like in the world of entertainment, and just about anything you want to do when it comes to sinful behavior can be done in Vegas. There are, at the same time, churches that exist in Las Vegas. Yet, as far as I know these two worlds don’t come into conflict all that often. I’m sure the churches there occasionally denounce the sorts of behavior that go on in certain places in Vegas, but for the most part it seems as if those two worlds are quite willing to go about their business and leave the other one be.
But what do you think would happen if some new church or preacher went into Vegas and began to preach the gospel in all of its confrontational fullness. In our world today we seem quite happy to separate spheres and keep Christianity safely in the religious sphere, almost seemingly quarantined from other parts of the “real world”. But Paul’s gospel was confrontational. If Jesus really was the king of the new creation and the life of that new creation was available now in Christ then that meant confronting and taking down the ways of life and mindsets of the old created order. So what if this new group set up shop right on the gambling and prostitution strip in Vegas and began to boldly denounce such ways and call people to a new life where gambling and self-indulgent lifestyles were no longer an option (not in the condemning self-righteous way that so many religious people fall into but in the freeing, life-giving manner of the true gospel)? What if people began to come to this message and give up gambling and other things by the hundreds and then thousands and the casinos began to slowly empty as people entered into the life of the new creation and walked away from the deeds of the darkness?
Do you think that the power brokers in Vegas would wish this church well and just leave them to go about their work while their casinos steadily drained like a bathtub once the stopper has been pulled? The quickest way to get people agitated with you is to hit them in the wallet. In this scenario it would not take long for the casinos to respond and I suspect that the response would be lightning fast and devastatingly hard. They have a lot of power in Las Vegas and it wouldn’t take long for them to attempt to do whatever it took to get that church out of town. If this type of teaching took root, tourism would slow dramatically, the casinos would dry up and the whole city would feel the pinch economically for a time. They would, no doubt, appeal to legal arguments and any other appeals to which they could turn to get rid of this group, and maybe even to some not-so-legal means. I know two things for sure. The first is that the response would be as nasty as it was forceful. The second thing I know is that this is the sort of thing that should and will happen when the true and full gospel of the kingdom of God is preached.
As Paul and his companions continued to boldly preach the gospel in Ephesus they continued to call people to live as though Jesus was the king of their kingdom right now in every area of their lives. In a town that was so heavily invested in magic and pagan idolatry it was just a matter of time before the opposition got nasty. The public display of destroying the equivalent of millions of dollars of spells and paraphernalia that went along with worship of Artemis, the primary goddess of the Ephesians no doubt spurred on the opposition that Luke describes here. The problem, though, wasn’t so much the destruction of those old items but the growing realization of those who profited from such things of what this new growing way of life would mean for future business prospects. What would happen if these people continued to grow in their influence and called people away from buying things like the silver shrines that depicted Artemis or her temple?
Something clearly had to be done and it was Demetrius who stepped up to do it. Demetrius was likely the head of the guild of silversmiths. It was common for trades to form guilds at this time and work together to protect the common interests of one another. The gospel had become a clear threat as it called people to live their lives in a completely new way and Demetrius could see where this was heading so he was determined to nip it in the bud.
The goddess Artemis (Diana in Roman mythology) was at the center of Ephesian worship. Images of her and her temple were extremely popular and the sale of these idols helped to prop up the Ephesian economy. The temple of Artemis is regarded as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and covered acreage four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens. Artemis was widely worshipped around the Roman world to such an extent that Ephesus was somewhat of a place of pilgrimage for those around the Empire coming to the temple to partake in worship of the goddess which often included orgies and the like.
Being that Artemis worship was so central to not just Demetrius and the silversmiths but the whole region, it did not take much for them to gather a large crowd in the theater in Ephesus, an impressive structure that still exists today. Let’s be clear about the tumult that the silversmiths had ratcheted up here. The theater in Ephesus held about 25,000 people and Paul wasn’t just threatening the livelihood of one guild. They had managed to make the case to the Ephesian people that if this gospel was not dealt with it would mean economic ruin for them all and would discredit their mighty goddess. The results of this kingdom that Paul was preaching really taking route would mean drastic consequences for a town and region that was completely centered around their goddess and that theater may have been near capacity.
Things quickly became a near riot and the people seized the first two Christians that they could get their hands on, Gaius and Aristarchus. When Paul found out what was going on, his heart was that of an evangelist. How could he pass up the opportunity to declare the gospel to crowds that perhaps numbered in the thousands and even tens of thousands? Paul was zealous but he was not prideful, however, and he let cooler heads prevail as he allowed other disciples and even some very powerful local officials whom Paul had befriended during his time there convince him to stay away. The balance of Paul’s life shows clearly that this had to do with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and not fear of what might happen to him.
This was no organized legal demonstration or protest. It was chaos and such situations can get dangerous quickly. In fact many people there were angry and shouting but didn’t even know exactly what precipitated this situation. Those can often be the most dangerous types of crowds because they can be easily manipulated. The Jews would probably have been quite supportive of this protest against Paul and the other Christians and sent Alexander up to speak on their behalf. Luke doesn’t tell exactly what Alexander’s purpose was as he may not have known, but it seems likely that he would have denounced Paul and added to the fervor. Even though they would not have supported Artemis worship, the Jews would have been thrilled to have Paul run out of town. But the Ephesian crowd had been whipped into a frenzy of the type that you only get when you mix together politics, economics, nationalism, intolerance, and religion and they shouted the Jewish representative down and continued chanting and extolling the greatness of Artemis for two hours.
Many commentators suppose that this incident in Ephesus is not the specific item that Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 15:32 and 2 Corinthians 1:8 where he speaks of facing “wild beasts” and despairing of life in Ephesus. While he may not have been referring to this incident alone, surely the frightening ferocity of the opposition that had been whipped up was a good portion of what Paul referred to. Interestingly, Artemis was widely held up as the protector of wild creatures and beasts so Paul’s reference in 1 Corinthians 15:32 to having to fend off the wild beasts in Ephesus was almost surely a slightly sarcastic reference to followers of Artemis.
Just as things were apparently getting close to spiraling out of control, the city clerk of Ephesus, a man with considerable authority stepped up and calmed the crowd. With the skill of a true politician he was able to appeal to their logical side, an exceedingly difficult task under the circumstances. Paul’s position was that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the one true God was becoming king of the world and people could leave their allegiance to the power structures of the world and enter into God’s family and kingdom. This meant that all other gods were nothing more than lifeless idols made by human hands. But this clerk appealed to the belief that the first image of Artemis had fallen to earth (likely a meteorite) and was sent by the gods. His point was that they all knew the “truth” about Artemis and her image and had nothing to fear from these Christians. He was in no way sympathetic towards the Christians but was protecting the crowd from getting out of hand and risking losing democratic freedoms like the right to assemble to the Romans who would quickly shut things down if they felt that things were getting out of control. He urged them to remember that the grievances that the silversmiths had could be and should be taken up in a court of law. He then turned the tables and reminded them that if they kept this behavior up, they would be the ones that would find themselves in trouble with Rome and not the Christians. Although this ended the immediate riot, it doesn’t mean that the persecution and opposition in Ephesus ended by any means.
The question that we must ask ourselves is whether or not the gospel we preach is as appropriately confrontational to the things that stand opposed to the kingdom of God. Are we truly proclaiming a kingdom that by its very nature and truth shines a spotlight on the darkness of the world and causes them to block the light from their eyes? If not, what kingdom are we proclaiming?
Devotional Thought
Throughout Acts the confrontational aspect of the gospel came not so much from Christians denouncing sinful behavior but from them declaring the freedom from those things that comes when God is your king. How can you declare this message in your little corner of the world today and maybe stir up a little healthy confrontation?
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