Acts 19:35
And when the town clerk had appeased the multitudes, he said: Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great Diana, and of Jupiter's offspring.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et cum sedasset scriba turbas, dixit : Viri Ephesii, quis enim est hominum, qui nesciat Ephesiorum civitatem cultricem esse magnæ Dianæ, Jovisque prolis ?
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- καταστείλας δὲ ὁ γραμματεὺς τὸν ὄχλον φησίν· Ἄνδρες Ἐφέσιοι, τίς γάρ ἐστιν ἀνθρώπων ὃς οὐ γινώσκει τὴν Ἐφεσίων πόλιν νεωκόρον οὖσαν τῆς μεγάλης Ἀρτέμιδος καὶ τοῦ διοπετοῦς;
Haydock's commentary
The town-clerk, &c. Literally, the scribe, or the recorder of the city.
Jupiter's offspring.2 His daughter, according to the poets. The Greek text seems to signify a statue, or figure of Diana, which was pretended to have fallen from heaven, and from Jupiter. (Witham)
Is a worshipper. Neokoron ousan; the word Neokoros is found in this sense in the Arundelian marbles, and more frequently on ancient coins and inscriptions. Its derivation is from neos, a temple, and kore, a virgin, or rather korein, to cleanse and decorate; as if this city were especially destined to ornament the Diana of Ephesus, which the people supposed came to them not by the work of man, but a present from heaven.
2 Jovisque prolis, kai tou diopetous. Simulachri a cælo dilapsi. See Suidas.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily XLII on Acts xix. 21, 23
He sends Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia, but himself remains at Ephesus. Having made a long enough stay in that city, he wishes to remove elsewhere again. But how is it, that having from the first chosen to depart into Syria, he turns back to Macedonia? “He purposed,” it says, “in the Spirit,” showing that all (that he did) was done not of his own power. Now he prophesies, saying, “I must also see Rome:” perhaps to comfort them with the consideration of his not remaining at a distance, but coming nearer to them again, and to arouse the minds of the disciples by the prophecy. At this point, I suppose, it was that he wrote his Epistle to the Corinthians from Ephesus, saying, “I would not have you ignorant of the trouble which came to us in Asia.” ( 2 Cor. i. …
St John Chrysostom A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily XLII on Acts xix. 21, 23
(Recapitulation.) “After these things were ended,” it says, “Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem,” saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” ( v. 21 .) He no longer speaks here after the manner of a man, or, He purposed to pass through those regions, without tarrying longer. Wherefore does he send away Timothy and Erastus? Of this I suppose he says, “Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone. He sent away,” it says, “two of those who ministered to him” ( 1 Thess. iii. 1 ), both to announce his coming, and to make them more eager. “But he himself tarried awhile in Asia.” ( v. 22 .) Most of all does he pass his time in Asia; and with reason: there, namely, was the tyranny, of the philosophers. (Afterwards) also he came and discoursed to them again. …