Acts 19:27 - Exposition

And not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute for so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught, A.V.; be made of no account for should be despised, A.V.; that she should even be deposed from her magnificence for her magnificence should be destroyed, A.V. and T.R. Is there danger . There is no example in St. Luke's writings, or in the New Testament, or in the LXX ., of κινδυνεύει , being taken impersonally, as it is sometimes, though rarely, in G reek authors. The subject, therefore, of this sentence is τὸ μέρος (the portion, part, or business), and τοῦτο κινδυνεύει ἡμῖν τὸ μέρος κ . τ . λ , must be construed together, "This trade is in danger for us to come into disrepute," or, put into English, "This our trade is in danger," etc. Come into disrepute ; εἰς ἀπελεγμὸν , only found here in the New Testament; literally, into refutation; hence into disrepute, or into reproach, i. e. be a ground of reproach to us who practice it. The great goddess . An epithet especially applied to the Ephesian Diana. Lewin quotes ὀμνύω τὴν μεγαλήν ἐφεσίων ἄρτεμιν in the Ephesian Xenophon τῆς μεγάλης θεᾶς ἀρτέμιδος , in an inscription at Ephesus; ἄρτεμις ἡ μεγάλη θεός (Achill. Tat.). Add from Pausanias, 4,31, 8, All men hold the Ephesian Diana in the greatest honor." From her magnificence . The R.T. reads τῆς μεγαλειότητος instead of τὴν μεγαλειότητα in the T.R. But Meyer, while he accepts the R.T., construes it "and some of her magnificence, " etc.; and rightly, because the genitive after καθαιρεῖν should be preceded by ἀπὸ , as Acts 13:29 ; Joshua 8:29 ; Joshua 10:27 ( LXX .), and the word καθαιρεῖν is also specially used of lowering the honor of any one. All Asia and the world . This is scarcely an hyperbole, the worship of the Ephesian Diana, and of her image reported to have fallen down from heaven, was so very widely diffused.