Acts 19:19-20 KJV

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Acts 19:13-20

The seven sons of Sceva 19:13-20The following incident throws more light on the spiritual darkness that enveloped Ephesus as well as the power of Jesus Christ and the gospel to dispel it. It also presents Paul as not only a powerful speaker (Acts 19:8-12) but also a powerful miracle worker. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Acts 19:18-19

Some people in ancient times believed that the power of sorcerers’ rites and incantations lay in their secrecy, as noted above. Magical secrets supposedly lost their power when they were made public. The fact that the converted Ephesian magicians disclosed these shows the genuineness of their repentance. Likewise the burning of books symbolizes the public and irreversible repudiation of their contents. Luke did not describe the silver coin to which he referred in enough detail to determine its... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Acts 19:20

As a consequence of the repentance described in the preceding verses, the church became purer as well as larger (cf. Acts 5:1-11). Luke gave us this sixth progress report to mark the end of another section of his book. The section we have just completed (Acts 16:6 to Acts 19:20) records the church’s extension in the Roman provinces around the Aegean Sea.While in Ephesus Paul had considerable contact with the church in Corinth. He wrote that church a letter that he called his former letter in 1... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Acts 19:1-41

Ephesus1-41. Paul at Ephesus. Opposition of the manufacturers of idols. St. Paul, leaving Antioch in S. Galatia (see Acts 18:23), approached Ephesus not by the usual level route leading through Colossæ and Laodicea (see Colossians 2:1), but through the northern and more mountainous route leading down the Cayster valley (see Acts 19:1, ’the upper coasts,’ RV ’the upper country’). He stayed at Ephesus over two years and three months, see Acts 19:8, Acts 19:10, Acts 19:22 (in Acts 20:31 the... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Acts 19:19

(19) Many of them also which used curious arts . . .—The Greek word expresses the idea of superstitious arts, overbusy with the supposed secrets of the invisible world. These arts were almost, so to speak, the specialité of Ephesus. Magicians and astrologers swarmed in her streets (comp. the reference to them as analogous to the magicians at the court of Pharaoh in 2 Timothy 3:8), and there was a brisk trade in the charms, incantations, books of divination, rules for interpreting dreams, and... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Acts 19:20

(20) So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.—The verbs imply a continuous growth. The better MSS. give, “the word of the Lord.” read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Acts 19:1-41

There Is a Holy Ghost (For Whit-Sunday) Acts 19:1-2 This singular incident is remarkable as showing that in the apostolical age, as now, there were persons and bodies of persons in possession of fragments of revealed truth, yet altogether strangers to some of its most essential features. I. Real belief in the Holy Ghost implies an habitual sense of the reality of a spiritual and super-sensuous world. If any one thing is certain about Christianity, it is that Christianity is an appeal from the... read more

Arno Clemens Gaebelein

Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible - Acts 19:1-41

CHAPTER 19 1. The second visit of Paul to Ephesus. The twelve disciples of John (Acts 19:1-7 ). 2. The Apostle’s continued labors. The separation of the disciples. The Province Asia evangelized (Acts 19:8-10 ). 3. The Power of God and the Power of Satan (Acts 19:11-20 ). 4. Paul plans to go to Jerusalem and to visit Rome (Acts 19:21-22 ). 5. The opposition and riot at Ephesus (Acts 19:23-41 ). The disciples whom Paul found at Ephesus were disciples of John. The question the Apostle asked... read more

John Calvin

Geneva Study Bible - Acts 19:19

19:19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all [men]: and they counted the price of them, and found [it] {i} fifty thousand [pieces] of silver.(i) Those that give the lowest estimate, reckon it to be about eight hundred pounds English. read more

L.M. Grant

L. M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible - Acts 19:1-41

Paul returned to Ephesus, as he had promised. Of course there was an assembly there already, as chapter 18:27 intimates; but he found certain disciples who, at his questioning, tell him they had not even heard that the Holy Spirit had come. They had been baptized, but only with John's baptism. Therefore they were Jewish, of course. No doubt they had believed John's message that announced the Messiah as coming after him, but they had not been baptized to the name of the Lord Jesus. This shows... read more