Bible Strands
Acts 19:35
Finally the city clerk quieted the crowd and declared, “Men of Ephesus, doesn’t everyone know that the city of Ephesus is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The city clerk addresses the Ephesian mob immediately after they have shouted for two hours that Artemis is great. He intervenes to halt the riot before it escalates further.
The words — καταστεῖλας (katasteilas) means “having calmed,” describing the official’s action, while γραμματεύς (grammateus) identifies him as the elected town clerk. These terms ground the scene in Roman civic procedure rather than temple ritual.
The thread — The tension between civic authority and popular religious fervor echoes Acts 14:12, where crowds misidentify missionaries as gods. The immediate context in Acts 19:34–36 frames the clerk’s appeal as a necessary pivot from riot to lawful assembly.
Why it lands — The text demands that readers acknowledge established civic and religious facts before taking action. It requires restraint and a rejection of impulsive mob behavior in favor of orderly deliberation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?
Cross-references
- 2 Thessalonians 2:10 and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.
- Acts 14:12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.
- Ephesians 2:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
- 1 Timothy 4:2 influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.
- Acts 18:19 When they reached Ephesus, Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue there and reasoned with the Jews.
- Acts 19:26 And you can see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in nearly the whole province of Asia, this Paul has persuaded a great number of people to turn away. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all.