Acts 19:24
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen; For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;
The setting is Ephesus, where Diana was widely worshiped and her vast, magnificent temple was a source of civic and national pride. That temple held a crude image believed to have fallen from the sky, and devotion to Diana existed alongside widespread superstition and magic. The silver shrines and images made there represented the goddess and her temple, were carried in processions and on journeys and military expeditions, and were treated as objects of worship.
Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen made and sold silver shrines for Diana, and their manufacture and sale was an extensive business at Ephesus. That business brought substantial gain, profit and income by which they lived. That gain depended on the worship of Diana, especially the yearly national festival when special ceremonies held with utmost pomp and splendor drew great numbers of people from all parts of the province.
The verse belongs to the event that hastened Paul's departure from Ephesus after more than three years of work there that raised up a flourishing church and spread the gospel throughout Asia among Jews and Gentiles. At that time Paul had purposed to pass through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem and afterward see Rome, and had sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia while deciding himself to remain in Ephesus until after Pentecost. Paul's preaching turned people away from worshiping handmade gods, so that even many who did not openly accept the new teaching became enlightened as to lose all confidence in their heathen gods. This weakening of devotion produced a perceptible falling off in attendance at the festival and in the enthusiasm of the worshipers, and the craftsmen's profits began to decline.
Because the spread of the gospel threatened their image-making business and income, Demetrius used that danger to stir up bitter opposition against Paul. The silversmiths' opposition was driven by the threat to their trade as well as to Diana's worship. The warning that the craft was in danger reveals the real cause of the tumult at Ephesus was money, not religion, for the teaching and spread of the gospel would endanger the business of image-making with the income of pagan priests and artisans at stake. The same economic threat to idolatrous gain explains much of the persecution that followed the apostles in their work.