Acts 19:34, commentary and pictures

The shout took place during the yearly special ceremonies held at Ephesus in honor of Diana, which drew great numbers of people from all parts of the province and were conducted with the utmost pomp and splendor. It came after more than three years of work at Ephesus that had raised up a flourishing church and spread the message throughout Asia among both Jews and Gentiles. That work had given idol worship a telling blow, producing a perceptible falling off in attendance at the national festival and in the enthusiasm of the worshipers, while many who had not openly accepted the new teaching became so far enlightened as to lose all confidence in their pagan gods.

The tumult was stirred by craftsmen who feared the spread of the teaching would endanger their image-making business and the income of pagan priests and artisans. For the company of believers meeting in the school of Tyrannus, the gala season was a trying time, since they were an inharmonious note in the festive chorus and ridicule, reproach, and insult were freely heaped on those newly come to the faith. The shouting took place in a confused theater assembly growing in tumult, where most did not know why they had come together. Because Paul and some of his companions were of Hebrew extraction, the Jews were anxious to show they were not sympathizers with his work, so they put forward Alexander, a Jewish craftsman and coppersmith of considerable ability, to set the matter before the people and turn the wrath of the people exclusively against Paul and his companions.

The man put forward was Alexander, a companion of Paul, and when the crowd saw and knew that he was a Jew, they rejected his attempt to address them, refused him a hearing, and thrust him aside. Then all with one voice joined together in a continuous shout honoring Diana as great and as the goddess of the Ephesians for about two hours, until they stopped from sheer exhaustion, showing the crowd's fervor and disorder. The city recorder's decision afterward vindicated Paul as innocent of unlawful conduct, checked the mob, and kept the uproar from disgracing the Christian cause. The event hastened Paul's departure at a time when he purposed to pass through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem and afterward see Rome, having sent Timothy and Erastus ahead into Macedonia and intending himself to remain at Ephesus until after Pentecost. In contrast to the religion of Diana, which rested on a false foundation and proved worthless so that its temple was ruined, its worshipers perished, and the religion was forgotten or became like an idle tale, the Christians gathered at Ephesus endured as precious living stones built on Christ.