Acts 19:35
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? 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?
What man did not know that the city of the Ephesians was a worshipper of the great goddess Diana and of the image said by tradition to have fallen from Jupiter, or the sky, a civic and religious identity universally known and publicly accepted. That worship was ancient, from before the days of Christ, centered in Diana's famous great temple at Ephesus. The temple was a source of pride to the city and nation, described as having marble statuary of Diana and her family, solid masonry, granite pavement, and Roman baths.
The worshippers believed the symbolic characters or markings on the image had great power. Books explaining those symbols were studied by magicians who influenced the worshippers. The same worship extended beyond Ephesus and was widespread and firmly established in the Roman world, as shown by a large immense temple of Diana at Nimes imitating the temple at Ephesus and a statue of Diana set on an island formed by a pure bubbling spring.
The worship was honored by special annual ceremonies, a national festival or gala season conducted with the utmost pomp and splendor that 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 the province of Asia among Jews and Gentiles. At that time Paul had purposed to pass through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem and afterward to see Rome, and had sent Timothy and Erastus into Macedonia while deciding himself to remain at Ephesus until after Pentecost.
Paul's labors had given this heathen worship a telling blow, causing a perceptible falling off in attendance at the national festival and in the enthusiasm of the worshipers. His influence extended far beyond actual converts, as many not openly accepting the new doctrines became enlightened enough to lose all confidence in their heathen gods. That gala season was a trying time for those newly come to the faith, as the company of believers meeting in the school of Tyrannus was an inharmonious note in the festive chorus and ridicule, reproach, and insult were freely heaped upon them.
The opposition behind the tumult was driven by the threat the gospel posed to the image-making trade and its income. The townclerk, city recorder, or city clerk appeased and calmed the Ephesian crowd by appealing to their shared and accepted belief about Diana and her fallen image to argue that they should be quiet and not act rashly. He argued that Paul and his companions could not overturn the goddess's standing and had neither profaned her temple nor insulted her, so the crowd had no cause for its uproar.
God raised up the recorder as a great magistrate, and through him and the other city officials civic authority restrained the tumultuous mob and vindicated Paul. His decision set Paul before the people as innocent of any unlawful act, preserving his life. It kept Christianity from being brought into disrepute or discredited, as another triumph of Christianity over error and superstition.