19:33,34
It is not clear who Alexander was. Some identify him with Alexander the coppersmith of 1 Tim 1:20 and 2 Tim 4:14. However, Alexander was a very common name, so this is at best speculation. He was pushed forward by the Jews, so it seems that they wanted him to speak on their behalf, and to distinguish themselves from the Christians. However, as soon as the crowd realised he was a Jew they resumed their shouting of “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians”, apparently considering the difference between Christians and Jews to be rather academic. This shouting went on for two hours. Crowds can be very persistent in supporting evil.
19:35,36
The city clerk was the highest official in Ephesus. He sought to mollify the crowd by assuring them of their allegiance to Artemis/Diana. He claims that the image “fell down from Zeus”, ie came from the heavens. Instead of using this allegiance to Zeus, he urges the crowd to act carefully and not rashly. Whenever we react rashly it is usually a sign of weakness or insecurity. An example today of the same thing are Islamic terrorists, their actions, while utterly evil, are also a sign of weakness.
19:37
The clerk then gets them to think clearly about the situation before them. No one was making a claim that Paul or his companions had stolen anything from the temple. Nor were they blasphemers. They had not spoken directly against Artemis. If we look at the things that Paul said, he proclaimed Christ, and said we should not worship things made by human hands. This is why the clerk referred to the image of Artemis falling from Zeus (ie it was not man made), he was trying to calm down the anger of the crowd. We can perhaps learn something from this in our speaking about Islam or on LGBT issues. Rather than direct attacks on Islam or LGBT, we should proclaim the positive truth of the Bible’s teaching, and showing the ridiculousness of ideology behind LGBT stuff, and the superiority of the gospel over Islam.
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