19:13
The concept of evil spirits being driven out was not alien to the Jews, and there were some Jews who tried to drive out evil spirits. It seems that they were not overly successful, so when they saw how effective Paul was being, they thought that they could increase their success rate by invoking the name of the Lord Jesus. That they did not know Jesus is shown by the “formula” that they used “in the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out”.
19:14,15
Seven sons of a Jewish High Priest were trying to carry out exorcisms. They relied on the “right” ceremonies and words. One day they were doing this with their new found formula, an evil spirit did not take too kindly to this, and had no respect for them. The evil spirit spoke to them saying “Jesus I know about, but who are you?” We need to be careful, for we can think that it is important to have the right words, or to think that if only we use the right words we will be successful. This is not true, it is faith and obedience that count, and knowing God.
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