Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Many of them . . . which used curious arts—The word signifies things "overdone"; significantly applied to arts in which laborious but senseless incantations are practiced.
brought their books—containing the mystic formularies.
and burned them before all—The tense, here used graphically, expresses progress and continuance of the conflagration.
counted the price . . . and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver—about £2000 (presuming it to be the drachma, the current coin of the Levant, of about 10d. value). From their nature they would be costly, and books then bore a value above any standard we are familiar with. The scene must have been long remembered at Ephesus, as a strong proof of honest conviction on the part of the sorcerers and a striking triumph of Jesus Christ over the powers of darkness. The workers of evil were put to scorn, like Baal's priests on Carmel, and the word of God mightily grew and prevailed [HOWSON].
many that believed came and confessed . . . their deeds—the dupes of magicians, etc., acknowledging how shamefully they had been deluded, and how deeply they had allowed themselves to be implicated in such practices.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Acts 19:19:
1 Corinthians 16:9
Galatians 5:20
Ephesians 6:12
1 Timothy 5:13
2 Timothy 3:13
DISCLAIMER: Church of the Great God (CGG) provides these resources to aid the individual in studying the Bible. However, it is up to the individual to "prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21). The content of these resources does not necessarily reflect the views of CGG. They are provided for information purposes only.
