Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Be not ye therefore partakers with them - Do not act as your fellow citizens do; nor suffer their philosophy, to it in vain words, , with empty and illusive doctrines, to lead you astray from the path of truth.
That there was much need for such directions and cautions to the people of Ephesus has been often remarked. It appears, from Athenaeus, that these people were addicted to luxury, effeminacy etc. He tells us that the famous Aspasia, who was herself of the Socratic sect, brought a vast number of beautiful women into Greece, and by their means filled the country with prostitutes, ̔ ̔ , lib. xiii. cap. 25. Ibid. cap. 31, he observes that the Ephesians had dedicated temples ̔ͅ ͅ , to the prostitute Venus; and again, cap. 32, he quotes from Demosthenes, in Orat. contra Neaeram: ̔ ̔ ̔ , ' ̔ , , · "We have whores for our pleasure, harlots for daily use, and wives for the procreation of legitimate children, and for the faithful preservation of our property." Through the whole of this 13th book of Athenaeus the reader will see the most melancholy proofs of the most abominable practices among the Greeks, and the high estimation in which public prostitutes were held; the greatest lawgivers and the wisest philosophers among the Greeks supported this system both by their authority and example. Is it not in reference to their teaching and laws that the apostle says: Let no man deceive you with vain words?
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