Acts 19:24
New International Version
A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there.

New Living Translation
It began with Demetrius, a silversmith who had a large business manufacturing silver shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis. He kept many craftsmen busy.

English Standard Version
For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.

Berean Standard Bible
It began with a silversmith named Demetrius who made silver shrines of Artemis, bringing much business to the craftsmen.

Berean Literal Bible
For a certain silversmith named Demetrius, making silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen,

King James Bible
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;

New King James Version
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsmen.

New American Standard Bible
For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing considerable business to the craftsmen;

NASB 1995
For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen;

NASB 1977
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen;

Legacy Standard Bible
For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen;

Amplified Bible
Now a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of [the goddess] Artemis (Diana), was bringing no small profit to the craftsmen.

Christian Standard Bible
For a person named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, provided a great deal of business for the craftsmen.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For a person named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, provided a great deal of business for the craftsmen.

American Standard Version
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no little business unto the craftsmen;

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And a certain Silversmith was there whose name was Demetrius, who was making silver shrines for Artemis, and he was enriching the members of his craft with great profits.

Contemporary English Version
A silversmith named Demetrius had a business that made silver models of the temple of the goddess Artemis. Those who worked for him earned a lot of money.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver temples for Diana, brought no small gain to the craftsmen;

English Revised Version
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines of Diana, brought no little business unto the craftsmen;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Demetrius, a silversmith, was in the business of making silver models of the temple of Artemis. His business brought a huge profit for the men who worked for him.

Good News Translation
A certain silversmith named Demetrius made silver models of the temple of the goddess Artemis, and his business brought a great deal of profit to the workers.

International Standard Version
By making silver shrines of Artemis, a silversmith named Demetrius provided a large income for skilled workers.

Literal Standard Version
for a certain one, Demetrius by name, a worker in silver, making silver sanctuaries of Artemis, was bringing to the craftsmen not a little gain,

Majority Standard Bible
It began with a silversmith named Demetrius who made silver shrines of Artemis, bringing much business to the craftsmen.

New American Bible
There was a silversmith named Demetrius who made miniature silver shrines of Artemis and provided no little work for the craftsmen.

NET Bible
For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought a great deal of business to the craftsmen.

New Revised Standard Version
A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the artisans.

New Heart English Bible
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen,

Webster's Bible Translation
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silver-smith, who made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain to the artificers;

Weymouth New Testament
There was a certain Demetrius, a silversmith, who made miniature silver sanctuaries of Diana, a business which brought great gain to the mechanics in his employ.

World English Bible
For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen,

Young's Literal Translation
for a certain one, Demetrius by name, a worker in silver, making silver sanctuaries of Artemis, was bringing to the artificers gain not a little,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Riot in Ephesus
23About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. 24It began with a silversmith named Demetrius who made silver shrines of Artemis, bringing much business to the craftsmen. 25Demetrius assembled the craftsmen, along with the workmen in related trades. “Men,” he said, “you know that this business is our source of prosperity.…

Cross References
Acts 16:16
One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl with a spirit of divination, who earned a large income for her masters by fortune-telling.

Acts 16:19
When the girl's owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities in the marketplace.

Acts 19:25
Demetrius assembled the craftsmen, along with the workmen in related trades. "Men," he said, "you know that this business is our source of prosperity.

Acts 19:38
So if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and proconsuls are available. Let them bring charges against one another there.


Treasury of Scripture

For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain to the craftsmen;

shrines.

Diana.

Acts 19:27,28,34,35
So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth…

brought.

Acts 16:16
And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:

Isaiah 56:11,12
Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter…

1 Timothy 6:9,10
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition…

Jump to Previous
Artemis Ar'temis Artificers Artisans Boxes Business Craftsmen Demetrius Deme'trius Diana Employ Gain Great Images Little Making Mechanics Profit Sanctuaries Shrines Silver Silversmith Silver-Worker Small Temples Worker Workmen
Jump to Next
Artemis Ar'temis Artificers Artisans Boxes Business Craftsmen Demetrius Deme'trius Diana Employ Gain Great Images Little Making Mechanics Profit Sanctuaries Shrines Silver Silversmith Silver-Worker Small Temples Worker Workmen
Acts 19
1. The Holy Spirit is given by Paul's hands.
8. The Jews blaspheme his doctrine, which is confirmed by miracles.
13. The Jewish exorcists,
16. are beaten by a man who had an evil spirit.
19. Conjuring books are burnt.
21. Demetrius, for love of gain, raises an uproar against Paul;
35. which is appeased by the town clerk.














(24) Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana.--The worship of Artemis (to give the Greek name of the goddess whom the Romans identified with their Diana) had from a very early period been connected with the city of Ephesus. The first temple owed much of its magnificence to Croesus. This was burnt down, in B.C. 335, by Herostratus, who was impelled by an insane desire thus to secure an immortality of renown. Under Alexander the Great, it was rebuilt with more stateliness than ever, and was looked upon as one of the seven wonders of the world. Its porticos were adorned with paintings and sculptures by the great masters of Greek art, Phidias and Polycletus, Calliphron and Apelles. It had an establishment of priests, attendants, and boys, which reminds us of the organisation of a great cathedral or abbey in Mediaeval Europe. Provision was made for the education of the children employed in the temple services, and retiring pensions given to priests and priestesses (reminding us, in the latter instance, of the rule of 1Timothy 5:9, which it may indeed have suggested) after the age of sixty. Among the former were one class known as Theologi, interpreters of the mysteries of the goddess; a name which apparently suggested the application of that title (the Divine, the Theologus) to St. John in his character as an apocalyptic seer, as seen in the superscription of the Revelation. Large gifts and bequests were made for the maintenance of its fabric and ritual, and the city conferred its highest honours upon those who thus enrolled themselves among its illustrious benefactors. Pilgrims came from all parts of the world to worship or to gaze, and carried away with them memorials in silver or bronze, generally models of the sacellum, or sanctuary, in which the image of the goddess stood, and of the image itself. That image, however, was very unlike the sculptured beauty with which Greek and Roman art loved to represent the form of Artemis, and would seem to have been the survival of an older cultus of the powers of nature, like the Phrygian worship of Cybele, modified and renamed by the Greek settlers who took the place of the original inhabitants. A four-fold many-breasted female figure, ending, below the breasts, in a square column, with mysterious symbolic ornamentation, in which bees, and ears of corn, and flowers were strangely mingled, carved in wood, black with age, and with no form or beauty, this was the centre of the adoration of that never-ceasing stream of worshippers. As we look to the more elaborate reproductions of that type in marble, of which one may be seen in the Vatican Museum, we seem to be gazing on a Hindoo idol rather than on a Greek statue. Its ugliness was, perhaps, the secret of its power. When art clothes idolatry with beauty, man feels at liberty to criticise the artist and his work, and the feeling of reverence becomes gradually weaker. The savage bows before his fetiche with a blinder homage than that which Pericles gave to the Jupiter of Phidias. The first real blow to the worship which had lasted for so many ages was given by the two years of St. Paul's work of which we read here. As by the strange irony of history, the next stroke aimed at its magnificence came from the hand of Nero, who robbed it, as he robbed the temples of Delphi, and Pergamus, and Athens, not sparing even villages, of many of its art-treasures for the adornment of his Golden House at Rome (Tacit. Ann. xv. 45). Trajan sent its richly sculptured gates as an offering to a temple at Byzantium. As the Church of Christ advanced, its worship, of course, declined. Priests and priestesses ministered in deserted shrines. When the empire became Christian, the temple of Ephesus, in common with that of Delphi, supplied materials for the church, erected by Justinian, in honour of the Divine Wisdom, which is now the Mosque of St. Sophia. When the Goths devastated Asia Minor, in the reign of Gallienus (A.D. 263), they plundered it with a reckless hand, and the work which they began was completed centuries later by the Turks. The whole city, bearing the name of Aioslouk--in which some have traced the words Hagios Theologos, as applied to St. John as the patron saint--has fallen into such decay that the very site of the temple was till within the last few years a matter of dispute among archaeologists. Mr. George Wood, however, in 1869, commenced a series of excavations which have led to the discoveries of strata corresponding to the foundations of the three temples which had been erected on the same site, enabled him to trace out the ground-plan, and brought to light many inscriptions connected with the temple, one in particular, the trust-deed, so to speak, of a large sum given for its support, from which we learn more than was known before as to its priesthood and their organisation. (See Wood's Ephesus, pp. 4-45.)

The word for "shrine" is that which, though translated "temple" in John 2:19 (where see Note) and elsewhere, is always applied to the inner sanctuary, in which the Divine Presence was supposed to dwell, and therefore, here, to the chapel or shrine in which the statue of the goddess stood. It was to the rest of the building what the Confession and the Tribune are in Italian churches.

Verse 24. - Of for for, A.V.; little business for small gain, A.V. Shrines of Diana, or Artemis. They were silver models of the famous temple of Diana at Ephesus, and were carried as charms on journeys and placed in people's houses to ensure to them the protection of the goddess (Meyer). These gold or silver shrines contained within them an image of Artemis (Lewin, vol. 1. p. 408), as similar ones, which have been found made of terracotta, do of Cybele (Lewin, p. 414). Repeated mention is made in Diodorus Siculus, Ammianus Marcellinus, and elsewhere, of gold or silver shrines (ναόι), which were offered to different gods as propitiatory gifts, or carried about by the owners as charms, Business; ἐργασία, here and ver. 25 (see Acts 16:16, note).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
[ It began with]
γάρ (gar)
Conjunction
Strong's 1063: For. A primary particle; properly, assigning a reason.

a
τις (tis)
Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5100: Any one, some one, a certain one or thing. An enclitic indefinite pronoun; some or any person or object.

silversmith
ἀργυροκόπος (argyrokopos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 695: (lit: silver-cutter), a silversmith. From arguros and kopto; a beater of silver.

named
ὀνόματι (onomati)
Noun - Dative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3686: Name, character, fame, reputation. From a presumed derivative of the base of ginosko; a 'name'.

Demetrius,
Δημήτριος (Dēmētrios)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 1216: Demetrius, a silversmith of Ephesus. From Demeter; Demetrius, the name of an Ephesian and of a Christian.

who had brought
παρείχετο (pareicheto)
Verb - Imperfect Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 3930: From para and echo; to hold near, i.e. Present, afford, exhibit, furnish occasion.

much
ὀλίγην (oligēn)
Adjective - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3641: Puny; especially neuter somewhat.

business
ἐργασίαν (ergasian)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2039: From ergates; occupation; by implication, profit, pains.

to the
τοῖς (tois)
Article - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

craftsmen
τεχνίταις (technitais)
Noun - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5079: A craftsman, artisan, architect, builder. From techne; an artisan; figuratively, a founder.

making
ποιῶν (poiōn)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 4160: (a) I make, manufacture, construct, (b) I do, act, cause. Apparently a prolonged form of an obsolete primary; to make or do.

silver
ἀργυροῦς (argyrous)
Adjective - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 693: Made of silver. From arguros; made of silver.

shrines
ναοὺς (naous)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3485: A temple, a shrine, that part of the temple where God himself resides. From a primary naio; a fane, shrine, temple.

of Artemis.
Ἀρτέμιδος (Artemidos)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 735: Probably from the same as artemon; prompt; Artemis, the name of a Grecian goddess borrowed by the Asiatics for one of their deities.


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