Barnes New Testament Notes

Verse 19. Curious arts. Arts or practices requiring skill, address, cunning. The word used here -- perierga -- denotes, properly, those things that require care or skill; and was thus applied to the arts of magic and jugglery, and sleight of hand, that were practised so extensively in eastern countries. That such arts were practised at Ephesus is well known. The Ephesian letters, by which incantations and charms were supposed to be produced, were much celebrated. They seem to have consisted of certain combinations of letters or words, which, by being pronounced with certain intonations of voice, were believed to be effectual in expelling diseases or evil spirits; or which, by being written on parchment and worn, were supposed to operate as amulets, or charms, to guard from evil spirits or from danger. Thus Plutarch (Sympos 7) says, "The magicians compel those who are possessed with a demon to recite and pronounce the Ephesian letters, in a certain order, by themselves." Thus Clemens Alex. (Strom. ii.) says, "Androcydes, a Pythagorean, says that the letters which are called Ephesian, and which are so celebrated, are symbols," etc. Erasmus says, (Adagg. Cent.2,) that there were certain marks and magical words among the Ephesians, by using which they succeeded in every undertaking. Eustha. ad Homer. Odys. t, says, "that those letters were incantations which Croesus used when on the funeral pile, and which greatly befriended him." He adds, that in the war between the Milesians and Ephesians, the latter were thirteen times saved from ruin by the use of these letters. See Grotius and Kuinoel in loco.

Brought their books. Books which explained the arts; or which contained the magical forms and incantations -- perhaps pieces of parchment, on which were written the letters which were to be used in the incantations and charms.

And burned them before all men. Publicly. Their arts and offences had been public, and they sought now to undo the evil, as much as lay in their power, as extensively as they had done it.

And they counted. The price was estimated. By whom this was done does not appear. Probably it was not done by those who had been engaged in this business, and who had suffered the loss, but by the people, who were amazed at the sacrifice, and who were astonished at their folly in thus destroying their own property.

Fifty thousand pieces of silver. What coin the word argurion -- here translated silver denotes, it is impossible to tell; and consequently the precise value of this sacrifice cannot be ascertained. If it refers to the Jewish shekel, the sum would be 25,000 dollars, [or £5,420,] as the shekel was worth about half a dollar. If it refers to Grecian or Roman coin -- which is much more probable, as this was a heathen country, where the Jewish coin would not probably be much used -- the value would be much less. Probably, however, it refers to the Attic drachm, which was a silver coin worth about 9d. sterling; and then the value would be about 8,500 dollars, [or £1,875.] The precise value is not material. It was a large sum; and it is recorded to show that Christianity had power to induce men to forsake arts that were most lucrative, and to destroy the means of extending and perpetuating those arts, however valuable in a pecuniary point of view they might be. We are to remember, however, that this was not the intrinsic value of these books, but only their value as books of incantations. In themselves they might have been of very little worth. The universal prevalence of Christianity would make much that is now esteemed valuable property utterly worthless -- as, e.g., all that is used in gambling, in fraud, in counterfeiting, in distilling ardent spirits for drink, in the slave-trade, and in attempts to impose on and defraud mankind. {++} "Counted" "Computed"