peratives of his
own establishment, "with the workmen of like occupation," [124:3] he
said to them--"Sirs, ye know, that by this craft we have our wealth.
Moreover, ye see and know, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost
throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much
people, saying that they be no gods which are made with hands--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
worshipped." [125:1] This address did not fail to produce the effect
contemplated. A strong current of indignation was turned against the
missionaries; and the craftsmen were convinced that they were bound to
support the credit of their tutelary guardian. They were "full of wrath,
and cried out saying--Great is Diana of the Ephesians." [125:2] This
proceeding seems to have taken place in the month of May, and at a time
when public games were celebrated in honour of the Ephesian goddess,
[125:3] so that a large concourse of strangers now thronged the
metropolis. An immense crowd rapidly collected; the whole city was
filled with confusion; and it soon appeared that the lives of the
Christian preachers were in danger; for the mob caught "Gaius and
Aristech's, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel," and "rushed
with one accord into the theatre." [125:4] This edifice, the largest of
the kind in Asia Minor, is said to have been capable of containing
thirty thousand persons. [125:5] As it was sufficiently capacious to
accommodate the multitudinous assemblage, and as it was also the
building in which public meetings of the citizens were usually convened,
it was now quickly occupied. Paul was at first prompted to enter it, and
to plead his cause before the excited throng; but some of the
magistrates, or, as they are called by the evangelist, "certain of the
_chief of Asia_, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him
that he would not adventure himself" into so perilous a position.
[125:6] These _Asiarchs_ were persons of exalted rank who presided at
the celebration of the public spectacles. The apostle was now in very
humble circumstances, for even in Ephesus he continued to work at the
occupation of a tent-maker; [126:1] and it is no mean testimony to his
worth that he had secured the esteem of such high functionaries. It was
quickly manifest that any attempt to ap