e walls in response to his appeal.

Nor is the illustration of the magistracies which are named by St Luke
less complete. Three distinct officers are mentioned in the
narrative--the Roman proconsul ([Greek: anthupatos]), the governor of
the province and supreme administrator of the law, translated 'deputy'
in our version; the recorder ([Greek: grammateus]) or chief magistrate
of the city itself, translated 'town-clerk;' and the Asiarchs ([Greek:
Asiarchai]), or presidents of the games and of other religious
ceremonials, translated 'the chief of Asia.' All these appear again and
again in the newly-discovered inscriptions. Sometimes two of the three
magistracies will be mentioned on the same stone. Sometimes the same
person will unite in himself the two offices of recorder and Asiarch,
either simultaneously or not. The mention of the recorder is especially
frequent. His name is employed to authenticate every decree and to fix
every date.

But besides these more general illustrations of the account in the Acts,
the newly-discovered inscriptions throw light on some special points in
the narrative. Thus where the chief magistrate pronounces St Paul and
his companions to be 'neither sacrilegious ([Greek: hierosulous]) nor
blasphemers of our goddess' [299:1], we discover a special emphasis in
the term on finding from these inscriptions that certain offences (owing
to the mutilation of the stone, we are unable to determine the special
offences) were treated as constructive sacrilege against the goddess.
'Let it be regarded as sacrilege and impiety' ([Greek: esto hierosulia
kai asebeia]), says an inscription found in this very theatre [300:1],
though not yet set up at the time when the 'town-clerk' spoke. So again,
where the same speaker describes the city of Ephesus as the 'neocoros,'
the 'temple sweeper,' or 'sacristan of the great goddess Artemis,' we
find in these inscriptions for the first time a direct example of this
term so applied. Though the term 'neocoros' in itself is capable of
general application, yet as a matter of fact, when used of Ephesus on
coins and inscriptions (as commonly in the case of other Asiatic
cities), it has reference to the cultus not of the patron deity, but of
the Roman emperors. In this sense Ephesus is described as 'twice' or
'thrice sacristan,' as the case may be, the term being used absolutely.
There was indeed every probability that the same term would be employed
also to describe the rela