The wiiole paragraph must be taKen together. It represents St. Paul's miracles and spiritual power in contrast to the magical customs which so >\*idely prevailed. Many Jews especially devoted themselves to sorcery, and Ephesus was noted for, amongst other forms of sorcery, the Ephesia gram- Tnata (see Ephksus and Magic). St, Paul's power and success led to imitation of Iiim. The name of Jesus evidently seemed to have some special efficacy, and so was adopted by the sorcerers, as every other name in turn M-as adopted (on the power of names see Frazer, Golden Bought i. 403). The discoveries of papyri made in the last few years have enabled us to realize the very large extent to which magical practices prevailed, and the number of magical books which existed. The name of Jehovah in some form is common, and in che following extract from a magical papyrus at Paris the name of Jesus is used. The papyrus is of the 4th cent., and the original cannot be earlier than Hadrian, who is mentioned byname ; it is pub- lished by C. Wessely, * Griechische Zauberpapyrus von Paris und London,* in the Denkschriften der phil. -hist, Classe der kais. Akad. der Wissen- schaften in Wien, vol. xxxvi. (1888) L 3007 if.).t
fx.tTa /3oT«v*)f fMcffnyia.! z/x,i AoiTo/xr.rpctf 'i^u u-tTCL ycx.f^oCx^if a^yJaiT.Vrai* . , . rritrcti etvrtxpvf ipzt-^t. tffrip it i opxttrfjtii eZrof' epxiZai rt JtecTx rev Stav rat ' EtSpt^'Oiv 'Irttroo' lot^a.' <«»)• ei^peutd' ecKx : Ooitt' lAl' t\at' «*;« IW m^cctx,' etizttpuat' lu^otpotcu' et^ik^iK' Xaf*a,' ctiBp»' f^iMpoiec' fipeuuatv' ffupKpettr;' i iv fd^irn ap«upvi( xa.i X'ovtff *xi oi^'x^y;' retttXTiS' jutrccSuTot irou o Siyyikoi i ocvacpctiTr.TOf x/z'i tirxpivira/ ro* iripiTTaictfo* iaiiuavx rev 'rXa.ffu.a.roi rai,Tou • ITAofl-lt 0 tiiai it T* etytoi trtuTOv Tetpoihuw (MS TK^o^iffr^'] . . . cpx.^ot «*■ r»y fJifJMtBitva, rw 'Icpeiiik iw rriiXat ^mruyp xett vi^lA*) yif*.ipnn X.T.JL.
Both the evidence of papyri and the incident recorded in the Acts imply a conviction, even amongst those who did not believe, that there was power, perhaps snecial power, in the name of Jesus. It would imply a general impression that miracles were wTought in His name, and bears witness to the force and po^^e^ of Christianity. It is instruc^tive also to notice how from the Ijeginning Christianity is the resolute foe of all naagic.
There are a fiomber of critical questions connected with this rtarrative. First of all there is a question of text. The RV (Codex B) reads : ' And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, which did this. And the evil spirit answered and said unto them, Jesus I know, and Paul I know ; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped upon them, and mastered both of them, and prevailed against them, so that they fleti out of that house naked and wounded.* D (supported by the margin of the Philoxenian)
• But see footnote on next column,
t For this and other information the present writer is In- d«btcd to Dr F. Q. Kenyon of the British Museum.
reads : ' And among those also the sons of one Sceva, a priest, winked to do the sayne thiiuj, who had a cti^ttom of exorcizing sxich ; and haviiui gone in unto the man possessed with devUa^ tliey began to call upon the natne^ saying : We c&minand the€ in Jesus, whmn Paul preaches, to come forth.' According to Uamsay (C'/turcA in the Roman Empire^p. 153): 'Codex Beza here g^ives a text which is intelligent, consistent, and possible t the accepted text is badly expressed and even self -contradictory.* This opinion seeuis to be largely followed. To the present writer the text of D is clearly a oad paraphrase, and itp growth can be shown. The statement that Sceva was a Jewish high priest seemed (as it is) very curious, and therefore was altered m various ways. D alters a.^x**P'-^ into Upivf, and omits 'Uvhix,.ou,so Giij. reads 'sacerdotis,' and Cassiodorius explains by ' principis synagogas.
Then again in the text of B, while in vM we have seven sons, in v. 16 it is stated that the man ' mastered both of them,' im- plying only two. Gig. therefore substitutes 'duo' for ' srptem,' D leaves out the number altogether, while the majority ot later authorities prefer t-o omit or alter 0Lfj4cr-.pa,f in vA*^, the fijahidic even putting eorum septem. The remaining alterations of D are, as is generally the case, mere inept expansions. Ths narrative of St. Luke is very much abbreviated, and the para- phrast or translator thought that he could make it more clear, l)ut he does not add a single point which could not be guessed. Even in the few words he does add he manages to introduce the fonu »»x«* and the word ieuf^tiZopLnof which are not Lukan, and the expression 'tTixccktye-tieu to ovof^^ which does not occur unqualified in the NT, and betrays a later age. It may be noted that the word Btu^Tipai* is undoubtedly Lukan (8 or 9 times in Luke and Acts, 0 times elsewliere in NT). The incon- sistency may be difficult, but it is quite inconceivable that any one who had the D text before him should have taken the trouble to insert septem. On every principle of textual criti- cism the text of B must be the original.
The statement that Sceva was a Jewish high priest is un- doubtedly difficult, but we have no right therefore to correct it away. Vet in the sense of a member of a high priestly family there roust have been many who could claim it, and as Zeller (Acts of the Apostles, Eng. tr. ii. p. 59) says: 'It is quite possible that a band of exorcists, giving themselves out for eona or disciples of a Jewish hi^h priest, may have made an experi- ence of the futility of their arts in the person of a lunatic who had heard something of Paul and of Christ.' The difficulty about the discrepancy of numbers is more interesting. St. Luke's narrative is obviously very much shortened ; only the necessary statements are made, and only what is essential is given. He never tells us that only two out of the seven were engaged in this incident, and it conies out accidentally in a.LufoTipan.'* Does not, this small point imply that the writer had here a source, almost necessarily a written one, from which he abbreviated his narrative?