³⁵After quieting the crowd, the town clerk said, “Men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell down from heaven? ³⁶So, since these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and to do nothing rash. ³⁷For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess. ³⁸So then, if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against any man, the courts are in session and proconsuls are available; let them bring charges against one another. ³⁹But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the lawful assembly. ⁴⁰For indeed we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection with today’s events, since there is no real cause for it, and in this connection we will be unable to account for this disorderly gathering.” ⁴¹After saying this he dismissed the assembly.

With great difficulty the high-ranking official must have exercised his authority to quiet the crowd for a reasoned speech. After two hours of unmitigated pandemonium, the mob possibly grew tired and were ready for some order. The clerk must have been quite the orator to bring reasoned guidance to the chaos. In a few words, he undercut the catalyst for the mayhem, stating that the cult of Artemis was not threatened by the purveyors of what to them was a foreign religion. After all, their cult was too well-established to be shaken by a few men speaking against it, said the clerk. Whether he was sympathetic with Paul and the Christians is not clear; he may have been of the same social rank as the Asiarchs (Acts 19:31), who were sympathetic with Paul and repeatedly tried to prevent him from entering the theater.

But why did Luke give so much space to this story, when Paul was not part of this episode? It records four important things: a public statement regarding civic pride mixed with religion, the conclusion that the adherents of the monolithic religion of Artemis should not feel threatened by the relatively minuscule movement of Paul and his associates, the public vindication that Paul and his companions were not breaking any laws or (overtly) speaking against the goddess Artemis, and the fact that legal authorities sometimes enforce the local laws in ways that benefit Christians.

Whether the clerk was a follower of the gospel or not, God was clearly using him to avert the martyrdom of Paul’s associates, which would most likely have happened. His skill and wisdom were also God’s grace in sparing the city from the retaliation of higher-up Roman authorities for allowing an unjustified riot. So we see that not all persecution is inevitable; the church in Ephesus went on to be a major Christian foothold in the Roman world.

Lord, thank You for the growth of the gospel in the free countries of the world.