‘For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis (Latin: Diana), brought no little business to the craftsmen, whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, “Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth.” '
Behind the trouble was a business magnate, Demetrius, who operated in silver. He may have been an overseer of the silversmiths' guild. His business made ‘silver shrines', and he employed the services of many people and cooperated in business activity with many more. Until Paul arrived all had been going very well, and trade was brisk. Silver shrines sold like hot cakes. But Paul's coming had affected trade. People who became Christians were not interested in shrines which were ‘gods made with hands', and due to the widescale advance of the word, they had consequently all lost many good customers.
So he called together all who were involved in the trade to discuss what should be done. He pointed out to them that their wealth depended on selling the silver shrines. If the market dried up they would be ruined. It is very probable that we have here in this gathering an example of a trade guild, in which members of a trade would gather together. There were many such guilds for different professions, and the Romans were not very keen on them and sought to limit them by legislation. There were severe laws about illegal associations. But they were popular because they provided a means of mutual support and trade protection, although their main purpose was social interaction. They presented a problem to Christians who worked in those trades for they tended to have idolatrous associations.
The reasons behind the Roman objection to such guilds comes out in the much later reply of the Emperor Trajan to Pliny when he wanted to form a fire brigade. He replied, ‘It is to be remembered that societies of this sort have greatly disturbed the peace of the province --- whatever name we give them, and for whatever purpose they may have been founded, they will not fail to transform themselves into factious assemblies'. This was always a danger with ‘unofficial' gatherings of any kind.
The ‘shrines' may have been replicas, on a small scale, of the image of Artemis (which could be seen in the temple) which was considered to have ‘fallen from heaven'. That was very possibly a meteorite, the appearance of which with a number of protuberances on it had been seen as suggestive, and which may then have been shaped into a likeness of the goddess with her many breasts.
Or the ‘silver shrines' may have consisted of small plaques of shrines containing such an image, of which examples have been discovered. They would be sold as mementoes, votive offerings, burial items and in order to grace idol shelves in homes. They would be made of various materials such as silver, terracotta, lead or marble to suit all tastes and pockets.
This Artemis was not the same as the divinely beautiful Artemis of the Greeks, although they were often equated, but was the ancient Anatolian fertility goddess who was worshipped all over Asia Minor in the form of a nature religion, and depicted as rather ugly and many breasted, her main image probably being an asteroid with suggestive protuberances, possibly partly shaped in a rough way by priests, and revered because it had fallen from the gods. Her worship was conducted by a high priest who was a eunuch, and there were other eunuch priests and three classes of priestess courtesans. Her fertility rites would undoubtedly have encouraged very loose sexual behaviour (compare Revelation 2:14; Revelation 2:20) as fertility rites regularly did. Her huge temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was supported by over one hundred massive pillars. It was a major treasury for the ancient world, acting as a bank where large sums of money could be kept safe under the protection of the goddess. Cult and business enterprise were thus closely linked, and its importance to Ephesus, and the world, is clear.