And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?
Ver. 35. Great goddess Diana] Who yet, as great as she was, being busy at Alexander's birth (as he said), could not be at leisure to save her temple at Ephesus from burning. Like as Baal was so hot in the pursuit of his enemies, that he could not be at hand to help his friends, 1 Kings 18:27 .
And of the image that fell] A very ancient image made by Canetias a certain artificer, and for the antiquity of it, said by the covetous priests to have fallen down from Jupiter, that it might be the more venerable. By a like craft the Popish priests now show some shivers of the cross whereon our Saviour suffered, yea, some shreds of the tail of that ass whereupon he rode to Jerusalem.