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?
And when the town-clerk, х ho (G3588) grammateus (G1122)] - the keeper of the public archives, and a magistrate of great authority,
Had appeased the people - `calmed,' or 'stilled the multitude,' which the very presence of such an officer would go far to do,
He said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper, х neookoron (G3511)] - literally, the neocoros, or 'warden.' The word means 'temple-sweeper,' then 'temple-guardian.' Thirteen cities of Asia had an interest in the temple; but Ephesus was honoured with the charge of it. (In like manner, as Webster and Wilkinson remark, various cities have claimed this title with reference to the Virgin, or certain saints.)
Of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter, х Diopetous (G1356)] - 'of the Jove-dropped,' or 'sky-dropped' [image]. See the note at Acts 19:27. 'Scarcely less veneration (says Humphry) is paid at the present day to the clay miracle-working images of the Virgin at Einsiedeln in Switzerland, Mariazell in Styria, etc. -the works, probably, of early Byzantine or Oriental artists. (Raoul-Rochette, in Lord Lyndsay on Christian Art. 1: 78.) A still closer analogy to the image falling from Jupiter may perhaps be found in the traditional likenesses of Christ, which, as were pretended, were "not made with hands [acheiropoieetai], and by means of which the Christian Church was first reconciled to the reception and veneration of images. (See Gibbon. ch. 49: and Gretser's treatise in defense of them, entitled, "De Imaginibus non Manufactis," 1625.)