Burning Their Books - Acts 19

As Paul preached, God confirmed his word with signs and miracles. In the first century, there were many that practiced 'the magic arts', pawning themselves off as having the 'power of the gods at their disposal'. Such were all just tricks and deception. However, when they came into the presence of a real power of God, they immediately knew the difference. As the magicians in Pharaoh's court would exclaim: "THIS is the finger of God" (Ex. 8:19). We beheld the same thing with the conversion of Simon the sorcerer in Acts 8. Now we see it again in the conversions in Ephesus.

It began with God doing "extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul (19:11). Then we read of the FAILURE of the sons of Sceva. They had perceived that the power was in the proper 'incantation' or 'calling on the right name'. Hence they attempted a real exorcism by using the name 'Jesus'. The power IS in Jesus, but it is found in a right relationship with Him and not just the vocalizing of his name.

This failure quickly spread throughout the city of Ephesus. Thus, those who HAD practiced such but NOW were believers, came and 1) confessed and divulged the very tricks and practices of such; and 2) they burned the books from whence they had learned such.

It has been noted that such burning of books in the first century was a big deal as books were difficult to produce and expensive to purchase. They didn't have printing presses so it took much labor and many man-hours to produce one book. Concerning the value of 50,000 pieces of silver, it has been commonly understood as the equivalent of 'a days wage for the common worker' in the first century. Hence it is estimated that "The total price of what is burned comes out to about fifty thousand days’ wages for an average worker."* Quick math, minimum wage is now $7.90 per hour. They worked long days, so figure 10 hours. That would be $3,950,000.

Such action would destroy the source of such false knowledge and make it more difficult for people to become such practitioners of evil. It also openly exposed the methods used and would render such tricks impotent to deceive people.

This kind of reaction is in line with the correct understanding of repentance. As Paul described the repentance of the Corinthians: "For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter" (2Cor. 7:10-11).

We see such zeal in the correcting of the error that they had been caught up in. They not only were sorry they had done these things, they were determined to ensure it would not happen again. With this attitude it is of no wonder that Luke could write: "So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily" (Acts 19:20). We need this kind of zeal among God's people today.

Hugh DeLong

*"The Bible Background Commentary", Craig Keener, Logos electronic edition.