Summary: The account in Acts 19 of seven Jewish exorcists in Ephesus who used the names Jesus and Paul in an exorcism, only to be attacked by the possessed man, leaves some unanswered questions. Now, patterns of evidence point toward a real event with actual people who may at last be identified.
(Adapted from The Mystery of the Beloved Disciple, by Frederick Baltz)
And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. – Acts 19:17 (ESV)
Paul’s Powerful Ministry
Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, ministered in such a powerful way to the people of Ephesus in Asia Minor that his opponents started a massive riot to get it stopped. In those two years the local silversmiths were hurt economically as the demand for their idols of the goddess Artemis dried up. Magical books were publicly burned by the people who once used them, and now renounced them. Miraculous healings abounded. All this took place while Paul proclaimed “Christ crucified.”
And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. – Acts 19:11-12 (ESV)
Next, in Acts 19:13—20, Luke relates the account of seven men who were sons of a High Priest named Sceva. They seem to have wanted to match Paul’s miracles with powers of their own.
Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. – Acts 19:13-16 (ESV)
Who Was The High Priest Sceva?
A survey of modern commentaries soon shows that few consider the existence of an Israelite High Priest named Sceva likely. No High Priest by that name is known to us. Further, the Latin scaeva (scaevola) means left-handed, and no satisfactory explanation has been offered for why this should designate any particular known High Priest. Scholars have reached various conclusions: (1) Luke or his source is mistaken, and the person Sceva has no basis in fact; (2) Sceva was a Jewish priest of a high, but different, rank; (3) Sceva was a priest, but of a different religion; or (4) Sceva was a charlatan, lying about whom he in fact was.
The story of Sceva’s sons does not fall within the “we” passages of Acts. That suggests Luke wasn’t there when it happened. The story came to Luke, told and retold, before he committed it to writing. We might wonder whether Luke himself would vouch for every detail of the story, since there were no guarantees against embellishment or inaccuracy. Still, Luke the historiographer included this story because he believed it to be sound as well as important.
But what would a Jewish High Priest or his sons be doing in the city of Ephesus, far from the Temple in Jerusalem? Even in Judea there were multiple risks of contracting ritual defilement. How much more in the world of the Gentiles? And what business would any High Priest have there? On this point we have an item of information that deserves notice. It is a quite relevant report of High Priests traveling far from home. Josephus relates it in Antiquities XX 118-136, and War II 232-246. (See evidence that may have come from a High Priest on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.)
An Account of Traveling High Priests
Severe hostilities erupted between the Samaritans and the Jews in Judea in the year AD 50, requiring Roman military action to restore order. The Roman legate in Syria, Quadratus, sent a group of Jewish leaders, a group of Samaritan leaders, a tribune named Celer, and the former Governor, Cumanus, to Rome. There they would all stand trial before the Emperor, who would determine whom to punish and how. King Agrippa, last ruler of the Herodian dynasty and vassal of Rome, took the Jews’ side as the trial proceeded. Emperor Claudius fixed the blame on the Samaritans. The Samaritan representatives lost their lives, Celer was sent back to be killed publicly in Jerusalem, and Cumanus was exiled. The Jews were set free to return home. (Herod’s dance floor that doomed John the Baptist has been found)
Josephus reports in War II that Quadratus “…sent up to Caesar, along with two other persons of the highest eminence, the high priests Jonathan and Ananias, Ananus, the son of the latter, and some other Jewish notables, together with the most distinguished of the Samaritans.” Who were these two persons of the highest eminence, and the other notables? They were surely of the Jerusalem aristocracy, and were likely from high priestly families themselves, families other than Jonathan’s. All these people bore responsibility as some of the leading decision-makers in Jerusalem. That’s why they had to stand trial.
The parallel account in Antiquities names only Ananias and Ananus, but also includes “their followers.” So it was this unspecified number of additional Jewish leaders, along with Jonathan, Ananias, and Ananus who stood before Claudius in Rome in the year AD 50 or 51.
It is quite likely that the exonerated party of Jewish leaders returned to Jerusalem through Ephesus. A large Jewish colony existed there. Ephesus was one of the world’s greatest cities, and shipping lanes connected Rome to Ephesus. From Ephesus one could travel to Judea by water or by land.
Luke says there were “traveling-around” (perierchomenōn) Jews who were exorcists. This has often been translated: “itinerant.” Perierchomai is a rare word in the New Testament. Of the four instances, two come from Luke, both in Acts. Besides 19:13 which we are considering now, 28:13 employs the word to describe purposeful travel to Sicily by ship—a far different thing from itinerant wandering about.
We must ask whether perierchomai in 19:13 might have originally reflected the purposeful travel of Sceva’s sons returning to Jerusalem from Rome among that party of Jewish leaders Josephus tells us about. At any rate, the presence of a party of High Priests in Rome is documented by Josephus immediately before Paul’s extraordinary Ephesian ministry which began in AD 52. Remarkably, their return to Jerusalem would most likely have taken them through Ephesus, placing them in that city while Paul was there.
Adventures – Rope and Rigging
The names of the actual High Priests are known to us from Josephus’ history, and helpfully presented with their years in office by E. Schürer and J. Jeremias. Four families in Jerusalem constituted the aristocracy from whom all the High Priests came during Herodian and Roman times. They were each powerful and wealthy. One of these was the House of Kamit, or Kamithos. The Talmud relates in multiple places that the House of Kamithos produced seven sons, each of whom at some time served as High Priest. (b. Yoma 47a; T.Yom iv.20; 189; Lev. R. 20.7 on 16.1—2 (Son. 20.11, 263); j.Yom. i., 38d.6; j.Meg. i.12, 72a 49; Tanhuma ahare mot 7, 117a.24.) The Talmud does not give their names, but it nevertheless stands in Jewish tradition that Kamithos had seven sons, and this can be said of no other person in any of the four families.
It is clear that names varied in spelling and pronunciation. Kamithos is a Greek form of the name Kamit. Schürer gives the following variations of the name found in extant literature: Kamithos, Kathimos, Kathāmos, Kamathei, Kamei, Kamā, Kamudos, Kamoidi, Kemidi, Kemedā. The High Priest Joseph Cabi’s name may also be derived from Kamit. So, there are ten or eleven variants of the name that we know of, maybe more.
Kamithos as a word was not recognizable as any particular thing. However, kamilos was an actual word with a particular and peculiar referent: ship’s cable. Note how similar kamilos is in pronunciation to Kamithos, listed above. Skeuā, different from Skeua (Sceva) by only the length of the final vowel, means “equipment, household furnishings, especially of a ship’s gear…the tackle or rigging of a ship.” (Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich Lexicon) The meanings of kamilos and skeuā are essentially the same.
Simply put, skeua is a synonym for kamilos, and a homonym for skeuā. One can see how the name Kamithos might have become Skeua with the retelling of the story across languages and time. Then, the seven sons of Sceva were actually the seven attested sons of Kamithos, the only High Priest who had seven sons. They were returning from Rome to Jerusalem through Ephesus after standing before Caesar’s tribunal.
Casting Out Demons
But would a High Priest or his sons resort to using Jesus’ name in exorcising demons? One surviving incantation for exorcising demons includes the name Jesu among many others to be pronounced over the possessed person, though that incantation is from later than the First Century, and comes from circles far distant from Jerusalem’s High Priesthood. Still, Luke and Mark relate that even during Jesus’ ministry there were persons who used Jesus’ name without being his followers. We must remember that the use of Jesus’ name did not necessarily constitute faith in Jesus, or acceptance of his teaching. It was all about the power of the name itself. (The possible site of Jesus’ trial has been discovered in Jerusalem.)
All three Synoptic Gospels tell of a charge brought against Jesus by some Pharisees: he casts out demons by the prince of demons, Beelzebul (Matt. 12:24//Mark 3:22//Luke 11:15.) If, in their thinking, Jesus could be a false prophet, yet have power over demons, we must acknowledge the possibility that a priest might pronounce the name for its power’s sake, while rejecting any allegiance or devotion to Jesus himself.
Conclusion
So, we have found patterns of historical and linguistic evidence that affirm the unusual account in Acts 19, a story that has seemed to many people just a fable about no actual persons. Here is additional reason for confidence in the factual integrity of the Acts of the Apostles. Keep thinking.
TOP PHOTO: The theater at Ephesus, scene of the riot over Paul. (credit: Omar hoftun, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
NOTE: Not every view expressed by scholars contributing Thinker articles necessarily reflects the views of Patterns of Evidence. We include perspectives from various sides of debates on biblical matters so that readers can become familiar with the different arguments involved. – Keep Thinking!
