Acts 16:17

Act_16:17

These men are servants of the Most High God and show to us the way of salvation.

The confession of the girl

What a strange thing have we here! the devil preaching the gospel; at least confirming the word of those who preached it. How was it that the prince of darkness could thus support the men who were labouring to destroy his kingdom? How could he give his testimony to the truth of that gospel by which his throne was to be subverted? Was not Satan here casting out Satan, and contributing to the overthrow of his own dominion? No: his speaking truth was a master stroke of devilish policy. He spoke the truth to counteract it; to put Paul and Silas and the possessed woman on the same ground, as if they all agreed: and if Paul and Silas had been pleased with this testimony, and appealed to it, and observed to the people that she who had told them so correctly many things which they could not have found out, confessed them as the servants of God and the preachers of salvation, he would have gained a great point. Let the Pythoness once be identified with the Christian teachers and she might teach, under the name of Christianity, such things as the devil has since often taught, and called them the way of salvation. The devil confessing Christ is in fact more dangerous than the devil denying Christ: for he only confesses to oppose. He confesses, and misrepresents, so that he makes the doctrine of Christ sometimes one thing and sometimes another; and anything but what it really is. Sometimes it is salvation by mans merit, heaven purchased by the performance of outward works. Thus he builds up a fatal system of self-righteousness. Yet there is truth in what he teaches. The works are necessary; but he assigns to them a wrong office, puts them in the place of Christ, and thus leads men to reject that way of salvation, to which, by the mouth of the Pythoness, he bore witness. At other times he takes the direct contrary course; and with the show of honouring Christ teaches men to look for salvation by a faith which produces no works. Thus his doctrine is--what it were to be wished his kingdom was--divided against itself: sometimes it is Christ requiring what God has not commanded; sometimes it is Christ allowing what God has forbidden, or forbidden what God has allowed. Alas! this confession of the Pythoness, as it was not altogether the first instance of Satans acknowledging Christ, so neither was it the last by many, many examples. And Christian teachers have too often been ignorant of his devices, not having received the wisdom to detect him, when transformed into an angel of light. Paul had this wisdom. (J. Fawcett, M. A.)

Serving God

At the very end of the nave of Westminster Abbey there is a monument erected to a young philosopher and clergyman who ill his short space of life, which lasted only twenty-one years, made discoveries in science of a most surprising kind. His name was Jeremiah Horrox. There was one thing which he felt ever had a higher claim upon him even than science. It was to do his duty in the humble sphere in which he found himself; and when he was on the eve of watching the transit of the planet Venus across the sun, and was waiting with the utmost keenness of observation for this phenomenon, he put even all these thoughts aside, and went, on the Sunday on which this sight was to be observed, to perform his humble parish duty in the church where he was pastor. He mentions it in his journal, in words which are now written over his monument: Called aside to greater things, which ought not to be neglected for the sake of subordinate pursuits. Subordinate, secondary, in one sense, the pursuits could not be, for they were the discovery of the glory of God in the greatest of His works; but subordinate in another sense they were, for they came across, in that instance, the single-minded discharge of the task which he owed to his Divine Master. (Dean Stanley.)

The exactest way of salvation

Sir Thomas Smith, the eminent secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth, when on his death bed, sent to his friends, the Bishops of Winchester and Worcester, and solemnly entreated them to draw from the Word of God the plainest and exactest way of salvation; adding, It is a matter of lamentation that men know not to what end they are born into the world till they are ready to get out of it.

The confession of the slave

Truth is truth, by whomsoever confessed, for whatever motive, and in whatever way. Here it was confessed by a devil-possessed girl. Perhaps her better nature was in the ascendant at the time. As we know from the Gospels demoniacal possession was intermittent, and the poor creatures had their lucid intervals. So this damsel, conscious for the moment of her misery and degradation, may have meant this as a sort of appeal for help. Perhaps, however, it may have been in mockery. No doubt the apostles had asserted their authority as servants of the most high God, and certainly the way of salvation was their constant theme. And the girl gifted with powers of mimicry may have reproduced their peculiar accent for the purpose of creating amusement. On the former hypothesis Pauls pity was excited: on the latter his indignation and alarm lest the gospel should be brought into contempt. Anyhow the testimony is true as a description of:--

I. The character of gospel ministers.

1. They are men

(1) Not angels; do not therefore expect angelic attributes of them. One of the greatest hindrances to the work of the Church is the extravagant demands which are made of the ministry. It discourages the men, and induces indolence in the people.

(2) They are men having knowledge of human needs, invested with human sympathies, gifted with the faculty of communicating Divine thought in human language.

2. They are servants.

(1) A humbling thought. All magisterial airs, all pomp and show, are utterly inconsistent with this character. A servant is a subordinate and has simply to do what he is told.

(2) A suggestion of responsibility and labour. What is a servant for but for work? And for the efficient discharge of that work he is held responsible.

3. They are servants of the Most High God.

(1) Their office therefore is invested with the loftiest dignity. What greater honour than to be the servant of a sovereign. Our Lord Himself gloried in this title.

(2) Their persons are secure. God will protect His servants till they can say, I have finished my course.

(3) Their reward is great; as is to be expected from such a Master. Be thou faithful, etc.

II. Their work. To show the way of salvation.

1. There is a way of salvation.

(1) A way to it--i.e., means whereby it may be secured.

(a) Repentance--consciousness of being in the wrong way, regret for it, confession of it, and desire to get out of it.

(b) Faith. Acceptance of the right way; of Him who is the Way; walking in that Way--i.e., humble dependence on Christ.

(2) Salvation itself is a way--a progress from darkness to light, from misery to blessedness, from sin to holiness, from uselessness or injuriousness to usefulness, from earth to heaven, from grace to glory. Salvation is a state, but it is an endlessly progressive state. No matter however high the attainment the saved one is to forget the things that are behind, etc. So viewed salvation is the right way, the happy way.

2. This way has to be shown.

(1) Hence the guide must know it, and not theoretically, from books or from what others have told him; but from being in it. Personal salvation is the essential qualification for a minister, and a guarantee of his competency for his work.

(2) Knowing it the guide must show it; by precept and example: simply, clearly, powerfully. (J. W. Burn.)

The nature of the Christian ministry

I. The work of all ministers of the gospel.

1. They are to show the way of salvation. This is the great object they should ever have in view.

2. The way of salvation they are to show is, by faith in Christ.

3. They are to show the way, not the ways of salvation. There never was, and never will be, but one way. This their work implies--They ought to know it themselves.

II. The appellation here given them; with the reasons of their being selected and employed in this service. Servants of God.

1. It denotes that they are sent by Him to this work.

2. The dignity of their office--servants, not of men--of the highest men, but of God--of the most high God. They are employed as mortals; because this method is adapted to our receiving information on the subject with composure.

Learn:

1. The guilt of those who neglect a gospel ministry.

2. Be helpers of ministers. (The Evangelist.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 16:17-18. The same followed Paul and us — Luke, Silas, and Timothy; and cried, saying — With great earnestness of voice and gesture; These men are the servants of the most high God, &c. — A great truth: but they did not need, nor would accept of, such testimony. And this she did many succeeding days. But, at length, Paul being wearied with so tedious a circumstance, and grieved — Under an apprehension that this stratagem of Satan might lead the people to imagine that the preachers of the gospel acted in a confederacy with the evil spirit, to whom the heathen worship was addressed; turned — Toward the damsel; and said to the spirit — By whose emotion she spake; I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ — Whose gospel I preach; to come out of her. And he came out the same hour — So that she had never afterward such kind of supernatural agitations, nor pretended to any gift of prophecy for the future.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 16:17. Κατακολουθήσασα, having followed close after) near, much, and from behind. Comp. the ἐπιστρέψας, having turned, in Act 16:18.—οὗτοι, these) Noble words; but there was no need of such a testimony, but rather need of repressing it, lest Paul should seem to have dealings with this spirit. It was not one of the worst spirits, inasmuch as it did not sooner move Paul to restrain it: but yet it deserved to be expelled.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act_16:17-18. The soothsaying damsel, similar to a somnambulist,[57] reads in the souls of the apostle and his companions, and announces their characteristic dignity. But Paul, after he had first patiently let her alone for many days, sees in her exclamation a recognition on the part of the demon dwelling within her, as Jesus Himself met with recognition and homage from demons (Mar_3:11); and in order not to accept for himself and his work demoniacal testimony, which would not of itself be hushed, at length being painfully grieved (διαπονηθείς, see on Act_4:2), and turning to her as she followed him, he, in the name of Jesus Christ (comp. Act_3:6, Act_4:7), commands the demon to come out of her. Now, as the slave considered Paul to be the servant of the most high God, who thus must have power over the god by whom she believed herself possessed, her fixed idea was at once destroyed by that command of power, and she was consequently restored from her overstrained state of mind to her former natural condition. Of a special set purpose, for which the slave made her exclamation, οὗτοι οἱ ἄνθρωποι κ.τ.λ. (Chrysostom: the god by whom she was possessed, Apollo, hoped, on account of this exclamation, to be left in possession of her; Walch: the damsel so cried out, in order to get money from Paul; Ewald: in order to offer her services to them; Camerarius, Morus, Rosenmüller, Heinrichs, Kuinoel: in order to exalt her own reputation), there is no hint in the text; it was the involuntary and irresistible outburst of her morbidly exalted soothsaying nature.

[57] But she was not a somnambulist. See Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 310.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 16:17 . κατακολουθήσασα , but if we follow R.V. the present participle denotes that she continuously followed after ( κατά ), and kept crying ( ἔκραζε ). The verb is only used by St. Luke in N.T., cf. Luk 23:35 ; in LXX, Jer 17:16 , Dan., LXX, Act 9:10 , Est 7:1Est 7:1 , Jdg 11:6 , 1Ma 6:23 , but not in same literal sense as here; used by Polyb., Plut., Jos. οὗτοι : placed emphatically first (see also Friedrich, pp. 10, 89). If we turn to the Gospel narratives of those possessed with evil spirits, as affording an analogy to the narrative here, we recall how Jesus had found recognition, cf. Mar 1:24 ; Mar 3:11 , Luk 4:41 (where the same verb, κράζω , is used of the ἀκάθαρτα πνεύματα καὶ δαιμόνια ). τοῦ Θ . τοῦ ὑψ .: similar title used by the demoniacs in Mar 5:7 , Luk 8:28 ; see Plumptre’s note on former passage. Both Zeller and Friedrich note that Luke alone employs ὁ ὑψ . of God without any word in apposition, Luk 1:32 ; Luk 1:35 ; Luk 1:76 ; Luk 6:35 , Act 7:48 , and that we have the title with τοῦ Θεοῦ , both in his Gospel and Acts. (Heb 7:1 , probably from Gen 14:18 .) ἡμῖν ὑμῖν very strongly supported, see critical note. But ἡμῖν might easily have been altered into ὑμῖν , as the former would appear to be an unfitting expression for the evil spirit: but ἡμῖν may point to that disturbed and divided consciousness which seems to have been so characteristic of the possessed (Edersheim); at one time the girl was overmastered by the evil spirit who was her real Κύριος , at another she felt a longing for deliverance from her bondage, and in ἡμῖν she associates herself with those around her who felt a similar longing for some way of salvation, for we must by no means regard her as a mere impostor (Ramsay).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

These men are servants of the most high God, &c.--Glorious testimony! But see on Luk 4:41.

this did she many days--that is, on many successive occasions when on their way to their usual place of meeting, or when engaged in religious services.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 17. These men are the servants, c.] It is astonishing how such a testimony could be given in such a case every syllable of it true, and at the same time full, clear, and distinct. But mark the deep design and artifice of this evil spirit:

1. He well knew that the Jewish law abhorred all magic, incantations, magical rites, and dealings with familiar spirits; he therefore bears what was in itself a true testimony to the apostles, that by it he may destroy their credit, and ruin their usefulness. The Jews, by this testimony, would be led at once to believe that the apostles were in compact with these demons, and that the miracles they wrought were done by the agency of these wicked spirits, and that the whole was the effect of magic; and this, of course, would harden their hearts against the preaching of the Gospel.

2. The GENTILES, finding that their own demon bore testimony to the apostles, would naturally consider that the whole was one system; that they had nothing to learn, nothing to correct; and thus the preaching of the apostles must be useless to them. In such a predicament is this, nothing could have saved the credit of the apostles but their dispossessing this woman of her familiar spirit, and that in the most incontestable manner; for what could have saved the credit of Moses and Aaron, when the magicians of Egypt turned their rods into serpents, had not Aaron's rod devoured theirs? And what could have saved the credit of these apostles but the casting out of this spirit of divination, with which, otherwise, both Jews and Gentiles would have believed them in compact?

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(17) The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying.—Better, kept on crying. Assuming that the case now before us presented phenomena analogous to those of the cases of demoniac possession, we may refer to what has been said in the Excursus on that subject appended to St. Matthew’s Gospel for general views of the question. Here it will be enough to note the same symptom of a divided consciousness. We lose much of the human interest of the narrative if we merely think of a demon bearing, as in mockery, his witness to the work of Christ, in order that he might thwart that work. That continual cry spoke, we may well believe, of the girl’s mind as longing for deliverance, and peace, and calm. She sees in the preachers those whom she recognises as able to deliver her, as unlike as possible to the masters who traded on her maddened misery. And yet the thraldom in which she found herself led her to cries that simply impeded their work. We note, as characteristic, the recurrence of the name of the Most High God, which meets us from the lips of the demoniac in the Gospels. (See Note on Mar_5:7.) As the name which was often in the mouths of exorcists, it became familiar to those who were regarded as subjects for their treatment. As she seems day by day to have gone to the river-side oratory, it is probable that she also had some points of contact with the faith of those who worshipped there, and had listened there to the preaching of the Apostles. Might not she claim a share in “the way of salvation” which was proclaimed to them?

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. followed Paul and us, and cried] Whatever the nature of the mental and spiritual malady under which this damsel suffered, it produced on her the like effect which is recorded of evil spirits in the history of Jesus (Mar_1:25; Luk_4:41), and forced her to confess to the true character of the Christian teachers. The devils believe and tremble (Jas_2:19).

After this verse the writer ceases for a time to indicate by his language that he was with St Paul, but in Act_20:5, where the Apostle comes once again to Philippi, the first person plural appears in the narrative. It seems therefore not improbable that St Luke was left behind to labour for the spread of the Gospel in Macedonia and only taken away again by St Paul after the work had been well established.

most high God] Cf. the words of the demoniac, Mar_5:7.

shew unto us] The older reading is “unto you.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The same followed Paul and us,.... Silas, Luke, and Timothy; the Arabic version reads, "the same followed Paul and Silas"; as they were going to the oratory:

and cried, saying, these men are the servants of the most high God; not of Python, or Apollo, as she and her masters were; or of any of the deities of the Gentiles; nor of sin, nor of Satan, nor of men, but of the one only true and living God, one of whose titles is "Elion", the "Most High", Gen 14:22 and these men were his servants, not merely by right of creation, as all men are, or should be; nor only through the power of divine grace upon their souls, bringing them into a willing obedience to him, as all the saints are; but by office, being ministers of the word: wherefore it follows,

which show unto us the way of salvation; which is not by the works of men; for by them the justice of God cannot be satisfied, nor his law fulfilled; God has declared against this way of salvation; it would make void the death of Christ, and frustrate the design of God in it; which is to magnify his grace, and exclude boasting in man: to which may be added, that the best works of men being imperfect, and attended with much sin, would rather damn than save; wherefore it is sinful, dangerous, and vain, to attempt salvation in this way. The only way of salvation is by the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the law is fulfilled, satisfaction is made for sin, peace and pardon are procured, an everlasting righteousness is brought in, and through whom grace and glory are given: and this is a way of salvation, agreeable to all the perfections of God; in which the vilest sinner made sensible of his sins, and of his need of this, has no reason to despair; it is exceeding suitable to his case, and is a way in which none ever perish, that are directed to it: and now this way of salvation is only shown in the Gospel, by the ministers of it; not by the light of nature, for to men who only have that, it is foolishness; nor by the law of Moses, for to such who are under that, it is a stumbling block; nor by the carnal reason of men, it is not of men, nor after men, but by divine revelation: and therefore the natural man receives it not, it is hid from such; and therefore they project various ways of salvation, which are pleasing in their own eyes, but the end of them are the ways of death; the way to life and immortality, is only brought to light in the Gospel: whether she said this of her own accord, or was obliged to it by divine impulse; and whether it was through fear of Paul, and in flattery to him, or was with a good or bad design, is not easy to determine: however, certain it is, what she said was truth; and sometimes the devil himself, the father of lies, is obliged to speak it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

17 The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.

Ver. 17. These men are the servants] Satan etsi semel videatur verax, millies est mendax et semper fallax. Mar 1:25; Joh 8:47.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The same followed Paul ... - Why she did this, or under what presence, the sacred writer has not informed us. It may have been:

That as she prophesied for gain, she supposed that Paul and Silas would reward her if she publicly proclaimed that they were the servants of God. Or, Because she was conscious that an evil spirit possessed her, and she feared that Paul and Silas would expel that spirit, and by proclaiming them to be the servants of God she hoped to conciliate their favor. Or, More probably it was because she saw evident tokens of their being sent from God, and that their doctrine would prevail; and by proclaiming this she hoped to acquire more authority, and a higher reputation for being herself inspired. Compare Mar 5:7.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

These men are the servants of the most high God. Evil spirits in possessed people, are sometimes forced to tell the truth. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The devil might be forced by God to confess this; or, he might do it voluntarily by God’s permission: First, To draw men on to believe him in other things, being he commended the servants of God, and spake the truth in this. Secondly, That, by flattering St. Paul, he might puff him up, and occasion him to sin. But an evil spirit, (or an evil man), when he dissembles as it he were good, is then worst of all.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. Servants… most high God—Parallel to this are the testimonies of the demons to Christ in Mar_1:24; Mar_5:7. It is as if the inferior and infernal did by a spontaneous necessity confess and do compulsory homage to the superior and divine. And as the cases are similar, so the conduct of Jesus and Paul are similar. They allow the demon to make his necessitated confession, as if to confound the demoniac side, but do not accept the testimony as congenial or worthy. Christ wants no demon-preachers.

Way of salvation—Secular men cannot indulge usually in language so spiritual; but the demons knew the full force of spiritual phraseology. The devils believe and tremble. Yet in this us of the demon there is either a mockery, or the damsel is able to impose a tinge of her own thought into her demoniac utterances.

Salvation—Either from Jews, or from the teachings of the apostles, the meaning of the term salvation had become known both to the pythoness and to the jailer, Act_16:30.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Following after... cried out for followed and cried, A.V.; servants for the servants, A.V.; proclaim unto you for show unto us, A.V. and T.R. This testimony of the spirit of divination to the doctrine of St. Paul is analogous to that of the unclean spirits who cried out to Jesus, "Thou art the Son of God" (Mar_1:23-26 3:11; Luk_4:34, Luk_4:35) and St. Paul"s dealing with the spirit of divination was similar to that of our Lord"s with the evil spirits in the cases referred to. What was the motive of the damsel, or the spirit by which she was possessed, for so crying out, or St. Paul"s for so silencing her, we are not told. Perhaps she interrupted him, and diverted the minds of those to whom he was preaching. And he did not like the mixture of lies with truth. The motive of secrecy which was one cause of our Lord"s rebuke to the spirits would not apply in the case of St. Paul.

The witness of evil spirits to Christ.

This poor slave-girl was subject to some kind of convulsive or epileptic fits. Brain-disease, and the various forms of hysteria, were very imperfectly understood in the olden times. "Nothing was less understood in antiquity than these obscure phases of mental excitation, and the strange flashes of sense, and even sometimes of genius, out of the gloom of a perturbed intellect, were regarded as inspired and prophetic utterances." General opinion associated such forms of disease with possession of some spirit, good or bad; and it is curious to note that the great physician Hippocrates attributed epileptic diseases to possession by Apollo, Cybele, Poseidon, etc. "At this period, and long before, people of this class usually women were regarded as prophetesses, inspired by the Pythian Apollo." "As a fortune-teller and diviner, this poor girl was held in high esteem by the credulous vulgar of the town." "The fact that St. Luke, who in his Gospel describes like phenomena as coming from doemonia, evil spirits, unclean spirits, should here use this exceptional description, seems to imply that either this was the way in which the people of Philippi spoke of the maiden, or else that he recognized in her -phenomena identical with those of the priestesses of Delphi, the wild distortions, the shrill cries, the madness of an evil inspiration. After the manner of sibyls, sorceresses, and clairvoyants of other times, the girl was looked on as having power to divine and predict, and her wild cries were caught up and received as oracles." Remembering the well-established doctrine that the Bible is not given as a revelation of science, medical or other, we are able to recognize in this narrative simply the general opinion of the age concerning spirit-possessions, and we need not affirm that either our Lord, or the apostles, in dealing with such cases, seal for us the truth of this explanation of them. In view of the common sentiment, it was not well that such persons should be allowed to witness to the Christian teachers. Their witness may have been true enough, but it was certainly liable to be misunderstood. no wholly satisfactory explanation has yet been given of the devil-possessions recorded in the New Testament, but this much we may fully admit there was a remarkable accession of spiritual-evil force in the early Christian age.

I OUR LORD"S TREATMENT OF THESE PHENOMENA. For the apostles followed the example of their Lord. One striking instance may be referred to. (Mat_8:28-34) Our Lord

(1) delivered the victims from the evil power; making this an illustration of his moral and spiritual mission; and

(2) he resisted the association of his work with the witness of disease, mania, hysteria, or evil possession. It was necessary that every association of the conjurer should be dissociated from Christianity. Its appeal is to the sober reasonings of the mind and the normal and natural demands of the heart. The gospel is for men in their senses; and it properly refused then, and refuses still, all testimony from ecstasy, spiritualism, jugglery, oracle, or any unnatural forms of excitation. A truth may be sadly disgraced and misrepresented and prejudiced by its champions, though it does not therefore cease to be the truth. The witness of evil spirits too certainly bears for men an evil tone, so Christ refused to permit it.

II THE APOSTLES" TREATMENT OF THESE PHENOMENA. Something may be due to St. Paul"s personal annoyance at the constant repetition of these clamorous cries, which hindered his work, and very possibly disturbed him when talking in the proseucha. He may also have felt great pity for the poor suffering girl; but no doubt his chief reason for putting forth the miraculous power entrusted to him was the misapprehension of his character and his work which her witness was likely to produce. Men might be led by her to think that he was possessed by some of the gods, or was a messenger of some of the idols, and so his work would be hindered, as it had been at Lystra. We must remember that the apostles" message was directly antagonistic to paganism and idolatry, and they were right in jealously guarding it from so perilous an association with it. Impress, in conclusion, that Christianity makes its appeal to the intelligence, conscience, and affections; and, then and now, it needs, and it will bear with, no adventitious or questionable aids. E.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

These men are - A great truth: but St. Paul did not need, nor would accept, of such testimony.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

most high God (See Scofield "Mat 7:22"). This marks the "spirit", Act 16:18, as being a demon.

salvation See note, (See Scofield "Rom 1:16").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See notes on verse 16

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. ὑμῖν before ὁδὸν with אBDE. Vulg. ‘vobis.’

17. κατακολουθοῦσα τῷ Παύλῳ καὶ ἡμῖν, following Paul and us. Whatever may have been the nature of the mental and spiritual malady under which this damsel suffered, it produced on her the like effect which is oft recorded of evil spirits in the history of Jesus (Mar 1:24; Luk 4:41), and forced her to confess to the true character of the Christian teachers. The devils believe and tremble (Jas 2:19).

After this verse the writer ceases for a time to indicate by his language that he was with St Paul, but in Act 20:5, where the Apostle comes once again to Philippi, the first person plural appears in the narrative. It seems therefore not improbable that St Luke was left behind to labour for the spread of the Gospel in Macedonia, and only taken away again by St Paul after the work had been well established.

δοῦλοι τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ὑψίστου, the servants of the Most High God. Cf. the words of the demoniac, Mar 5:7.

οἵτινες καταγγέλλουσιν ὑμῖν, who proclaim unto you. This is an older reading than ἡμῖν, and it seems more like what one who had been engaged in speaking as a soothsayer to others would say.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17.] ἔκραζεν, used to cry out: several occasions are referred to. The recognition of Paul and his company here by the spirit is strictly analogous to that of our Lord by the dæmons, Mat 8:29; Luk 4:34: and the same account to be given of both: viz. that the evil spirit knew and confessed the power of God and His Christ, whether in His own Person or that of His servants.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.