Bob Deffinbaugh writes at Bible.org:
The hand of God was at work through Paul, and there were some who wished to cash in on it. If Paul could accomplish what he did through the name of Jesus, so could they—they thought. There were in Ephesus, as in Israel (see Luke 11:19), Jewish exorcists, who sought to cast out demons through the use of the name of one who had great power. This was a kind of spiritual “name dropping,” whereby the power of the one named was believed to be able to exorcise demons. Such “ministry” was hardly to be performed without a fee, and so it appears to be a business, not altogether unlike that business of Acts 16, the business of fortune-telling. This kind of exorcism must have proven effective at least part of the time, but it would not work this time.
There were a number of exorcists practicing in Ephesus, but Luke draws our attention to one family in particular—a Jewish chief priestly family (verse 14). This man, Sceva, had seven sons who were exorcists. At least two of them were involved in attempting to exorcise a particular man in Ephesus. Like computer “hackers” who had just learned the password of a giant mainframe computer system, these men had discovered the power of the name of Jesus. This is the Jesus who, as Jews, they refused to accept as Messiah, but they were not reluctant to use His name in order to cast out demons. They did not use the name of Jesus as Paul did, for they did not know Him personally or belong to Him, as Paul did. Thus, they sought to exorcise the man “by the name of the Jesus Paul preached” (verse 13).
This particular demon was not impressed. He indeed recognized and reluctantly surrendered to the power of Jesus, and he also acknowledged the power of Jesus at work in Paul, but he did not know these men. Did these men wish to name drop? Fine. But what was their name? The demon was unwilling to be given orders through anyone who wished to try to use the name of Jesus, as Paul did. For the demon, this attempt was like trying to use a stolen credit card, and he was not about to be ordered about by such hucksters. And so the demon, through the demonized man, attacked these Jewish exorcists and beat the badly, sending them fleeing from the house naked and wounded.
If these Jewish exorcists were attempting to copy the ministry of Paul, they ended up being a very clear contrast to it. And in his rebellion against authority, this demon served the cause of Christ by testifying to the power of the Gospel in contrast to the counterfeit ministry of the sons of Sceva, and others like them. We have already been told that the gospel had gone forth from Ephesus to all of Asia, and now it would seem that this incident was one means which God used to spread the word. News of this incident spread abroad, serving to contrast the power of God at work through Paul with the counterfeit power of the exorcists. All of Ephesus heard of the exposure of the exorcists, and they feared God, so that His name was magnified. He would not be used by men, as though he were subject to the rules of magic.
To read the entire commentary on Acts 19 by Bob Deffinbaugh, click here:
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