Acts 19:12-27

12so that even facecloths or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.

13Now some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists also attempted to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches!”

14Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were doing this.

15The evil spirit answered them, “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul — but who are you?”

16Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them, overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded.

17When this became known to everyone who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, they became afraid, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high esteem.

18And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices,

19while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

20In this way the word of the Lord spread and prevailed.

21After these events, Paul resolved by the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem. “After I’ve been there,” he said, “It is necessary for me to see Rome as well.”

22After sending to Macedonia two of those who assisted him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

23About that time there was a major disturbance about the Way.

24For a person named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, provided a great deal of business for the craftsmen.

25When he had assembled them, as well as the workers engaged in this type of business, he said, “Men, you know that our prosperity is derived from this business.

26You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and misled a considerable number of people by saying that gods made by hand are not gods.

27Not only do we run a risk that our business may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence come to the verge of ruin — the very one all of Asia and the world worship.”