Demonism Defeated at Ephesus

¹¹ God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands, ¹² so that even facecloths or work aprons^[a] that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.^(A)

¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists 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!”^{(B) 14} Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵ The evil spirit answered them, “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul—but who are you?” ¹⁶ Then the man who had the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ This became known to everyone who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. Then fear fell on all of them, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.^{(C) 18} And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices, ¹⁹ while 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 50,000 pieces of silver. ²⁰ In this way the Lord’s message flourished and prevailed.^(D)