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Acts 19:11-13
New Catholic Bible
Acts 19:11-13
New Catholic Bible
11 New Encounter of the Church with Magic.[a] So extraordinary were the wonders God worked through Paul 12 that when handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, they were cured of their diseases and the evil spirits came out of them.
13 Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists used the name of the Lord Jesus over those possessed by evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.”
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- Acts 19:11 Here we have a new account of miracles analogous to those of Peter (Acts 5:15); the Gospel changes one’s life. Then the account becomes picturesque in reporting a new encounter with a milieu influenced by magic. From the Gospels, we know that there were Jewish exorcists (Mt 12:27) and that some even acted in the very name of Jesus (Mk 9:38; Lk 9:49). Those at Ephesus must have moved with ease in this city of superstition where books of magic proliferated. The feeling is that since there is a new name circulating—that of Paul’s Jesus—why not profit from that name so as to be up-to-date! However, once again we see the affirmation of the incompatibility between the magic enterprise and the Christian life. The Gospel will never be a secret act in the hands of sorcerers.
