Black Magic - Acts 19:17-20

The beating of the seven sons of Sceva by the possessed man was a big deal in the city, “and this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus.” I don’t know if this just means the Greeks who were the quasi Jewish converts, or all the Greeks that lived there in the city.  Let’s remember that Ephesus was a populous city with a very large transient population of merchants and traders from all over the world. These people would have brought their own cultures and religions to the city, and because the true gospel wasn’t practiced by hardly anyone any more, Judaism and then Christianity, the whole rest of the world was ruled by paganism and polytheism and all different types of beliefs.

With such a melting pot of spiritual leanings, it makes sense that there was a large undercurrent of sorcery and magic and the dark arts. The superstitious practices would have felt familiar and common to most of the people who journeyed to the city on business. With that many people turning over in a city that is meant to only be a resting point before journeying home, we can see how the permanent residents of Ephesus would have been more than happy to fulfill that spiritual need for those travelers.
Think about it, ancient religion was a lot about sacrifices and rituals and spells, etc. All aspects of life could be touched by the offered priest craft, rituals of gratitude for safe arrival to the city, ceremonies for a prosperous trade, sacrifice to get home safely, maybe even incantations to absolve one of guilt for indiscretions committed on the journey before heading home to the wife.
From this lens, we can see that the magician, sorcerer, priest craft business would have been booming in Ephesus, which explains why the seven sons of the Jewish high priest would be exorcists as their trade. Paul preaching a different religion and exercising demons for free probably put him on their radar, but he must not have done enough to kindle their anger. If we look at his rejections in other cities, Paul’s message became a problem when he started getting more followers than the others, usually the Jewish leadership, and threatened to take away their power, influence, and their source of wealth.
For Paul to live in Ephesus for three years and teaching daily, without incident or persecution demonstrates just how ingrained black magic was to the society. Either Paul didn’t gain enough followers to off-set their hold on power, or his message was so opposite of the general beliefs of the society that he wasn’t able to gain any followers. But there must have been enough believers to make a three year stay in a single city profitable, so considering that, even with enough interest in Christianity to make it worth the stay, there still wasn’t enough to threaten anyone’s business endeavors.
The seven sons of Sceva were probably on the more popular side of magicians because they probably put on quite a show. If there were seven men, they would have seven families to feed which means that they brought in enough money in their joint venture to at least be able to feed their own families. This indicates to me that they made a decent amount of money working as a group, therefore they were probably pretty popular not only among the common people they serviced, but among the other sorcerers in their community.
With the news that all seven of these men were not only beaten up, but were beaten so badly that they “fled out of that house naked and wounded” would have been huge news to everyone, especially their fellow dabblers of the dark arts. It also would have been shocking to hear that all this was done to them by one single man who had invoked the name of Jesus and Paul. This probably got Paul a surprise visit from not only the city’s sorcerers, but also those who had heard what happened and wanted to know more.
It must have been in this surprise visit that “fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.” This event was not instigated or even participated in at all by Paul. It was fully orchestrated and executed by God, and it created this huge interest in the gospel and Paul just kind of sat back and experienced great success, though all the work had been done by God. This is an excellent example that the Lord can do his own work, and he has his own plans, and that the gift really is to allow us to be along for the ride.
The amazement and conversion wasn’t just from the general public but also “many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.” It wasn’t just their followers who were seeing the truth for the first time and accepting it, it was also the practioners of black magic themselves.  These are the ones who probably thought that they were doing their clients a service by invoking spirits and chants during their practice. They probably believed in the morality of what they were doing.
It is significant that those workers of superstition burned their books. From the article “Proclamations, Miracles & Magic in Ephesus” from medium.com we read, “some people in ancient times believed that the power of sorcerers’ rites and incantations lay in their secrecy… Magical secrets supposedly lost their power when they were made public. The fact that the converted Ephesians magicians disclosed these ‘practices’ shows the genuineness of their repentance.” This statement is derived from the phrase “brought their books together and burned them.”
I don’t think that there was a sorcerers trade union established in Ephesus with a handbook of protocols given to each new member. Because witchcraft seemed to be a competitive and lucrative field to get in to, I would imagine that those who were successful magicians guarded their secrets pretty closely. They each would have their own books, probably hand written in many cases, their unique talismans, sacred objects, etc, and these things would have all been brought out into the public view, so even if they had a last minute change of heart and didn’t burn everything then their business would have been ruined regardless.
It’s also important to note that because soothsaying was their primary means of support, they were not only destroying objects but also their livelihood. It’s one thing to embrace the gospel when it’s presented, but it’s a completely different level of commitment when you sacrifice your ability to support your family for the gospel. To be honest, that would have been incredibly difficult for me to do. I’d like to say that I would do it, but ultimately I don’t really know for sure.
The article continues, “Likewise, the ‘burning’ of ‘their books’ symbolizes the public and irreversible repudiation of their contents.” This was a point of no return. Even if they later decided that they didn’t believe in the gospel any more, they could not go back to what they knew and make money. I also think that some of these books were probably family heirlooms. The only way that one soothsayer would disclose their secrets would be to some sort of apprentice, and they would probably be a younger family member like a daughter or granddaughter.
Not only were they giving up their jobs, they were also probably publically breaking with family tradition. Even if they didn’t agree with the contents of the book, I could see the logic in some people saying, “it’s special because my grandma gave it to me, so I’ll just keep it to remember her.” But they didn’t do that, they threw it all away for the Savior. What aspects of our own lives do we give up for the Savior?