With an indefinite time marker (compare 12:1) and by way of general statement, Luke introduces the last recorded episode of the Christian Gentile mission in the book of Acts. The incident is probably near the end of Paul's ministry at Ephesus (see 20:1). A great disturbance arises concerning the Way (12:18; 17:6-8, 13). The gospel's continued spread throughout Asia, not just Paul's witness, is at issue here (19:10, 20). Christianity is a way of life, a new belief system with a new Lord at the center, and a new set of mores and behavior patterns—in short, a new culture. Because every culture survives through the dynamic of coercive conformity, the presence of a new way, which claims to be "the Way," will by definition create a disturbance.

The catalyst for the disturbance is Demetrius, a manufacturer of silver shrines of Artemis. These were plaques, silver reliefs of the goddess within her temple. The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art has a second/first-century B.C. bronze matrix of Artemis in her temple (Reeder 1987). It is the form into which a sheet of silver or bronze was pressed to make such a plaque. Once dedicated in the Great Temple of Artemis, these would serve local worshipers and pilgrims as votive offerings, family worship centers, amulets or just souvenirs.

The Anatolian "Great Mother" was identified by Greek settlers with the Greek Artemis—virgin huntress, goddess of wild animals, wild nature, chastity and childbirth. It is difficult to discern which of her three roles—mother goddess, fertility goddess or nature goddess—was primary in the minds of first-century devotees (LaSor 1979b:306; Arnold 1989:26). Details of her statue, however, do reveal the powers attributed to her. The multiple bulbous objects on her chest have been variously interpreted: are they "breasts, bee eggs, ostrich eggs, steer testicles, grapes, nuts, acorns"? They point to her role as a goddess of fertility (Arnold 1989:25). The dreadful animals on her skirt show she has the power over them and is able to deliver from fear, since she is the supreme "ghost goddess." The signs of the zodiac around her neck show she can mediate between her followers and the cruel fate that dogs them. Indeed, she possesses authority and power superior to astrological fate (Arnold 1989:25, 21). In sum, Artemis had unsurpassed cosmic power. She was called Savior, Lord, Queen of the Cosmos and heavenly goddess. Each year in March or April, Ephesus hosted the monthlong festival Artemisa, a time of carnival and religious celebration. Pilgrims flocked from all over the Empire to participate in the impressive ceremonies to Artemis, including offerings at her sacred grove, to enjoy athletics, plays and concerts, and to partake of great banquets and revelry.

Demetrius's product, an important item in the Artemis cult, brought in no little business (better, "profit") for the craftsmen. Possibly as president of the guild of silversmiths, Demetrius assembles his fellow craftsmen along with workmen in related trades, workers in lead, marble, and semiprecious stones (religious objects of the Artemis cult have been discovered made of those materials [Crocker 1987:77]).

Demetrius reviews two facts from their current situation: their good income from the "silver shrine" trade and the effect of Paul's polemic against polytheistic idolatry. As with the Jews (17:4; 18:4; 19:8), with the Gentiles Paul has engaged in a rhetoric of persuasion. The result has been that the apostle has led astray large numbers of people . . . in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia (19:26; compare 19:10). The basic meaning of led astray (methistemi) is "mentally and spiritually to bring to a different point of view, cause someone to change his position" (Bauer, Gingrich and Danker 1979:499). Since the Christian message is about repentance and conversion, could there be a play on words here as Demetrius speaks disparagingly of the transformation called for by Paul's Christian witness (Col 1:13; compare Acts 26:18)? The message that has caused such defection is that man-made (literally, "those coming into being through hands") gods are no gods at all (17:29; Is 44:9-20; 46:1-7; compare 1 Cor 8:4-6; 10:20).

At the very center of each culture is a religion, whether sacred or secular, expressed in a set of myths of origin, power and destiny. These in turn spawn the culture's worldview, which generates social structures and behavior patterns. Paul's message here shakes Ephesian, indeed Greco-Roman, culture to its very core by showing one of its religious power centers, the Artemis cult, for what it is: nothing. In that sense it does mean the death of the culture, as it does for any culture today with its gods, whether they be a traditional pantheon of tribal deities or the media and educational icons of secular humanism.

Demetrius sees the gospel as a threat to economic prosperity, national pride and religious fervor. Our trade (literally, "this branch of the business") will come into disrepute among those who have shunned idolatry, so that orders and sales will dry up. The temple of the great goddess Artemis, the pride of Ephesus and Asia, will be reckoned as nothing. It may be hard for Demetrius's hearers to imagine that this structure could totally lose its value in the eyes of the world. After all, Antipater deemed it one of the seven wonders of the world. Its precincts covered an area 425 225 feet, four times the size of the Parthenon, with 127 sixty-foot columns. It was the foremost worship center of Asia and a world-renowned bank (Pausanias Description of Greece 7.5.4; Dio Chrysostom Orations 31.54). But if the image for which it was built were judged no goddess by all, it would indeed be discredited.

If the Christian witness succeeds, the divine majesty of Artemis literally "will be torn down" (Lk 12:18). Demetrius's claims for the extent of the worship of Artemis are quite accurate. Thirty-three worship sites have been located across the Roman Empire from Spain to Syria (Strabo Geography 4.1.5). According to Pausanias this cult received the most extensive and highest worship in the ancient world (Description of Greece 4.31.8). In Rome the Aventine temple of Diana (Roman equivalent of Artemis) had a statue modeled on the Ephesian type, and on the occasion of the marriage of Emperor Claudius to Agrippina, commemorative coins were struck at Ephesus with the profiles of the newlyweds on one side and a figure of the statue with the legend "Diana Ephesia" on the other (Kreitzer 1987:61). To have such divine majesty torn down would be quite a feat. Yet from what Demetrius has seen of the mighty advance of a gospel of repentance from vain idols, it is "a clear and present danger."

Demetrius's appeal to economic, patriotic and religious motives for a defense of paganism against the gospel shows how interrelated are these cultural aspects. Any Christianity worth its salt will be a challenge to the pocketbook, the flag and the shrine.