Acts Chapter 19 verse 12 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 12. - Insomuch for so, A.V.; unto the sick were carried away from his body for from his body were brought unto the sick, A.V.; went out for went out of them, A.V. and T.R. From his body (χρωτός); literally, the skin, but used here by St. Luke for the body, in accordance with the usage of medical writers "from Hippocrates to Galen" (Hobart). Handkerchiefs; σουδάριον, the Latin word sudarium, properly a cloth for wiping off the sweat. It is one of those words, like κουστωδία κεντυρίων σημικίνθιον, κοδράντης, etc., which exactly represent the political condition of things at the time of the writers, who were living in a country where Greek was the language of common intercourse, but where the dominion was Roman. It is found in Luke 19:20; John 11:44; John 20:7, and here. Aprons; σιμικίνθια, more properly written σημικίνθια. It is the Latin word semicinctium, a half-girdle; the Greek word is ἡμιζώνιον. According to some, it was a narrow girdle, but according to others, and with more probability, an apron covering only half, i.e. the front of the body. It only occurs here in the New Testament or elsewhere. The careful mention of these cures of the sick may also be connected with St. Luke's medical profession. As regards these unusual modes of miraculous cure, comp. Acts 5:15. It might well be the Divine purpose, in the case of both Peter and Paul, to invest with such extraordinary power the very persons of the apostles who were to stand forth as his messengers and preach in his Name. In St. Paul this parity of miraculous energy stamped his apostleship with an authority equal to that of St. Peter.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(12) So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons.--Both words are, in the original, transliterated from the Latin, the former being sudaria, used to wipe off sweat from brow or face; the latter semicincta, the short aprons worn by artisans as they worked. We ask how St. Luke, passing over two years of labour in a few words, came to dwell so fully on these special facts. The answer may be found (1) in St. Luke's own habit of mind as a physician, which would lead him to dwell on the various phenomena presented by the supernatural gift of healing; (2) a further explanation may be found in the inference suggested in the Note on Acts 19:9. Such a report of special and extraordinary phenomena was likely enough to be made by a physician like Tyrannus to one of the same calling, and probably of the same faith. The picture suggested is that of devout persons coming to the Apostle as he laboured at his craft, and carrying away with them the very handkerchiefs and aprons that he had used, as precious relics that conveyed the supernatural gift of healing which he exercised. The efficacy of such media stands obviously on the same footing as that of the hem of our Lord's garment (see Note on Matthew 9:20-21), and the shadow of Peter (see Note on Acts 5:15), and, we may add, of the clay in the healing of the blind (see Note on John 9:6). The two conditions of the supernatural work of healing were a Divine Power on the one hand, and Faith on the other, and any external medium might serve to strengthen the latter and bring it into contact with the former. Cures more or less analogous, ascribed to the relics of saints, admit, in some measure, of a like explanation. Without pretending to draw a sharp line of demarcation between the natural and supernatural in such cases, it is clear that a strong belief in the possibility of a healing work as likely, or certain, to be accompanied by any special agent, does much to stimulate the activity of the vis medicatrix Naturae which before was passive and inert. It is not unreasonable to see in the works of healing so wrought a special adaptation to the antecedent habits of mind of a population like that of Ephesus. It was something for them to learn that the prayer of faith and the handkerchief that had touched the Apostle's skin had a greater power to heal than the charms in which they had previously trusted.