Sceva

Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia

(Acts 19:14)—a Jewish chief priest at Ephesus whose seven sons practiced exorcism. When they attempted to invoke “Jesus whom Paul preacheth,” the evil spirit answered that it knew Jesus and Paul but not them; the possessed man overpowered them, and they fled wounded and naked. Fear fell upon Ephesus, the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified, and many converts openly burned their books of magic, valued at fifty thousand pieces of silver.

Scripture cited

Acts 19:14

Related entries

Aristarchus (best ruler) (Acts 19:29; 20:4; 27:2) — a Macedonian of Thessalonica, companion and fellow-worker of the…
Artemis, otherwise Diana (chastity) (Acts 19:28 [as given]) — a well-known pagan goddess among the Greeks, according to mythology…
Baptism - the sacrament in which a believer, through threefold immersion of the body in water with the invocation of…
Diopetes (fallen from Jupiter) (Acts 19:35) — a statue of the goddess Artemis, or Diana, in the temple at Ephesus,…
Ephesus (desirable, longed for) (Acts 19:35) — the most celebrated of the cities of Asia Minor, situated on the river…
Erastus (worthy of love) (Acts 19:22; Rom. 16:23) — one of the Seventy Apostles, who was the city treasurer at…
Gaius (from Greek: earthly; from Latin: lord) — four persons mentioned under this name in the New Testament: a) a…
Handkerchiefs (Acts 19:12) were in common use among the Hebrews, and, according to the testimony of travelers, the…
Remphan (Acts 7:43; Amos 5:26)—probably the name given to a planet, perhaps Saturn, that was worshiped as a deity.…
The Asiarchs (Acts 19:31) — this was the name given to officials in the Asian provinces, whose duty it was to oversee…

Search the whole Encyclopedia All 4,575 entries, searchable, with every entry linked to the verses it explains.