Acts 8:20

8:20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, ¹  because you thought you could acquire ²  God’s gift with money!

Acts 19:24

19:24 For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines ³  of Artemis, ⁴  brought a great deal ⁵  of business ⁶  to the craftsmen.

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¹ tn Grk “May your silver together with you be sent into destruction.” This is a strong curse. The gifts of God are sovereignly bestowed and cannot be purchased.

² tn Or “obtain.”

³ tn BDAG 665 s.v. ναός 1.a states, “Specif. of temples: of replicas of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus 19:24…but here, near ἱερόν vs. 27…ναός can be understood in the more restricted sense shrine, where the image of the goddess stood.”

⁴ sn Artemis was the name of a Greek goddess worshiped particularly in Asia Minor, whose temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was located just outside the city of Ephesus.

⁵ tn Grk “brought not a little business” (an idiom).

⁶ sn A great deal of business. The charge that Christianity brought economic and/or social upheaval was made a number of times in Acts: 16:20-21; 17:6-7; 18:13.