{The town-clerk} (ho grammateus). Ephesus was a free city
and elected its own officers and the recorder or secretary was
the chief magistrate of the city, though the proconsul of the
province of Asia resided there. This officer is not a mere
secretary of another officer or like the copyists and students of
the law among the Jews, but the most influential person in
Ephesus who drafted decrees with the aid of the strat(8867)oi, had
charge of the city's money, was the power in control of the
assembly, and communicated directly with the proconsul.
Inscriptions at Ephesus give frequently this very title for their
chief officer and the papyri have it also. The precise function
varied in different cities. His name appeared on the coin at
Ephesus issued in his year of office. {Had quieted the multitude}
(katasteilas ton ochlon). First aorist active participle of
katastell(935c), to send down, arrange dress (Euripides), lower
(Plutarch), restrain (papyrus example), only twice in the N.T.
(here and verse  36 , be quiet), but in LXX and Josephus. He
evidently took the rostrum and his very presence as the city's
chief officer had a quieting effect on the billowy turmoil and a
semblance of order came. He waited, however, till the hubbub had
nearly exhausted itself (two hours) and did not speak till there
was a chance to be heard. {Saith} (ph(8873)in). Historical present
for vividness. {How that}. Merely participle ousan and
accusative polin in indirect discourse, no conjunction at all
(Robertson, _Grammar_, pp. 1040ff.), common idiom after
gin(9373)k(935c), to know. {Temple-keeper} (
e(936b)oron). Old word from

e(9373) (
aos), temple, and kore(935c), to sweep. Warden, verger,
cleaner of the temple, a sacristan. So in Xenophon and Plato.
Inscriptions so describe Ephesus as 
e(936b)oron t(8873) Artemidos as
Luke has it here and also applied to the imperial _cultus_ which
finally had several such temples in Ephesus. Other cities claimed
the same honour of being 
e(936b)oros, but it was the peculiar
boast of Ephesus because of the great temple of Artemis. A coin
of A.D. 65 describes Ephesus as 
e(936b)oros. There are papyri
examples of the term applied to individuals, one to Priene as

e(936b)oros of the temple in Ephesus (Moulton and Milligan,
_Vocabulary_). {And of the image which fell down from Jupiter}
(kai tou diopetous). Supply agalma (image), "the from
heaven-fallen image." From Zeus (Dios) and pet(935c) (pipt(932c)
pipet(935c)), to fall. Zeus (Jupiter) was considered lord of the sky
or heaven and that is the idea in diopetous here. The legend
about a statue fallen from heaven occurs concerning the statue of
Artemis at Tauris, Minerva at Athens, etc. Thus the recorder
soothed the vanity (Rackham) of the crowd by appeal to the
world-wide fame of Ephesus as sacristan of Artemis and of her
heaven-fallen image.