Acts 19:14

 Acts 19:14

And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.

a. NLT: Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. [Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.]

b. ASV: And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, who did this. [Thomas Nelson & Sons first published the American Standard Version in 1901. This translation of the Bible is in the public domain.]

c. YLT: And there were certain -- seven sons of Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest -- who are doing this thing; [The Young's Literal Translation was translated by Robert Young, who believed in a strictly literal translation of God's word. This version of the Bible is in the public domain.] 

d. Classic Amplified: Seven sons of a certain Jewish chief priest named Sceva were doing this. [Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation]

e. Peshitta Eastern Text:  And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a jew, and chief of the priests, who did this. [HOLY BIBLE FROM THE ANCIENT EASTERN TEXT.Copyright  Ⓒ 1933 by A.J. Holmon Co.; copyright  Ⓒ renewed 1961 by A.J. Holmon Co.; Copyright  Ⓒ 1939 by A.J. Holmon Co.; copyright  Ⓒ renewed 1967  by A.J. Holmon Co.;  Copyright  Ⓒ 1940 by A.J. Holmon Co.; copyright  Ⓒ renewed 1968 by A.J. Holmon Co.; Copyright  Ⓒ 1957 by A.J. Holmon Co. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.]

f. NIV: Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. [THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.]

1. “And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew…”

a. And [Strong: 1161. de deh a primary particle (adversative or continuative); but, and, etc.:--also, and, but, moreover, now (often unexpressed in English).]

b. [there] were [Strong: 2258. en ane imperfect of 1510; I (thou, etc.) was (wast or were):--+ agree, be, X have (+ charge of), hold, use, was(-t), were.]

c. seven [Strong: 2033. hepta hep-tah' a primary number; seven:--seven.]

d. sons [Strong: 5207. huios hwee-os' apparently a primary word; a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinship:--child, foal, son.

e. [of one] Sceva [Strong: 4630. Skeuas skyoo-as' apparently of Latin origin; left-handed; Scevas (i.e. Scoevus), an Israelite:--Sceva.] 

f. [Strong: 5100. tis tis an enclitic indefinite pronoun; some or any person or object:--a (kind of), any (man, thing, thing at all), certain (thing), divers, he (every) man, one (X thing), ought, + partly, some (man, -body, - thing, -what), (+ that no-)thing, what(-soever), X wherewith, whom(-soever), whose(-soever).]

g. [a] Jew [Strong: 2453. Ioudaios ee-oo-dah'-yos from 2448 (in the sense of 2455 as a country); Judaean, i.e. belonging to Jehudah:--Jew(-ess), of Judaea.]

2. “...a chief priest, who did this.”

a. [a] chief priest [Strong: 749. archiereus ar-khee-er-yuce' from 746 and 2409; the high-priest (literally, of the Jews, typically, Christ); by extension a chief priest:--chief (high) priest, chief of the priests.]

b. [who] did [Strong: 4160. poieo poy-eh'-o apparently a prolonged form of an obsolete primary; to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct):--abide, + agree, appoint, X avenge, + band together, be, bear, + bewray, bring (forth), cast out, cause, commit, + content, continue, deal, + without any delay, (would) do(-ing), execute, exercise, fulfil, gain, give, have, hold, X journeying, keep, + lay wait, + lighten the ship, make, X mean, + none of these things move me, observe, ordain, perform, provide, + have purged, purpose, put, + raising up, X secure, shew, X shoot out, spend, take, tarry, + transgress the law, work, yield.]

c. [Strong: 3588. [hoi] ὁ ho ho, including the feminine he hay, and the neuter to to in all their inflections; the definite article; the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom):--the, this, that, one, he, she, it, etc.] [Thayer: [hoi] ὁ, ἡ, τό, originally τος, τῇ, τό (as is evident from the forms τοι, ται for οἱ, αἱ in Homer and the Ionic writings), corresponds to our definite article the (German der, die, das), which is properly a demonstrative pronoun, which we see in its full force in Homer, and of which we find certain indubitable traces also in all kinds of Greek prose, and hence also in the N. T.] [Additional variants: tē, hoi, oi, tēn,ta, tēs,tois, tō, tōn, hé  hē, hai ]

d. this [Strong: 5124. touto too'-to neuter singular nominative or accusative case of 3778; that thing:--here (-unto), it, partly, self(-same), so, that (intent), the same, there(-fore, -unto), this, thus, where(-fore).]

1). Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible: And there were seven sons of one Sceva a Jew,.... Who strolled about the country, and used exorcisms: and chief of the priests; that were at Ephesus; not the high priest of the Jews, for he would have been at Jerusalem, and not at Ephesus; though indeed it does not necessarily follow from the words, that Sceva himself was there, only his seven sons: however, no such name appears in the catalogue of the Jewish high priests, nor is it reasonable to think, that seven sons of an high priest should follow such a vagabond course of life: Beza's ancient copy only calls him "a priest"; and the Alexandrian copy reads his name, Sceuta, and the Ethiopic version omits it; it is the same with and signifies a spectator, or observer; see the Targum on 2 Samuel 13:34 which did so; adjured the devils in the name of Jesus, to come out; at least they did so in one case, as follows.

2). Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges: ] The Greek says simply a chief priest, and so Rev. Ver. We cannot tell why the title is given to him, but it is most likely that the name was applied to the heads of the twenty-four courses of the Levitical priesthood, who are called in the Old Testament “heads of fathers’ houses.” ] i.e. which agreed to adopt this form of words in their exorcisms. There is no need to suppose that the whole seven were present in the case about to be named, but only that they were all exorcists, and in their wish to seem the best of their class they determined to use words which should connect them with the Christian preacher through whom many miracles were known to have been wrought.