Acts 19:11-20 - Would-Be Exorcists

¹¹ And God performed special miracles through the hands of Paul, ¹² such as sick people, who were given hand towels or [leather] aprons that had touched Paul's body, being healed from diseases and delivered from evil spirits.

¹³ But certain traveling Jews, who practiced exorcism, decided that they too would attempt to speak the name of the Lord over people dominated of evil spirits while saying, "I command you [evil spirits to come out] by [the authority of] Jesus whom Paul preaches." ¹⁴ [Now] the seven sons of a Jewish leading priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ [On one occasion] the evil spirit replied, "I know Jesus and I know Paul, but who are you?" ¹⁶ The man with the evil spirit then jumped on all of them, took control, then overpowered them so that they ran out of the house with their clothes torn off and badly beaten. ¹⁷ When this incident became known to all of the Jews and Greeks [i.e., Gentiles] who lived in Ephesus, they became fearful and the name of the Lord Jesus was regarded with honor. ¹⁸ Many of the believers also came confessing their sins and describing what they had [previously] done. ¹⁹ And a large number of them, who had been involved in occultic practices, brought their books [on the occult] and began burning them publicly. When they calculated the cost [of the books] it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. [Note: The actual amount was approximately years of a farm laborer's pay, or more than ²⁰ So, the message of the Lord spread widely and had a great influence [over people].