Acts 19:15

15 But the evil spirit answered [and] said to them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I am acquainted with, but who are you?"

Acts 19:15 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 19:15

And the evil spirit answered and said
The Alexandrian copy, the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, add, "to them"; to the seven sons of Sceva:

Jesus I know;
to be the Son of God and Messiah, and own that he has power of dispossessing spirits, of which there were many instances in the days of his flesh:

and Paul I know;
and own to be a servant of the most high God, by whom miracles of this kind have been wrought:

but who are ye?
you are not the disciples of Jesus, nor the servants of God, but the children of the devil, and have no power over us, but on the other hand are subject to us.

Acts 19:15 In-Context

13 But some itinerant Jewish exorcists also attempted to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches!"

14 (Now seven sons of a certain Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.)

15 But the evil spirit answered [and] said to them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I am acquainted with, but who are you?"

16 And the man {who had the evil spirit} leaped on them, subdued all of them, [and] prevailed against them, so that they ran away from that house naked and wounded.

17 And this became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was exalted.

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[and]" is supplied because the previous participle ("answered") has been translated as a finite verb