Acts 19:16

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.

Acts 19:16 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 19:16

And the man in whom the evil spirit was
Being agitated by him:

leapt upon them;
with great agility and force, and laid hold on them, and struggled with them, and beat and wounded them, and stripped them naked:

and overcame them, and prevailed against them;
the Alexandrian copy, Beza's most ancient one, and some others, and the Vulgate Latin version read, "and overcame both"; as if only two of these seven sons had made this attempt, and were so used; though the Ethiopic version reads, "and overcame them all"; all the seven sons:

so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded;
having their clothes tore off, and their bodies beat and bruised.

Acts 19:16 In-Context

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.

18 And many of those who had believed came, confessing and disclosing their practices,

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "in whom the evil spirit was"
• [b]. *Here "and" is supplied because the two previous participles ("leaped" and "subdued") have been translated as finite verbs