Acts 19:12

12 The word got around and people started taking pieces of clothing - handkerchiefs and scarves and the like - that had touched Paul's skin and then touching the sick with them. The touch did it - they were healed and whole.

Acts 19:12 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 19:12

So that from his body were brought unto the sick
The Ethiopic version renders it, "from the extremity", or "border of his garment"; and the Syriac version, "from the garments which were upon his body"; were brought and put upon the sick; that is, of the clothes which the apostle wore, some of them were taken and carried to sick persons, and used by them: particularly "handkerchiefs" or "aprons"; the former were such as he might use to wipe his face with, and remove sweat, or any filth from the body; and the latter, what he might wear as a mechanic, when working at his trade:

and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out
of them;
who were afflicted and possessed with them; these were some of the special and uncommon miracles wrought by the hands of the apostle, and which were wrought in an uncommon way; and which most clearly showed that they were wrought by a divine power.

Acts 19:12 In-Context

10 He did this for two years, giving everyone in the province of Asia, Jews as well as Greeks, ample opportunity to hear the Message of the Master.
11 God did powerful things through Paul, things quite out of the ordinary.
12 The word got around and people started taking pieces of clothing - handkerchiefs and scarves and the like - that had touched Paul's skin and then touching the sick with them. The touch did it - they were healed and whole.
13 Some itinerant Jewish exorcists who happened to be in town at the time tried their hand at what they assumed to be Paul's "game." They pronounced the name of the Master Jesus over victims of evil spirits, saying, "I command you by the Jesus preached by Paul!"
14 The seven sons of a certain Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were trying to do this on a man
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.