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26. Ye see and hear. The silversmith reminds them that they are eyewitnesses of what is taking place at Ephesus—the falling off in demand for the products surrounding the worship, as the preaching and preachers of Christianity spread far and wide.

Throughout all Asia. The speech of Demetrius, though doubtless colored by his own fears, confirms the statement of v. 10 concerning the success of Paul’s labors. As has already been noted, it is possible that Paul’s writings, if not his presence, reached Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis. Churches in the nearby cities of Pergamus, Smyrna, Thyatira, Sardis, and Philadelphia are mentioned in the Revelation. In one way or another the gospel had spread widely throughout the region now called Asia Minor. Pliny, in his epistle to Trajan (Letters x. 96), nearly half a century later, uses language similar to that of Demetrius. He speaks of temples “almost deserted” and “but few purchasers” for sacrificial victims, in the region of Pontus just to the northeast of Ephesus.

This Paul. If the bodily presence of Paul was truly as unimpressive as he himself described it (see 2 Cor. 10:10; Gal. 4:13-15), we can easily imagine the scorn Demetrius threw into the words as he referred to “this Paul.”

Turned away much people. They were turned away from their devotion to Artemis, and so from the purchase of the shrines and other materials on sale in connection with the temple.

They be no gods. See on Acts 14:14, 15; 1 Cor. 8:4. In anger, Demetrius virtually committed himself to the opposite idea—that the idol was a god. Pagan philosophers always insisted that the images were merely symbolic and ideal representations.