Town Clerk
grammateus. An officer originally appointed to record the laws and decrees of the state, mid to read them in public; but in Asia Minor, under the Roman empire, authorized to preside over popular assemblies and submit questions to their vote, as inscriptions on marbles testify; in short, governors of single cities and districts, and named as such on the coins; sometimes also entitled "chief priests"; a kind of state secretary.
The town clerk at, Ephesus appeased the mob gathered by Demetrius the silversmith against the gospel preachers (Act 19:35-41). His speech is a model of judiciousness, and perfectly carried his point. Such excitement, he reasons, is undignified in Ephesians, seeing that their devotion to Diana of Ephesus is beyond question.
It is unreasonable, since the men apprehended are neither church robbers nor blasphemers, so ye ought to do nothing rashly; if even there were grounds against them, there are legal means of redress open, without resorting to illegal; lastly, we are in danger of being called in question by Roman authority for this uproar (see Pro 15:23). Boeckh mentions an Ephesian inscription, No. 2990 C. and H. ii. 80. "Munatius the townn clerk and ruler of Asia" (Asiarch).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia on Town Clerk
Town Clerk klurk, klark (grammateus): The word "clerk," "writer," "town clerk," "scribe," is found in this meaning only in Ac 19:35, "when the townclerk had quieted the multitude." Cremer defines the word as signifying a "public servant among the Greeks and the reader of the legal and state-papers" (Lexicon of the New Testament). There was considerable difference between the authority of these "clerks" in the cities of Asia Minor and of Greece. Among the Greeks the grammateis were usually slaves, or at least persons belonging to the lower classes of society, and their office was a nominal, almost a mechanical, one. In Asia, on the contrary, they were officers of considerable consequence, as the passage quoted indicates (Thucidydes vii.19, "the scribe of the city") and the grammateus is not infrequently mentioned in the inscriptions and on the coins of Ephesus (e.g. British Museum Inscriptions, III, 2, 482, 528). They had the supervision of the city archives, all official decrees were drawn up by them, and it was their prerogative to read such decrees to the assembled citizens. Their…
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible on Town Clerk
An ofticial whose powers and functions varied at difl'erent periods and in dillerent countries of the Greek world. Here we speak only of the gramnuiteus in the Grajco- Asiatic cities under the early Roman em- pire. The titles ' clerk of the city ' (yp. Trjs T^Xtus), ' clerk of the senate ' (7/). t^s /iouX^s), ' clerk of the people ' {yp. toC ornxov), ' clerk of senate and people, or of senate and ekklesia ' [yp. /SouX^s koI proved by the senate, and afterwards sent to be approved by tlie people in the ekklesia. The powers of the people were limited to accepting or rejecting the decrees sent down from the senate. They could not amend, and gradually their approval became a mere form, which followed as a matter of course, inasmuch as the Roman imperial system dis- couraged and limited the powers of the popular assembly. After the decrees were passed, the gram- mateus sealed them with the public seal (o-qiiixila acppayU) in the presence of witnesses (oorYiiaTo- yp6.(poi). In many places he even proposed the decrees in the popular assembly, and acted as chairman. In Ephesus (Ac 19"), at a…
Smith's Bible Dictionary on Town Clerk
the title ascribed in our version to the magistrate at Ephesus who appeased the mob in the theatre at the time of the tumult excited by Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen. (Acts 19:35) The original service of this class of men was to record the laws and decrees of the state, and to read them in public.
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Easton, M.G. (1893) Easton's Bible Dictionary. 3rd edn. Thomas Nelson. [Public Domain]
- Nave, O.J. (1897) Nave's Topical Bible. Topical Bible Publishing Co.. [Public Domain]
- Hastings, J. (ed.) (1909) A Dictionary of the Bible. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. [Public Domain]
- Smith, W. (ed.) (1884) Smith's Bible Dictionary. London: John Murray. [Public Domain]
- Fausset, A.R. (1878) Fausset's Bible Dictionary. [Public Domain]A Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopaedia