For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.

For ye have brought hither these men, who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess.

For you have brought hither these men, who are neither guilty of sacrilege, nor of blasphemy against your goddess.

For ye have brought these men, who are neither temple-plunderers, nor speak injuriously of your goddess.

'For ye brought these men, who are neither temple-robbers nor speaking evil of your goddess;

For you have taken these men, who are not doing damage to the holy place or talking against our goddess.

For you have brought forward these men, who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers against your goddess.

for you have brought these men here, though they are neither robbers of Temples nor blasphemers of our Goddess.

Men which are neither church-robbers. He doth both truly and well deny that they be church-robbers; but he doth shortly after falsely define the kind of church-robbery to speak blasphemously against Diana. For seeing that all superstition is profane and polluted, it followeth that those be sacrilegious persons who translate the honor which is due to God alone unto idols. But the wisdom of the town-clerk, and that carnal, is here commended, and not his godliness. For he had respect unto this alone to extinguish the heat of the uproar; and therefore doth he at length conclude, if Demetrius have any private matter, there be judgment-seats and magistrates. And that public affairs must be handled in a lawful, and not in a disordered assembly -- in an assembly gathered by the commandment of the magistrates, and not in a concourse which is without consideration, run together through the motion of one man, and to satisfy his appetite. [1] He calleth them deputies, [2] in the plural number, not that Asia had more than one, but because legates did sometimes keep courts in the place of the deputies. Also, he appeaseth them by putting them in fear, because the deputy had occasion offered to punish and fine the city sore. [3]

Footnotes

1 - "Unius hominis impulsu et libidine," at the instigation and caprice of one man.

2 - "Proconsules," proconsuls.

3 - "Quia proconsuli oblatu erat occasio urbis male mulctandae," because an opportunity was given to the proconsul to impose a heavy fine on the city.

For ye - Demetrius and his friends. The blame was to be traced to them.
Which are neither robbers of churches - The word "churches" we now apply to edifices reared for purposes of Christian worship. Since no such churches had then been built, this translation is unhappy, and is not at all demanded by the original. The Greek word ἱεροσύλους hierosulous is applied properly to those who commit sacrilege; who plunder temples of their sacred things. The meaning here is that Paul and his companions had not been guilty of robbing the temple of Diana, or any other temple. The charge of sacrilege could not be brought against them. Though they had preached against idols and idol worship, yet they had offered no violence to the temples of idolaters, nor had they attempted to strip them of the sacred utensils employed in their service. What they had done, they had done peaceably.
Nor yet blasphemers of your goddess - They had not used harsh or reproachful language of Diana. This had not been charged on them, nor is there the least evidence that they had done it. They had opposed idolatry; had reasoned against it; and had endeavored to turn the people from it. But there is not the least evidence that they had ever done it in harsh or reproachful language. This shows that people should employ reason, and not harsh or reproachful language against a pervading evil; and that the way to remove it is to enlighten the minds of people, and to convince them of the error of their ways. People gain nothing by bitter and reviling words; and it is much to obtain the testimony of even the enemies of religion as Paul did of the chancellor of Ephesus - that no such words had been used in describing their crimes and follies.

These men - are neither robbers of churches - Ἱρεσυλους; Spoilers of sacred places. As his design evidently was to appease and conciliate the people, he fixed first on a most incontrovertible fact: These men have not spoiled your temples; nor is there any evidence that they have even blasphemed your goddess. The apostles acted as prudent men should: they endeavored to enlighten the minds of the multitude, that the absurdity of their gross errors might be the more apparent; for, when they should know the truth, it was likely that they would at once abandon such gross falsehood.

For ye have brought hither these men,.... The Arabic version reads, "these two men"; that is, Gaius and Aristarchus, whom they had brought by force into the theatre to fight with wild beasts:
which are neither robbers of churches; or "temples"; or, as the Arabic version renders it, "robbers of the vessels of the temple", sacrilegious persons; they have not stolen anything out of the temple of Diana, nor any other:
nor yet blasphemers of your goddess; they have not made mention of her name, much less said anything against her, at least this officer did not know that they had; and if he had, he did not stick to tell an officious lie to screen them, as did the Egyptian midwives in favour of the Hebrew women.

For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches--"temple-plunderers," or sacrilegious persons.
nor yet blasphemers of your goddess--This is a remarkable testimony, showing that the apostle had, in preaching against idolatry, studiously avoided (as at Athens) insulting the feelings of those whom he addressed--a lesson this to missionaries and ministers in general.

Nor blasphemers of your goddess - They simply declared the one God, and the vanity of idols in general.