CHURCHES, ROBBERS OF . This is in Acts 19:37 an AV [Note: Authorized Version.] mistranslation (RV [Note: Revised Version.] has ‘robbers of temples’). Even the RV [Note: Revised Version.] is inexact. The word ought to be translated simply ‘sacrilegious persons,’ that is, persons acting disrespectfully to the goddess of Ephesus. In 2Ma 4:42 (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘author of the sacrilege’) the expression is applied to Lysimachus, brother of Menelaus the high priest, who perished in a riot caused by sacrilege (b.c. 170).
A. Souter.