Bible Dictionary
Town Clerk
The town clerk was the prominent civic official at Ephesus who quieted the crowd during the disturbance caused by Demetrius. He supervised city records and publicly read official laws and decrees.
Definition
The town clerk was a prominent civic official at Ephesus. He quieted the crowd during the disturbance caused by Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen.
Biblical Usage
In Acts 19:35, the town clerk addressed the assembled people and restored order during the Ephesian tumult.
Historical Background
Town clerks supervised city archives, prepared official decrees, and read them publicly. In Asia Minor they were important officers, unlike the generally lower-status Greek officials who held similar titles.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Smith's Bible Dictionary
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.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>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 social position was thus one of eminence, and a Greek scribe would have been much amazed at the deference shown to his colleagues in Asia and at the power they wielded in the administration of affairs. See, further, Hermann, Staats Altertum, 127, 20; and EPHESUS.</p><p>Henry E. Dosker</p>