Sceva, or
Scevas, apparently related to the Greek word
skeuos meaning a vessel or implement, a Jew called a "chief priest" (
archiereus in Greek) in .
There was no high priest in
Jerusalem by this name--some speculate that he was the head of one of the twenty-four courses of
the house of
Levi. He had seven sons, who in
Ephesus "took upon them to
call over them which had evil spirits the name of the
Lord
Jesus," in imitation of
Paul. They tried their method of
exorcism on a fierce
demon, and failed. His answer to them
was "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?" This has been interpreted as, "The Jesus whom you invoke is One
whose authority I acknowledge; and the Paul whom you name I
recognize to be a servant or messenger of God; but what sort of
men are ye who have been empowered to act as you do by neither?"
(
Thomas Lindsay on the
Acts of the Apostles.)