Note 1 at Acts 19:24: The name Demetrius meant, "belonging to Demeter or Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and rural life." Demetrius was a silversmith who made small silver shrines of the temple of Diana or of the goddess itself. Because of Paul's preaching, many were turning from idolatry to the worship of the true God and Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen were felling the effects in their pocket books.

This caused Demetrius to call together the craftsmen of like occupation. Although their true concern was money (1 Tim. 6:10), they turned this into a religious issue and incited a riot. This probably hastened Paul's departure from Ephesus (Acts 20:1).

It is very unlikely that this Demetrius and the one spoken of in 3 Jn. 12 are the same man.