Paul W. Wallace
Introduction
An ancient city had a personality of its own. It was a living being with an infancy, a youth, a maturity, and an old age. It was born, and it could die.
An ancient city gradually acquired a reputation. It became known for a certain type of behavior; its response to circumstances was predictable. Stories were told about it, some true, some false, but those stories were part of the city’s personality.
As a city grew in age, the body of its legends grew, and the anecdotes told about it increased. These legends and anecdotes, though often of little historical value, are of supreme importance in determining a city’s character or personality. An atmosphere, an aura, grew up about an ancient city; travellers and visitors felt the atmosphere, but natives understood it intimately, for they had contributed to it.
The city’s appearance also contributed to its personality. A city, like a person, might be richly dressed, or in rags. Its countenance might be beautiful, or homely. Its appearance was determined by its general location, its mountains, rivers, fields, its climate, its buildings and streets. And the outer appearance of a city, again like a person, could of course conceal a much different character.
It is difficult for us in the modern world to conceive of the intimacy which existed in antiquity between a city and her residents. Many modern cities have little history and no legends. The rootlessness of modern society, the ease with which we move from one city to another, prevents us from identifying ourselves closely with any one place. In contrast, many ancient cities had been
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Fig. 1. Locations of the Seven Churches of Asia in Western Turkey.
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inhabited before human memory; a person’s father and forefathers, back through countless generations, had lived, died, and returned to the native soil in that very place. The locality was alive with personal relationships. Every spring, every hill, every grove had its story, legendary or historical. And every inhabitant knew these stories and associated them with himself. So intimately associated were the inhabitants and the city, that the barest allusions could conjure up relationships of great depth and meaning.
St. John, in Revelation 2 and 3, employed such allusions with powerful results. There is no lack of studies on the Seven Churches of Asia. These letters have been discussed by many scholars from many different points of view. The allusions St. John used have been examined with great ingenuity, and the ancient sources, the geography, and the antiquities have received their due attention. Usually, however, writers have been content to paraphrase the ancient sources or merely refer to them. This present study is, to my knowledge, the first attempt to present in full form the relevant testimonia on the Seven Cities of the Apocalypse. Such a method presents many advantages. In the first place, it is difficult to tell a story better than, say Herodotus. But more importantly, a full quotation of a certain event or situation of one of the Seven Cities allows the reader to enter, in some degree, into the spirit of antiquity, and permits him to share in the experience of the city’s history. I have also discussed the geography of the cities as well as the physical remains, at least those which would have been standing at the end of the first century after Christ. By considering the geography, history, physical remains, and testimonia together, I hope to construct a picture of the city which will reveal its essential character at the time when St. John was writing the Apocalypse (ca. A.D. 95).
St. John’s letters to the Seven Churches of Asia were certainly not meant to be sent as individual letters. The seven letters form a unit, and that unit is part of the larger unity of the Apocalypse. But the letters are nonetheless personal and particular, appropriate to the addressed city, and intentional in their references. They are masterpieces of characterization. The letters are, as it were, vignettes against a background of universal humanity. Each city is a type of person — Ephesus: shifting, changing, undependable; Smyrna: fortunate in so many ways, but always suffering; Pergamum: in possession of power, but corrupted by others who were attracted to that power; Thyatira: basically good, but without the moral strength to stand up for convictions; Sardis: complacent and satisfied, willfully unaware that principles and morals were dying;
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Philadelphia: apparently weak, but with hidden sources of stamina; Laodicea: sophisticated, wealthy, schrewd, but spiritually empty.
The writer of the letters clearly sees the personality of the cities; but the most vivid personality created by the Seven Letters is the writer himself, severe but sympathetic, searching the heart of the world through the Seven Cities of the Apocalypse.
Ephesus — A Shifting City
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear evil men but have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and found them to be false; I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” (Rev. 2:1–7)
Fig. 2. Plan of Ephesus
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Location
Ephesus had one of the best protected harbors in Asia Minor on the Aegean Sea. The Gulf of Ephesus, or the Caystrian Gulf, was formed on the north by the projection of the coast ending in Argennum Promontory and the island of Chios, and on the south by Mt. Mycale, ending in Trogyllium Promontory (cf. Acts 20:15 in KJV) and the island of Samos. These natural advantages assured Ephesus the attention of the ships which carried their commerce throughout the Aegean area. A long ridge of mountains, called Mt. Mesogis in antiquity, runs east from Ephesus and divides the valley of the Cayster River from the valley of the Maeander. Ephesus had easy access to both valleys, by which the traveller or merchant could reach the inland regions of Asia Minor. The development and fame of Ephesus were therefore secured by its situation on a protected gulf and on a natural overland route.
The city itself was located on an alluvial plain formed by the Cayster River, a stream which descends from the southern slopes of Mt. Tmolus. The Cayster emptied into the city’s harbor, called Panormus, and the large amount of silt carried by the river was a constant problem (Test. 4). The Ephesians were aware of the harbor’s importance for the prosperity of the city, and they undertook various measures to prevent the silting up. But all efforts were in vain, and the coast is now miles away from the ruins of the city (Fig. 3).
Two hills rise above the ruins of Ephesus. Mt. Coressus (now Bülbülday) rises on the southland forms the southern limit of the ancient harbor; Mt. Pion (now Panayirday) rises on the east. The remains of Ephesus which one sees today lie between these two hills, either on the flat land below or on the saddle between them. These remains represent the last ancient city of Ephesus. The city was perhaps founded at first on the harbor. From this place the city was moved, probably in the sixth century B.C., to the northern slopes of Mt. Pion, around the sanctuary of Artemis. Here the city remained until the fourth century B.C., when Lysimachus moved it to where the remains now stand between Mt. Pion and Mt. Coressus (Test. 2).
Historical Sketch
The earliest inhabitants at Ephesus were Carians and Lelegians. During the colonization of western Asia Minor (Ionia) by Greece, a body of Greeks, traditionally under the leadership of the Athenian Androclus, son of Codrus, settled here, sometime before the tenth
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Fig. 3. Map of the plain of Ephesus showing the conjectured changes in the coast-line.
century B.C. The Greek settlers found the earlier people worshipping a mother goddess, probably Cybele; the Greeks identified this deity with their own Artemis, and the peculiar Anatolian Artemis of the Ephesians (Roman Diana) came into existence. A temple was constructed to this divinity in the sixth century B.C. (See Bible and Spade, Winter 1975, pp. 15-20.)
With the colonization of the Ionian Greeks, Ephesus became essentially a Greek city and remained so throughout most of its history, in spite of its capture by the Cimmerians in the seventh century and by Croesus in the middle of the sixth century B.C. Ephesus was subject to the Lydian king Croesus until that king’s defeat by Cyrus the Persian in 546 B.C., at which time it became part
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of the Persian district of Ionia.
The shifting character of the city shows itself very early in its history. While subject to Persia, Ephesus allowed the Athenians and Eretrians in 498 B.C. to leave their ships in the harbor, while they, with Ephesian guides, made their way inland to burn and loot the royal city of Sardis. Ephesus remained subject to Persia until 466 B.C., when the Greeks defeated the Persians in the battle of the Eurymedon River. Ephesus then became tributary to the Athenian confederacy, though it fell again under Persian control after the King’s Peace in 386 B.C. Ephesus then stayed under Persian domination until the conquest of Alexander the Great, who visited the city in 334 B.C. One of the most important events to happen at Ephesus in the course of the fourth century occurred in 356 B.C., when a madman named Herostratus set fire to the temple of Artemis; but a new and more magnificent structure was begun soon afterwards, and work on the building was in progress when Alexander visited the city. (Test. 6, 7)
Fig. 4. Artist’s reconstruction of the great temple of Artemis at Ephesus.
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After the death of Alexander in 323 B.C. Ephesus was ruled by Lysimachus, one of his Macedonian generals, who moved the city to its present site and forceably increased the population by bringing in people from other cities. When Lysimachus died, Ephesus supported for a time the Syrian Seleucid kings and for a while also the Egyptian Ptolemies. The Seleucid king Antiochus the Great used Ephesus as his headquarters in his war with Rome; but Antiochus was defeated by the Romans at the battle of Magnesia in 190 B.C., and the Romans attached Ephesus to Pergamum. In 133 B.C. Ephesus was bequeathed to Rome in the will of Attalus III of Pergamum, and the city then became part of the Roman province of Asia.
The Romans did not find the Ephesians to be staunch supporters. In the first century B.C. Ephesus took the side of Mithridates king of Pontus against the Romans and, at the king’s instigation, carried out a wholesale slaughter of the Romans living in Ephesus, even to the desecration of the sanctuaries, to which the terrified Romans had fled for asylum (Test. 10). During the Roman civil wars, Ephesus supported the losing sides. The city backed Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Caesar, who were defeated at Philippi (42 B.C.; Test. 11), and supported Antony, who lost to Octavian at Actium (31 B.C.). Though heavily taxed and suffering from the effects of its own bad judgment or bad luck, Ephesus maintained its position as the chief emporium of Asia, and during the reign of Augustus, entered upon a golden age. Under the early empire the city’s population may even have reached a quarter of a million. St. Paul arrived in Ephesus in A.D. 53, and, with his arrival, there entered into the city a new element which dominated its remaining history (Test. 13–19).
Archaeological Remains
The arrival of Christianity at Ephesus corresponded chronologically with considerable architectural activity in the city. Almost all of the remains so far excavated belong to the period of the Roman empire. In the following account of the archaeological remains we shall omit those constructed after the times of St. Paul and St. John, and limit ourselves to those buildings already standing or in the process of being built when Revelation was written.
Little is left of the Hellenistic city founded by Lysimachus (Test. 2). The city wall built by the king is well preserved along the ridge of Mt. Coressus; the wall runs from just above the saddle on the east to some hills west of the ancient harbor, on one of which stands a tower called, on no ancient authority, the Prison of St. Paul (Fig. 2).
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So-called “Prison of St. Paul” at Ephesus.
The theater was the focal point of Ephesus. The building dates from about the time of Lysimachus, but it was reconstructed and altered in the first century after Christ, at about the time of St. Paul’s visit (Test. 16), G.E. Bean, who has a long acquaintance with the antiquities of Turkey, imagines the riot caused by Demetrius the silversmith occurring while surprised workmen looked on from their scaffolding. (See Bible and Spade, Winter 1975, pp. 10-14.)
The Arcadiane Way leading from the ancient harbor to the theater.
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A few steps to the northwest of the theater is an Ionic fountain of the Hellenistic period, which must have been much frequented by the crowds from the theater. Behind the fountain a marble colonnaded street runs from the theater to the harbor. Though part of this street, called the Arcadiane from the Emperor Arcadius (A.D. 395-408), dates only from the fifth century of our era, there must have existed a street here from the time of the building of the theater. An inscription on the street tells us that it was lighted by 50 lamps, though at what date street-lighting was begun at Ephesus, we do not know (Test. 9).
The Arcadiane Way looking west towards the area of the ancient harbor.
North of the Arcadiane is a huge complex of buildings called the Harbor Gymnasium, completed perhaps during the reign of Domitian (A.D. 81-96). The gymnasium was probably the building on the east, the building on the west being the palaestra, the wrestling school. Surrounding the central court of the palaestra are a number of halls, where lectures, classes, and other activities of higher learning occurred (Test. 8). Still farther to the north and east is the stadium. This structure, with its eastern end arranged for gladitorial or animal combats, dates in its surviving form only to the third century after Christ. The original stadium is dated by inscriptions to the time of Nero (A. D. 54–68) (Test. 17).
A street, now usually called the Marble Road, runs from the theater to the south. This street was lined with colonnades; the Doric colonnade on the west side was dedicated during the reign of Nero.
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The Marble Road passed to the east of the marketplace called the Commercial Agora, which was erected in Hellenistic times and altered in the first century after Christ. The Doric colonnade of the Agora was double and two-storeyed, and was erected in the middle of the first century after Christ.
Looking north along the Marble Road with the Doric Colonnade on the left and the theater on the right.
The Hellenistic Marketplace on the west side of Marble Road.
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Just beyond the Commercial Agora the Marble Road turns to the east and rises toward the Magnesian Gate. This stretch of the road is sometimes called Curetes Street. Some inscribed blocks line the lower part of Curetes Street; one is of particular interest for this study — it is a statue base dedicated by the Sacred College of Silversmiths, the guild of Demetrius and his colleagues (Test. 16).
Near the eastern end of Curetes Street, at the summit of the saddle between the two hills, stood a complex of buildings dating from the period of New Testament interest. Curetes Street forks at the top of the slope, divided by the State Agora. Colonnades opened onto this marketplace, and on the north an Ionic colonnade, called the basilica and dating to the age of Augustus, was probably the location for certain civic groups and activities, such as law courts and municipal offices (Test. 16). South of the Agora is a large fountain, built in the early years of our era, and appropriately located for serving the concourse of the Agora. This fountain, called the Nymphaeum, distributed to the city the water which it received from an aqueduct east of the city. Along the west side of the State Agora runs a street, called Domitian Street, because it runs to the temple of Domitian (A.D. 81-96).
Northeast of the junction of Curetes and Domitian Streets is the prytaneion, or town hall, together with the temple of Hestia Boulaea. The prytaneion was used for conducting political business, as well as for ritual meals and religious rites. Though a prytaneion must have existed on this site from Hellenistic times, the present building dates from the time of Augustus. Adjoining the prytaneion on the west is the temple of Hestia Boulaea, the personification of the hearth, whose eternal fire was equated with the life of the city. In the prytaneion the excavators found two remarkable statues of Ephesian Artemis, now standing in the museum in nearby Seljuk.
The splendid temple to this deity, one of the most remarkable structures of the ancient world (Fig. 4), was situated some distance away to the northeast of Mt. Pion, near the Byzantine and Turkish citadel called Ayasoluk (Test. 7).
Character
The spiritual and physical character of Ephesus is clearly reflected in St. John’s letter to the church. The one “who walks among the seven golden lampstands” speaks to those who walked daily beneath the lamps of the Arcadiane (Test. 9) and warns them that, just as the eternal fire on the altar of Hestia Boulaea could be extinguished,
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Curetes Street leading to the prytaneion and temple of Hestia Boulaea.
their lamp could be removed from its place. The word “lamp” (Iychnos) must have had strong associations with the city, for one of the orators of Ephesus, named Alexander, was even surnamed “the Lamp” (Strab. 14.1.25).
The Ephesians knew how to suffer, and they also knew how to persevere, to carry through to completion immense tasks, as can be seen in at least one remarkable instance (Test. 6, 7). They knew what it was like to have their city controlled by evil men (Test. 3, 11), and what it was like to suffer from their own folly (Test. 10). Much of the city’s suffering had been due to a certain weakness, a weakness which had manifested itself so many times and in so many ways, that it had practically come to define the city’s character. That weakness was instability, an inability to achieve permanence, whether physical, political, or religious.
Change was the most permanent quality the Ephesians possessed. They had watched the sea retreat from their temple; they had watched their coast expand until it joined an island to the mainland (Test. 5); and worst of all, they had watched helplessly while their harbor filled with silt, knowing well that eventually it would mean the decline of the city (Test. 4). The psychological comfort which most ancient peoples derived from the knowledge that their city had
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stood firm on one plot of ground through the ages did not exist at Ephesus, for the city had shifted its location three times, and had even received immigrants from other cities (Test. 2).
The Ephesians were also characterized by their shifting political loyalties, for throughout their history they had given allegiance to Lydia, Persia, Macedonia, Syria, Rome, and Rome’s enemies (Test. 10). Of greater concern to St. John is the city’s shifting religious loyalty, for along with numerous small cults, the city’s worship had switched from Cybele to Artemis, to the Roman Emperor (Test. 12), and finally to Christianity (through Judaism, for some — Test. 13), and now was about to shift again. But that need not happen.
A new spirit and a new power had been infused into the city by St. Paul, and the city’s character could improve (Test. 14, 15, 18). Loyalty, stability, and permanence can be achieved at Ephesus (Test. 19), and the one who does so will find himself banqueting in a garden incomparably superior to the sacred grove about the city (Test. 1).
Testimonia
1. A Sacred Tree in a Paradise
Then comes the harbor called Panormus, with a temple of the Ephesian Artemis; and then the city Ephesus. On the same coast, slightly above the sea, is also Ortygia, which is a magnificent grove of all kinds of trees, of the cypress most of all. It is traversed by the Cenchrius River, where Leto is said to have bathed herself after her travail. For here is the mythical scene of the birth, and of the nurse Ortygia, and of the holy place where the birth took place, and of the olive tree nearby, where the goddess is said first to have taken a rest after she was relieved from her travail…There are several temples in the place, some ancient and others built in later times; and in the ancient temples are many ancient wooden images, but in those of later times there are works of Scopas; for example, Leto holding a sceptre and Ortygia standing beside her with a child in each arm. A general festival is held there annually; and by a certain custom the youths vie for honour, particularly in the splendour of their banquets there. (Strabo 14.1.20; trans. Jones)
2. Lysimachus moves the City (Fourth Century B.C.)
Now Ephesus was thus inhabited until the time of Croesus, but later the people came down from the mountainside and abode round the present temple until the time of Alexander. Lysimachus built a wall around the present city, but the people were not agreeably disposed to change their abodes to it; and therefore he waited for a downpour of rain and himself took advantage of it and blocked the sewers so as to inundate the city; and the inhabitants were then glad
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to make the change. He named the city after his wife Arsinoe; the old name, however, prevailed. (Strabo 14.1.21; trans. Jones)
3. Enduring Evil Men
…the temple remains a place of refuge, the same as in earlier times, although the limits of the refuge have often been changed; for example, when Alexander extended them for a stadium, and when Mithridates shot an arrow from the corner of the roof and thought it went a little farther than a stadium, and when Antony doubted this distance and included within the refuge a part of the city. But this extension of the refuge proved harmful, and put the city in the power of criminals; and it was therefore nullified by Augustus Caesar. (Strabo 14.1.23; trans. Jones)
4. The Harbor Grows Shallow (First Century B.C.)
The city has both an arsenal and a harbor. The mouth of the harbor was made narrower by the engineers, but they, along with the king who ordered it, were deceived as to the result, I mean Attalus Philadelphus; for he thought that the entrance would be deep enough for large merchant vessels…But the result was the opposite, for the silt, thus hemmed in, made the whole of the harbor, as far as the mouth, more shallow. Before this time the ebb and flow of the tides would carry away the silt and draw it to the sea outside. Such, then, is the harbor; and the city, because of its advantageous situation in other respects, grows daily, and is the largest emporium in Asia this side the Taurus. (Strabo 14.1.24; trans. Jones)
5. A Changing Coastline (First Century A.D.)
It (Ephesus) is built on the slope of Mount Pion, and is watered by the Cayster, which rises in the Cilbian range and brings down the waters of many streams, and also drains the Pegasaean Marsh, an overflow of the river Phyrites. From these comes a quantity of mud which advances the coastline and has now joined the island of Syrie on to the mainland by the flats interposed. (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 5.31.115; trans. Rackham)
…Ephesus, where once the sea used to wash up to the temple of Diana. (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 2.87.201; trans. Rackham)
6. A Labor of Love
As for the temple of Artemis, its first architect was Chersiphron; and then another man made it larger. But when it was set on fire by a certain Herostratus, the citizens erected another and better one, having collected the ornaments of the women and their own individual belongings, and having sold also the pillars of the former temple. (Strabo 14.1.22; trans. Jones)
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7. Building the Temple of Artemis (Diana)
Of grandeur as conceived by the Greeks a real and remarkable example still survives, namely the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the building of which occupied all Asia Minor for 120 years. It was built on marshy soil so that it might not be subject to earthquakes or be threatened by subsidences. On the other hand, to ensure that the foundations of so massive a building would not be laid on shifting, unstable ground, they were underpinned with a layer of closely trodden charcoal, and then with another of sheepskins with their fleeces unshorn. The length of the temple overall is 425 feet, and its breadth 225 feet. There are 127 columns, each constructed by a different king and 60 feet in height. Of these, 36 were carved with reliefs, one of them by Scopas. The architect in charge of the work was Chersiphron. The crowning marvel was his success in lifting the architraves of this massive building into place. This he achieved by filling bags of plaited reed with sand and constructing a gently graded ramp which reached the upper surfaces of the capitals of the columns. Then, little by little, he emptied the lowest layer of bags so that the fabric gradually settled into its right position. But the greatest difficulty was encountered with the lintel itself when he was trying to place it over the door; for this was the largest block, and it would not settle on its bed. The architect was in anguish as he debated whether suicide should be his final decision. The story goes that in the course of his reflections he became weary, and that while he slept at night he saw before him the goddess for whom the temple was being built: she was urging him to live because, as she said, she herself had laid the stone. And on the next day this was seen to be the case. The stone appeared to have been adjusted merely by dint of its own weight. The other embellishments of the building are enough to fill many volumes. (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 36.21.95–97; trans. Eichholz)
8. A City of Learning
(Ephesus) grew in size beyond all other cities of Ionia and Lydia, and stretched herself out to the sea, on the promontory over which she is built, and is filled with studious people, both philosophers and rhetoricians, thanks to whom the city owes her strength, not to her cavalry, but to the tens of thousands of her inhabitants in whom she encourages wisdom. (Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 8.7.8; trans. Conybeare)
9. A Place to Walk Among the Lampstands
The two stoas of the Arcadiane have 50 lamps as far as the wild boar. (H. Grégoire, Inscriptions d’Asie Mineure. Paris, Leroux, 1922, p.29.)
10. Shifting Loyalties
(Ephesus joins the insurrection of Mithridates in 88 B.C. against Rome and is punished by the Roman dictator Sulla.)
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The walls of many towns were demolished. Many others were plundered and their inhabitants sold into slavery. The Cappadocian faction, both men and cities, were severely punished, and especially the Ephesians, who, with servile adulation of the king, had treated the Roman offerings in their temples with indignity. After this a proclamation was sent around commanding the principal citizens to come to Ephesus on a certain day to meet Sulla. When they had assembled Sulla addressed them from the tribune as follows:
“We first came to Asia with an army when Antiochus, king of Syria, was despoiling you. We drove him out and fixed the boundaries of his dominions beyond the river Halys and Mount Taurus. We did not retain possession of you when you had become our subjects instead of his, but set you free…Such was our conduct toward you. You, on the other hand, when Attalus Philometor had left his kingdom to us in his will, gave aid to Aristonicus against us for four years, until he was captured and most of you, under the impulse of necessity and fear, returned to your duty. Notwithstanding all this, after a period of twenty-four years, during which you had attained to great prosperity and magnificence, public and private, you again became insolent through peace and luxury and took the opportunity, while we were preoccupied in Italy, some of you to call in Mithridates and others to join him when he came. Most infamous of all, you obeyed the order he gave to kill all the Italians in your communities, including women and children, in one day. You did not even spare those who fled to the temples dedicated to your own gods. You have received some punishment for this crime from Mithridates himself, who broke faith with you and gave you your fill of rapine and slaughter, redistributed your lands, cancelled debts, freed your slaves, appointed tyrants over some of you, and committed robberies everywhere by land and sea; so that you learned immediately by experiment and comparison what kind of champion you had chosen instead of your former one. The instigators of these crimes paid some penalty to us also. But it is necessary, too, that some punishment should be inflicted upon you in common for doing such things; and it is reasonable that it should be one corresponding to your crimes. But may the Romans never even dream of impious slaughter, indiscriminate confiscation, servile insurrections, or other acts of barbarism. From a desire to spare even now the Greek race and name so celebrated throughout Asia, and for the sake of that fair repute that is ever dear to the Romans, I shall only impose upon you the taxes of five years, to be paid at once, together with what the war has cost me, and whatever else may be spent in settling the affairs of the province. I will apportion these charges to each of you according to cities, and will fix the time of payment. Upon the disobedient I shall visit punishment as upon enemies.”
After he had thus spoken Sulla apportioned the fine to the delegates and sent men to collect the money. The cities, oppressed by poverty, borrowed it at high dates of interest and mortgaged their theatres, their gymnasiums, their walls, their harbours, and every other scrap of public property, being urged on by the soldiers with contumely. Thus was the money collected and brought to Sulla, and the province of Asia had her fill of misery. (Appian, Mithridatic War 61–63; trans. White)
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11. Evil Men at Ephesus
…following the battle at Philippi, (the Roman) Mark Antony came to the mainland of Asia (40 B.C.) where he levied contributions upon the cities and sold the positions of authority…Meanwhile he fell in love with Cleopatra, whom he had seen in Cilicia, and thereafter gave not a thought to honour but became the Egyptian woman’s slave and devoted his time to his passion for her. This caused him to do many outrageous things, and in particular to drag her brothers from the temple of Artemis at Ephesus and put them to death. (Dio Cassius 48.24.1, 2; trans. Cary)
12. Religious Pressure from Rome
Caesar (Augustus in 29 B.C.)…gave permission for the dedication of sacred precincts in Ephesus and in Nicaea to Rome and to Caesar, his father, whom he named the hero Julius. These cities had at that time attained chief place in Asia and in Bithynia respectively. He commanded that the Romans resident in these cities should pay honour to these two divinities. (Dio Cassius 51.20.6, 7; trans. Cary)
13. Ephesian Jews Hear Paul and Apollos
After this Paul stayed (in Corinth) many days longer, and then took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila…And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself went into the synagogue and argued with the Jews. When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined; but on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus…
Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, well versed in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and expounded to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. (Acts 18:18–21, 24–27, RSV)
14. A New Spirit at Ephesus
(Paul bestows the Holy Spirit; discussion in the synagogue.)
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was
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to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve of them in all.
And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, arguing and pleading about the kingdom of God; but when some were stubborn and disbelieved, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. (Acts 19:1–10, RSV)
15. A New Power at Ephesus
(Paul’s miracles; exorcism and magic discredited.)
And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all; and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Many also of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily. (Acts 19:11–20, RSV)
16. The Riot in the Theater
About that time there arose no little stir concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only at Ephesus but almost throughout all Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable company of people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may count for nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”
When they heard this they were enraged, and cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” So the city was filled with the confusion; and they rushed
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together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s companions in travel. Paul wished to go in among the crowd, but the disciples would not let him; some of the Asiarchs also, who were friends of his, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater. Now some cried one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander motioned with his hand, wishing to make a defense to the people. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all with one voice cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky? Seeing then that these things cannot be contradicted, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against any one, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls; let them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular assembly. For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, there being no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” And when he had said this, he dismissed the assembly. (Acts 19:23–41, RSV)
17. Beasts and Opportunities at Ephesus
What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’ (1 Corinthians 15:32, RSV)
But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. (1 Corinthians 16:8, 9, RSV)
18. Let Ephesian Christians take heed
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith; whereas the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith. (1 Timothy 1:3–5, RSV)
19. Love and Loyalty Sustained
(St. Paul’s Speech to the Ephesian Elders)
And from Miletus he (Paul) sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they came to him, he said to them:
“You yourselves know how I lived among you all the time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with
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trials which befell me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there; except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that all you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will see my face no more. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians, to feed the church of the Lord which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities, and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’.”
And when he had spoken thus, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they all wept and embraced Paul and kissed him, sorrowing most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they brought him to the ship. (Acts 20: 17–38, RSV)
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 3:16, 17
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