Difference between revisions of "Ephesus"

<p> [[Ephesus]] was the chief city of the Roman province of Asia (part of present-day Turkey). The church in Ephesus probably began through the work of [[Priscilla]] and Aquila, whom Paul left in Ephesus after visiting the city briefly at the end of his second missionary journey (&nbsp;Acts 18:18-21). (For map of the region see [[Asia]] .) </p> <p> '''Early developments''' </p> <p> An important visitor during the early days of the [[Ephesian]] church was Apollos, a [[Jewish]] teacher from [[Alexandria]] in Egypt. Though eloquent, [[Apollos]] was lacking in the knowledge of certain [[Christian]] teachings, till Priscilla and [[Aquila]] taught him more accurately (&nbsp;Acts 18:24-28). The time of the church’s greatest growth came when Paul returned at the beginning of his third missionary journey and spent three years in the city (&nbsp;Acts 20:31). During this time the zealous Ephesian converts evangelized most of the province of Asia (&nbsp;Acts 19:8-10). </p> <p> The people of Ephesus were well known for their superstition and magic, and some dramatic events accompanied the people’s response to Paul’s preaching (&nbsp;Acts 19:11-20). The city was considered to be the home of the goddess [[Artemis]] (or Diana) and contained a magnificent temple built in her honour (&nbsp;Acts 19:27-28; &nbsp;Acts 19:35). As the people of Ephesus turned in increasing numbers from the worship of Artemis to faith in Jesus, tensions arose in the city. The silversmiths who made small household shrines of the goddess found themselves going out of business and stirred up a riot. It took the city authorities several hours to restore order (&nbsp;Acts 19:23-41). </p> <p> Some time during his three years in Ephesus, Paul wrote the letter we know as First Corinthians (&nbsp;1 Corinthians 16:8-9; &nbsp;1 Corinthians 16:19). While in Ephesus Paul met violent opposition and suffered physical harm. On one occasion he almost lost his life (&nbsp;1 Corinthians 15:32; &nbsp;1 Corinthians 16:8-9; cf. &nbsp;2 Corinthians 1:8-9). Ephesus was no doubt the scene of some of the sufferings that Paul later records in &nbsp;2 Corinthians 11:23-29, and possibly he suffered one of his imprisonments there. </p> <p> '''Later difficulties''' </p> <p> Before leaving Ephesus at the end of his third missionary journey, Paul warned that false teachers would trouble the church (&nbsp;Acts 20:17; &nbsp;Acts 20:28-31). This proved to be so, and Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, which he wrote during his first imprisonment in Rome, deals with some of the wrong ideas that had become widespread in and around Ephesus (see [[Ephesians, Letter To The]] ) </p> <p> After his release from Rome, Paul revisited the church in Ephesus to try to correct the wrong teaching. When he moved on, he left Timothy behind to continue corrective teaching. He also wrote Timothy two letters to help him in this task (&nbsp;1 Timothy 1:3-7; &nbsp;1 Timothy 6:3-5; &nbsp;2 Timothy 1:18; &nbsp;2 Timothy 2:14-16). The false teaching that the apostle John condemned in his letters (written towards the end of the first century) was also centred in Ephesus (&nbsp;1 John 2:18-22; &nbsp;1 John 4:1; &nbsp;2 John 1:9-11). </p> <p> Later the Ephesian church was troubled by another group of false teachers, the Nicolaitans. These people encouraged [[Christians]] to demonstrate their freedom by eating food that had been offered to idols and by engaging in sexual immorality (&nbsp;Revelation 2:2; &nbsp;Revelation 2:6; cf. &nbsp;Revelation 2:14-15). </p> <p> Unfortunately, the Ephesian Christians had become so concerned with opposing false teaching year after year, that in the process their love for Christ had lost its original warmth. They had become harsh, critical and self-satisfied. God warned them that if they did not change and regain their original spirit of love, he would act against them in judgment and bring their church to an end. But those who triumphed over these attitudes would enjoy the fulness of eternal life (&nbsp;Revelation 2:1-7). </p>

<p> Chief city of the Ionian confederacy and capital of the Roman province "Asia" (Mysia, Lydia, Caria), on the S. side of the plain of Cayster, and partly on the heights of Prion and Coressus, opposite the island of Samos. A leading scene of Paul's ministry (Acts 18; 19; 20); also one of the seven churches addressed in the Apocalypse (&nbsp;Revelation 1:11; &nbsp;Revelation 2:1), and the center from from whence John superintended the adjoining churches (Eusebius, 3:23). Ephesus, though she was commended for patient labors for Christ's name's sake, is reproved for having "left her first love." The port was called Panormus. [[Commodious]] roads connected this great emporium of Asia with the interior ("the upper coasts," i.e. the Phrygian table lands, &nbsp;Acts 19:1); also one on the N. to Smyrna, another on the S. to Miletus, whereby the Ephesian elders traveled when summoned by Paul to the latter city. </p> <p> On a N.E. hill stands the church Ayasaluk, corrupted from '''''Hagios Theologos''''' , "the holy divine," John, Timothy, and the [[Virgin]] Mary who was committed by the Lord to John (&nbsp;John 19:26), were said to have been buried there. It was the port where Paul sailed from Corinth, on his way to Syria (&nbsp;Acts 18:19-22). [[Thence]] too he probably sailed on a short visit to Corinth; also thence to [[Macedonia]] (&nbsp;Acts 19:21-27; &nbsp;Acts 20:1; compare &nbsp;1 Timothy 1:3; &nbsp;2 Timothy 4:12; &nbsp;2 Timothy 4:20). (See 1 CORINTHIANS.) Originally colonized by the hardy Atticans under Androclus, son of Codrus, it subsequently fell through the enervation of its people under Lydian and [[Persian]] domination successively; then under Alexander the Great, and finally under the Romans when these formed their province of Asia (129 B.C.). </p> <p> A proconsul or "deputy" ruled Asia. In &nbsp;Acts 19:38 the plural is for the singular. He was on circuit, holding the assizes then in Ephesus; as is implied, "the law is open," margin "the court days are (now being) kept." Besides a senate there was a popular assembly such as met in the theater, the largest perhaps in the world, traceable still on mount Prion (&nbsp;Acts 19:29). The "town clerk" had charge of the public records, opened state letters, and took notes of the proceedings in the assembly. His appeal, quieting the people, notices that Paul was "not a blasphemer of the Ephesian goddess," a testimony to Paul's tact and wisdom in preaching Christ. The friendly warning of the Asiarchs to Paul, not to venture into the theater, implies how great an influence the apostle had gained at Ephesus. (See [[Asiarchs]] .) </p> <p> Besides being famed as the birthplace of the two painters [[Apelles]] and Parrhasius, and the philosopher Heraclitus, Ephesus was notorious for its magical arts and amulets of parchment with inscribed incantations (Ephesia grammata), valued at enormous prices (50,000 pieces of silver), yet freely given up to the flame when their possessors received a living faith (&nbsp;Acts 19:19). In undesigned coincidence with Acts, Paul writing to Timothy (&nbsp;2 Timothy 3:13) says "seducers ( '''''Goeetees''''' , "conjurors") shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." The "special miracles" which God wrought by the hands of Paul were exactly suited to conquer the magicians on their own ground: handkerchiefs and aprons from his body brought as a cure to the sick; evil spirits cast out by him; and when exorcists imitated him, the evil spirits turning on them and rending them. </p> <p> The Diana of Ephesus, instead of the graceful [[Grecian]] goddess of the chase, was a mummy-shaped body with many breasts, ending in a point, and with the head of a female with mural crown, and hands with a bar of metal in each; underneath was a rude block. An aerolite probably gave the idea "the image that fell from heaven." After frequent burnings, the last building of her temple took 220 years. (See [[Diana]] .) Some read Pliny's statement, "the columns were 120, seven of them the gifts of kings"; the diameter of each is six feet, the height 60 feet, according to Ward's measurement. The external pillars according to Wood's arrangement are 88; the whole number, internal and external, 120. The glory of Ephesus was to be "a worshipper of the great goddess" (see margin), literally, a caretaker, warden, or apparitor of the temple ( '''''Neokoros''''' ), and the silversmiths had a flourishing trade in selling portable models of the shrine. </p> <p> Perhaps Alexander the "coppersmith" had a similar business. The "craftsmen" were the designers, the "workmen" ordinary laborers (&nbsp;Acts 19:24-25). The imagery of a temple naturally occurs in &nbsp;1 Corinthians 3:9-17 written here, also in &nbsp;1 Timothy 3:15; &nbsp;1 Timothy 6:19; &nbsp;2 Timothy 2:19-20, written to Ephesus; compare also &nbsp;Acts 20:32. Demetrius would be especially sensitive at that time when Diana's sacred month of May was just about to attract the greatest crowds to her, for &nbsp;1 Corinthians 16:8 shows Paul was there about that time, and it is probable the uproar took place then; hence we find the Asiarchs present at this time (&nbsp;Acts 19:31). </p> <p> Existing ancient coins illustrate the terms found in Acts, "deputy," "town clerk," "worshipper of Diana." The address at Miletus shows that the Ephesian church had then its bishop presbyters. Paul's companions, Trophimus certainly and Tychicus possibly, were natives of Ephesus (&nbsp;Acts 20:4; &nbsp;Acts 21:29; &nbsp;2 Timothy 4:12.) Also [[Onesiphorus]] (&nbsp;2 Timothy 1:16-18; &nbsp;2 Timothy 4:19), [[Hymeneus]] and Alexander, [[Hermogenes]] and Phygellus, of Ephesus, were among Paul's opponents (&nbsp;1 Timothy 1:20; &nbsp;2 Timothy 1:15; &nbsp;2 Timothy 4:14). </p>

<p> [[Ephesus]] ( ''Ef'E-Sŭs'' ). The commercial city of Asia Minor, "one of the eyes of Asia." It stood upon the south side of a plain, with mountains on three sides, and the sea on the west. The river Caÿster ran across the plain. Paul visited Ephesus on his second tour, &nbsp;Acts 18:19-21; Apollos was instructed there by Aquila and Priscilla, &nbsp;Acts 18:24-26; Paul dwelt there three years, &nbsp;Acts 19:1-41; charged the elders of the church. &nbsp;Acts 20:16-28; the angel of the church of Ephesus is named in &nbsp;Revelation 2:1-7. The city is now desolate: the ruins of the stadium and theatre remain. </p>

<p> ''''' ef´ē̇ ''''' - ''''' sus ''''' ( Ἔφεσος , <i> ''''' Éphesos ''''' </i> , "desirable"): A city of the Roman province of Asia, near the mouth of the Cayster river, 3 miles from the western coast of Asia Minor, and opposite the island of Samos. With an artificial harbor accessible to the largest ships, and rivaling the harbor at Miletus, standing at the entrance of the valley which reaches far into the interior of Asia Minor, and connected by highways with the chief cities of the province, Ephesus was the most easily accessible city in Asia, both by land and sea. Its location, therefore, favored its religious, political and commercial development, and presented a most advantageous field for the missionary labors of Paul. The city stood upon the sloping sides and at the base of two hills, Prion and Coressus, commanding a beautiful view; its climate was exceptionally fine, and the soil of the valley was unusually fertile. </p> <p> Tradition says that in early times near the place where the mother goddess of the earth was born, the [[Amazons]] built a city and a temple in which they might worship. This little city of the Amazons, bearing at different times the names of Samorna, Trachea, Ortygia and Ptelea, flourished until in the early Greek days it aroused the cupidity of Androclus, a prince of Athens. He captured it and made it a Greek city. Still another tradition says that Androclus was its founder. However, under Greek rule the Greek civilization gradually supplanted that of the Orientals, the Greek language was spoken in place of the Asiatic; and the Asiatic goddess of the temple assumed more or less the character of the Greek Artemis. Ephesus, therefore, and all that pertained to it, was a mixture of oriental and Greek Though the early history of the city is obscure, it seems that at different times it was in the hands of the Carians, the Leleges and Ionians; in the early historical period it was one of a league of twelve Ionfan cities. In 560 bc it came into the possession of the Lydians; 3 years later, in 557, it was taken by the Persians; and during the following years the Greeks and [[Persians]] were constantly disputing for its possession. Finally, Alexander the Great took it; and at his death it fell to Lysimachus, who gave it the name of Arsinoe, from his second wife. Upon the death of Attalus Ii (Philadelphus), king of Pergamos, it was bequeathed to the Roman Empire; and in 190, when the Roman province of Asia was formed, it became a part of it. Ephesus and Pergamos, the capital of Asia, were the two great rival cities of the province. Though [[Pergamos]] was the center of the Roman religion and of the government, Ephesus was the more accessible, the commercial center and the home of the native goddess Diana; and because of its wealth and situation it gradually became the chief city of the province. It is to the temple of Diana, however, that its great wealth and prominence are largely due. Like the city, it dates from the time of the Amazons, yet what the early temple was like we now have no means of knowing, and of its history we know little except that it was seven times destroyed by fire and rebuilt, each time on a scale larger and grander than before. The wealthy king Croesus supplied it with many of its stone columns, and the pilgrims from all the oriental world brought it of their wealth. In time the temple possessed valuable lands; it controlled the fishcries; its priests were the bankers of its enormous revenues. Because of its strength the people stored there their money for safe-keeping; and it became to the ancient world practically all that the Bank of [[England]] is to the modern world. </p> <p> In 356 bc, on the very night when Alexander the Great was born, it was burned; and when he grew to manhood he offered to rebuild it at his own expense if his name might be inscribed upon its portals. This the priests of Ephesus were unwilling to permit, and they politely rejected his offer by saying that it was not fitting for one god to build a temple to another. The wealthy Ephesians themselves undertook its reconstruction, and 220 years passed before its final completion. </p> <p> Not only was the temple of Diana a place of worship, and a treasure-house, but it was also a museum in which the best statuary and most beautiful paintings were preserved. Among the paintings was one by the famous Apelles, a native of Ephesus, representing Alexander the Great hurling a thunderbolt. It was also a sanctuary for the criminal, a kind of city of refuge, for none might be arrested for any crime whatever when within a bowshot of its walls. There sprang up, therefore, about the temple a village in which the thieves and murderers and other criminals made their homes. Not only did the temple bring vast numbers of pilgrims to the city, as does the [[Kaaba]] at [[Mecca]] at the present time, but it employed hosts of people apart from the priests and priestesses; among them were the large number of artisans who manufactured images of the goddess Diana, or shrines to sell to the visiting strangers. </p> <p> Such was Ephesus when Paul on his 2nd missionary journey in Acts (&nbsp;Acts 18:19-21 ) first visited the city, and when, on his 3rd journey (&nbsp;Acts 19:8-10; &nbsp;Acts 20:31 ), he remained there for two years preaching in the synagogue (&nbsp;Acts 19:8 , &nbsp;Acts 19:10 ), in the school of Tyrannus (&nbsp;Acts 19:9 ) and in private houses (&nbsp;Acts 20:20 ). Though Paul was probably not the first to bring Christianity to Ephesus, for Jews had long lived there (&nbsp;Acts 2:9; &nbsp;Acts 6:9 ), he was the first to make progress against the worship of Diana. As the fame of his teachings was carried by the pilgrims to their distant homes, his influence extended to every part of Asia Minor. In time the pilgrims, with decreasing faith in Diana, came in fewer numbers; the sales of the shrines of the goddess fell off; Diana of the Ephesians was no longer great; a Christian church was rounded there and flourished, and one of its first leaders was the apostle John. [[Finally]] in 262 ad, when the temple of Diana was again burned, its influence had so far departed that it was never again rebuilt. Diana was dead. Ephesus became a Christian city, and in 341 ad a council of the Christian church was held there. The city itself soon lost its importance and decreased in population. The sculptured stones of its great buildings, which were no longer in use and were falling to ruins, were carried away to Italy, and especially to [[Constantinople]] for the great church of Saint [[Sophia.]] In 1308 the Turks took possession of the little that remained of the city, and deported or murdered its inhabitants. The Cayster river, overflowing its banks, gradually covered with its muddy deposit the spot where the temple of Diana had once stood, and at last its very site was forgotten. </p> <p> The small village of <i> ''''' Ayasaluk ''''' </i> , 36 miles from [[Smyrna]] on the Aidin R.R., does not mark the site of the ancient city of Ephesus, yet it stands nearest to its ruins. The name <i> ''''' Ayasaluk ''''' </i> is the corruption of three Greek words meaning "the [[Holy]] Word of God." Passing beyond the village one comes to the ruins of the old aqueduct, the fallen city walls, the so-called church of John or the baths, the Turkish fort which is sometimes called Paul's prison, the huge theater which was the scene of the riot of Paul's time, but which now, with its marble torn away, presents but a hole in the side of the hill Prion. In 1863 Mr. J.T. Wood, for the British Museum, obtained permission from the Turkish government to search for the site of the lost temple of Diana. During the eleven years of his excavations at Ephesus, ,000 were spent, and few cities of antiquity have been more thoroughly explored. The city wall of Lysimachus was found to be 36,000 ft. in length, enclosing an area of 1,027 acres. It was 10 1/2 ft. thick, and strengthened by towers at intervals of 100 ft. The six gates which pierced the wall are now marked by mounds of rubbish. The sites and dimensions of the various public buildings, the streets, the harbor, and the foundations of many of the private houses were ascertained, and numerous inscriptions and sculptures and coins were discovered. Search, however, did not reveal the site of the temple until January 1, 1870, after six years of faithful work. Almost by accident it was then found in the valley outside the city walls, several feet below the present surface. Its foundation, which alone remained, enabled Mr. Wood to reconstruct the entire temple plan. The temple was built upon a foundation which was reached by a flight of ten steps. The building itself was 425 ft. long and 220 ft. wide; each of its 127 pillars which supported the roof of its colonnade was 60 ft. high; like the temples of Greece, its interior was open to the sky. For a further description of the temple, see Mr. Wood's excellent book, <i> Discoveries at Ephesus </i> . </p>