Ephesus

Ephesus, in Turkish called Efes, is in the west of Turkey, about 4 miles from the Aegean Sea. It is near the town of Selçuk, in which the Ephesus Museum is located. From Izmir, biblical Smyrna, Ephesus is 46 miles, and from Mugla, about 103 miles. As the roads are well made, Ephesus is easily reached form Mugla.

We don't know when or by whom Ephesus was founded. The first information we have comes from the 2nd millennium BC. Some very ancient sources even say that the town was founded by Amazons. Before Ephesus was named by the Romans about 27 BC as capital of the province of Asia, it already had a long history behind it. The greatest historian of that time, Aristides, used to say, "Ephesus is the bank of Asia". Yet the time when it flourished most was not till the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. With a population of 200 000 it became, after Alexandria, the second greatest city of the east.

In New Testament times Ephesus was the most significant metropolis of Asia Minor. The city was imbued with the spirit of late Greek international culture, and was, with Jerusalem and Athens, one of the three holiest cities of antiquity. With the Artemisium, the sanctuary of Artemis, Ephesus had become the centre of eastern mystery cults and Asiatic religious practices. The Temple of Artemis was among the Seven Wonders of the World. As the city also built another temple in honour of Caesar, it received from the Roman senate the honorary title of "Temple Guardian".

The apostle Paul visited Ephesus twice, first from Corinth in the spring of 52 AD and then from autumn 52 till summer 55. At first he preached three months in the synagogue. When he was met with rejection, he separated himself and the disciples from the Jews and spoke daily for two years in the lecture room of Tyrannus. We presume that Paul was in Ephesus a third time (see 1 Tim. 1:3). The theatre to which Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's travel companions, were dragged after the protest of the silversmith Demetrius can also still be seen. There you can imagine the scene, how it sounded when the Ephesians cried out for two hours "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians".

Although Ephesus is now only a ruined city, you can still see something of the wealth it must have had in former days. Beginning with the splendid street, paved with thick marble or adorned with glorious mosaics, the famous Celsus Library, a water castle, temple buildings, themes, theatres, all the way to the wonderfully decorated slope houses, everything witnesses to the glory of the Ephesians.

In the year 313 AD Christianity was declared the official state religion by the emperor Constantine. A lively building programme began. Idol temples were destroyed and replaced by Christian churches which greatly exceeded the idol temples in riches and splendour. A Christian culture developed. The tokens of this once flourishing culture are still to be seen in Turkey today. 118 years after the declaration of Christianity as the state religion, in 431 AD, the first important church council took place in the Mary Church in Ephesus. At this council it was decided that Mary was the mother of God. The opponents of this thesis, the Nestorians, were subsequently banned and Nestorius was exiled to Egypt

Previously the Christians had suffered massive persecution, being killed, abused and thrown to wild animals in the arena. After Christianity became the state religion, you could have a good life in the name of Christ. Faith no longer had a cost from then on; on the contrary, it brought good business. So perhaps it was inevitable that believing in Christ became identified with believing in power and riches. Laws were enacted about how individual believers were to believe. Yet as the rulers changed, so these laws often changed, so that we have to conclude with sadness that from this point on much suffering was inflicted on people in the name of Christ. The glorious freedom in Christ was changed into dogma. The words of Jesus seemed to be forgotten or replaced!