Ephesus

Having arrived at Selcuk/Ephesus from Troas and Assos late Tuesday night, we found a dirt road leading up a forested mountain on which to park the car and sleep, and then toured the city of Ephesus on Wednesday. We got lunch at a little Turkish restaurant in the neighboring modern town of Selcuk, eating at one of their outside tables.

Paul first visited Ephesus toward the end of his second journey, having ended a lengthy stay in Corinth, and heading east toward Jerusalem. He was accompanied presumably still by Silas and Timothy, and certainly by Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:18-21). He stayed briefly, perhaps only the weekend, though Aquila and Priscilla stayed and made Ephesus their home for at least the next couple of years.

Then on his third journey, Paul came to Ephesus and stayed for 2 1/2 to 3 years, teaching initially in the synagogue, then in the school of Tyrannus, until all Asia became acquainted with the gospel message (19:1-41). Here in Ephesus the seven sons of Sceva were beaten up and stripped of their clothing by an evil spirit, and also here Demetrius the silversmith riled up similar craftsmen, instigating the riot which occupied the Ephesus Theater. Demetrius' particular trade was in making silver shrines of Artemis, whose massive temple was at Ephesus; her temple is reported to have been one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

(A model of the Artemis temple, in the local museum. It is presumed that a statue of Artemis stood in the center, where you can see the roof is open so that she stood unshaded.)

Our first stop was at the remains of that temple. It was built beyond a hill, separated from the main part of the city of Ephesus by more than a mile, and today the site feels like it would have been somewhat 'out of town.' Only one column of the temple is standing, but enough ruins remain that one can see the outline of the whole structure. In the first century, the temple was 344 feet long, and 18o feet wide...four times the size of the Athenian Parthenon. Its columns were 60 feet tall, and the whole structure was made nearly entirely of marble. One can imagine the city was proud of the temple, and of Artemis, and ready to protest any defamation of it or of her. One can also imagine the great trade that existed in making and selling silver goods associated with the goddess and her temple.

(the temple ruins today; for scale, note the person standing at center left, and that he is standing closer to the camera than is the column)

To better visualize the area as a whole, you can see it all at GoogleEarth by putting latitude/longitude coordinates in the search field. For the theater at the center of Ephesus: copy and paste 37 56 27 N 27 20 32 E. For the Temple of Artemis, 37 56 58 N 27 21 49 E.

After a tour of the museum (between the temple site and the modern town of Selcuk), we headed off to the ruins of Ephesus itself. Between the parking area and the gated entrance were all kinds of souvenir shops, and every effort to make money off the tourists. One guy was selling “genuine fake watches.” Nathan remarked that it was as if they had decided to do an extreme caricature of tourist traps, a spoof of how bad they can be! But then you buy your ticket and go through the gate...

First you come to the street that connected the harbor to the Theater. Unfortunately, the harbor has silted in so that ships cannot come inland; the sea is now three miles away, but one can imagine. The Theater of course is magnificent, as are its acoustics. Nathan could stand at the top with my camera, and record as I stood at center stage and read from Acts 19 about the riot that happened in that very spot.

Then down another street leading from the Theater, one finds the facade of the Library of Celsus, built some 50 to 80 years after Paul's stay in the city. It was three stories, though the facade has only two remaining. In fact an earthquake toppled it in the 10th century, and it was only re-erected in the 1970's. Next to the Library are arched entrances to the large Agora, or market area, where the people of Ephesus bought and sold their goods. Going uphill from the library is the street of the Curetes, along which are other ancient structures: temples, homes, a brothel, shops, a public bathroom, etc.

(Above: Library of Celsus facade; to the right, entrances to the Agora. Below, the Agora; Library facade visible at left; the street from the Theater to the Library runs just outside this photo, parallel to the nearest row of columns)

But consider again the Agora (GoogleEarth 37 56 24 N 27 20 26 E). It lies next to the Library, bordered by the street that leads immediately to the Theater. It seems quite likely that silversmiths would have had their shops and done their business in the Agora, and it is reported by John McCray in the Criswell Theological Review that one archaeologist has reported locating silversmith shops there in the Agora. It then becomes quite easy to visualize Demetrius rounding up the tradesmen, the city filling with confusion as they began crying out "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians," and then the rush to the Theater just down and across the street, dragging two of Paul's Christian brothers with them as they ran (Gaius and Aristarchus). Then for two hours their voices reverberated in that Theater, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

(view from the Theater to the Agora)

Well, great she was, but only in their minds, and in the magnificence of the temple they built for her. But they are now dead, and her temple is now in scant ruins, a place for the curious like me, and for sheep to wander and graze.

And our God still stands.