The church in Ephesus has an interesting history. Before getting into that, though, it is important to understand who the Ephesians were.

Ephesus was the greatest city in Asia at the time Paul visited there. It was an urban center on par with Corinth, Alexandria, Antioch, even Rome, itself. The harbour lead to the Aegean sea and served strategic purposes throughout history. It was also the seat of the Roman government at the the of Paul’s visit – this meant they also received money from Rome for various public projects. Ephesus was a beautiful city and comparable to Paris or Boston or Los Angelos in our time period.

It boasted the great temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Inside the temple, merchants dealt in goods from far and wide – archelogists have found goods made in Persia and India on the site. Oddly enough, the original temple was burned the night Alexander the Great was born, it was said that Artemis was concentrating on the birth of Alexander too much to defend her temple from attack. Herostratus only wanted to be remembered, yet ironically was overshadowed in history by a birth miles away. Because the original temple was destroyed, the new temple was constructed almost entirely in marble, thus earning a place among the seven ancient wonders.

Artemis was worshipped by the Greeks for centuries. Most of the ancient world identified her as a hunter, child of Zeus and Leto and twin brother of Apollo. She was usually indentified as the goddess of the hunt shown with drawn bow and arrow. However, the Ephesians had a unique claim to her that allowed the people to claim “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Little is known about the object, but, according to Acts, this image ‘fell from the sky’ and somehow became associated with Artemis. As she was worshipped as a fertility and earth goddess, this object may have conincided with a great harvest. This is purely speculation, however. Although the origin is lost to history, the mention of this object allowed the city clerk to get the mob’s attention before that acted against Paul (Acts 19:35).

The ministry in Ephesus began off-handedly. Paul and others (Timothy, Priscilla, Aquilla, possibly Titus(?) and Tychius) were on the way to Antioch from Corinth. Paul took a Nazarite vow in Cenchrea, thus shaving his head. When they stopped in Ephesus on the way, Paul went to the synagogue to preach. Although asked to stay, he continued to Antioch by way of Macedonia. Priscilla and Aquilla decide to stay in Ephesus.

Apollos, then only a disciple of John the baptist, arrives sometime after Paul leaves. As was his custom, he went into the synagogue to preach about Jesus. I can imagine the the members of the synagogue were suprised that God had sent two believers to preach, especially two believers that did not know each other, yet both preached that Jesus was the Messiah. Apollos did this for some time before Priscilla and Aquila heard of him. Finding that he did not know about the Holy Spirit, they taught Apollos about Him. With more complete knowledge, Apollos wishes to continue preaching in Achia – Priscilla and Aquila send him with letters so that he will be welcomed by Christians there and elsewhere.

Because of Apollos, it’s not surpising that Paul returns and finds disciples of John the Baptist there. It is possible they had only recently come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Like Priscilla and Aquila, Paul gives them ‘full instruction in the Lord’ and they are baptized.

At this point, Timothy had to be with Paul because Paul mentions this journey in both letter to Timothy (1Tim 1:3; 2Tim 1:18). He again preaches in the synagogue for three months. However, the reaction this time is much less favorable. When folks start maligning the Christian faith, he moves to the lecture hall of Tyrannus. Some believe that this was a midrash hall – in other words, a place where the pracitical aspects of the Jewish faith were discussed. It seems more likely, that Tyrannus was a teacher of rhetoric. As such, Paul would have been no competition to his students. Paul preaches here for another two years.

It is important to note that the effect of the gospel was large scale repentance from witchcraft. People publically burned their ‘magic’ books in public. Considering that Ephesus later became home to the cult of Isis, these magic treatises and books may have been Eqyptian in nature (Book of the Dead and the like). The value amounted to several years of wages. In order to capture the scale, I imagine this would be like everyone in Boston publicly burning their copies of Harry Potter books. (I am not condemning the books or saying that they are witchcraft, I just couldn’t think of a different wildly popular book series as an example.)

Paul mentions fighting wild animals in Ephesus, but Luke does not write about it in Acts. He is almost lynched by a mob that disbands only after the city clerk threatens to arrest the mob. The mob seems motivated by money – with hundreds not worshipping in the temple, business was not so good. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense that some things are really motivated by money, but cloaked in religious piety.

From a Christian perspective, Ephesus enjoyed many ‘big names’ of the first century church. Apollos began there, Paul stayed for almost three years, Timothy stayed for longer. The apostle John lived there before his exile. If anyone had a chance to hear about Jesus from eyewitnesses, it was the citizens of Ephesus. Considering that the work was largely started by Apollos by reasoning with the Scriptures and continued by Paul who reasoned the scriptures for two more years, it is not suprising that John has to chide them in Rev 2 that they have lost their first love. As it says, they worked hard, they had good doctrine, but the heart was missing. Paul’s letter, thirty years before John’s, seems to hint that matters of the heart should be addressed.

As best can be determined, this letter appears to have been written around 62 AD while Paul is imprisoned in Rome. Two other letters accompany this (Colossians and Philemon). Apparently, a house church is now meeting in Philemon’s home and Apphia may be his wife. Considering the numbers of converts needed to begin a mob, it seems unlikely that the entire church met in Philemon’s home, especially if they met in the presumably larger lecture hall. I’ve been in a Roman house, it could easily hold 100-200 folks without alarm. Some histories place the membership of the church of Ephesus in the thousands, though it may not have been so high in 62AD.