Ephesus was once a port city. In time the harbor filled up with silt from the river, and now Ephesus is five miles inland. We docked at Kusadasi, Turkey and wound our way through the marketplace to our bus.
For me, personally, Ephesus was the highlight of the trip thus far. The most complete ruins I have ever seen, with the exception of Machu Picchu.
There are numerous recreations of how the library would have looked. Here are two. The Romans loved color. Many recovered artifacts in antiquity had brightly painted stone.
It is nearly impossible to capture the theater, which holds 24,000 people, more than the Wortham or the Compaq Center in Houston. Today they hold concerts like Sting and Elton John in this theater.
Bible
- Ephesians
- Acts 19
Ephesus
Ephesus was a port city was on the west coast of Ionia (modern day Turkey). Today Ephesus is 5 miles inland, about two miles southwest of Izmir. The Small Meandros River filled in with silt over the years. Ephesus dates to 300 BC but built on top of an older city. It was the commercial center on the west coast of what was Asia minor, and today is Turkey.
From the archeological evidence of surviving milestones, we know they measured distances in Asia Minor from the Caput Viae in Ephesus (Paul, The Mind of the Apostle, A.N. Wilson, p. 181: D. H. French, ‘The Roman Road System of Asia Minor’ in Aufstieg and Niedergang der Romischen Welt).
The Greeks didn’t try to dominate the inland areas, but the ports, which were called emporions or “ways in.” We get our word “emporium” from this because of the merchant nature of these towns. There is evidence that the great harbor of Ephesus which is now separated from the sea by no less than 20 miles of reedy marshland, was already beginning to silt up in Paul’s day. Eventually, Ephesus’ harbor dried up, its trade declined and life went out of the city.
This is the second floor of a wealthy terrace home in the city of Ephesus. Above is how it looks today. Below is how it possibly/likely would have looked then. The second floor was the sleeping area. On the first floor were the living and dining rooms.
The Temple of Artemis
The temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the world. Nothing is left of the Temple of Artemis except for one pillar. It was destroyed by the Goths in 263 A.D. There were 127, so it was huge. Behind the pillar below you can see the Isabey Mosque and the Cathedral of Saint John. The site was discovered by an Englishman in Izmir named John Wood, in 1873, under 18 feet of Alluvian mud.
Below is a digital depiction of how the temple probably looked, based on research by Professor Ahmet Denker, who worked for 12 years in museums, including the British Museum, where many pieces of the Temple of Artemis are stored.
Library of Celsus
Here is a visual recreation of the how the Library of Celsus might have looked.
This is a different possible recreation:
And yet another:
The Statue of Artemis in Ephesus
The Artemis statue dates from the 2nd century. It was said that this statue fell from heaven.
Luke says Paul spoke about his faith, called “The Way,” in the synagogue for three months (Acts 19:8ff.), and then went to the lecture hall of Tyrannus, where he held daily discussions for two years! The Greeks loved to debate religious ideas.
Acts 20:34 indicates that Paul earned his own keep, so it is likely that he plied his trade of tent making in the morning to make money (while Tyrannus was lecturing), and then went to the hall in the afternoons. We don’t know who Tyrannus was or where his school was lorcated. Perhaps it was in the agora.
According to the Acts of the Apostles (19:23-41) Paul was dragged into the Ephesus Theater during a riot. Cut into the slope of Mount Pion, the theater seats 21,000 people, more than Houston’s Compaq Center and the Wortham combined.
Paul preached that idols made with hands were not real gods, which cut into the silversmiths’ idol-making profits. A silversmith named Demetrius gathered a mob of his fellow tradesmen who dragged Paul, along with Gaius and Aristarchus (Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia) into the theater, accusing them of scorning Roman religion and even the Temple of Artemis. The town clerk denied the charges, quelled the riot, and dispersed the crowd.
Here is an artist’s virtual reconstruction of the theater:
