Ephesus

Located on the western end of Asia, Ephesus was the third largest city in the Roman Empire. Made wealthy by its accessibility by roads from all over Asia and by sea to the entire Aegean region, the city boasted about a quarter of a million people the time of Paul and was a major religious center. The city is mentioned 17x, and its people 4x in the NT. The ancient city of Ephesus is more important for Bible students than most of us realize. While the dramatic events of Paul's stay in the city is well-known to any one who has read the book of Acts (esp., Chaps 18-19), the church (or churches) of Ephesus also became the pastoral responsibility of Timothy (1 Tim 1:3). Later it became the first of the seven churches to be addressed by the apostle John (Rev 1:11); there we see a church praised for "your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance," a church that "cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary" (Rev 2:1-3), a church that, however, had lost its first love (v4). There is also a considerable body of scholarly opinions suggesting that the letters of John may have originated from the city, and that John was resident there, and there it was that he composed the Gospel according to his name. As a city Ephesus was significant enough to host three ecumenical coucils, the First Council of Ephesus in 190, to decide on an official date for observing Easter, the Second Council of Ephesus in 431, to deal with the Nestorian controversy over the nature of Jesus, and the Third Council of Ephesus in 449 to decide on the Monophysite controvery.

In ancient times the city of Ephesus was a port situated at the mouth of the Cayster River where it opens onto the Aegean Sea opposite the island of Samos on the west coast of what is now Turkey. Its position would have been ideal except that the river kept silting up the harbour. The many attempts to dredge the bay failed to alleviate the problem, and what was imperial Ephesus is today 7km from the sea.

The shore line used to be where the straight
stretch of the road on the right ended in the trees.

Legend has it that the goddess Artemis was born in the woods around Ephesus, and her idol fell from heaven (cf., Acts 19:35), whereupon the Amazons—a race of mythical female warriors—built the city and the temple to Artemis. The origin of the city, which went back beyond the Iron Age, is obscure, but came into prominence when it was captured by Ionian colonists. The temple cult of Artemis was embraced and became increasing more Hellenistic.

The site of the ruins that modern tourists visit is not the original site of the city. Until about the beginning of the 3rd Cent BC the city was situated on low-lying grounds further north. In 281 BC, King Lycimachus founded a new city on higher grounds, approximately where the ruins lie today. The people, however, were reluctant to move, being 'pursuaded' only when Lycimachus blocked up the sewers during a torrential downpour and the old city was inundated with filth. Here on the fertile but often soft-grounded valley between two hills the city grew, its name changing from one to the other until it finally became Ephesus. The city grew in wealth as a center of trade and the temple of Artemis became a prominent feature of the city's cultural influence in the region, claiming fame by the 3rd Cent BC as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. On the night Alexander the Great was born, the Artemisium was destroyed in a great fire, the result of an arsonist who seemed to have no motive than wanting to see it burned. The city fell to Alexander when he invaded Asia; Alexander saw it as his destiny to restore the Artemisium to its glory. Ephesus remained a Hellenist city until it was bequeathed to the Romans in 190 BC by the last king of Pergamos, Attalus II (Philadelphius), and made the capital of Asia. By then the city was one of the most important and wealty metropolis in the Empire. Reaching more than 1000 acres(> 1½ mile sq, or >2km sq) in size, the city attracted not only huge numbers of traders but also large numbers of pilgrims to the temple. It is not difficult, therefore, to understand why the silver smiths who crafted idols of Artemis for sale became so upset by Paul's success in his preaching of the gospel in the city (Acts 19:23-20:1). Despite the opposition, however, the city became more and more Christianized and the cult of Artemis began to wane. The temple's influence suffered a further setback when the temple caught fire again in 262 AD, but it was not until 401 that it was finally destroyed by a Christian mob.

The death of the city came naturally, betrayed by the river on whose banks it was built. Silting over the centuries pushed the coast further and further from the city until, as already noted above, it is today 7km away. While it is possible since the 20th Cent to turn a piece of desert waste into a thriving city (Las Vegas and Dubai are good example) or the dredge the river of its silt ancient Ephesus simply did not have what it took to maintain its vibrancy as a city. And so began the slow sad glide into decay and death. In the mid 19th Cent, the British Museum received permission from the Ottoman government to excavate the ancient city. While only a small portion of the city has been excavated, the city is the most intensively excavated city in the world.

Resources:

Clinton Arnold, Ephesians. A Video Study. Introduction. 18.53 mins. This is an excellent introduction by an great scholar of Ephesians.
Video/Youtube N (Open on Phone)

Andrew Jackson & Mark Wilson, Ephesus: City of Apostles 58 mins. 2020.
Video/YoutubeN (Open on Phone)

Joshua J. Mark, "Ephesus," World History Encyclopedia.

M. Cartwright, "Temple of Artemis at Ephesus," World History Encyclopedia.

Rick Steve, Ephesus Youtube N