Paul at Ephesus

In the proud land of palaces wert thou

Alone and matchless, as thine own fair queen Shines ‘midst the gems of night’s star-crowned brow,

Veiling their dim rays with superior sheen. Thy countless columns gleam ‘d in rich array —

The gifts of monarchs, and the work of men — Whose nobler names, when regal thrones decay,

Shall boast the meed of Fame’s recording pen.”

“Great is Diana of the Ephesiansl” — Acts six. 28.

we day, while the Jews of Ephesus were £*nm assembled in their synagogue, a stranger rose up to address them. They were at once struck with his fervour, learning, and eloquence. He was deeply read in their Old Testament Scriptures, and ably argued from them. Who can this be 1 It is a name that occurs now for the first time in our narrative.

A polios was a native of Egypt. He had recently come to Ephesus, and, along with twelve others, was “a disciple of John the Baptist.” “He knew only of the baptism of John,” — that is to say, all the knowledge he had of the true Messiah was derived from the preaching of the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan. He and his associates were ignorant of the fact, that Jesus Christ had really come into the world — had died, and risen again. Their minds, however, were in a state of “preparation;” they knew that “the kingdom of heaven was at hand,” and now they were ready to receive, from the lips of the Great Apostle, the joyful intelligence that the Messiah had indeed suffered, and had “entered into His glory.” *

Apollos, born and educated at Alexandria, had his mind stored with the learning of its celebrated university. To this he added a powerful eloquence. “He was mighty in the Scriptures;” he had studied and pondered with great care the Old Testament prophecies relating to the Messiah, and, being convinced himself, he zealously tried to convince others that the Saviour must soon come. With holy ardour, he seems to have travelled about from place to place, and, in the spirit of Elias, preached “the baptism of repentance,” — calling on all to forsake their sins, and to prepare their minds for the coming of the Lord.

Already in the Ephesian synagogue an interest had been excited about the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had very lately been addressing his Jewish brethren there. Aquila and Priscilla had done so since his departure, doubtless instructing their fellow-countrymen in those great truths which they themselves had heard often and again from the lips of the Great Apostle of Tarsus, as he sat with them on the same floor at their tent-making. Upon the day to which I have referred, after listening to the eloquence and earnestness of this Alexandrian Jew, Aquila and Priscilla, at the end of the service, made themselves known to him. They invited him to their house, where they “taught him the way of the Lord more perfectly,” showing him that” the

* See Olshausen On Acts, in loc.

mystery of godliness “had already been revealed — that God had been “manifest in the flesh.”

The disciple of John, now a devoted servant of John’s Great Master, went forth to proclaim in Achaia “the unsearchable riches” of a dying, and now ever-living Saviour. Receiving “letters of commendation” from the Christians at Ephesus, he took ship and sailed direct to Corinth; there, with his wonted eloquence, he argued with those Jews who had rejected Paul, showing that Jesus was indeed the Christ. They were totally unable to resist the force of his appeals. Paul himself alludes to this in one of his letters to them — “I have planted; Apollos watered.”* His coming to Corinth produced one unfortunate result, which he, doubtless, greatly regretted. The Christians there, forgetful that both he and Paul were only lowly instruments in God’s hand, separated themselves into two parties, — thereby causing those earnest and devoted brethren in a common Lord, to appear as if they were rivals, and opposed to one another. Some were “of Paul,” and others “of Apollos.” Our Apostle was also greatly grieved at this spirit. In words of holy rebuke, he writes to them, “Who, then, is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed 1” “Is Christ divided 1 was Paul crucified for you 1 or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” t

We shall leave Apollos in his devoted work at Corinth, and once more return to Ephesus. Its importance in the life of Paul, and in the early Christian Church, entitles it to special notice. If you look at the picture we have given of it, it may help to give an idea of the city as it was when he now entered its

* 1 Cor. iii. 6. f 1 Cor. iii. 5; i. 13.

gates, and was about to gather in some more “first-fruits” of the great Gospel harvest. The city itself was at this time the largest and most renowned in Asia Minor. It was built near where the rivers Hermus and Mseander empty their waters into the JEge&K Sea; and, from its situation, became the residence of many classes from all parts of the East. It wap called by Pliny one of the “Eyes of Asia,” Smyrna being the other. A Roman proconsul governed it in great splendour. He was clothed in purple, attended by twelve lictors with their fasces; and, like our judges in England and Scotland, made his circuit once a year to all the smaller towns in Asia, and held a court of justice.* The original city was built on the side of the hill Coressus, the base of which is nearest you to the left of the picture, sloping gradually into the plain. Mount Pactyas (from which the view is supposed to be taken) bounded it on the east, Mount Gallesius on the north, with a lake at its base; while the waters of the ocean were on the west (represented in the distance of the picture). All these hills were precipitous, enclosing, like so many ramparts, the plain on which Ephesus stood, except at the north-east, where the river Cayster, which you will observe on the right, wound its way through the plain to the sea. The prominent hill rising in front of Mount Coressus, is Mount Prion, famous for its quarries. In the valley between these two hills, may still be traced the remains of one of the celebrated “gymnasia.” Mount Prion itself is overrun at this day with tangled thickets, but we may imagine what it must have been in the days of Paul, when covered with mason-work from its own

* Lewin.

quarries. Looking down from its summit, what is now a swamp, was then a spacious harbour, or inland basin, called Panormus, or “All-haven,” where the ships of the European seas rode at anchor. It was at this harbour that Aquila, Priscilla, and Paul must have landed. From the same height might be seen the Stadium, or place where those engaged in the games contended, with its tiers of stone seats cut out of the natural rock (see the nearest part of the picture on the left). Also, midway between the Stadium and Mount Prion, the enormous Theatre, of which we shall by and by speak, where the Ephesian mob were addressed by the town-clerk.*

But the crowning glory of Ephesus was its wonderful temple to the goddess Diana, which I shall leave my young readers to find out for themselves. This was considered one of the wonders of the Old World; and well it might be called so. It was said that the sun, in all his course through the heavens, looked down on nothing so glorious. t It was composed of all that was magnificent in Asiatic art. The states round about had shared the cost of its erection. It was built of marble, found in the quarries of Mount Prion, and was said to be so pure and bright as to dazzle the eyes of mariners at a distance.

The story is worth giving as to how these marble quarries were discovered. A shepherd, named Pixodorus, was feeding his flock on the hill; two of his

* Chandler mentions, that among the pile of ruins which the Theatre has now become, he discovered an arch, next to the Stadium, on which was an inscription inviting the reader, if he did not join in the sports and festive scenes, at all events to be pleased with the architect’s device. What a lesson would be read to him if he gazed on the triumph of his genius now!

f Chandler, p. 139.

rams began to fight with one another; the one of these, in making a rash at his enemy, missed his mark and struck his horn through the turf, goring some white substance with it. The shepherd dug up a specimen of the rock, and ran into the city with his prize. It was just what the Ephesians were in search of — marble for the building of their temple! The lucky shepherd was amply rewarded, and even got divine honours paid him at his death.*

The temple stood at the eastern end of the noble harbour of which we have just spoken. You may imagine what a pile it was, when you hear that it was 220 years in building, 425 feet in length, by 220 in breadth. The shrine of the goddess was surrounded by a colonnade, open to the sky, of 127 columns of Parian marble, each weighing 150 tons, 60 feet high, and each the gift of a king. It was decorated and beautified inside with cedar, cypress, gold, jewels, and precious stones; the roof was supported with columns of green jasper. Eight of these still remain entire in the great mosque of St Sophia, in Constantinople, to which they were removed, along with other remains of its glory, in the reign of Justinian. Art must have attained great perfection in Ephesus. Apelles and Parrhasius, the two greatest painters that ever lived, were natives of the city. One picture of Apelles, which represented Alexander the Great grasping a thunderbolt, was hung in the temple of Diana, purchased at a cost of twenty talents of gold, — a sum which Chandler estimates at £38,750.t The magnificent altar was from the chisel of Praxiteles; the staircase was made of a single vine from the island of Cyprus;

* See Chandler, p. 126. t See Mr Lewin, p. 358.

the noblest pictures were hung on the walls; and, among many other statues, one of pure gold was erected to Antemidorus.* Besides these, much of the wealth of Asia was deposited for safety within this sacred shrine.

You may easily suppose how imposing the temple must have appeared, approaching from the sea — looking down on the ships which crowded the wharves of Panormus, and how justly proud every Ephesian must have been of this world-renowned edifice! It stood untouched for many ages. At last, like many other splendid relics of antiquity, it fell into the hands of the invading Goths, in a.d. 260, and was pillaged by them. Modern travellers have visited its remains, and, by means of torches, have threaded their way under the dark vaulted chambers on which it was built. Bats of large size struck against them, roused from the darkness and desolation which reigns within.t All combine in the testimony, that Ephesus is at this day a total wreck. “Its streets,” says Dr Chandler, whose visit was in 1764, “are obscured and overgrown. A herd of goats was driven to it for shelter from the sun at noon, and a noisy flight of crows, from the quarries, seemed to insult its silence. We heard the partridge call in the area of the Theatre and the Stadium.” “Nothing is seen, in its dripping marble quarries, but the marks of the tools of former days. “J Alas for Ephesus! it did not listen to the warning voice —” Re-

* This full description of Ephesus is given by the historians Strabo and Pliny. See also Pocoke’s Travels, Anacharsis’ Travels, and the interesting narrative of Dr Chandler, who was sent out by the Dilettanti Society for the express purpose of exploring the remains of antiquity in Asia Minor, pp. 109-137.

t roid.

Howson. member, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” That light, which burned for a while so brightly, is now quenched in total darkness — a “chaos of noble ruins!” “Even the sea has retired from the scene of desolation, and a pestilential morass, covered with mud and rushes, has succeeded to the waters which brought up the ships laden with merchandise from every country.”*

On arriving, eighteen hundred years ago, at this city, the Apostle met those twelve disciples of John we have already alluded to. Not only were they, as I have told you, altogether ignorant of Christ; they were also ignorant of the Holy Spirit, the third person in the blessed Trinity, and of His outpouring on the day of Pentecost. “Have ye received,” he asked them, “the Holy Ghost since ye believed 1” They answered, “We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” t Paul expounded to them the glorious “truth as it is in Jesus.” They received his testimony; were baptized; and by the laying-on of his hands, they prophesied and spake with various tongues. The Apostle, we have every reason to think, took up his abode again with Aquila and Priscilla. With them, too, he probably resumed his work at the tents; at all events, we know, from one of his own letters, J that, during the three years he lived at Ephesus, he earned his bread by the “labour of his own hands.” And he could at an after period extend these hands, rough with daily labour, before the elders

* Arundell’s Visit to the Seven Churches.
f Acts xix. 2. % 1 Cor. vi. 11, 12.

of Ephesus, and make the appeal, “Ye yourselves know that these have ministered to my necessities.” * For three months “he continued to speak boldly in their synagogue, till at last the old Jewish enmity manifested itself. His brethren falsely accused and derided him in the presence of the people. This led him openly to leave their synagogue; and for two years he preached in a separate place of meeting, in the “school” (or lecture-room) “of Tyrannus,” — probably a teacher or doctor, who had been by his means converted to Christianity. We have no certain information as to Paul’s success during this long period of residence; but in the same address to the elders of Ephesus at Miletus, we see the more than tender affection borne for those he was now teaching, and among whom he had gone about from house to house, instructing and warning them “night and day with tears.” We know that, before he left, a large and nourishingchurch was formed at Ephesus, not only in the city, but numbering many converts throughout the province. “The Word of God mightily grew and prevailed.” t As was to be expected, however, he encountered still the envy of the Jews. This seems to have been great, if we may judge from the manner he refers to “the many tears and temptations which befell him by the lying in wait of the Jews.” His preservation was itself a miracle. It was only the good and gracious hand of his God which could have protected him. His own short history of himself and his perils at this time, when he writes from Ephesus to the Corinthians, is this — “I die daily.” J Death every day seemed to stare him in the face.

* Acts xx. 34. f Actsxix. 20. f ICor. xv. 3J.

There is a striking occurrence at this time mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, which we cannot pass over in silence. I have already told you that the patron goddess of the city of Ephesus was Diana.* Her image was supposed to have fallen from the sky. An unshapely block it was; not like the beautiful forms we have been accustomed to think of among the statues of Athens, but a figure more like what is seen at this day in the pagodas of India. t To prevent its tottering, a bar of metal — some say of gold, others of iron — was placed under each hand. A veil, hanging from the roof of the temple, concealed it, unless on the great occasion of the festival, when it was exposed to public view. “Mutianus, a noble Roman, affirmed that the figure was made of vine, and had many holes, filled with nard, to nourish and moisten it, and to preserve the cement.”;y; This hideous goddess was, however, gorgeously apparelled. She had a crown on her head, and a girdle round her waist; on the crown, girdle, and feet, there were engraven sundry curious letters, on which the Ephesians looked with superstitious awe. Copied and written out on rolls of parchment, these “letters” used to be carried about on the persons of many of the people, who foolishly considered that they would prove a sort of charm, protecting them from all kinds of evil. Many large books or scrolls were to be had, describing these same “Ephesian Letters,” pretending to explain their secrets, and, as such, sold for

* It was a matter of policy often to keep up in the minds of the people the idea of such protectors over their city. The Trojans imagined their city’s safety depended on the Palladium, an image of Pallas-Minerva, also believed to have fallen from heaven. The same with the Ancilia, or Sacred Shields; Ceres, in Sicily, &c — See Barnes, in loc.

t See picture, Chap. sv. J Chandler, p. 134.

enormous prices. There is a story told of an Ephesian and Milesian wrestling with one another at the Olympic games. The Ephesian got the better of his opponent, but the cause was soon discovered, the former having some of these magic letters bound round his heel! As soon as the other found out the reason, he insisted on their removal, and he was said to be instantly victorious! So says a grave old writer.* Indeed, there was no city in all the East where sorcery and magic were practised to such an extent as at Ephesus; and those, too, who believed in these, were not among the lowest of the people, but men and women of birth and reputation. God seems to have given his apostolic servant at this time a special power to work miracles, and that in the way best calculated to confound the arts of the sorcerers. For multitudes, we are told, brought “handkerchiefs and aprons” with which to touch the Apostle’s person, and then they applied these to the bodies of their sick or diseased friends, and they were immediately healed.

Paul, like Aaron and Moses of old before the magicians of Egypt, met the magicians and sorcerers of Ephesus face to face. Among them were some Jewish exorcists, or pretended sorcerers, who professed to have the power of casting out devils by the use of certain words or incantations, many of which were believed to have been composed and used by King Solomon. Josephus, the historian, seems himself to have been carried away with these delusions. He gives a curious account of one Eleazar, a Jew, in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian and the officers of his army, curing a demoniac by holding a ring under his nose, in which

* Eustatliius.

was placed a small portion of a plant prescribed by Solomon. At the smell of the plant, he solemnly tells us the demon took to flight, and overturned a full cup of water as he left the room where the feat was performed! * These Ephesian exorcists, when they saw that Paul, by the name of “Jesus” performed many miracles, impiously tried, by the use of the same holy name, to perform arts and wonders themselves. There were seven sons of a Jew named Sceva particularly mentioned, who attempted, by pronouncing the name of the Lord Jesus, to expel some demons from one who was possessed, saying, “We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth.” t The evil spirit in a loud voice rebuked their presumption. “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are vel?” The man, goaded on to frenzy by the power of the demon within him, sprang upon the profane sorcerers, and made them in terror fly out of the house, “naked and wounded.” Soon the tidings of what had taken place spread through the city; the dark heathen art fell immediately into discredit. Many of the sorcerers and magicians, trembling and astonished, came to the Apostle, mourning over their delusions. They sought repentance, and began to honour the name they and their fellows had so daringly blasphemed.

Their conduct is worthy of all mention and praise; not only did they give up and abandon their magical arts, but fearful lest they might be tempted at some future time to return to them, they resolved to put out of their reach anything likely to become a temptation, or to remind them of their former method of obtaining unlawful gain. What did they do? They brought

* Jos. Ant. viii. 2, quoted by Lewin. t Acts xix. 13, together all their magical books and burnt them! We know how valuable and expensive such written scrolls were in those days; perhaps in destroying them many parted with the most costly and valuable part of their property. Indeed, the estimated value was about .£1800 or £2000 of our money — some even say £7000! But they had learned “to count all things, but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus;” and now they showed how willing they were to “suffer the loss of all things, that they might win Him.” Never would these strange “burnings” be forgotten in Ephesus. The Word of God quickly spread. The name of Jesus was magnified. Paul thus “out of weakness was made strong, waxed valiant in fight,” and not only “turned to flight,” but by God’s grace turned to repentance and faith, and true conversion, “the army of the aliens.”