The Tumult
“Oft with the Spirit’s force
His arm hath quell’d the foe,
And laid resistless in his course
The alien armies low.
Bent on such glorious toils,
The world to him was loss;
Yet all his trophies — all his spoils,
He hung upon the Cross.”
“Behold us at Ephesus in the year 65!... Twenty years later, and an event, both insignificant and mighty, takes place in this city. A Christian Church has been born, separated from the bosom of Paganism like an isle in the midst of the sea.” — Monod.
lthough Luke makes no mention in the Acts of the Apostles, we gather, from a few expressions in the course of the Epistles, that Paul, some time during his residence at Ephesus, paid a visit to the city of Corinth. “Of all the churches which he planted,” it has been well said, “in none was there so much evil mixed up with so much good; and the training of so wayward a child, required the utmost care of the watchful parent.”*
Apollos had now come back from that Greek city, and doubtless would have much to tell the Apostle about the state of his converts there — much that would cause him joy; but, we fear, more that made him sad and sorrowful. Corinth, we have found, was a very wicked place; and even after many of its heathen citizens had been baptized into the Christian name, they continued to live in the indulgence of their
* Lewin, p. 378.
former awful sins. Paul, deeply grieved at the stain their conduct affixed on the character of the religion they professed, himself sailed across from Ephesus to make personal inquiries on the matter. Alas! he found the report of Apollos too true! It was even worse than he expected. It would not appear that he tarried long among them on this occasion — perhaps not more than a few days or weeks. He had hoped, doubtless, by this visit, to check the growth of these crimes for the future. Not long after his return to Ephesus, however, he learnt that the offenders were increasing in their daring guilt. He resolved to adopt harsher measures, and wrote a severe letter of rebuke, which is now lost.
Nor was it one description of sin alone of which the Corinthians were guilty. Some members of a Corinthian family — “the house of Chloe” — had at this time come to reside at Ephesus. They informed the Apostle that a sad party-spirit was continuing among his converts in the capital of Achaia. Some Jewish Christians from Palestine, who bitterly disliked Paul, had been successful in stirring up the church there against him. They induced some to look up to Peter (Cephas) as their head; others, to St James; others, who boasted of their learning and wisdom, to Apollos. “It hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren,” he writes, “by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.”* Add to this, instead of settling their disputes and differences, as they ought to have done, with one an- *lCor. i. 11, 12.
other, they had been going to the courts of law, and that, too, publicly before the heathen citizens of Corinth. Even in their own meetings for religious worship, there had been much vanity and show; they seemed to be loving and courting the praise of man more than the praise of God. The very hour of communion was profaned with their sins. In that age, it would seem that the celebration of the Lord’s Supper generally took place after the agape, or concludingmeal of the day. The Corinthians had impiously got into the habit of partaking of it just as a common feast, — the rich bringing their dainties, and the poor often not having enough to eat.
In the mean time, Paul selected Timothy and Erastus to go to Corinth, and wait there his own arrival, — endeavouring, in the interval, to bring the church to a sense of its many sins, and to heal its party-divisions. Timothy you already well know. Erastus seems to have been a citizen of Corinth, converted to the faith of Jesus, and one of some standing there. “We find him, the following year, chamberlain of the city. Though it was a circuitous way of reaching Corinth, Paul asked these two faithful men to visit, in going thither, the churches of Macedonia — to acquaint them of his own intended coming, and to request them to be ready with their money-collection for the poor Christians in Judea. Other messengers from Corinth — Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus — had by this time arrived, bearing a reply to the Apostle’s letter, and also bringing from their church a number of questions on difficult points of conduct, duty, and doctrine, upon which they wished his judgment. Paul set himself immediately to answer these. His answer consists of what is known to us by the name of “The First Epistle to the Corinthians.’” It was written, probably, some time or other in March, or April, and during the third year of his residence at Ephesus. This letter is full of sharp rebukes for the many and grievous sins which disgraced that much-loved church. It does not seem to bear his wonted tender affection for them, but threatens them with “the rod” if they still continue in their guilt. He afterwards, however, lets us into the true state of his feelings while writing it, — “Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears.” * It contains much important and precious truth. Its beautiful 15th chapter especially, has afforded joy and consolation to millions — opening up to them hopes which are “full of immortality.” We gather, from the close of the letter, that the Apostle was planning the journey to which we have referred, through the churches of Macedonia to Corinth, and from thence he purposed to go to Jerusalem; indeed, he even looked farther before him, intending to proceed, were it his Lord’s will, to visit the world’s distant capital itself — imperial Rome.
Meanwhile he sent Titus, and probably Trophimus, with the answer to the Corinthian letter, requesting the former to use all his influence in putting matters to rights in that erring church. Titus was himself a native of Corinth. He seemed to have shrunk from this difficult mission, knowing too well the sad repute of the city; but Paul encouraged him to go, and he seems to have had no cause to regret having obeyed; for we thus find the Great Apostle, in an after Corinthian epistle, referring to the way they had received
* 2 Cor. ii. 14.
Titus: “Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all. For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth. And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him. I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things.” *
Meanwhile the Apostle himself lingered a little while behind at Ephesus, hopeful that Timothy and Titus, meeting together at Corinth, and using their joint exertions, would prepare the minds of the professing converts there for his coming to them “in peace.” Aquila and Priscilla, Apollos, Gaius, and Aristarchus, remained with him at Ephesus, aad perhaps also Luke. The latter we have for some time lost sight of. It has been thought that he had been busy meanwhile in writing his Gospel, which he soon after published in Macedonia.t
It was at this period that a new event took place in the city of Ephesus, which at the moment threatened to bring the Apostle into great danger, but which, in the end, turned out “rather for the furtherance of the Gospel.” A large and lucrative trade seems to have been carried on there in the manufacture of copies or models of the shrine of the goddess Diana. At one season of the year, in particular, — the month of May, — multitudes from all parts of Asia, and even of Europe, crowded to the great annual festival in honour of the
* 2 Cor. vii. 13-1G. t Lewiu.
deity. If you look at Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, of which I have just been speaking, you will find one reason he gives for not leaving Ephesus at present was, “that a great door and effectual was opened unto him, and there were many enemies.”* Might he not — or rather, does he not — in this, allude to the glorious opportunity afforded him of preaching the Gospel when “all the world” were collected together at these memorable games? — just as the honoured Whitfield more than once erected his tent on the race-course, to proclaim in the ears of those who were “minding earthly things,” the better and more enduring substance. A whole month, called “Artemisius” or the “month of Diana,” was allotted every year to this great festival-gathering. What a concourse it must have been! You can look at the picture of the city, and imagine the hundreds of vessels crowding the harbour — gaily-painted boats flitting up and down the basin of Panormus — crowds of pilgrims looking from the heights of Mount Prion — pleasure-hunters in all directions — the Theatre, with its shows — the Hippodrome, with its horse-racing — the wrestling and beastfighting in the huge Stadium to the left — individuals dressed up in fancy costume — mock gods and mock goddesses — Jupiters, with their glittering crowns, bolts of war, and white sandals — Apollo, with his wreath of laurel and white robes — and Mercury, with dress appropriate to the swift-footed messenger of the deities of Olympus.t To complete the picture, you may imagine thousands of eyes, old and young, entranced with wonder as they gazed on the Ionic columns of the
* 1 Cor. xvi. 9.
f Don-minus. See the quotation in full by Mr Lewin, vol. i. p. 441.
great temple, or as they followed thither the bleating sacrifices, crowned with garlands. Goats’-hair tents, too, would be dotted over the plain outside the city walls for the accommodation of the vast number of strangers. Who can tell but some of these may have been the handiwork of the Great Apostle, who was still night and day “labouring that he might be chargeable to no man” 1
You can imagine, too, how the shops and bazaars would be filled with everything attractive for the visitors. Parents, who had left their children behind, were in the habit of buying for them little memorials of their visit. Among these souvenirs there was one that commanded a more especial sale — few pilgrims returned home without carrying along with them one of the copies or models of the famous shrine. They were made either of gold, silver, or wood, as the purchaser could afford, and were called Aphidrumata* There was one maker of these who had many workmen under him — his name was Demetrius. He was beginning to find that the influence and preaching of Paul in town and round about was seriously interfering with the sale of his images. The Apostle had been pointing the people, not to Diana, but to Jesus Christ as their only Saviour; doubtless telling them, as he had done the Athenians, that “the Godhead was not like to wood or stone, or brass, graven with man’s device,” and that there was but “one name given under heaven among men by which sinners could be saved.” Demetrius resolved to do what he could to crush those who were so ruining his trade. The month of May had by this time returned. The Ionians were already crowding again with their
* Dionysius ii. 22.
wives and children to the city to take part in the games and other festivities of the season. Demetrius called his own and other workmen together, and addressed them on the subject. It was an easy matter to get the crowd increased in such a place as Ephesus. He began by telling of the serious loss incurred in their lawful trade; pointing, as we may suppose him, with his finger, to the vast temple in their view, he sought to rouse their vengeance against Paul, whom he represented as “causing the great goddess Diana to be despised, and her magnificence destroyed.” The speech had the desired effect; they were filled with wrath, and one long and loud shout arose, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” * The whole city was filled with confusion; the crowd was still increasing, and with one accord they cry out, “To the Theatre! to the Theatre!” dragging along with them Paul’s two companions, Gaius and Aristarchus. The theatre was the place where great assemblages on political matters generally convened. It was surrounded with stoneseats, rising one above the other all around. You may imagine the rush which now took place to it, each anxious to get the seat most advantageous for hearing. But where was Paul all this time 1 When he heard of the commotion, how his Master’s name was assailed, and the truth he himself proclaimed, we need not say he would be the first in desiring to answer publicly the charges brought against him. How joyfully would he have availed himself of the opportunity of preaching the glorious Gospel before that vast concourse! But his wiser Christian converts, and the “chief of Asia” (or the Asiarchs, men of high rank and
* Acts xix. 27, 28.
standing in the kingdom),* prevented him exposing himself to certain danger and death. The mob had rushed to the house of Aquila, expecting to find him there, but they had secured his escape. It is to be feared his faithful friends Aquila and Priscilla must have been rudely handled on this occasion. Paul tells us that they had “for his life laid down their own necks.” t He talked afterwards of having “fought with wild beasts at Ephesus.” If he had gone now to the Theatre, he would have been obliged to encounter wild beasts in a human form; his kind friends, however, knowing better than he did the fury of an Ephesian mob, would not allow him to hazard himself. It has been supposed, indeed, if he had ventured to the Theatre, the base passions of some of the crowd, and the love of cruel sport among others, would have urged that the Apostle be given up to one of those terrible conflicts with wild animals, with which many of the early martyrs were so sadly familiar. Often, we know, were the Christians in an after age accustomed to hear the shout of the enraged populace, “Ad bestias! ad leonem!” May it not be to this Paul refers in the verse I have just quoted: “After the manner of men,” or rather, “according to the intention of men,” — the intention of this Ephesus mob, — “I have fought with wild beasts” — I had all the fearful prospect of such a death! Fortunately for the Apostle, the “Asiarchs” interfered for his safety. With them rested the power of entertaining the people with such savage sport. Old Polycarp was brought into the Theatre at
* “The Asiarchs had the oversight of the sacred places of the city, and were required to manage the sacred games at their own expense.” — Olshausen, in loc.
f Rom. xvi. 4.
Smyrna to be torn thus by lions; but the Asiarch, or governor there (Philip), would not consent to let the animals loose on the aged man.* Be this as it may, however, we may well imagine Paul’s agony of mind when he heard the distant tumult, and thought of his two devoted friends, Gaius and Aristarchus, about perhaps to be cruelly martyred, while he had escaped. Indeed, we know, for many weeks he did not recover the effects of this agitation. For him, however, to have ventured, would only have added fuel to the fire, and been certain destruction to all. When the people were assembled in their seats, the Jews, who wished to show that they hated Paul as much as the heathen, put forward one of their own number, Alexander the coppersmith, a man of fluent speech, and bearing a stern hatred to the Apostle. Whenever the mob saw he was a Jew, his voice was drowned with their clamour. They would not hear him speak, and for two hours the air was rent with the cry, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” When they could cry no longer, and their spirits and voice began to flag, the town-clerk, or “recorder,” next presented himself in the midst of the excited assembly. He was an individual of great official influence, and had the charge of the vast sums of money and other treasures which were kept in the temple. In his speech, he shows great prudence and tact in dealing with those he addressed. He began by telling them of the greatness and glory of their temple and goddess; that its fame filled the world, and that one or two poor Jewish strangers would never for a moment be able to inflict upon it any injury; moreover, that Paul had not, as was alleged, sought in any way
* See Fleetwood’s Lives of the Apostles.
to profane the shrine, or blaspheme the patron deity. He closes his address by reminding them of the danger of such tumultuary meetings as the present. His powerful words had the desired effect. The voices of the dense crowd were stilled. The Theatre gradually emptied, and they dispersed to their several homes.
We have no further notice after this of Paul’s doings at Ephesus. It continued for long an important city in infant Christendom. The Apostle John is believed here to have closed his mission of love in peace, and his dust was said to repose, along with that of Timothy,* among the thickets and ruins of Mount Prion. To this day, a little mound nearly opposite Mount Prion has a small village on its crest, bearing the name of Aiasaluk, a corruption of Agios Theologos (the Holy Divine), t In Ephesus, probably, he wrote his Gospel and Epistles. Here it was, looking down on the noblest temple ever made with human hands, that he “remembered the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said,” “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Tradition adds, that Mary the mother of Jesus closed her honoured life in the same city, the disciple of love being faithful to the last in the sacred trust committed to him by his Lord on the cross: — “Son, behold thy mother; and from that hour, that disciple took her unto his own home.”
* “The body of Timothy was afterwards translated to Constantinople by the founder of that city, or his son Constantius, and placed with St Luke and St Andrew in the Church of the Apostles.”’ — So says Chandler, p. 126.
t Stanley’s Sermons on the Aiposlolk Age.