It Starts Small

Welcome to the 7 Churches Blog Series! For the first day we are going to take a deep dive into the church at Ephesus and the church at Smyrna (two different blog posts will be written).

We can trace the beginnings of the church at Ephesus in the New Testament! But first, a little background information on the city it resided in.

Uncovering the etymology of ancient place names is an inexact science. In the case of Ephesus, the word itself has no specific meaning in Greek, but the word is close in pronunciation to other Greek words. For example, ephesos (Ephesus) sounds similar to the Greek words arestos (desirable) and epitrepo (permitted). Therefore, scholars have proposed that the city may have originally been assigned one of these names, but then over time the pronunciation of the name changed to ephesos (Ephesus). 

The word Ephesus means desirable, and in many ways it was certainly a desirable place to live. This ancient city was the center of travel and commerce. It was situated on the Aegean Sea at the mouth of the the Cayster River. Ephesus was considered one of the greatest seaports of the ancient world. There were three major roads that lead from the sea port:

East – towards Babylon via Laodicea
North – to Smyrna
South to Meander Valley

Ephesus has an interesting history but most of it is steeped in mythology and unrecorded. What we can find is that in the the seventh century B.C., Ephesus fell under the rule of the Lydian Kings. It then became a thriving city where both men and women enjoy equal opportunities. The Lydian King Croesus was most famous for funding the rebuilding of the temple of Artemis. Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, chastity, childbirth, wild animals and the wilderness. This false god was worshipped by the Greeks.Croesus was wealthy but was defeated by the Persians who were defeated by the Romans.

During Paul’s time, he visited the Ephesus during his second missionary journey after leaving Corinth. We can read about his church planting in Acts 18.

It is Paul’s third missionary journey we learn he spent between two to three years in the city (Acts 19:8-10). He spent his time there addressing time addressing false doctrines and pagan practices. At one point, Paul’s preaching was so successful, many who had practiced the occult brought their books and burned them as an act of repentance (Acts 19:18-20).

Paul preaching caused a huge uproar with the silversmith guilds. They produced the silver items with the image of Artemis.

²³ About that time there was a major disturbance about the Way. ²⁴ For a person named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, provided a great deal of business for the craftsmen. ²⁵ When he had assembled them, as well as the workers engaged in this type of business, he said, “Men, you know that our prosperity is derived from this business. ²⁶ You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and misled a considerable number of people by saying that gods made by hand are not gods. ²⁷ Not only do we run a risk that our business may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence come to the verge of ruin—the very one all of Asia and the world worship.”

Acts 19:23-27

It is estimated that 250,000 people lived in Ephesus at the time Paul was there. His preaching has caused a significant drop in the sales of false idol images. We know this because the number one guy having them made, gathered the silversmiths up and said we have a problem. His name is Paul.

After this Paul left for Macedonia where he stayed to write 1 Corinthians. It was several months later Paul met with Ephesian elders on the island of Miletus and made his farewell address (acts 20).

After a decade, Paul wrote to the Ephesans and commended them on their faith and love. A careful reading of the letter he wrote shows that they had done well since he had last stayed with them. The commended them on their devout faith, being well organized, and busy in the gospel.

We then move to the letters Paul wrote to Timothy. In his first letter we start to see some doctrinal shifts.

³ As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine ⁴ or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith.

1 Timothy 1:3-4

All though there is no proof, tradition says that Ephesus was the home to the Apostle John. Circumstances make this very possible. He was supposed to have taken Mary, mother of Jesus, there to live.

It was probably during the reign of Domitian (81-96 A.D.) that John was banished to Patmos. He was released and died during the reign of Trajan according to Iraneus (an early church historian). Tradition relates that at a very old age John, too feeble to walk, would be carried into this church’s assembly and would admonish the members, as little children, to love one another.

The church by that time had some difficult problems and had apparently undergone a church split. False teachers had arisen in the church who claimed to have deeper knowledge of the things of God. They claimed to have the “secret” to knowing Christ, but in reality, they denied His bodily incarnation and His deity. They taught many other heretical concepts. Their motive may have been to take some elements of pagan religion and blend them with Christianity, in order to make it more acceptable to the pagan culture.

We have no way of knowing whether they corrected their problem for a season, but, sadly, the church died sometime during the second century. In later centuries Ephesus was a leading city for the councils of the early Roman church.

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