When Paul came to Ephesus, he came from Corinth. He may have come because the city was ripe for spreading the gospel. 

Here, the Temple of Artemis (also called Diana by the Romans) was at the height of its fame. Thousands of pagans came here to worship every year in May. 

The temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, many times larger than the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. It had 120 columns. Today, one can only see a part of one column standing. Today, a bog of silt covers the temple ruins. 

The ruins of Ephesus, a mile away, were a wealthy city and a major trading port in Asia Minor, now Turkey. Marble paved its streets. 

Today, if one were alone, Ephesus would have a surreal, haunted look. But I am not alone. There are people everywhere. Archaeological digs have uncovered about 20% of the overall city.

Paul arrived in the city during his third mission. He had come across Asia Minor from Antioch in Syria to Anatolia, now known as Turkey. Taurus, his birthplace, was also in Anatolia. Today, by Turkey’s citizens, he is Turkish. 

These three arches below frame the main gates coming into the city, so Paul definitely walked through these arches. 

And he also walked on this main street. 

He taught in the Ephesus synagogue for three months, but the same opposition that had driven him from Pisidian Antioch, from Iconium, from Philippi, from Berea and from Corinth, soon contrived to close the doors of the synagogue against him here, too. It was the same story over again: the Jewish authorities worried when he converted many of their flock. They would not accept the Gospel of Christ.

Despite his hardship, though, Paul seems to have prospered in Ephesus. When the usual opposition of the Jews was moving towards a breach of the peace, he quietly left them and took his preaching to a lecture-hall of a teacher named Tyrannus.

There he opened his doors to Jews and Greeks alike, to any man or woman who cared to listen. He stayed longer in Ephesus than in any other place, except for Rome. His teaching in the hall of Tyrannus continued for two years, and during that time he came into inevitable conflict. 

While here, he learned of the trouble in the Church at Corinth, which inspired his First Epistle to the Corinthians. 

At the end of his mission here, there occurred a singularly dramatic event which ended his ministry in the city. He had intended to stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, until the end of May. 

And the end is obvious. This month held the Artemisia, the annual festival of Diana of the Ephesians, filling the city with strangers from every part of the Aegean and the Mediterranean. What better opportunity could a missionary have had of reaching many countries in one sermon?

Paul preached the Gospel of Christ and told all men to forsake false gods (ie. idols). These teachings became an unconscious tribute to the power of his preaching when the riot of Diana’s silversmiths occurred. Their one thought was to drive Paul from the city, or to imprison him, in order that he should not spoil their trade at the forthcoming festival. Their trade was to sell idols to the festival crowds.

The several-hours-long riot, which took place in the theater, worried both the Jewish authorities and the city’s authorities before a city leader quelled it. 

It would have been pointless for Paul to have remained in Ephesus after this spontaneous outburst of fury. Persuaded, no doubt, by his friends, the Asiarchs, wealthy and powerful Asians, he said goodbye to the city which had sheltered him for nearly three of the most triumphant and momentous years in the history of Christianity and his missionary life.

I stood on a street of Ephesus imagining this theater scene, shining in its glory and thronged with excited crowds, shouting over and over, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” Paul stayed out of sight and left for better ground in which to spread the seeds of Christianity. 

Scholars accept that Paul wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians from Rome near the end of his life while awaiting his trial before Caesar. He wrote the following letters: the Epistle to the Colossians, the Epistle to the Phillimon, and the Epistle to the Philippians. However, some theories challenge the Rome theory, suggesting that Paul was imprisoned in Ephesus and wrote the letters from here. 

Paul was not the only apostle to come here. There were others. St. John the Divine lived and died at Ephesus and Christian tradition says he brought Mary, the mother of Jesus, here for her safety. According to a bedridden German nun’s vision, this below is Mary’s home.