Sunday, September 30, 2012

Ephesus


Ancient Ephesus and the Spread of Christianity
The Old and New Testaments of the Bible are full of historical and spiritual events that seem to have taken place in some surreal and distant land, like that of a children’s book. Often, the stories are so inconceivable to modern Christians that they have lost their literal sense, making it difficult to relate to them in a complete spiritual sense. This certainly has been the case for myself. However, after walking the streets of ancient Ephesus, I feel that I can personally relate to Paul’s writings spiritually and understand more about Paul’s life and the people that he influenced during his missionary journeys.
Venerating the tomb of the Apostle St. John
            Ancient Ephesus holds such an important role in the spread of Christianity as well as a lot of intriguing history that is not necessarily dogmatic, but spiritually enlightening. For example, Mary’s house and the tomb of the Apostle John are found here. Neither of these landmarks can be one hundred percent accurate and must be taken with faith, but both landmarks indeed do have scriptural and spiritual evidence for their credibility, and influence Christians today in their spiritual life. I will touch more on this latter.
As for the ancient port town and its influence in Christianity, this city was arguably the most important location for the spread of Christianity through Asia Minor. What we can know about Ephesus is that Paul lived in Ephesus for two years on his third missionary journey and wrote his letters to the Thessalonians and Corinthians from here.[1] We know that the Ephesians worshiped the goddess of Artemis and Paul had to flea Ephesus because the silversmiths saw a decline in the pagan worship and the people began to turn against him.[2] We also know that St. John lived in Ephesus while he wrote the Fourth Gospel during the later part of his life and is traditionally buried in the former Basilica of St. John which was built by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th century.[3]
This ancient port town was located strategically for the spread of Christianity which is most likely why Paul chose to reside here and preach the Gospel. About 250,000 people are predicted to have lived in ancient Ephesus.[4] Because this thriving city was located along a bay that not only was a joining point for the eastern and western worlds, but also along the crossroads between Miletus and Ionia, the most skilled artisans, rich merchants, scientists and philosophers flourished and developed in the city.[5] Given the location of Ephesus today, five miles inland, it is hard to imagine that the Mediterranean use to be just outside of the agora.
This location and gathering of people was a prime selection for Paul to live, preach and share the good news of the Lord for a many reasons. Not only was it great that Paul could interact with thousands of people but many of these people would have been just passing through the port town and then on to other parts of the world. Therefore, Paul could evangelize a few men from a ship and send the Gospel message with them to keep sharing the Word of God. Paul also established a church in Ephesus which he later sends a letter to. This means that the sailors would have the opportunity to come back to the Church whenever they passed through the town. Moreover, many philosophers gathered in Ephesus which means that Paul could dialogue, teach and strengthen the church with them. Paul was certainly aware of the endless possibilities offered in Ephesus and it is no wonder that he stayed there for two years.
Artemis
The fact that many Philosophers and religious cults flourished in Ephesus also means that Paul was most definitely challenged for this strange new teaching that he preached. We know from the scriptures that Paul lived as a missionary in Ephesus, and we also know from archaeology that there was a large pagan influence and even a Jewish influence in Ephesus. When we walked through the streets of Ephesus, we saw where the statue of Artemis once stood and also her temple, which is considered to be one of the seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This goes to show that there was absolutely a large amount of pagan devotions in Ephesus well before Paul arrived. We know from the book of Acts (19:21-41) that Paul struggled largely with the pagans who worshiped Artemis and they even drove Paul to leave the city.
When we walked through the ancient city, we saw all along the streets alters for pagan animal sacrifice. Artemis was a largely venerated Greek deity, the daughter of Demeter. She was believed to be the goddess of virginity and motherhood. Her statue is often depicted to have what some say “many breasts,” to show her motherhood, and what others say is “bull testicles hanging off her chest,” again to show her fertility. Artemis was most likely a great opportunity for Paul to teach about Mary as the Mother of God, her virgin fertility and motherhood to Christ.
Library of Celsus
The Jewish population in Ephesus has really been left undiscovered today. However, we do know that they existed because of the menorah that was carved into the stares of the Library of Celsus. Unfortunately all of the books of the library were destroyed in a fire so we have no literature to go off of from the ancient city. We do not have any account of Paul encountering Jews in Ephesus, but there is still hope for archeologists to find a Jewish temple buried underneath the earth in the future.
Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
            Though Ephesians is among Paul’s disputed letters and critical scholars such as Raymond Brown claim that Paul did not write the letter, tradition holds that Paul penned the letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians is one of Paul’s captivity letters written from prisons in Rome, along with Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. No doubt this letter stands out in Paul’s texts with its style, occasion, lack of reference to the Ephesians, and systematic format. The letter itself reads like a large prayer. It has no occasion whatsoever which is extremely strange for Paul; and is more systematic even than his letter to the Romans. The understanding for this strange style is that even though Paul had the letter sent to Ephesus with Tychicus, it was meant to be more of a circular letter such as an encyclical to be sent to other Christian communities.[6]  However, we can be sure that Paul had an important massage to deliver to the Ephesians with this letter and we can begin to see what the Christian community struggled with in ancient Ephesus.
            The first half of the letter is almost all doctrinal and speaks about Christ’s decent to the earth to conquer demons and ascension into heaven for our salvation.[7] His focus is on the Holy Spirit and that we are sealed with a promise which is like a down payment for our eternal inheritance.  Paul’s teaching on salvation in the letter to the Ephesians takes place in the first chapter verses 3-14. This pericope is in a sense a proof done by Paul with an underlying message that nothing can drive truth out of our thoughts or holiness out of our lives because we have been predestined to be united with the Father with Christ as the head. This passage teaches that each person of the trinity is active in salvation. Paul also focuses in chapter two on reconciliation and uses the beautiful image of the cross to show our vertical reconciliation with God and horizontal reconciliation between Jews and gentiles. This image helps us to understand that possibly Paul encountered some turmoil between Jews and gentiles in Ephesus. Paul continues to use the cross to show how it has been destroyed in reference to the wall outside the temple precincts in Jerusalem.
            The second half of the letter lays out the Apostles Creed, the household code and the paradox of the cross.[8] We get the oneness of God from this part of the letter: One body, one spirit, one lord, one baptism, one God the Father. We also see that Christ descended into the lower parts of the earth which is quoting Psalm 68. From this we can gather that the Ephesians may have been struggling with the trinity and the decent of the Lord before he could rise on the third day. Paul also gives us the correct hierarchy of the family and the paterfamilias, which had to be given before he could address the paradox of the cross. Paul’s teaching regarding the role of the husband and wife to one another is that every household, no matter the hierarchy, has an obligation to self sacrificial love. The type of submission that a wife gives to her husband is the same as the church submits to Christ. Christ presents the Church to himself by his own saving grace, thus man should present his bride through grace. The body subjects itself to the head out of its best interest because the head wishes to protect the body. Obviously the Ephesians were having a hard time understanding that grace was given in proper order which led to greater confusion. This led to the greatest confusion that, if one gets grace when he sins, he should sin more to get more grace. Paul obviously felt the need to readdress this misunderstanding for the Ephesians.   
            Paul’s Ephesian ministry is seen more accurately in the Acts of the Apostles and briefly in 1 Cor 16:8-9. In Acts 18 Paul seems to have passed through Ephesus on his way back from Corinth and meets with a Jewish teacher named Apollos who teaches in the synagogue. Again this is evidence for a synagogue that has yet to be discovered. Then, in Acts 19, Paul is seen again in Ephesus, this time for two years. One of the first things that Paul does when he settles in to the city is lay his hands on some disciples who receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (19:1-7), and Paul begins to build his Church. Paul preaches in the lecture hall of Tyrannus and his ministry flourishes. By the grace of God, Paul cast out demons in Ephesus and gained many disciples who publically burned their magic books.

The House of Mary 
Mary’s life after the crucifixion of her Son Jesus Christ remains mostly unknown. What we do know is that there is a shrine to the Virgin Mary in Ephesus that is believed to be her home. I for one was a huge skeptic about this seemingly radical claim. I was happy to hear that the Church does not claim this to be fact, but that both John Paul II and Benedict XVI have venerated the Holy Mother at this site. After some explaining, I was able to see that this location is in fact very plausible for the Virgin Mary to have lived after Christ died. I also learned that there is some spiritual evidence for this location as well.
Me at the House of the Virgin
The Gospel of St. John tells us that when Christ was on the Cross he entrusted the care of his Mother onto the beloved disciple. Most scholars hold that the Beloved Disciple was John. Tradition tells us that the after the persecutions of Christians in Jerusalem, John went to Ephesus to preach the gospel.[9] If indeed this was the case, then John would have taken the Virgin Mother with him to Ephesus. Evidence for this is also that St. John was buried in Ephesus and both John and Mary have ancient basilicas built for them there. The spiritual evidence for this site has to do with the German nun, Catherine Emmerich. She was an invalid and had never left her country, yet she had detailed visions about the sacred site which led two scientists to the discovery of the house in 1891.
After walking through the streets of Ancient Ephesus and praying at the shrine of the Holy Mothers house, I have a much deeper respect and understanding of Paul, the Ephesians and the Virgin. After putting myself in the shoes of the ancient people, I can more precisely relate to not only the messages that Paul was trying to convey, but appreciate more of the people who were receiving his message.  There is so much exciting history to still be discovered in this ancient city and I was truly thrilled to have the opportunity to walk the streets and see it through my own eyes. As for the House of Mary, do we have enough evidence to know that this is where the Virgin Mother lived and was likely assumed into heaven? I cannot say for myself; but, what I can say is that it is plausible, and if it is good enough for our last two Popes to venerate, it is good enough for me.         



[1] Pope Benedict XVI, Saint Paul (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2009), 18. 
[2]  Ibid.,18.
[3] Naci Keskin, Ephesus (Istanbul: Keskin Color Kartpostalcilik A.S., 2012), 9.
[4] Ibid., 3.
[5] Ibid., 3.
[6] Dr. Jamie Blosser, class notes: TH 350. April 13, 2012.
[7] Ibid
[8] Dr. Jamie Blosser, class notes: TH 350. April 13, 2012.
[9] Visitor information at the Holy site of the Virgins House. August 2, 2012. 

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