Ephesus

Along the Mediterranean Sea stands a city that was central to the Apostle Paul’s ministry and echoes with biblical history that dates back to the first century. Today, Dr. Stephen Nichols tells us about the ancient port city of Ephesus, located in Turkey.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes In Church History. We are continuing our world city tour. We were in Cambridge last week, and this week we are sailing down into the Mediterranean Sea, and we are going to the ancient port city of Ephesus.

This city was founded in the 11th century B.C. In the five hundredths B.C. a massive temple to Artemis was built there. She's the goddess of the hunt and childbirth. And so not only was it a city of trade, being a port city, but because of the Temple Artemis, people were drawn from all over the region to come there to that temple. It was a very busy city. In the 350s that temple was destroyed, but it was rebuilt and even built much larger. It will come into play, the Temple of Artemis, in the 1st century, and specifically in the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul. But one more B.C. moment for the history of Ephesus. In the winter of 41 B.C. none other than Cleopatra herself visited and spent the winter there in Ephesus. If you were to visit the ancient city, the ruins that are Ephesus today, every day Cleopatra's visit to the city is reenacted. It's quite a sight.

Well, let's move on to A.D., and of course, in the 1st century, it's probably not too much of an exaggeration to say besides Jerusalem and Rome, there's no other city that is as prominent as the city of Ephesus. Paul is there on his second missionary journey, 50 to 52, but it was during his third missionary journey that Paul spends about two years there. Now enter that Temple of Artemis and the riot that ensued, and there's Paul and this great mob gathered in the amphitheater, which, by the way, could house over 25,000 people. Imagine 25,000 shouting people, a mob shouting down in this amphitheater.

Well, it was probably from Ephesus that Paul wrote his Epistle to the Corinthians. And of course, it is to Ephesus that Paul wrote his Epistle to the Ephesians. But John also was at Ephesus, and John likely there wrote the Gospel of John. We know it was also the site where Timothy was a pastor at Ephesus, and tradition has it that there in Ephesus is where Mary died. Ephesus, what a fascinating city with its B.C. history and its 1st century history, but it also plays a role as we move into the later centuries of church history.

The Third Ecumenical Council, the Council of Ephesus, met there in 431. The first council was Nicaea, 325, then Constantinople, 381, then Ephesus. As with these other early ecumenical councils in the church, the issue was Christology, and specifically the issue at Ephesus was Nestorianism. Nestorianism is a heresy, which will be condemned at this council in 431, which believed that the human body of Jesus, that was from Mary, but the divine Logos replaced the human soul.

So of course, we believe to be human is to have both a material and an immaterial, to be soul and body. But Nestorianism taught that Jesus was not truly human. Because while he had a human body, he did not have a human soul, it was the divine Logos. Nestorianism specifically was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Then in 449 there was the Second Council of Ephesus, but it's actually not recognized as an ecumenical council. In fact, the church calls it the Robber Council. So we may need to revisit this sometime and see what happened at the Robber Council there in Ephesus in 449, but to complete the story, Chalcedon, that great council, occurred in 451. But back to Ephesus with its great history, this city along the Mediterranean Sea. That's Ephesus, and I'm Steve Nichols, and thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.