Ephesians

Welcome to Believers Bay’s study on the book of Ephesians. We will be adding one lesson per month at least. More if time permits.  

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Introduction

Ephesus, A city of the Roman province of Asia, near the mouth of the Cayster River, 3 miles from the western coast of Asia Minor, and opposite the island of Samos, was a mixture of oriental and Greek culture, its harbor was favorably graced by God and provided the best of economic conditions for shipping and a host of other economic factors.

Ephesus and Pergamos, the capital of Asia, were the two great rival cities of the province. Though Pergamos was the center of the Roman religion and of the government, Ephesus was the more accessible, the commercial center and the home of the native goddess Diana; and because of its wealth and situation it gradually became the chief city of the province. It is to the temple of Diana, however, that its great wealth and prominence are largely due. Like the city, it dates from the time of the Amazons, yet what the early temple was like we now have no means of knowing. Of its history we know little excepting that it was seven times destroyed by fire and rebuilt, each time on a scale larger and grander than before.

The wealthy king Croesus supplied it with many of its stone columns, and the pilgrims from all the oriental world brought to it of their wealth. In time the temple possessed valuable lands; it controlled the fisheries; its priests were the bankers of its enormous revenues. The people stored their money for safe-keeping because of its strength; and it became to the ancient world practically all that the Bank of England is to the modern world.
Into this maelstrom of economic activity came the apostle Paul on his second missionary journey (Acts 18:19-21) when he first visited the city. Then, on his third journey (Acts 19:8-10; 20:31), he remained there for two years preaching in the synagogue (Acts 19:8, 10), in the school of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9) and in private houses (Acts 20:20).

Paul was probably not the first to bring Christianity to Ephesus, for Jews had long lived there (Acts 2:9; 6:9), he was the first to make progress against the worship of Diana. As these pilgrims carried the fame of his teachings to their distant homes, his influence extended to every part of Asia Minor. In time the pilgrims, with decreasing faith in Diana, came in fewer numbers; the sales of the shrines of the goddess fell off; Diana of the Ephesians was no longer great; a Christian church was founded there and flourished, and one of its first leaders was the apostle John. Finally in 262 AD, when the temple of Diana was again burned, its influence had so far departed that it was never again rebuilt. Diana was dead. Ephesus became a Christian city, and in 341 AD a council of the Christian church was held there.