The People of Ephesus

 Ephesus was like any other cultural city of it's time, it had a great variety of people living in it. People with different beliefs, philosophies and careers. There were rich  people, poor people, intellectuals, slaves, soldiers, pagans, Christians, and even Jews living there.  This city was a natural center for the Christian Church in Asia Minor. A perfect place to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In this blog post, Sister Davis will share some insights into the lives of some of the people who once lived in Ephesus. 

  Not all Ephesians were real...the stone relief above, depicts "Nike" the winged goddess of 'victory' and a friend of Zeus, the highest of Greek gods.  There are several temples in Ephesus where people came to worship pagan gods; but there was also a large congregation of Christians and a synagogue for the many Jews who lived there.  Ephesus is mentioned 17 times in the Bible and if you open it to the book of Acts, chapter 19, you can read how the apostle Paul caused a riot in the city.

Acts 19: 26 Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands:

"Thems  fightin' words" to an Ephesian idol worshiper!

The monument below, was built in honor of a real person, Emperor Trajan.  He was known as one of the five "good" emperors of the Roman Empire.

It's called the Fountain of Trajan and was made around 104 AD.  It once was one of the finest monuments in Ephesus. Several statues of Greek gods were found here and moved to the Ephesus Museum to preserve them from the elements. 

Below is the temple of another one of the five "good" emperors, Emperor Hadrian. It is one of the best preserved and most beautiful structures on Curetes Street. It was built before 138 A.D by P.Quintilius, who came to visit the city from Athens in 128 A.D. It is amazing HOW MUCH information is known about a city this old.

They aren't sure who the female figure is above the door but archaeologists speculate it's Medusa because instead of hair she has snakes on her head.  Those ancient Greeks had some scary-strange stories they could tell their children at bedtime.

Now, its time to discuss hygiene. Think about  how dirty everyone got back in Biblical days.  If you were walking on dirt roads to get from place to place and wearing the usual footwear of the time...sandals, you would not only have dirty feet but your toga/robes would be coated with dust. But don't worry, Romans liked to be clean.  

According to Wikipedia:
Bathing was one of the most common daily activities in Roman culture, and was practiced across a wide variety of social classes. Bathing in Rome was a communal activity where courtship and business deals were conducted. While the extremely wealthy could afford bathing facilities in their homes, bathing most commonly occurred in public facilities called thermae.

Ephesus had numerous bathing facilities. Below is the entrance to the Scholastica Baths built in the 1st Century.

The baths were remodeled and restored in the 4th Century by a rich Christian lady called Scholastica.  We don't really know what she looked like even though a statue of her was found near the baths...you see, her head is missing from it. So, the question remains, "Who stole Scholastica's head?"

This bathing house had a dressing room with ten cabins, a room with a cold pool of water (frigidarium),a room with a pool of warm water to relax in (tepidarium), and finally the hot room (caldarium) with its developed heating system.The second floor was used for massage and scrub treatments.

How amazing that they unearthed these round bathing pools still pretty much intact. Filled with hot steamy water, they would be just like our spas of today.

And Elder & Sister Davis soon learned that bathing was not the only act of hygiene Ephesians did together.  Right next to the bath house, Elder & Sister Davis discovered another  "hygienic" public place...communal latrines. 

It brings a whole new meaning to the term "public toilets". 

These toilets were made of stone and could be quite cold for people to sit on (yikes!), so slaves were sent to reserve a "seat" and warm it up before the owner showed up to do his business. And not only business was discussed here but politics and philosophy.

The sewage removal system was progressive for it's time. Water flowed through the culvert under the latrines and swept sewage away from the city.

As you can see the Ephesians were very progressive people. In the 1st century BC, Ephesus was the home to a very large medical school. The famous Greek physician Soranus, was born in Ephesus and so was Rufus another famous doctor. Their written works have a great importance in the history of medicine. Rufus was an expert in anatomy and he wrote books about the treatment of wounds, diet, gout, cardiac system, vascular and bladder illnesses.  He also invented many pharmacological recipes. 

 But Ephesians knew how to have fun, too. At several places in Ephesus we saw strange designs etched into slabs of marble that didn't make any sense to us.  

Our tour guide told us these were ancient board games (like Parcheesi). People would gather together and play games throughout the city for recreation. 

Sister Davis and Sister Boland walking down Curetes Street....try to imagine shops along the sides of it with vendors plying their wares.

The view looking up Curetes Street.... 

Now try and imagine it filled with people: men, women, children, Roman soldiers, Jews, and early Christians strolling along this white marble street with an occasional wagon or chariot pushing it's way through the crowds. Being  at Ephesus and imagining what life must have been like there, brings those ancient times to life for us. We become a part of the history ourselves.

At the end of Curetes Street is the  Celsus library, a great place to go and learn things of the world.  But what most people don't know is that in front of the library there is a secret passageway to leads to a brothel across the street. So when Mr. Ephesian tells his wife he is going to the "library" it could have quite a different meaning than what Mrs. Ephesian thinks it does.

One enterprising prostitute found a way  to drum up "business" by making one of the first advertisements etched in marble.  She had a unusually long third toe, so she made an etching of her foot, drew a heart with the current cost of her trade on it and waited for callers to come find her.

Does the name Caesar ring a bell?

And here are the modern missionaries who were recently in Ephesus:

And now lets take a look at the homes that rich people lived in...the Terrace Houses.  Discovered in 1960, on a hill near the library, was a group of six homes on three terraces. The oldest home was built in 1 BC and was used up until 7 AD. The terrace houses are covered with protective roofing to protect them from the elements. The work of piecing everything in the homes back together is a major project of the Ephesus Foundation. To enter the Terrance House museum, requires a separate ticket. 

The first thing that catches your eye, are the many tables completely covered by small stone shards.  Table after table, all have the same "puzzle pieces" lying on them. And next to those tables are trays full of more puzzle pieces. The work that goes on here is astounding....trying to piece a whole house together bit by bit.

Our guide is showing us the sheets of marble  that have already been  pieced together and are hanging on the wall behind her.

And here is a marble sheet that is still missing pieces. Just like in a jigsaw puzzle, you try and find the edges first and fill in the rest.  Can you find the missing pieces?

This is what the room is supposed to look life:

This is the courtyard that has been recreated with some new materials and some pieced together materials.

Two of the houses have been restored as much as is possible.  The other four are still being worked on.  Our guide talked about the frescoes that have been uncovered on some of the walls. The workers found that under most of the frescoes was another fresco of a different color and style.  She likened it to us putting different wall-paper on our walls without removing the old one underneath.  The Roman women redecorated their homes just like women today.

Amazingly, the frescoes still have vibrant colors and designs.

The courtyard in the front of the house was the only place that had sunlight shining into it. The walls inside didn't have windows so most of the rooms farther from the courtyard were dim and oil lamps were used for light. Now of course, without roofs on them, the rooms are bright and airy. 

The heating system of the terrace houses were the same as that in baths. Clay pipes beneath the floors and behind the walls carried hot air through the houses. The houses also had cold and hot water.

The inside of the museum has a walkway with multiple stairs that lead to five levels, thus allowing everyone to see the interiors of each room from different angles and allows you to see the immensity of the work being done.

Imagine how excited the archaeologists must have been to uncover this beautiful lion floor mosaic completely intact.

And now it's time to talk about our favorite people of Ephesus...the early Christians.  Not the most popular people in the world, the Christians started  finding ways to identify each other without making a big fuss about it. After all, you never know when a pesky Pharisee is watching you. They came up with the symbol of a fish,  probably because Christ told his disciples, "I will make you fishers of men." 


So two people meet for the first time and one of them takes his foot and traces a curved line in the dirt with it. If the other person is also a Christian, he takes his foot, and traces an identical curved line opposite of the one in the dirt and connects it together to form a fish. Not a word needs to be said, but both people are probably smiling at each other.

The Greek word for fish is Ichthys, written in Greek it looks like this: ΙΧΘΥΣ.  It translates into English as "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior".  Which is very interesting if you are walking around Ephesus and see numerous etchings in the stone streets and sidewalks that look like these: 

They take the Greek letters  ΙΧΘΥΣ and put them all together to come up with the sign above. And these signs are etched in stones that have been excavated from all over the city.

Now that we know that Christians were definitely in Ephesus, lets look at the Bible and find out who they were:

First, lets talk about the apostle John, called by Jesus, a "Son of Thunder".   He worked tirelessly next to Peter to establish the church after Christ died. He has been credited for organizing the Church  in Ephesus.  Though it doesn't mention this in the Bible, documents written by Bishop Irenaeus, showed that John lived in Ephesus until the reign of Emperor Trajan. Around AD 95 he was sent to Rome to stand trial for being a leader in the Christian Church and was exiled to the Island of Patmos.  That is where he is said to have had his vision described in Revelations. The book of Revelations was written to the seven churches in Asia, one of those was in Ephesus. Some believe John returned to Ephesus where he started writing his  gospel of St John.  


Next let's  talk about Paul, or if you prefer the name he was raised by, Saul of Tarsus (in Turkey). He was born about the same time as Christ (4 BC or slightly later). He was a devout Jew (of the tribe of Benjamin) and he was a Pharisee, as was his father. When he was young he was sent to Jerusalem to be educated at the school of Gamaliel, one of the most noted rabbi's.  He was a Roman citizen and spoke Greek. When he was young, Saul learned how to make the mohair that was used to make tents. This is how he made his living as a missionary because he could practice his craft anywhere (Acts 18:3).  If you don't know the story of how Paul converted to Christianity, it's a must read and can be found in Acts, chapters 8-9. 

Paul's conversion was total. He became a super missionary, traveling around the Roman empire sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.  John and Paul were never in Ephesus at the same time though the city was the third most important to Christians after Jerusalem and Antioch.

During his second missionary journey, in Corinth,  he meets a Christian Jew named Aquila, and his wife Priscilla, who are tent makers. Paul becomes business and missionary partners with them and takes them to Ephesus. While Aquila and his wife set up their tent business, Paul preaches in the synagogues, trying to convert Jews to Christianity. 

We read more about Aquila and his wife Priscilla when they teach a newly converted Christian named Apollos in the faith (Acts 18:26).  Aquila and Priscilla were strong church members and some church activities were held in their home ( (1 Cor. 16:19). 

This is a painting of Priscilla entitled Forsaking All, by Elspeth Young. Like many other believers during New Testament times, Aquila and Priscilla forsook all for the gospel's sake. Here Priscilla contemplates leaving Corinth for Ephesus.

Acts 18:24- And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.

The church was strong in Ephesus and when Paul  came back on this third mission, he stayed two years from AD 52-54 building up the congregation and organizing missionary activity into other areas. 

Paul was a busy missionary...while in Ephesus, he gave daily talks in the lecture hall of Tyranus about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave direction and counsel to church leaders and  healed the sick. 

Acts 19:11- And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:

In fact, word spread about Paul healing people in Ephesus.  In Acts 19, we read the story of how some "vagabond Jews" try to exorcise evil spirits from someone using the name of the Lord Jesus. 

15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?

The Jews were unsuccessful in getting rid of the demon and people were fearful. Many confessed to Paul that they used sorcery and magic themselves. Paul preached repentance to them and told them to burn their evil books. And they did. There were so many books burned, the Bible tells us: "and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver."   That was a lot of books being burned! 

Paul also wrote the 1st letter to Corinthians from Ephesus around 55 AD (possibly while imprisoned for a short time in a tower near the harbor).

There were other Christians that accompanied Paul to Ephesus.  He mentions them often in his writings.
Gaius was from Macedonia but traveled around with Paul to several places on his mission and ended up in Ephesus. Gaius was probably a wealthy person and well liked as the Third Epistle of John was addressed to him.
Timothy was perhaps Paul's most trusted and capable assistant. He travels to Ephesus with him and was left there to help the leaders of the Church with problems that were arising. Paul left, intending to return, but was delayed, So as any good friend would do, Paul wrote him a letter of counsel. It is the book of First Timothy in the Bible. 

And then there were people in Ephesus who didn't like Paul so well.  Some of those were silversmiths (jewelers)... especially one named Demetrius. Paul had been preaching against idol worship and it was affecting the silversmith business of selling images of Diana. When people stopped buying the statues, the silversmiths started loosing money and they were a bit upset to say the least.

Demetrius led a demonstration against Paul at the Great Theatre that turned into a riot. 

Arts 19:29  "And the whole city was filled with confusion: and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul’s companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre."

This is no small theater... Elder & Sister Davis were there. This was the most magnificent structure in Ephesus.  The Great Theatre is located on the slope of a hill, opposite Harbor Street (where Paul lived), on the south side of Ephesus.  It has a 25,000 seat capacity. 

The theatre was used not only for concerts and plays, but also for religious, political and philosophical discussions AND  for gladiator and animal fights.  

It was wonderful to sit in this huge theatre and think about Paul standing on this stage preaching to people.  



All the CES missionary couples and Area leaders sat together on the stone benches and sang "I know that My Redeemer Lives" and a few other hymns and we noticed that some of the tourists stopped to listen. 

You can imagine, Demetrius the silversmith, standing before his fellow businessmen in this same theatre, angry and afraid of Paul's influence on his customers. He stirred up the crowd of thousands against the Christians and their "false beliefs".   Paul's companions, Gaius and Aristarchus, were found by the mob and brought to the theatre to be tormented. Paul wanted to face the crowd but his disciples wouldn't let him.
A Jew named Alexander tried appeasing the crowd but they were so out of control they:
"with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians."
Finally, the town clerk, was able to calm the crowd  down and told the people if they had a complaint against the Christians they needed to use the court system.  Paul felt his life was in danger and he left Ephesus soon after to go to Macedonia. 
On the right side of the photo above, you see the road to the harbor where Paul's house used to be. The water is no longer close to Ephesus because the Cayster River pushed silt into the harbor and moved  the sea about 6 kilometers away.  It is one of the reasons the city declined in importance and fell into ruins. 
 The photo below shows how big the theatre looks from Harbor Street.

And this is Harbor Street. Paul was said to have lived "near the sea" which meant, while in Ephesus, he lived somewhere on this columned road.

Coming to Ephesus makes Elder & Sister Davis want to visit the Holy Land.  If we can learn so much about Paul by walking where he walked, how much more can we learn about Christ by walking where He walked? What a blessing this mission has been. You gain so much insight by visiting places where history happened.