Day 6: Ancient City of Ephesus

Next stop: Turkey, and the ancient city of Ephesus (or, Efes, as it is called today). This was one of our highly anticipated stops, not only because we love the God-inspired letter to the Ephesians so much, but also because it is one of the best-preserved ancient cities in this part of the world.

Here’s just a quick snapshot from Acts 19 of why we’re so excited to go to Ephesus: Paul spent at least two years and three months here, speaking the Word in the synagogue and “daily in the school of one Tyrannus…” (Acts 19:9); “God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul,” (Acts 19:11), so that people delivered handkerchiefs and aprons that Paul had touched and brought them to sick people and they were healed; people really started to take a stand for the one, true God, and the Word grew mightily and prevails (Acts 19:20) so that all that were in Asia heard the Word of God (Acts 19:10).

Ephesus has had many different iterations of cities, dating back many centuries before the Romans captured and rebuilt a hundred years or so before Paul got there. It sat marvelously in a valley at the foot of a hill looking out onto the harbor. Middle-class businessmen (much like Paul) lived on the hillside, although the closer to the port, the less well-off the citizens were. The water is nowhere to be seen today, thanks to centuries of sewage and sledge run-off that absorbed water and turned into land – the ancient city of Ephesus is now a good 6km away from any port. (That’s a lot of sewage!)

We took a ferry from Samos (Vathy port) and arrived in Kasadasi, then drove about 30 minutes to Ephesus. We got into the town on a guided tour in 100 degree heat. We both burned through about 4 liters of water in about 2 hours it was so hot!



The city itself was divided into a few different parts. The first part we visited was the “state and political forum,” where leaders, the senate, and emperors lived, worked, debated, and oversaw the city. Our tour guide mentioned that particularly high-powered political leaders desired to be (and, to a large part, were) revered as gods or demi-gods. Thus, Ephesus (not unlike many other cultured cities of its day) had a plethora of statues, fountains, temples, and monuments dedicated both to mythological gods and real-life leaders. More than once we would see a temple built to a Greek god right next to a huge statue that venerated a leader for a military conquest.

Leading from the political area of the city where the big-wigs hung out and oversaw the happenings of Ephesus toward the commercial side of town was a long, wide, marble-paved road downhill. Along the sides of these streets was a “hall of fame” of statues of major donors, benefactors, and mythological gods who had done some good for the city.

Ruins of statues along the road in the political part of the city

View of the hillside where middle-class houses were, and the road leading down to the commercial part of town

Paul must have walked this road countless times during his time here, and it just blew us away to see the extent to which man venerating man or other gods (or sometimes both!) was so prevalent in this city. Literally, there was a statue on every corner of every street, on top of every hill, in every part of life. We left amazed not that the Word grew mightily and prevailed here, but that it even took a foothold at all in a place so wholly given to man’s veneration.

Here’s a view of the theater, which held about 24,000. This was the place where Paul wanted to speak to the enraged crowds (but was advised not to) during the “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” mob-rant.



Here’s a view of Arcadian Way, a major through-way leading from the harbor to the theatre. This was also lined with merchant shops and businesses:

Beautiful views of the Arcadian way from the top of the theater

A drawing depicting what the Arcadian Way might have looked like in its heyday

We learned a little bit about “syncretism” in Walter Cummins’s class “Journey Through the Acts and the Epistles,” which is essentially the blending of some true gospel with other, impure or disingenuous material: it sounds like religion and looks like religion (and may even quote Scripture to back it up) but isn’t God’s true Word because it has been blended with other religions, pagan symbols, myths, fables, or other substitutes. Needless to say, there was a tremendous amount of syncretism in Ephesus, and it impressed upon us the worldly brilliance of this great city, but also the boldness need to stand on God’s true Word amidst so much man-worshipping.

We both really wanted to see the School of Tyrannus, but it turns out that they haven’t found conclusive evidence of where that was, although they do have their guesses. Maybe if we come back in 10 years they’ll have found that and where the synagogue was!

We spent a few hours in the port city of Kusadasi after the tour. This about sums it up:



This city must have been something amazing: a massive, powerful cultural center and an imposing example of the collective temple built to man. We soaked it all in after a long, hot day in the sun, talking about the book of Ephesians over a couple of beers…check out the name: brewed in the town of Efes itself!

Sunset in Samos