Ephesus

5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols

Ligonier Ministries

Christianity, History, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2023

⏱️ 5 minutes

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Summary

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.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, back to another episode of Five Minutes in Church History. We are continuing our
0:12.2	World City tour. We were in Cambridge last week, and this week we are sailing down into the
0:18.8	Mediterranean Sea and we are going to the ancient port city of Ephesus. This city was founded
0:27.0	in the 11th century BC. In the 500th BC a massive temple to Artemis was built there. She's the
0:36.8	goddess of the hunt and childbirth and so not only was it a city of trade being a port city,
0:44.5	but because of the temple Artemis, people were drawn from all over the region to come there to
0:50.3	that temple. It was a very busy city. In the 350s that temple was destroyed but it was rebuilt and
0:57.9	even built much larger. It will come into play the temple of Artemis in the first century and
1:05.6	specifically in the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul. But one more BC moment for the history
1:12.6	of Ephesus. In the winter of 41 BC none other than Cleopatra herself visited and spent the winter
1:21.2	there in Ephesus. If you were to visit the ancient city, the ruins that are Ephesus today,
1:28.3	every day, Cleopatra's visit to the city is reenacted. It's quite a sight. Well, let's move on to
1:37.1	AD and of course in the first century. It's probably not too much of an exaggeration to say besides
1:45.0	Jerusalem and Rome. There's no other city that is as prominent as the city of Ephesus.
1:53.6	Paul is there on his second missionary journey, 50 to 52, but it was during his third missionary
2:01.6	journey that Paul spends about two years there. Now enter that temple of Artemis and the riot
2:09.2	that ensued and there's Paul and this great mob gathered in the amphitheater which by the way
2:17.5	could house over 25,000 people. Imagine 25,000 shouting people, a mob shouting down in this amphitheater.
2:28.8	Well, it was probably from Ephesus that Paul wrote his epistle to the Corinthians and of course it
2:35.5	is too Ephesus that Paul wrote his epistle to the Ephesians, but John also was at Ephesus and John
2:45.1	likely there wrote the gospel of John. We know it was also this site where Timothy was a pastor at
2:52.2	Ephesus and tradition has it that there in Ephesus is where Mary died. Ephesus, what a fascinating city
	...

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