Ephesus - Clickable Map of the Roman Empire - First Century AD
Ephesus
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Ancient Ephesus was the capital city of Ionia, and of the Roman province of Asia. It was the second largest city in the Roman Empire besides Rome. Ephesus was famous for its temple of Artemis (Diana). Strabo said "the city in all other respects, owing to the favourable situation, is increasing daily, for it is the greatest place of trade of all the cities of Asia west of the Taurus." Ephesus was also famous for its production of good wine. In the Bible Paul's describes his work in Ephesus: Acts 18:19-21; Acts 18:24-27; Acts 19:1-20; 1 Corinthians 15:32; 1 Corinthians 16:8; 1 Timothy 1:3. Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia in the Book of Revelation: Revelation 1:11; Revelation 2:1ff.; Ephesians 1:1, Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st century BC making it the second largest city in the Roman Empire after Rome and also the second largest city in the world.
Acts 18:19-21 - And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. When they desired [him] to tarry longer time with them, he consented not; But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.
Acts 19:1-20 - And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard [this], they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid [his] hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve. And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of [one] Sceva, a Jew, [and] chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all [men]: and they counted the price of them, and found [it] fifty thousand [pieces] of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
Acts 19:1 - And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,
1 Cor. 15:32 - If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.
1 Cor. 16:8 - But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost.
1 Tim. 1:3 - As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
Rev. 2:1 - Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
Eph. 1:1 - Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
Rev. 1:11 - Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send [it] unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
Ephesus (Ancient Greek Ἔφεσος, Turkish Efes) was an ancient Greek
city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near
present-day Sel�uk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of
the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era. In the Roman period, it was
for many years the second largest city of the Roman Empire; ranking behind Rome,
the empire's capital. Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st
century BC, which also made it the second largest city in the world.
The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), one of
the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The temple was destroyed in 401 AD by a
mob led by St. John Chrysostom. Emperor Constantine I rebuilt much of the city
and erected new public baths. The town was again partially destroyed by an
earthquake in 614 AD. The city's importance as a commercial center declined as
the harbor was slowly silted up by the Cayster River (K���k Menderes).
Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia that are cited in the Book of
Revelation. In Revelation Chapter two they were commended by Jesus for their
labor to the point of exhaustion, their perseverence and their unwillingness to
listen to the false teachers of their day. Jesus does hold one thing against
them..."you have left your first love." (NASB) Their Christianity had become a
faithful ritual but not a relationship of love to the Lord. The Gospel of John
may have been written here. It is also the site of a large gladiators'
graveyard. - Wikipedia
Lysimachus, wishing to protect Ephesus from the inundations to which it was yearly exposed by the overflowings of the Ca�ster, built a city upon the mountain and surrounded it with walls. The inhabitants were unwilling to remove into this, but a heavy rain falling, and Lysimachus stopping the drains and flooding their houses, they were glad to exchange. The port of Ephesus had originally a wide mouth, but foul with the mud lodging in it from the Ca�ster. Attalus Philadelphus and his architect were of opinion that if the entrance were contracted, it would become deeper and in time be capable of receiving ships of burden. But the slime, which had before been moved by the flux and reflux of the tide and carried off, being stopped, the whole basin, quite to the mouth, was rendered shallow. The situation, however, was so advantageous as to overbalance the inconveniences attending the port. The town increased daily, and under the Romans was considered the chief emporium of Asia this side of Taurus. In the arrangement of the provinces under the Eastern emperors it became the capital of the province of Asia. Towards the end of the eleventh century Ephesus experienced the same fate as Smyrna (q.v.). A Turkish pirate, named Tangripanes, settled here; but the Greek admiral, Ioannes Ducas, defeated him in a bloody battle and pursued the flying Turks up the Maeander to Polybotum. In 1306, it was among the places which suffered from the exactions of the Grand Duke Roger; and two years after it surrendered to the sultan Saysan, who, to prevent future insurrections, removed most of the inhabitants to Tyriaeum, where they were massacred. In the conflicts which desolated Asia Minor at a subsequent period, Ephesus was again a sufferer, and the city became at length reduced to a heap of ruins.
Ephesus was famed for its splendid temple of Artemis or Diana. The statue of the goddess was regarded with peculiar veneration and was believed by the people to have fallen from the skies. It was never changed, though the temple had been more than once restored. This rude object of primeval worship was a block of wood, said by some to be of beech or elm, by others cedar, ebony, or vine, and attesting its very great antiquity by the fashion in which it had been formed. It was carved into the similitude of Artemis, not as the graceful huntress, but an allegorical figure which we may call the goddess of nature, with many breasts, and the lower parts formed into an Hermaean statue, grotesquely ornamented, and discovering the feet beneath. (See illustration on p. 137). It was gorgeously apparelled, the vest embroidered with emblems and symbolical devices, and to prevent its tottering a bar of metal was placed under each hand. A veil or curtain, which was drawn up from the floor to the ceiling, hid it from view, except while service was in progress in the temple. This image was preserved till the later ages in a shrine, on the embellishment of which mines of wealth were consumed. The priests of Artemis suffered emasculation, and virgins were devoted to inviolable chastity. They were eligible only from the superior ranks, and enjoyed a great revenue with privileges, the eventual abuse of which induced Augustus to restrict them.
The reputation and the riches of their goddess had made the Ephesians desirous of providing for her a magnificent temple. The fortunate discovery of marble in Mount Prion gave them new vigour. The cities of Asia contributed largely, and Croesus defrayed the expense of many of the columns. The spot chosen for it was a marsh, as most likely to preserve the structure free from gaps and uninjured by earthquakes. The foundation was made with charcoal rammed down and with fleeces. The base consumed immense quantities of marble. The edifice was erected on a basement with ten steps. The architects were Chersiphron of Crete and his son Metagenes (B.C. 541); and their plan was continued by Demetrius, a priest of Artemis; but the whole was completed by Daphnis of Miletus and a citizen of Ephesus, the building having occupied 220 years. It was the first specimen of the Ionic style in which the fluted column and capital with volutes were introduced. The whole length of the temple was 425 feet, and the breadth 220; with 127 columns of the Ionic order and of Parian marble, each of a single shaft and sixty feet high. These were donations from kings, according to Pliny (Pliny H. N. xxxvi. 14), but there is reason to doubt the correctness of the text where this assertion is made. Of these columns thirty-six were carved; and one of them, perhaps as a model, by Scopas. The temple had a double row of columns, fifteen on either side; but Vitruvius has not determined if it had a roof, probably over the cell only. The folding-doors or gates had been continued four years in glue, and were made of cypress wood, which had been treasured up for four generations, highly polished. These were found by Mutianus as fresh and as beautiful 400 years after as when new. The ceiling was of cedar; and the steps for ascending the roof were of the single stem of a vine.
The dimensions of this great temple excite ideas of uncommon grandeur from their massiveness; but the notices of its internal ornament increase one's admiration. It was the repository in which the great artists of antiquity dedicated their most perfect works to posterity. Praxiteles and his son Cephisodorus adorned the shrine; Scopas contributed a statue of Hecat�; Timaret�, the daughter of Micon, the first recorded female artist, finished a picture of the goddess, the most ancient in Ephesus; and Parrhasius and Apelles employed their skill to embellish the walls. The excellence of these performances may be supposed to have been proportionate to their price; and a picture of Alexander grasping a thunderbolt, by the latter, was added to the superb collection at the expense of twenty talents of gold. This description, however, applies chiefly to the temple as it was rebuilt, after the earlier temple had been partially burned (perhaps the roof of timber only), by Herostratus, who chose that method to ensure to himself an immortal name, on the very night that Alexander the Great was born. Twenty years after, that magnificent prince, during his expedition against Persia, offered to appropriate his spoils to the restoration of it if the Ephesians would consent to allow him the sole honour and would place his name on the temple. They declined the proposal, however, with the flattering remark that it was not right for one deity to erect a temple to another; national vanity was, however, the real ground of their refusal. The architect who superintended the erection of the new edifice was Dinocrates, of whose aid Alexander afterwards availed himself in building Alexandria (Vitruv. ii. praef.; Plut. Alex. 72; Plin. H. N. vii. 37; Solin. 40). The extreme sanctity of the temple inspired universal awe and reverence; and it was for many ages a repository of foreign and domestic treasure. There property, whether public or private, was secure amid all revolutions. The conduct of Xerxes was an example to subsequent conquerors, and the impiety of sacrilege was not suffered by the Ephesian goddess; but Nero deviated from this rule in removing many costly offerings and images and an immense quantity of silver and gold. It was again plundered by the Goths from beyond the Danube in the time of Gallienus�a party under Raspa crossing the Hellespont and ravaging the country until compelled to retreat, when they carried off a prodigious booty.
The destruction of so illustrious an edifice deserved to have been carefully recorded by contemporary historians. We may conjecture that it followed the triumph of Christianity. The Ephesian reformers, when authorized by the imperial edicts, rejoiced in the opportunity of insulting Artemis, and deemed it piety to demolish the very ruin of her habitation. When, under the auspices of Constantine and Theodosius, churches were erected, the pagan temples were despoiled of their ornaments or accommodated to other worship. The immense dome of Saint Sophia now rises from the columns of green jasper which were originally placed in the Temple of Artemis, and were taken down and brought to Constantinople by order of Justinian. Two pillars in the great church at Pisa were also transported thence. The very site of this stupendous and celebrated edifice was long undetermined, but in 1869 was discovered by Mr. T. Wood�an Englishman who found a clue to its situation in two letters from Antoninus Pius to the Ephesians (A.D. 145-150); in another letter from Hadrian, dated September 27th, A.D. 120; and in an inscription which prescribed the order of the processions to the temple. Excavations continued until 1874 have greatly added to our knowledge of the temple. - Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers.
Ephesus E�PHESUS
E�PHESUS (Ἔφεσος: Eth. Ἐφέσιος, Ἐφεσίτης, Ἐφεσεύς), a city in Lydia, one of the
twelve Ionian cities (Hdt. 1.142), on the south side of the Caystrus, and near
its mouth. The port was called Panormus. The country around Ephesus was an
alluvial plain, as Herodotus observes (2.10). The name of Ephesus does not occur
in the Homeric poems, and there is no proof, says Strabo, that it was so old as
the Trojan War (p. 620).. According to a myth (Steph. B. sub voce Ἔφεσος), the
place was originally called Smyrna, from Smyrna the Amazon: it was also called
Samorna, and Trecheia, and Ortygia, and Ptelea. The name Ephesus was said to be
from one of the Amazons. The name Ptelea appears in an inscription of the Roman
period which was copied by Chishull at Ephesus. Pliny (5.29) has also preserved
this legend of the Amazonian origin of Ephesus, and a name Alope, which the
place had at the time of the Trojan War; a story found in Hyginus also. Pliny
also. mentions the name Morges. The legend of the Amazons is connected with the
goddess Artemis, the deity of Ephesus. Pausanias (7.2.6) has a legend about the
temple of Ephesus being founded by Ephesus, the son of the river Caystrus, and
Cresus an autochthon.
Strabo, who had been at Ephesus, gives a pretty good description of it (p. 639).
As a man sailed northward through the channel that separates Samos from Mycale,
he came to the sea-coast of the Ephesia, part of which belongs to the Samii.
North of the Panionium. was Neapolis, which once belonged to Ephesus, but in
Strabo's time to the Samii, who had received it in exchange for Marathesium.
Next was Pygela, a small place with a temple of Artemis Munychia, a settlement
of Agamemnon,. according to a legend; and next the port called Panormus, which
contained a temple of Artemis Ephesia; and then the city. On this same coast, a
little above the sea, there was also Ortygia, a fine grove of various kinds of
trees, and particularly cypress. The stream Cenchrius flowed through it. The
stream and the place were connected with a legend of Lato and the birth of
Apollo and Artemis. Ortygia was the nurse who assisted Lato in her labour. Above
the grove was a mountain Solmissus, where the Curetes placed themselves, and
with the clashing of their arms prevented the jealous Hera, who was on the
watch, from hearing the cries of Lato. There were several temples in this place,
old and new: in the old temples there were ancient wooden statues; but in the
later temples others (σκολιὰ ἔργα1 There, was Lato holding a staff, and Ortygia
standing by her with a child on each arm. The Cares and Leleges were the
settlers of Ephesus, according to one story (Strabo), and these two peoples or
two names are often mentioned together. But Pherecydes (Strab. p. 632) says that
the Paralia of Ionia was originally occupied by Carians from Miletus to the
parts about Mycale and Ephesus, and the remainder as far as Phocaea by Leleges.
The natives. were driven out of Ephesus by Androclus and his Ionians, who
settled about the Athenaeum and the Hypelaeus, and they also occupied a part of
the higher country (τῆς Παρωρείας) about the Coressus. Pausanias preserves a
tradition that Androclus drove out of the country the Leleges, whom he takes to
be a branch of the Carians, and the Lydians who occupied the upper city; but
those who dwelt about the temple were not molested, and. they came to terms with
the Ionians. This tradition shows that the old temple was not in the city. The
tomb of Androclus was still shown in the time of Pausanias, on the road from the
temple past the Olympieium, and to the Pylae Magnetides; the figure on the tomb
was an armed man (7.2.. � 6, &c.). This place on the hill was the site of the
city until Croesus' time, as Strabo says. Croesus warred against the lonians of
Ephesus (Herod. i, 26), and besieged their city, at which time during the siege
(so says the text) the Ephesii dedicated their city to Artemis by fastening the
city to the temple by a rope. It was seven stadia between the old city, the city
that was then besieged, and the temple. This old city was the city on the
Paroreia. After the time of Croesus the people came down into the plain, and
lived about the �present� temple (Strabo) to the time of Alexander.
King Lysimachus built the walls of the city that existed in Strabo's time; and
as the people were not willing to remove to the new city, he waited for a
violent rain, which he assisted by stopping up the channels that carried off the
water, and so drowned the city, and made the people glad to leave it. Lysimachus
[1.834] called his new city Arsino� after his wife, but the name did not last
long. The story of the destruction of the old city, which was on very low
ground, is told by Stephanus (s. v. Ἔφεσος) somewhat differently from Strabo. He
attributes the destruction to a violent storm of rain, which swelled the river.
The town was situated too low; and, as the Caystrus is subject to sudden
risings, it was damaged or destroyed, as modern towns sometimes have been which
were planted too near a river. Thousands were drowned, and valuable property was
lost. Stephanus quotes a small poem of Duris of Elaea made on the occasion,
which attributes that calamity to the rain and the sudden rising of the river.
Nothing is known of Duris, and we must suppose that he lived about the time of
the destruction of Ephesus, or about B.C. 322. (Comp. Eustath. ad Dionys. 5.827,
who quotes the first two lines of the epigramma of Duris.) Pausanias (1.9.7)
states that Lysimachus removed to his new Ephesus the people of Colophon and
Lebedus, from which time the ruin of these two towns may be dated. [COLOPHON]
The history of Ephesus, though it was one of the chief of the Ionian towns, is
scanty. As it was founded by Androclus the son of Codrus, the kingly residence (βασίλειον,
whatever the word means) of the lonians was fixed there, as they say (Strab. p.
633), �and even to now those of the family are named kings (βασιλεῖς) and have
certain honours, the first seat in the games, and purple as a sign of royalty, a
staff instead of a sceptre, and the possession or direction of the rites of
Eleusinian Demeter� (comp. Hdt. 1.147). Ephesus was it seems from an early
period a kind of sacred city, for Thucydides (3.104), when he is speaking of the
ancient religious festival at Delos to which the Ionians and the surrounding
islanders used to go with their wives and children, adds, �as now the Iones to
the Ephesia.� Strabo (p. 633) has also preserved the tradition of Ephesus having
been called Smyrna, and he has a very confused story about the Smyrnaei leaving
the Ephesii to found Smyrna Proper. [SMYRNA] He quotes Callinus as evidence of
the people of Ephesus having been once named Smyrnaei, and Hipponax to prove
that a spot in Ephesus was named Smyrna. This spot lay between Trecheia and the
Acte of Lepra; and this Lepra was the hill Prion which was above the Ephesus of
Strabo's time, and contained part of the wall. He concludes that the Smyrna of
old Ephesus was near the gymnasium of the later town of Ephesus, between
Trecheia and Lepra. The old Athenaeum was without the limits of the later city.
The Cimmerians in an invasion of western Asia took Sardis except the acropolis (Hdt.
1.15), in the reign of the Lydian king Ardys; and it seems that they got into
the valley of the Caystrus and threatened Ephesus. (Callinus, Bergk, Poetae
Lyrici Graeci, p. 303.) Callinus also speaks of a war between the Magnetes or
people of Magnesia and Ephesus his native city (Strab. p. 647), which war of
course was before that inroad of the Cimmerii by which Magnesia was destroyed:
for there was a tradition of mere than one Cimmerian invasion. Ephesus fell
successively under the dominion of the Lydian and Persian kings. In B.C. 499,
when the Athenians and Eretrians with the Ionians went against Sardis, they
sailed to Ephesus and left their ships at Coressus. Some Ephesii were their
guides up the valley of the Caystrus and over the range of Tmolus. After the
lonians had fired Sardis they retreated; but the Persians overtook them at
Ephesus and defeated the confederates there. (Herod 5.102.) This is all that
Herodotus says about Ephesus on this occasion. After the naval battle before
Miletus, in which the Ionian confederates were defeated, some of the Chii, who
had escaped to Mycale, made their way by night into the Ephesia, where the women
were celebrating the Thesmophoria, and the Ephesii, who knew nothing of what had
happened to the Chii, fell upon them supposing they were robbers, and killed
them or made a beginning at least. (Hdt. 6.16). The Ephesii had no ships in the
fight before Miletus; and we must conclude that they took no part in the revolt.
When Xerxes burnt the temple at Branchidae �and the other temples� (Strab. p.
634), the temple of Ephesus was spared. Near the close of the Peloponnesian War,
Thrasyllus, an Athenian commander, who was on a marauding expedition, landed at
Ephesus, on which the Persian Tissaphernes summoned all the country to Ephesus
to the aid of Artemis. The Athenians were defeated and made off. (Xen Hell.
1.2.6.) Lysander, the Spartan commander, entered the port of Ephesus (B.C. 407)
with a fleet, his object being to have an interview with Cyrus at Sardis. While
he was repairing and fitting up his ships at Ephesus, Antiochus, the Athenian,
who was stationed at Notium as commander under Alcibiades, gave Lysander the
opportunity of fighting a seafight, in which the Athenians were defeated. (Xen.
Hell. 1.5. 1, &c.) After the battle of Aegos Potami the Ephesians dedicated in
the temple of Artemis a statue of Lysander, and of other Spartans who were
unknown to fame; but after the decline of the Spartan power and the victory of
Conon at Cnidus, they set up statues of Conon and Timotheus in their temple, as
the Samii also did in their Heraeum. (Paus. 6.3.15.)
There is no notice of Ephesus taking any active part in war against the
barbarians from the time of Croesus, who attacked this town first of all the
Ionian towns, and probably with the view of getting a place on the sea. For
Ephesus was the most convenient port for Sardis, being three days'journey
distant (Xen. Hell. 3.2. 11), or 540 stadia (Hdt. 5.54). It was the usual
landing-place for those who went to Sardis, as we see in many instances. (Xen.
Anab. 2.2. 6)
The Ionian settlers at Ephesus, according to tradition, found the worship of
Artemis there, or of some deity to whom they gave the name of Artemis. (Callim.
in Dian. 238.) A temple of Artemis existed in the time of Croesus, who dedicated
in the temple �the golden cows and the greater part of the pillars,� as
Herodotus has it (1.92). Herodotus mentions the temple at Ephesus with that of
Hera at Samos as among the great works of the Greeks (2.146), but the Heraeum
was the larger. The original architect is named Chersiphron by Strabo, and
another architect enlarged it. The architect of the first temple that the
lonians built was a contemporary of Theodorus and Rhoecus, who built the Heraeum
at Samos. When Xenophon settled at Scillus, he built a temple to Artemis like
the great one at Ephesus; and he placed in it a statue of cypress like that of
Ephesus, except that the Ephesian Artemis was of gold. There was a stream
Selinus near the temple at Ephesus, and there was a stream so called at Scillus,
or Xenophon gave it the name. Xenophon was at Ephesus before he joined Agesilaus
[1.835] on his march from Asia to Boeotia, and he deposited there the share that
had been entrusted to him of the tenth that had been appropriated to Apollo and
Artemis of the produce of the slaves which the Ten Thousand sold at Cerasus on
their retreat. This fact shows that the temple at Ephesus was one of the great
holy places to the Ionic Hellenes. (Xen. Anab. 5.3. 4, &c.) The worship of the
goddess was carried by the Phocaeans to Massalia (Marseille), and thence to the
Massaliot settlements. (Strab. pp. 159,160, 179, 180, 184.) Dianium or
Artemisium, on the coast of Spain, was so called from having a temple of the
Ephesian Artemis.
This enlarged temple of Artemis was burnt down by Herostratus, it is said on the
night on which Alexander was born. The, temple was rebuilt again, and probably
on the same site. The name of the architect is corrupted in the text of Strabo,
but it is supposed that the true reading is Dinocrates. Alexander, when he
entered Asia on his Persian expedition, offered to pay all that had been
expended on the new temple and all that it would still cost, if he might be
allowed to place the inscription on it; by which, as the answer of the Ephesii
shows, who decined his proposal, was meant his placing his name on the temple as
the dedicator of it to the goddess. The Ephesii undertook the building of their
own temple, to which the women contributed their ornaments, and the people gave
their property, and something was raised by the sale of the old pillars. But it
was 220 years before the temple was finished.
The temple was built on low marshy ground to save it from earthquakes, as Pliny
says (36.14), but Leake suggests another reason. The tall Ionic column was more
appropriate for a building in a plain, and the shorter Doric column looked
better on a height. Leake observes �that all the greatest and most costly of the
temples of Asia, except one, are built on low and marshy spots.� The Ephesii
seem always to have stuck to the old site of the temple, and it is probable that
they would have placed the new one there, even if their columns had been Doric
instead of Ionic.
The foundations of the new temple were laid on well-rammed charcoal and wool.
The length of the building was 425 feet, and the width 220. The columns were
127, �each made by a king,� as Pliny says. The columns were 60 feet high, ad 36
were carved, and one of them by Scopas. The epistylia or stones that rested over
the intercolumniations, or on the part of the columns between the capitals, and
the frieze, were of immense size. It would take a book, says Pliny, to describe
all the temple; and Democritus of Ephesus wrote one upon it (Athen. 12.525).
Leake (Asia Minor, p. 346) supposes that the temple had a double row of 21
columns on each side, and a triple row of 10 columns at the two ends. This will
make 120 columns, for 24 columns have been counted twice. If we add 4 columns in
antis at each end of the building, this will make the whole number 128, for the
number 127 cannot be right. Leake has made his plan of the temple in English
feet, on the same scale as the other plans of temples (p. 351); for he observes
that we. cannot tell whether Pliny used the Greek or the Roman foot. The English
foot is somewhat longer than the Roman, and less than the Greek. For the purpose
of comparison it is immaterial what foot is used. This was the largest of the
Greek temples. The area of the Parthenon at Athens was not one-fourth of that of
the temple of Ephesus; and the Heraeum of Samos, the great temple at Agrigentum
and the Olympieium at Athens were all less than the temple of Ephesus. The area
of the Olympieium was only about two-thirds of that of the Ephesian temple.
After the temple, that is, the construction of the building, was finished, says
Strabo, �the Ephesians provided the abundant other ornaments by the freewill
offering of the artists,� that is, the native artists of Ephesus. This is the
meaning that Groskurd gives to the obscure passage of Strabo (τἧ ἐκτιμήσει τῶν
δημιουργῶν): and it is at least a probable meaning (Transl. Strab. vol. iii. p.
17). But the altar was almost entirely filled with the work of Praxiteles.
Strabo was also shown some of the work of Thraso, a Penelope and the aged
Eurycleia. The temple contained one of the great pictures of Apelles, the
Alexander Ceraunophoros (Plin. Nat. 35.10; Cic. c. Verr. 2.4 100.60). The
priests were eunuchs, called Megalobuzi. (Comp. Xen. Anab. 5.3, � 8.) They were
highly honoured, and the Ephesii procured from foreign places such as were
worthy of the office. Virgins were also associated with them in the
superintendence of the temple. It was of old an asylum, and the limits of the
asylum were often varied. Alexander extended them to a stadium, and Mithridates
the Great somewhat further, as far as an arrow went that he shot from the angle
of the tiling of the roof (ἀπό τῆς γωνίας τοῦ κεράμου). M. Antonius extended the
limits to twice the distance, and thus comprised within them part of the city;
from which we learn that the temple was still out of the city, and less than
1200 Greek feet from it. But this extension of the limits was found to be very
mischievous, and the ordinance of Antonius was abolished by Augustus. The
extension of the limits by Antonius was exactly adapted to make, one part of the
city of Ephesus the rogues' quarter.
The growth of Ephesus, as a commercial city, seems to have been after the time
of Alexander. It was included within the dominions of Lysimachus, whose reign
lasted to B.C. 281. It afterwards was included in the dominions of the kings of
Pergamum. �The city,� says Strabo, �has both ship-houses, and a harbour; but the
architects contracted the mouth of the harbour at the command of king Attalus,
named Philadelphus. The king supposing that the entrance would become deep
enough for large merchant vessels, and also the harbour, which had up to that
time been made shallow by the alluvium of the Caystrus, if a mole were placed in
front of the entrance, which was very wide. ordered it to be constructed. But it
turned out just the opposite to what he expected; for the alluvium being thus
kept in made all the harbour shallower as far as the entrance; but before this
time, the floods and the reflux of the sea took off the alluvium and carried it
out to sea.� Strabo adds, that in his time, the time of Augustus, �the city in
all other respects, owing to the favourable situation, is increasing daily, for
it is the greatest place of trade of all the cities of Asia west of the Taurus.�
The neighbourhood of Ephesus also produced good wine.
After the mouth of the Caystrus, says Strabo, is a lake formed by the sea, named
Selinusia (Groskurd, Transl. Strab. vol. iii. p. 19, note, gives his reasons for
preferring the reading Selenusia); and close to it another lake, which
communicates with the Selinusia, both of which bring in a great revenue. The
kings (those of Pergamum, probably) took them [1.836] away from the goddess,
though they belonged to her. The Romans gave them back to the goddess; but again
the publicani by force seized on the revenue that was got from them; but
Artemidorus, as he says himself, being sent to Rome, recovered the lakes for the
goddess; and the city of Ephesus set up his golden (gilded) statue in--the
temple. Pliny (5.29) seems to say that there were two rivers Selenuntes at
Ephesus, and that the temple of Diana lay between them. Bet these rivers have
nothing to do with the lakes, which were on the north side of the Caystrus, as
the French editor of Chandler correctly observes; and Pliny has probably
confounded the river and the lakes. The mountain Gallesus (Aleman) separated the
territory of Ephesus, north of the Caystrus, from that of Colophon. When
Hannibal fled to Asia, he met king Antiochus near Ephesus (Appian, App. Syr. ch.
4); and when the Roman commissioners went to Asia to see Antiochus, they had a
good deal of talk with Hannibal while they were waiting for the king, who was in
Pisidia. Antiochus, during his war with the Romans, wintered at Ephesus, at
which time he had the design of adding to his empire all the cities of Asia. (Liv.
33.38). Ephesus was then the king's head-quarters. The king's fleet fought a
battle with the fleet of the Romans and Eumenes at the port Corycus, �which is
above Cyssus� (Liv..36.43); and Polyxenidas, the admiral of Antiochus, being
defeated, fled back to the port of Ephesus (B.C. 189). [CASYSTES] After the
great defeat of Antiochus at Magnesia, near Sipylus, by L. Cornelius Scipio,
Polyxenidas left Ephesus, and the Romans occupied it. The Roman consul divided
his army into three parts, and wintered at Magnesia on the Maeander, Tralles,
and Ephesus. (Liv. 37.45). �On the settlement of Asia after the war, the Romans
rewarded their ally Eumenes, king of Pergamum, with Ephesus, in addition to
other towns and countries, When the last Attalus of Pergamum died (B.C. 133) and
left his states to the Romans, Aristonicus, the son of an Ephesian woman by king
Eumenes, as the mother said, attempted to seize the kingdom of Pergamum. The
Ephesii resisted him, and defeated him in a naval fight off Cyme. (Strab. p.
646). The Romans now formed their province of Asia (B.C. 129), of which Ephesus
was the chief place, and the usual residence of the Roman governor. One of the
Conventus Juridici was also named from Ephesus, which became the chief town for
the administration of justice, and of a district which comprised the
Caesarienses, Metropolitae, Cilbiani inferiores et superiores, Mysomacedones,
Mastaurenses, Briullitae, Hypaepeni, Dioshieritae.� (Pliny, H.N. 5.29).
When Mithridates entered Ionia, the Ephesii and other towns gladly received him,
and the Ephesii threw down the statues of the Romans. (Appian, App. Mith. ch.
21). In the general massacre of the Romans, which Mithridates directed, the
Ephesii did not respect their own asylum, but they dragged out those who had
taken refuge there and put them to death. Mithridates, on his visit to western
Asia, married Monime, the daughter of Philopoemen of Stratonicea in Caria, and
he made Philopoemen his bailiff (ἐπίσκοπος of his town of Ephesus. But the
Ephesii, who were never distinguished for keeping on one side, shortly after
murdered Zenobius, a general of Mithridates, the same who carried the Chians
off. [CHIOS] L. Cornelius Sulla, after his victories over Mithridates, punished
the Ephesii for their treachery. The Roman summoned the chief men of the Asiatic
cities to Ephesus, and from his tribunal addressed them in a speech, in which,
after rating them well, he imposed a heavy contribution on them, and gave notice
that he would treat as enemies all who did not obey his orders. This was the end
of the political history of Ephesus.
Ephesus was now the usual place at which the Romans landed when they came to
Asia. When Cicero (B.C. 51) was going to his province of Cilicia, he says that
the Ephesii received him as if he had come to be their governor (ad Att. 5.13).
P. Metellus Scipio, who was at Ephesus shortly before the battle of Pharsalia,
was going to take the money that had been deposited from ancient times in the
temple at Ephesus, when he was summoned by Cn. Pompeius to join him in Epirus.
After the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, M. Antonius paid a visit to
Ephesus, and offered splendid sacrifices to the goddess. He pardoned the
partisans of Brutus and Cassius, who had taken refuge in the temple, except two;
and it may have been on this occasion that he issued that order in favour of the
rogues of Ephesus which Augustus repealed. Antonius summoned the people of Asia,
who were at Ephesus represented by their commissioners, and, after
recapitulating the kindness that they had experienced from the Romans, and the
aid that they had given to Brutus and;Cassius, he told them that he wanted
money; and that as they had given his enemies ten years' taxes in two years,
they must give him ten years' taxes in one; and that they should be thankful for
being let off more easily than they deserved. The Greeks made a lamentable
appeal to his mercy, urging that they had given Brutus and Cassius money under
compulsion; that they had even given up their plate and ornaments, which had
been coined into money before their eyes. Antonius at last graciously signified
that he would be content with nine years' taxes, to be paid in two years.
(Appian, App. BC 5.4, &c.) It was during this visit that Antonius, according to
Dio Cassius (48.24), took the brothers of Cleopatra from their sanctuary in the
temple of Diana at Ephesus, and put them to death; but Appian (App. BC 5.9) says
that it was Arsino�, Cleopatra's sister, and that she was taken from sanctuary
in the temple of Artemis Leucophryne at Miletus. Appian's account is the more
trustworthy, for he speaks of the priest of Ephesus, �whom they call Megabyzus,�
narrowly escaping the vengeance of Antonius, because he had once received
Arsinoe as a queen. Before the sea-fight at Actium the fleet of M. Antonius and
Cleopatra was collected at Ephesus, and he came there with Cleopatra. After the
battle of Actium, Caesar Octavianus permitted Ephesus and Nicaea, the chief
cities of Asia and Bithynia, respectively to dedicate temples to. the deified
dictator Caesar.
Strabo terminates his description of Ephesus with a list of the illustrious
natives, among whom was Heraclitus, surnamed the Obscure; and Hermodorus, who
was banished by the citizens for his merits. This is the Hermodorus who is said
to have assisted the Roman Decemviri in drawing up the Tables. (Dig. 1. 2. 2.4.)
Hipponax the poet was also an Ephesian, and Parrhasius the painter. Strabo also
mentions Apelles as an Ephesian, but that is not certain. Of modern men of note
he mentions only Alexander, surnamed the Light, who was engaged in public
affairs, wrote history, and astronomical and [1.837] geographical poems in
hexameter verse. Strabo does not mention Callinus, and it would seem, that as he
speaks of him elsewhere, he did not take him to be an Ephesian; and, among the
men nearer his own time, he has not mentioned the geographer Artemidorus in this
passage, though he does mention Artemidorus, the same man, as being sent to Rome
about the lakes and the revenues from them. Accordingly, Koray and, Groskurd
suppose that the name Artemidorus has dropped out of the MSS. of Strabo, and
that Strabo must have mentioned him with Alexander the Light.
When Strabo was at Ephesus, in the days of Auguastus, the town was in a state,
of great prosperity. The trade, of Ephesus had .extended so far, that the minium
of Cappadocia, which used to be carried to Sinope now went to Ephesus. Apameia,
at the source of the Marsyas,. was the second commercial place. in. the Roman.
province of Asia, Ephesus being the first,. for it was the place that received
all. the commodities from Greece and Italy. (Strab.. pp. 540, 5.77.) There was a
road from Ephesus. to Antiocheia on the Maeander, through Magnesia on the
Maeander, Tralles, and Nysa. From Antiocheia the road. went to Garura [CARURA],
on the borders of Caria and Phrygia. From Carura. the road. was continued to
Laodiceia, Apameia, Metropolis, Chelidonii (a corrupt word, which is supposed to
represent Philomelium), and Tyriaeum; then it ran through Lycaonia through
Laodiceia, the Burnt, to Coropassus; and from Coropassus, which was in Lycaonia,
to Garsaura in Cappadocia, on the borders; then through Soandus and Sadakora to
Mazaca [CAESAREA], the metrotropolis of the Cappadocians; and from Mazaca
through Herphae to Tomisa in Sophene. (Strab. pp. 647, 663.)
It does not appear from, Strabo how the Ephesii managed the affairs of the town
in his time. He speaks of a senate (γερουσία) being made by Lysimachus, and the
senate with certain persons called the Epicleti managed the affairs of the city.
We may conclude that it had a Boule, and also a Demus or popular assembly. A
town clerk of Ephesus (γραμματεύς), a common functionary in Greek cities, is
mentioned. (Acts of the Apost. 19.35.); An imperfect inscription, copied by
Chishull (Travels in Turkey, &c. p. 20), shows that there was an office (ἀρχεῖον)
in Ephesus for the registry of titles within the territory.
In the time of Tiberius there were great complaints of the abuses of asyla., The
Ephesii (Tac. Ann. 3.61) were heard before the Roman senate in defence of the
asylum of Artemis, when they told the whole mythical story of the origin of the
temple; they also referred to what Hercules had done for the temple; and, coming
nearer to the business, they said that the Persians had always respected it, and
after them the Macedonians, and finally the Romans. Plutarch (De vitando aere
alieno, 100.31) says that the temple was an asylum for debtors, and it is
probable that the precincts were generally well filled. In the reign of Nero,
Barea Soranus, during his government of Asia, tried to open the port, which the
bad judgment of the king of Pergamum and his architects had spoiled. (Tac. Ann.
16.23.)
When St. Paul visited Ephesus (Acts of the Apost. xix.), one Demetrius, �a
silversmith which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the
craftsmen.� He called his men together, and showed them that their trade was in
danger from the preaching of Paul, who taught �that they be no gods, which are
made with hands; so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at
nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised,
and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world
worshippeth.� The town clerk, by a prudent and moderate speech, settled the
tumult. Among other things, he told them that the image of Diana fell down from
Jupiter. Pliny (16.40) mentions an old wooden statue of Diana at Ephesus.
Licinius Mucianus, a contemporary of Pliny, had examined it, and he said that it
had never.been changed, though the temple had been restored seven times. The
representative of the Asiatic .goddess' was not that of the huntress Artemis of.
the Hellenes. Miller observes that, �Artemis, as the guardian of the Ephesian
temple, which, according to the myth, was founded by the Amazons, appears in an
Asiatic Amazonian costume. The worship of. her image, which was widely spread,
and in the later imperial period repeated innumerable times in statues and on
coins, is connected with the Hellenic representations of Artemis by no visible
link.� (Handbuch der Archaeologie.) The old statue that fell down from Jupiter
may have been a stone, an a�rolite; and the wooden statue that Mucianus saw,
some very rude piece of work. According to Minucius Felix (100.21), the Ephesian
Diana.was represented with many breasts. (See the notes on Tac. Ann. 3.61, ed.
Oberlin.)
The apostle established a Christian church at Ephesus, and we learn from what he
said to the elders of the..church of: Ephesus, when they met him at Miletus
(Acts, 20.17--31), that he had lived there, three years. He afterwards addressed
a letter to the Ephesians, which forms part of the canonical New Testament. In
the book of Revelations (2.11 &c.) the church of Ephesus is placed first among
the seven churches of Asia. The heathen and the Christian church of Ephesus
subsisted together for some time. The great festival called τὸ κοινὸν Ἀσίας was
held in several of the chief towns in turn, of which Ephesus was one. In A.D.
341 the third general council was held at Ephesus. The Asiarchs who are
mentioned.in the Acts of the Apostles (19.31), on the occasion of the tumult in
Ephesus, are probably, as Schleusner says, the representatives from the cities
of Asia, who had the charge of the religious solemnities.;. or they may have
been the Asiarchs of Ephesus. only. Under the Christian emperors Ephesus has the
title of ἡ πρώτη καὶ μεγίστη μητρόπολις τῆς Ἀσίας.
The remains of Ephesus are partly buried in rubbish, and overgrown with
vegetation. They are near a place now called Ayasaluk. These remains have been
visited and described by many travellers, but it is difficult without a plan of
the ground to understand the descriptions. Spon and Wheler visited the place in
1675, and described it after the fashion of that day (vol. i. p. 244). The ruins
have also been described by Chishull (Travels in Turkey, &c. p. 23, &c.), and at
some length by Chandler (Asia Minor, 100.32, &c.), and by many other more recent
travellers. The disappearance of such a huge mass as the temple of Diana can
only be explained by the fact of the materials having been carried off for
modern buildings; and probably this and other places near the coast supplied
materials for Constantinople. The soil in the valley has also been raised by the
alluvium of the river, and probably covers many old substructions. The [1.838]
temple of Ephesus, being the centre of the pagan worship in Asia, would be one
of the first to suffer from the iconoclasts in the reign of Theodosius I., when
men in black, as Libanius calls them, overturned the altars, and defaced the
temples. When the great Diana of the Ephesians was turned out of her home, the
building could serve no other purpose than to be used as a stone quarry.
Chandler found the stadium of Ephesus, one side of which was on the hill which
he identifies with Prion, and the opposite side which was next to the plain was
raised on arches. He found the length to be 687 feet. He also describes the
remains of the theatre, which is mentioned in the tumult which was caused at
Ephesus by St. Paul's preaching. Fellows (Asia Minor, p. 274) observes that
there can be no doubt about the site of the theatre. Chandler saw also the
remains of an odeum or music hall. There are the remains of a temple of the
Corinthian order, which was about 130 feet long, and 80 wide. The cella was
built of massive stones. The columns were 4 feet 6 inches in diameter, and the
whole height, including the base and capitals, above 46 feet. The shafts were
fluted, and of a single piece of stone. The best preserved of these columns that
Chandler saw was broken into two parts. The frieze contained a portion of bold
sculpture, which represented some foliage and young boys. The quarries on Prion
or Pion, for the name is written both ways, supplied the marble for the temples
of Ephesus. Prion, was Strabo has it, was also called Lepre Acte; it was above
the city of Strabo's time, and on it, as he says, was part of the wall.
Hamilton (Researches, &c. vol. ii. p. 24), one of the latest travellers who has
visited Ephesus, spent several days there. He thinks that the site of the great
temple is in some �massive structures near the western extremity of the town,
which overlook the swamp or marsh where was the ancient harbour.� This is
exactly the spot where it ought to be according to Strabo's description. The
place which Hamilton describes is �immediately in front of the port, raised upon
a base thirty or forty feet high, and approached by a grand flight of steps the
ruins of which are still visible in the centre of the pile.� Hamilton observes
that �brick arches and other works have also been raised on various portions of
the walls; but this was probably done by the Christians after the destruction of
the temple and the removal of the columns by Constantine when a church was
erected on its ruins.� The supposition that the basement of the temple has been
buried by the alluvium of the Cayster is very properly rejected by Hamilton, who
has pointed out the probable site. Pliny describes a spring in the city and
names it Callipia, which may be the Alitaea of Pausanias. Hamilton found a
beautiful spring to the north of the harbour; the head of the spring was about
200 yards from the temple. The distance of the temple, supposed. to be near the
port from the old city on the heights seems to agree with the story in Herodotus
(1.26). The position of the tomb of Androclus, as described by Pausanias is
quite consistent with this supposed site of th great temple. Hamilton observes
that the road which Pausanias describes �must have led along the valley between
Prion and Coressus, which extends towards Magnesia, and is crossed by the line
of walls erected by Lysimachus. The Magnesia Gates would also have stood in this
valley, and must not be confounded with those which are in the direction of
Aiasaluck.� Hamilton supposes that the Olympieium may have stood in the space
between the temple of Artemis and the theatre in the neighbourhood of the agora,
where he found the remains of a large Corinthian temple, which is that which
Chandler describes.
Hamilton describes the Hellenic wall of Lysimachus as extending along the
heights of Coressus �for nearly a mile and three quarters, in a SE. and NW.
direction, from the heights immediately to the S. of the gymnasium to the tower
called the Prison; of St. Paul, but which is in fact one of the towers of the
ancient wall, closely resembling many others which occur at various intervals.
The portion which connected Mount Prion with Mount Coressus, and in which was
the Magnesian Gate, appears to have been immediately to the east of the
gymnasium.� The wall is well built. Hamilton gives a drawing of a perfect
gateway in the wall, with a peculiar arch. He observed also another wall
extending from the theatre over the top of Mount Prion, and thence to. the
eastern extremity of the stadium. He thinks that this may be the oldest wall.
Besides this wall and that supposed to be Lysimachus', already described, he
found another wall, principally of brick, which he supposes to have been built
by the Byzantines
PLAN OF EPHESUS.2
A. Harbour, now filled up.
B. Road to Colophon.
CC. River Caystrus.
DD. River Cenchrius.
EE. Road to Samos.
FF. Coressus.
GG. Prion.
HH. Road to Magnesia.
II. Road to Sardes and Smyrna.
J. Inner harbour, now a swamp.
KK. River Selinus.
1. Temple of Artemis of Epheus.
2. Great building belonging to the harbour, incorrectly supposed to be the
temple of Artemis.
3. Agora surrounded by pillars.
4. Corinthian temple.
5. Tombs.
6. Odeium.
7. Olympieium.
8. Large theatre.
9. Stadium.
10. Magnesian gates.
11. Gymnasium.
[1.839] when the town had diminished in size: �considerable remains of this may
still be traced at the foot of Mount Coressus, extending from near the theatre
westward to the port and temple of Diana.� There are remains of an aqueduct at
Ephesus. Spon and Wheler also describe a series of arches as being five or six
miles from Ephesus on the road to Scala Nova, with an inscription in honour of
Diana and the emperors Tiberius and Augustus.
Hamilton copied a few inscriptions at Ephesus (vol. ii. p. 455). Chandler copied
others, which were published in his �Inscriptiones Antiquae,� &c. In the
�Antiquities of Ionia,� vol. ii., there are views of the remains of Ephesus, and
plans. Some of the coins of Ephesus of the Roman period have a reclining figure
that represents the river Cayster, with the legend Ἐφεσιων Καυστρος. Arundell
(Discourses in Asia Minor, vol. ii.) has collected some particulars about the
Christian history of Ephesus. The reader may also consult the Life and Epistles
of St. Paul by Conybeare and Howson, vol. ii. p. 66, &c.
The name of the village of Aiasaluck near Smyrna is generally said to be a
corruption of Ἅγιος Θεόλογος, a name of St. John, to whom the chief Christian
church of Ephesus was dedicated (Procop. de Aedif. 5.1). But, as Arundell
observes, this is very absurd: and he supposes it to be a Turkish name.
Tamerlane encamped here after he had taken Smyrna. The name is written Ayazlic
by Tamerlane's historian Cherefeddin Ali (French Translation, by Petis de la
Croix, vol. iv. p. 58). It has been conjectured that Tamerlane destroyed the
place, but his historian says nothing about that. Ephesus had perished before
the days of Tamerlane. - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography,
William Smith, LLD, Ed.
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- The Scribes
Ancient Questions
- How did the ancient Greeks and Romans practice medicine and treat illnesses?
- What were the major contributions of ancient Babylon to mathematics and astronomy?
- How did the ancient Persians create and administer their vast empire?
- What were the cultural and artistic achievements of ancient India, particularly during the Gupta Empire?
- How did ancient civilizations like the Incas and Aztecs build their remarkable cities and structures?
- What were the major trade routes and trading practices of the ancient world?
- What was the role of slavery in ancient societies like Rome and Greece?
- How did the ancient Mayans develop their sophisticated calendar system?
- What were the key events and significance of the Battle of Thermopylae in ancient Greece?
- What was life like for women in ancient Rome?
Bible Study Questions
- What does biblical archaeologist said about hieroglyphics?
- Where is the Negev where Abram went to in Genesis?
- What is the name of Ramallah in the Bible?
- How do we approach and study the historical and cultural context of biblical passages?
- What is the significance of the Psalms in personal and corporate worship?
- How do we discern and apply biblical principles to contemporary ethical issues?
- What is the biblical perspective on the nature of God's love and mercy?
- How do we interpret and understand apocalyptic literature in the Bible?
- What are the different covenants in the Bible and their significance?
- How do we grow in spiritual maturity and develop a deeper understanding of the Word?
About
Welcome to Free Bible: Unearthing the Past, Illuminating the Present! Step into a world where ancient history and biblical narratives intertwine, inviting you to explore the rich tapestry of human civilization.
Discover the captivating stories of forgotten empires, delve into the customs and cultures of our ancestors, and witness the remarkable findings unearthed by dedicated archaeologists.
Immerse yourself in a treasure trove of knowledge, where the past comes alive and illuminates our understanding of the present.
Join us on this extraordinary journey through time, where curiosity is rewarded and ancient mysteries await your exploration.
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