Ephesians Introduction The City of Ephesus: “Ephesus was the gateway to Asia. Situated at the mouth of the Cayster River, it was the entrance for shipping from the West, and the point of departure for the caravans between the Ionian coast and the East. The highway led from Ephesus across central Asia Minor through the Cilician Gates to Antioch, and thence across Syria to the Euphrates valley, Persia, and India. The harbor at Ephesus was capacious, though it was already beginning to fill with silt which the Cayster brought down from the mountains. In Paul's day it was still accessible to ships of moderate size, although the large Alexandrian merchantmen had begun to avoid it. Ephesus had been founded by colonists from Athens in the eleventh century B.C., who displaced the original inhabitants and who began a Greek civilization. The strategic location of the city favored its growth and it became a military prize both for the naval states of Greece and for the successive kingdoms that dominated Asia Minor, including those of the Lydians and the Persians. Alexander the Great received the homage of the Ephesian rulers in 334 B.C. In 188 B.C. the Romans wrestled it from Antiochus the Great” 1 “At the time of Paul it ranked with Alexandria and Antioch as one of the three great emporiums of the eastern Mediterranean trade. It was the commercial as well as the political capital of Asia. Its importance, however, was due in larger measure still to the religious interest which centered in the city” 2 In the First Century this city contained an estimated population of one-third of a million people. “Ephesus was recognized as the first city of the province. Under the Romans, Ephesus enjoyed the New Testament Times. Merrill C. Tenney p. 277 The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians. Charles R. Erdman p. 12 1 2
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