The Holy Spirit empowered the Apostles and early believers to boldly proclaim the Gospel of Christ in the great City of Ephesus, and to undergo persecution resulting from refusal to shrink back from the truth of the Gospel.
The story starting at v.23 reads in part, “Soon the whole city was in an uproar.” It helps us to understand that Ephesus was a city of some 250,000 people! The theater (v.29), which is still standing to this day, held approximately 25,000 people. Increase the seating of the Hollywood Bowl by about 40%, and you have a rough idea.
Here is a link to a picture of the ruins of the theater in Ephesus as it looks today:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/58347211.jpg
“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” This chant was repeated over and over by the angry crowd. In Ephesus, the Temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, attracting large numbers of worshippers from around the Mediterranean world and beyond. In Greek mythology, Artemis (Roman “Diana”) was considered the daughter of Zeus and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the goddess of the hunt, wild animals, childbirth, virginity, and young girls, to name a few.
Most of the city’s lucrative industry and trade in household idols and shrines revolved around the goddess Artemis. This was a large industry in one of the largest cities in the empire. Ephesus also boasted its many shrines and temples to other deities, including several Roman Emperors thought to be divine. Artemis was the most popular of all, but the threat Paul’s preaching posed to commerce in Ephesus extended across the boards to all their many “gods” and “goddesses” – not only Artemis.
The City of Ephesus had one of the largest and most well stocked libraries in the ancient Near East. The ruins of that library are standing to this day at the end of Celsus Street:
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Many streets, columns and statues of ancient Ephesus can still be seen in Western Turkey, and one can walk upon the very same stone streets which the Apostle Paul and the early Christians traversed:
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http://ephesuswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/curates-street.jpg
The disturbance described in Acts 19 was not merely a case of one obscure artist (Demetrius) getting upset and stoking a handful of people into outrage. This was a major uprising - nearly a full-scale riot - against Christ and the Gospel. Someone finally calmed the mob down by warning them they were in danger of punishment by the Roman authorities for public disturbance. Paul’s friends would not allow him into the theater for fear he would be killed. This was certainly no minor event.
I believe we often read such accounts and imagine them to have taken place in some dusty, primitive, small town environment with a handful of bearded men in robes and sandals, carrying staffs. Erase that “flannel board” image. Ephesus was a sophisticated, commercial city, roughly the size of Santa Clarita in population. It had running water, an underground sewage system, a large public library with an extensive collection of writings, and a number of affluent homes of up to 9-10,000 square feet with multiple levels, central heating systems, sophisticated art, and rich furnishings. Imagine wide, paved streets with beautiful, sophisticated buildings, shrines, columns and arches, hundreds of businesses, and many travelers on the major trade route, of which Ephesus was a key port city with a busy harbor. Imagine all this, and you are imagining the real Ephesus in the time of Christ and Paul.
Following is a link to a rendition of how central Ephesus would have looked in the first century:
http://www.culturaltravelguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ephesus-map.jpg
The above picture does not purport to show the entire city of Ephesus, only the “downtown” or central part. There was much more to the city, including the great temple of Artemis:
http://www.ephesus.ws/assets/99671/bcjoxfli92.jpg
Ephesus was far from Jerusalem – over 1,000 miles by land and over 600 miles by sea. Yet, events described here in Acts 19 took place only 25-30 years after Jesus issued the Great Commission. This testifies to the fact that the entire Roman World heard the gospel in a very short period of time. When the Gospel was faithfully preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, it caused disturbance and conflict “right here and right now.” It was not a matter of going in and gradually winning over the people, nor was it a matter of Christians doing social services to get the city leaders to like and support them. It was not about doing personal acts of kindness to “prime the pump” so the personal testimonies of Christians would be more palatable.
Paul and the others were respectful and proper in their preaching, and miracles happened through them from time to time, but they did not put “deeds before creeds.” The Apostles and thousands of early believers were not tortured and/or martyred for performing good deeds, nor for acts of charity and kindness, but for believing and preaching the Gospel of Christ, which was incompatible with pagan idolatry and emperor worship.
Some 20-30 years after this event, the Apostle John (traditionally the only Apostle to die of old age) became the pastor of the church in Ephesus and the chief elder or bishop of the surrounding six churches named in chapters 1-3 of Revelation. During his tenure as Pastor, John was arrested, allegedly tortured in Rome, and then exiled by Emperor Domitian to the prisoner island of Patmos, where he was held for a year or two and where he received the Revelation. Subsequently, John resumed his pastoral post in Ephesus and lived to a ripe old age.
Why do we care about such historical details? There are several compelling reasons. One is that the scriptures describe real, objective, flesh-and-blood historical events, and their significance and meaning are best understood in light of the cultural and practical settings in which they took place. Another is that we can apply the lessons of scripture to our own present circumstances more effectively when we are able to relate and compare them with conditions in which the historical narratives of the Bible are set. Yet another is that the original Great Commission in the early church period provides us with guidance by which we can shape our own Great Commission efforts; we are not left to invent it from scratch, nor to take undue creative liberties with it.
The early believers with Paul and the other Apostles carried out the commands of Christ. If we are going to do the same, then it is vital that we understand the Biblical and historical patterns in proper objective and historical context.