An Ephesian interlude (9): a reflection for Day 17 of Lent
“About that
time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way. A man named
Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis…said, “Men …not
only in Ephesus but in almost the whole of Asia this
Paul has persuaded and drawn away a considerable number of people by saying
that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger…that
the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be scorned, and she will be
deprived of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her.” When
they heard this, they were enraged and shouted, “Great is Artemis of the
Ephesians!” (Acts 19.23-28, NRSVUE)
What, on
the surface, merely looks like a cynical attempt to protect the economic
interests of the Ephesian “religious trinket” manufacturers is actually only
the tip of a socio-religious iceberg that had been floating in the “seas” of
Asia for centuries…before Paul arrived in town with his message of Jewish-style
creational monotheism. At the time of
Paul, the Artemision (temple of Artemis) in Ephesus was one of the 7 Wonders
of the Ancient World (considered by many to be the greatest of the seven), dwarfing
the Parthenon on the acropolis of Athens (cf. Ac. 17). There had been a temple dedicated to Artemis
on that site since the 6th century B.C., and a temple to a different
goddess before that. Worship of Artemis
would continue in Ephesus until the 5th century AD, when John
Chrysostom banned the Artemisian cult; subsequently, The Church of the Virgin
Mary[1]
was erected on the site. Artemis was
revered as the guardian of the city of Ephesus – certain myths have her being
born, along with her twin brother Apollo, near the city – and “Ephesian
Artemis” was worshipped far and wide, throughout Asia and beyond. In the 5th century AD, Church
Father St. Jerome, among others, gave rise to the belief that Ephesian Artemis
was a mother goddess of sexuality/fertility by interpreting the “bulbous
appendages” emanating from her chest/belly as “breasts” (see image above). The scholarly consensus now rejects that
interpretation of the appendages, and understands them to be a kind of jewelry
or to represent goatskin pouches that would have been covered in amber beads, filled
with magic material and used in esoteric rituals (cf. Ac. 19.18-19).[2] Indeed, far from being a mother goddess,
Artemis – according to the legends about her – was a perpetual virgin, having
requested this privilege from her father, Zeus.
Having sworn off sex/marriage, Artemis was a huntress and “divine
midwife”, offering pregnant women either a successful delivery or, failing
that, a pain-free death during childbirth (cf. 1 Tim. 2.11-15).[3]
So, after more
than two years of Paul teaching that “gods made with hands are not gods” (Ac.
19.26; cf. 17.29), Demetrius and the silversmiths had reason to worry. Over and above the practical issue of the
viability of their “souvenir” shrine business, there was the threat of Paul’s
preaching overturning six centuries of religious precedent in the city that had
recently been made capital of Asia. In
the narrative of Acts, whether it be in Jerusalem or throughout the Eastern
empire, Paul often gets into trouble around temples. Paul was inviting people to “turn from” their
idols/false gods toward the living God, the Creator, the God of Israel and the
Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.[4]
Inherent in
Paul’s gospel was a summons to right worship, an invitation to reflect
genuine humanity by worshipping the One who created humans (in his image), “the
world and everything in it” (cf. Ac. 17.24).
While the “gods of the nations” dehumanized their worshippers in various
ways, the God of the Hebrew Scriptures created mankind out of “the dust of the
earth”, and destined them for glory (cf. Gn. 1.26-31; 2.7; Ps. 8.3-5). This paradoxical anthropology leaves human
destiny firmly in the hands of the Creator, and invites us all to a more
consistent humility (from the Latin humus = “earth”). As C.S. Lewis’ famous Lion has it:
“You come of
the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve," said Aslan. "And that is both honour
enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the
shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.”[5]
At the end of the day, the Bible teaches, we become
(like) what we worship. That is to say,
the truthfulness of our worship (or the lack thereof) will lead us to either a
greater or a lesser humanness. Paul was
challenging the claims of all the goddesses/gods of the world, summoning all people
to “turn towards” the source of true life – the Creator – in anticipation of
the “day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom
he has appointed” (Ac. 17.31). Amen.
[1] Tradition has it that Mary the
mother of Jesus and the apostle John lived in Ephesus before her “dormition”
and/or “assumption” (cf. Jn. 19.26-27).
[2] Cf. S.L. Glahn, Nobody’s
Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament,
Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023, pp. 98-116.
[3] Timothy had been left in
charge of the church in Ephesus by Paul.
The two letters “to Timothy” reflect the reality of the Christians in
this significant metropolis.
[4] The implications of this for
the Jerusalem temple – already condemned by Jesus (cf. Lk. 21) – come out most
clearly in the trial and “lynching” of Stephen (cf. Ac. chapter 7).
[5] The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (1951).
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