EPHESUS AND CHRISTANITY
Ephesus
is vividly alluded to in Acts 19-20 in connection with St. Paul’s
extended ministry at Ephesus. Apostle Paul probably spent two and a
half years in Ephesus during his third missionary journey, until a
riot forced him to leave the city rapidly. Some authorities believe
that St. Paul was imprisoned in the so-called Prison of St. Paul in
Ephesus. Eventually the belief in Christ and the veneration of his
Blessed Mother replaced the worship of Artemis and the other deities.
Ephesus was the site of the third ecumenical council of 431 AD at
which the question of the Virgin Mary being the Mother of God was
debated. In this council it was decided that Christ had a double
nature as God and man, and the Virgin Mary was theotokos, god-bearer.
Ephesus, One of the Seven Churches
of Revelation
The Seven Churches of Asia are all located in Anatolia; Ephesus
(Efes), Smyrna (Izmir), Laodicea ad Lycum (Goncali), Sardis (Sart),
Pergamum (Bergama), Philadelphia (Alasehir) and Thyatira (Akhisar).
These churches are associated both with Saint Paul and with
Revelations (the Apocalypse); letters written in c.95 AD to the
Seven Churches by John. For some people John is a visionary who
lived on the island of Patmos. But some people say he is the Apostle
John.
There should have been more than seven cities with major Christian
congregations in Anatolia at the time that John wrote and it is
unknown why he addressed only these seven. These were possibly the
most important ones at that time or letters to other churches were
lost.
These churches were not church buildings as such but congregations.
These early congregations had their meetings in private homes as
there had been no original church buildings until the 3C AD. St.
Paul possibly founded some of the Seven Churches on his missionary
journeys between 47-57 AD, as he was thought to have visited all
seven cities.
(Revelation 2:1-7)
(1) "Write a letter to the leader of the church in Ephesus and tell
him this:
"I write to inform you of a message from him who walks among the
churches and holds their leaders in his right hand.
(2)"He says to you: I know how many good things you are doing.
I have watched your hard work and your patience; I know you don’t
tolerate sin among your members and you have carefully examined the
claims of those who say they are apostles but aren’t. You have found
out how they lie.
(3) You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.
(4) "Yet there is one thing wrong; you don’t love me as at first!
(5) Think about those times of your first love (how different now!)
and turn back to me again and work as you did before; or else I will
come and remove your candlestick from its place among the churches.
(6) "But there is this about you that is good: You hate the deeds of
the licentious Nicolaitans, just as I do.
(7) " Let this message sink into the ears of anyone who listens to
what the Spirit is saying to the churches: To everyone who is
victorious, I will give fruit from the Tree of Life in the Paradise
of God.
Basilica of St. John
At his crucifixion Jesus asked his beloved disciple, John, to look
after his mother. John and the Virgin went to Ephesus between 42 and
48 AD and lived there. John was martyred under the rule of the
Emperor Trajan. There has been much discussion as to whether John
the Apostle is confused with St. John the Theologian whose name,
Hagia Theologos, gave the Turkish name first for the town and later
only for the hill, Ayasuluk. A small church on the Ayasuluk Hill was
dedicated to him in the 2C AD. This church was replaced in the 6C by
a huge basilica built by the Emperor Justinian, the impressive ruins
of which are still visible.
The basilica had a cruciform plan with four domes along its
longitudinal axis and a pair flanking the central dome to form the
arm of the cross. Under the central dome was the sacred grave of St.
John. Pilgrims have believed that a fine dust from his grave has
magical and curative powers. In the apse of the central nave, beyond
the transept is the synthronon, semicircular rows of seats for the
clergy. To the north transept was attached the treasury which was
later converted into a chapel. The baptistery is from an earlier
period and now located to the north of the nave.
The citadel at the top of the Ayasuluk Hill is a 6C AD Byzantine
construction which was later extended by the Seljuks. Lower down the
slopes of Ayasuluk Hill is the Isa Bey Camisi, a 14C AD mosque of
the Aydinoglu Principality period. It was built by Isa Bey, a
grandson of the founder of the Principality. This is the earliest
known example in Anatolia of a mosque that has an arcaded courtyard
and pool. It is also the earliest representative of an Anatolian
mosque with columns and a transept. It is the last example of the
consecutive different religions; pagan temple, Christian church and
Moslem mosque.
St. John's Grave, 6C AD, Ayasuluk Hill, Selcuk
Virgin Mary’s House
It is known with certainty that the Virgin Mary went to Ephesus and
lived there for some time. Whether or not she died in Ephesus was
not known until Anne Catherine Emmerich’s vision. The stigmatized
German nun who had never been to Ephesus had a vision of the House
of the Virgin Mary and described it in detail to the German writer
Clemens Brentano who later published a book about it. Catherine
Emmerich died in 1884. In 1891 Paul, Superior of the Lazarists from
Izmir read about her vision and found a little building which
corresponded with Emmerich’s descriptions. Archeological evidence
showed that the little house was from the 6C AD but that the
foundations were from the 1C AD.
This place was officially declared a shrine of the Roman Catholic
Church in 1896, and since then it has become a popular place of
pilgrimage. Pope Paul VI visited the shrine in 1967, Pope Jean Paul
II in 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.
Church of Mary - The Double Churches
This Roman building is dated to the 2nd century A.D as the ‘Hall of
the Muses’. It was used as an education and cultural center. After
the christianity became the official religion of Rome, they
converted this building into a basilica. It was the first church
dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
It was 260 m. in length, and was built with columns in the form of a
fine basilica with baptistry. After it was partly destroyed, the
western part formed a domed basilica, and when this too was ruined,
the eastern part of the old basilica was turned into a church. So it
is also called as the Double Churches. The baptistry of this church
is the best preserved in Asia Minor.
The Third Ecumenical Council was held in Ephesus, Asia Minor, in 431
under Emperor Theodosius II, grandson of Theodosius the Great. It is
also known as the Council of Ephesus. Approximately 200 bishops
attended. Here, the divine character of Christ and the Virgin Mary
was discussed. Nestorius (380-451), the founder of the school of
Antioch and the Patriarchate of Istanbul, rejected the divine nature
of Christ and regarding Mary not as the mother of God but as the
mother of a human being. The Alexandrian school, on the other hand,
claimed the more mystical, more traditional view that Mary was the
mother of God and in the end Nestorius was sent exile. So at this
counsil it was decided that Christ had a double nature as God and
man, and the Virgin Mary was theotokos, god-bearer.
It was the first church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Also the house
of Mary is over Panaya-Kapulu mountain, is the most beautiful
natural residence in this region.