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Places of the Bible

Ephesus

A temple town where the gospel was resisted for commercial reasons, stated out loud by the man organising the riot.

Ephesus held the temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders, and the city ran on it. Pilgrims came, and the trade in silver shrines came with them. Paul stays three years, longer than anywhere else, and Luke reports the effect in figures: books of magic worth fifty thousand pieces of silver burned in public by their own owners. That is the detail that makes the riot make sense. The gospel was not an idea in this city. It was a market shock.

Where it appearsActs 19 · Acts 20 · Ephesians 6 · Revelation 2

ActsEphesiansRevelation
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The movements, in the order the text gives them.

The Account of Ephesus

  1. 01

    Acts 19:18-20

    They burned them before all men

    The owners destroy their own property and the account prices it, which is the only time Luke gives a figure for a conversion.

    The price is counted even though nothing is being sold. That is the sharp detail. These books still have a market value, and the people bringing them do not recover it by passing the material to another customer. The total makes the break measurable. Fifty thousand pieces of silver become a number attached to something deliberately relinquished.

    This follows the failed attempt to use the name of Jesus as an exorcist's borrowed formula. The difference is not between one effective technique and another. The surrounding verses distinguish the Lord whose name is magnified from people trying to handle that name as equipment. Confession and the destruction of the books show an abandonment of former practices, not the addition of a stronger charm to an existing collection.

    Their books matters too. No raid on somebody else's shelves is described, and no general campaign against learning is announced. The practitioners bring their own material. The closing sentence then names what is growing while those costly writings disappear: the word of God. The loss is real. It is not the final accounting.

    Verse by verse

    1. 19:18

      The confession follows the public exposure of the failed exorcists in Acts 19:13-17. The people confess deeds, not merely a change of opinion.

    2. 19:19

      The owners bring their own books; an order by Paul to confiscate books is not recorded. The Greek gives a silver valuation without naming a coin denomination.

    3. 19:20

      The summary credits the growth and prevailing power of God's word. It does not present the fire itself as a missionary technique.

    Acts 19:18-20

    King James Version · 3 verses

    19:18And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.

    19:19Many 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.

    19:20So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

    Acts 19:18-20: They burned them before all men
  2. 02

    Acts 19:24-27

    By this craft we have our wealth

    The economic argument comes first and the religious one second. The order of the sentence is the whole of the diagnosis.

    Demetrius puts the income before the goddess. That is the order of his own speech, not a motive supplied by a hostile commentator. He gathers people whose livelihood depends on the trade and first establishes the shared financial interest. The endangered magnificence of Diana comes after the endangered business.

    That does not prove his religious concern is invented. The force of the speech is precisely that craft, income, sanctuary, and civic honor belong together in his argument. Paul's claim about gods made with hands reaches into a workshop as surely as into a place of worship. A silver object cannot be treated as commercially important but theologically untouched when the dispute concerns what human hands can make.

    Demetrius also supplies an unwilling report of the gospel's reach. He describes persuasion extending beyond Ephesus across Asia, confirming the regional spread already stated in verse 10. He does not complain that Paul has produced poor-quality shrines. The difficulty is that people have begun to question the category of product. This is a more serious problem for the business.

    Verse by verse

    1. 19:24

      Diana is the King James rendering of the Greek name Artemis. The passage concerns the Ephesian cult named in the surrounding verses.

    2. 19:26

      Made with hands repeats the issue Paul addresses in Athens in Acts 17:24-29. The objection concerns the relation between the maker and what is made.

    3. 19:27

      The claims about worship throughout Asia and the world belong to Demetrius's speech. His description should not become a literal census of every person's religion.

    Acts 19:24-27

    King James Version · 4 verses

    19:24For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;

    19:25Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.

    19:26Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands:

    19:27So 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.

    Acts 19:24-27: By this craft we have our wealth
  3. 03

    Acts 19:32-34

    The more part knew not wherefore they were come together

    The crowd shouts for two hours. Luke notes that most of it had no idea what the meeting was about.

    The gathering has volume before it has an agreed reason for meeting. Some shout one thing, some another, and most do not know why they are there. The Book of Acts gives that diagnosis without assistance from a modern theory of crowds. Attendance is excellent. Information is in shorter supply.

    Alexander's attempted defense does not resolve the confusion. Recognition that he is a Jew is enough to prevent the speech from being heard. What he would have said remains unknown. The crowd reaches a common slogan, but the agreement concerns what to shout, not an examined account of the charges. About two hours is an extraordinary amount of time to give one sentence.

    Paul, meanwhile, is not delivering a heroic address inside the theater. The preceding verses have kept him out through the intervention of disciples and friendly officials. The eventual quieting comes through the town clerk's insistence on lawful procedure. The Christian companions are endangered by this uproar, but the account does not grant the uproar the dignity of a coherent argument.

    Verse by verse

    1. 19:32

      The more part means the majority. The text does not say that nobody present understood Demetrius's original complaint.

    2. 19:33

      Alexander is identified here as a Jew. The passage does not establish that he is the Alexander named in other New Testament passages.

    3. 19:34

      The crowd recognizes an identity before hearing a defense. Its two-hour acclamation is not a reply to arguments Alexander actually delivered.

    Acts 19:32-34

    King James Version · 3 verses

    19:32Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.

    19:33And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence unto the people.

    19:34But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

    Acts 19:32-34: The more part knew not wherefore they were come together
  4. 04

    Acts 20:36-38

    Sorrowing most of all that they should see his face no more

    The farewell to these elders is the most personal scene in Acts, and the grief is attributed to one sentence he had said.

    The words that hurt most concern a face. Paul has warned of danger, distorted teaching, and men who will draw disciples after themselves. The elders have heard those warnings. Yet the Book of Acts names the coming absence of the man himself as their greatest immediate sorrow. The precision is tender without being sentimental.

    This meeting takes place at Miletus, where the elders have come from Ephesus. They are not an audience dispersing after a successful address. They kneel with Paul, weep, embrace him, and accompany him to the ship. The final walk belongs to the farewell as much as the speech does. Nothing in the account requires an invented conversation to make the loss substantial.

    Earlier Paul recalled three years of warnings given night and day with tears. Now the tears are shared. The man who insists that the church belongs to God has also become someone these people cannot easily release. The commission passes into their hands; affection does not disappear when responsibility changes. They walk with him as far as the departure allows.

    Verse by verse

    1. 20:36

      Acts 20:17 locates the meeting at Miletus. The elders belong to Ephesus, but the farewell is not occurring inside that city.

    2. 20:37

      Wept sore means wept intensely. The Greek explicitly includes everyone in the shared weeping.

    3. 20:38

      Their sorrow answers Paul's statement in Acts 20:25. The verse reports what his words meant to this gathering, not a complete itinerary of every later movement.

    Acts 20:36-38

    King James Version · 3 verses

    20:36And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.

    20:37And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him,

    20:38Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.

    Acts 20:36-38: Sorrowing most of all that they should see his face no more
  5. 05

    Revelation 2:2-4

    Thou hast left thy first love

    The letter credits the labour, the patience and the refusal to tolerate frauds, and then names the one thing all of that did not preserve.

    They have not become lazy. That is what makes the diagnosis severe. Works, labor, patience, endurance, the exposure of false apostles: the commendation is substantial and comes from the same speaker who gives the rebuke. The passage does not withdraw those achievements in order to make its criticism easier.

    Neither does it blame Ephesus for caring about truth. The impostors really are liars, and refusing them is praised. Nevertheless marks a fault that correct discrimination has not cured. A church can identify a counterfeit apostle and still be wrong about its own condition. The ability to inspect a visitor is not a complete examination of the household.

    The charge is that Ephesus has left its first love. The object of that love is not specified in this sentence, so love for Christ and love among believers should not be forced into an unnecessary competition. The next verse joins remembering and repentance to doing the first works. The remedy is more than recovering an old sensation. Something once expressed in the congregation's life must be present again.

    Verse by verse

    1. 2:2

      The claim to be an apostle is tested rather than accepted on assertion. The passage approves the discovery that the claimants are false.

    2. 2:3

      Patience here denotes endurance. The commendation explicitly says that the church has not fainted.

    3. 2:4

      The Greek says left, not merely forgot. Revelation 2:5 links the required return to the first works, while this verse leaves the precise object of love unstated.

    Revelation 2:2-4

    King James Version · 3 verses

    2:2I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

    2:3And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

    2:4Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

    Revelation 2:2-4: Thou hast left thy first love

Why it matters

Demetrius the silversmith says it plainly to a room of tradesmen: sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth, and only then adds that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised. The crowd fills the theatre and shouts one sentence for two hours without most of them knowing why they came. Years later the farewell at Miletus is addressed to the elders of this church, and later still it is the first of the seven letters in Revelation, commended for endurance and faulted for the one thing endurance does not guarantee.

5 songs

The music

Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.

  1. Acts 19:21-41

    Great Is Diana of the Ephesians

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  2. Ephesians 6:1-24

    The Whole Armour of God

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  3. Revelation 1-3

    The Voice Like Many Waters

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  4. Revelation 2:1–29

    Hear What the Spirit Saith I

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  5. Revelation 2:1-7

    Thou Hast Left Thy First Love

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