The Bible details in Acts 19:23-41 an exciting
event that occurred in ancient Ephesus. In this passage, the Apostle Paul’s preaching began to disrupt the local economy. The
merchants made shrines of the goddess Athena; however, when Paul began
preaching about Jesus being the only God incarnate, sales of the Athena statues
diminished. Consequently, a riot ensued with shouts of protests from the local
merchants among the Ephesians.
It is important to understand how significant the worship of Artemis was to the
Ephesians in order to grasp the intensity of this riot. Artemis was the goddess
of the hunt and fertility. She was the most important female deity in Ephesus
and was part of the culture of Ephesus as well as their religion. The Ephesians
built a temple many times larger than the Pantheon in honor of Artemis that
attracted a lot of attention; it was one of the seven wonders of the ancient
world. Thus, local businesses capitalized from Artemis’ popularity in Ephesus. Because
the temple of Artemis was in Ephesus, it gave the Ephesians a sense of pride
and was good for attracting business. Many silversmiths therefore began to
craft small shrines of the goddess to sell as souvenirs to pilgrims coming to
the city to celebrate and worship Artemis.
Paul spent three years in Ephesus trying to
persuade the people to turn away from worshiping pagan deities such as Artemis.
Paul convinced many that Artemis and the Greek deities were false gods and
goddesses. Instead, he told of Jesus being the only true God, both divine and
human. As Paul neared the end of his stay in Ephesus, many of the Ephesians
converted from their belief in Artemis and started to follow the teachings of
Jesus. As a result, the silversmith’s sales greatly depleted. Naturally, the artisans reacted to their loss
of business. One such silversmith Demetrius grew very angry at the loss of
business after Paul began to preach about Jesus being the only way for people to
get to heaven. Demetrius understood correctly that following Jesus demanded
followers to give up believing their other deities in total devotion to Jesus
as the only true God.
With Demetrius’ protests, the crowd became more enraged and began to protest. They
called out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians” and dragged some of Paul’s companions
into the theater. The theater could seat up to 25,000 people, at least the
whole population of the city. The silversmiths wanted to have a public trial
against Paul and his companions. Paul’s friends outside the theater detained
him from entering and defending his associates inside the theater because of
the chaos and danger.
Many of the members of the crowd did not even realize why they gathered, but
they shouted anyway: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” As a Jew named
Alexander rose to separate himself from Paul and the Christians, the crowd grew
so loud with their chant forcing him to sit down. The city clerk rose and
quieted the crowd by saying that Paul and his companions were not threats to
Ephesus, and he told Demetrius and the silversmiths to bring a lawful suit
against them. The clerk wanted to maintain order in Ephesus and not arouse the
Romans. Therefore, Paul and his associates were safe from the rioting
silversmiths.
From this passage, it
is clear that because the silversmith’s faced an economic setback from Paul’s
preaching of the gospel, a great riot developed that could have been disastrous
for Paul and his companions. However, God protected their lives and Paul was
able to continue with his missionary travels.
Recommended Readings
Brinks, C.L. “‘Great Is Artemis of the Ephesians’: Acts 19:23-41 in Light
of
Goddess Worship in Ephesus.” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 71:4
(October 2009): 776-794.
Hooker, Morna D. “Artemis of Ephesus.” The
Journal of Theological Studies
64:1 (April 2013):37-46.
Hughes, J. Donald. “Artemis: Goddess of Conservation.” Forest and Conservation
History 34:4 (October 1990): 191-197.
Seltman, Charles Theodore. Riot in
Ephesus: Writings on the Heritage of Greece.
London: M. Parrish, 1958.
In I Corinthians 11:2-16, the Apostle Paul comments on the head-coverings and
hairstyles for both men and women in ancient Corinth, which demonstrates Paul’s
historical context of living in the Roman Empire. Paul’s opinion is not a moral
commandment; instead, it was merely a suggestion or advice for the Christian
Corinthians to live a sanctified life among the pagan unbelievers.
Discovering archeological artifacts to unearth the biblical context of this
passage, Cynthia L. Thompson wrote a fascinating article, “Hairstyles,
Head-coverings, and St. Paul: Portraits from Roman Corinth” for the Biblical Archeologist journal in June
1988. Particularly, Thompson uses portraits, such as coins, marble and small
clay statues. She is academically honest, nevertheless, with her research and mentions
several problems she dealt with while examining the portraits to determine the
historical context of Paul’s experience in Corinth as he advised the believers
there how to dress.
She mentions there is a problem in looking at portraits to
see how people dressed regularly since different classes wore different styles,
people of different trades wore certain garments, and the weather could
determine changes in clothing. There is also a problem of knowing when to date
the portraiture, especially if it is not clearly marked. Additionally, the size
and worth of the portraitures varied because marble statues were tall and
expensive, clay statues were small and inexpensive, and coins were even smaller
and commonplace. Paul visited Corinth over several years, from about 50-60 A.D.,
and artifacts from before and after his visit show that culture changes were
slow. Therefore, Thompson admits issues archeologists face, but artifacts are
still good tools to reveal historical context.
Thompson says that Paul admonished men not to wear head-coverings because doing
such was a sign of paganism based on the portraitures she unearthed. Some of
the statues portrayed men with togas over their heads, which had a religious
connection. Additionally, some coins displayed emperors wearing wreaths on
their head, another pagan religious symbol of emperor worship.
Caesar Augustus
Paul recommends that Corinthian Christian women wear their hair up in simple
styles because many of the pagan women wore their hair in ostentatious styles. Paul
also suggests that the Christian women should not cover their hair with veils
as the pagans did for religious purposes, but he leaves the matter for women to
decide if they want to cover their heads. While Paul recommends that they do
not cover their heads, he leaves the matter open to personal choice, as the
issue is one of preference and not morality.
Through using archeology, such as portraitures on coins and statues, Cynthia L.
Thompson sheds some light onto what Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians
regarding how they dressed while living in a pagan culture. He largely leaves
the issue up to individuals' scruples. The Christians in Corinth dressed somewhat
differently from their pagan counterparts but still wore hairstyles and head
coverings that were culturally acceptable. Paul wanted to provide some
guidelines and suggestions for believers; thus, Paul is not giving theological
commandments in this passage, as some people interpret I Corinthians 11:2-16.
Bibliography
Thompson, Cynthia L. “Hairstyles, Head-Coverings, and St. Paul: Portraits
from
Roman Corinth.” The Biblical Archaeologist 51:2 (June 1988): 99-115.
