1 Timothy Background Fact - Background on the City of Ephesus

The book of 1st Timothy was written to Timothy while He was serving at the church in Ephesus. Here is some background on the city of Ephesus.

Holman Bible Dictionary:

EPHESUS (ehf’ uh ssuhss) One of the largest and most impressive cities in the ancient world, a political, religious, and commercial center in Asia Minor. Associated with the ministries of Paul, Timothy, and the apostle John, the city played a significant role in the spread of early Christianity. Ephesus and its inhabitants are mentioned more than twenty times in the New Testament.

Ephesus in the New Testament:

Paul stopped at Ephesus at the end of his second missionary journey, left Priscilla and Aquila there, and returned to Antioch (Acts 18:18-21). Apollos preached in Ephesus soon thereafter and met Priscilla and Aquila who “expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly” (18:26). Paul, on his third journey, spent more than two years in Ephesus teaching and preaching in the synagogue and in the hall of Tyrannus. The success of his preaching at Ephesus triggered a riot headed by the silversmiths who feared that their business of selling miniature replicas of Artemis (Diana) or her temple would suffer severely (Acts 19:24-41). After the town clerk quelled the disturbance, Paul left Ephesus for Macedonia. At the conclusion of this missionary endeavor, on his way back to Palestine, Paul stopped at Miletus and sent for the elders of the church in Ephesus so that he might speak with them (20:17).

Ephesus is also mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:32. Paul noted that he had fought with beasts at Ephesus. Many commentators understand this statement to be only a figurative reference to strong and dangerous opposition. At the close of 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote that he would remain at Ephesus until Pentecost “for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries” (16:8-9).

Elsewhere in the New Testament Ephesus appears as the location of one of the seven churches addressed in Revelation (1:11; 2:1). Ephesus, the leading city of Asia Minor, is appropriately the first of the seven churches. In the opening verse of the letter to the Ephesians some manuscripts describe the recipients of the letter as the saints who are “at Ephesus.” The earliest and most reliable manuscripts, however, do not include the reference to Ephesus. In 1 and 2 Timothy, Ephesus is mentioned three times. Timothy was urged to remain at Ephesus (1 Tim. 1:3); reference is made to Onesiphorus and “in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus” (2 Tim. 1:16-18); and the writer stated that Tychicus had been sent to Ephesus (2 Tim. 4:12).

Christian tradition from the second century and later claimed that the apostle John moved to Ephesus, and after living to an old age, died a natural death there. Another, more dubious tradition states that Mary the mother of Jesus also died in Ephesus. See Asia Minor; Ephesians; Revelation, Book of; Timothy.

From Holman’s Bible Dictionary