Asia

One Roman province near at hand Paul had not yet touched, that of Asia. Paul uses this name always in the Roman sense, meaning the political province that occupied the western part of Asia Minor and included many cities besides its populous capital, Ephesus. He had passed by this province on the way to Macedonia. He had established his churches in Galatia to the east and in Greece to the west. Now he turned to this his last Eastern field.

He did not, however, begin his work at once upon leaving Corinth. First he planned to go to Jerusalem and report to the apostles concerning his work. Ephesus was upon his way, and his friends Priscilla and Aquila accompanied him to that city. These remained in Ephesus, evidently locating for their business. Paul stopped long enough to speak in the synagogue and then pressed on, shipping from there to Cæsarea, from which place he went overland to Jerusalem. On the way back he stopped with his old friends at Antioch also, but the stay at both places must have been brief. His real work lay in his new fields, where he had had such marvelous success. First of all, he was anxious to see his Galatian converts. It had been several years since he had left them. During that time his enemies had been busy. His letter, which we studied, had been written to them probably from Corinth and but a short time before this. Now he visits them again and for the last time. His road was probably through Tarsus, as when he visited them on the way to Macedonia. On that journey he moved north when he reached Pisidian Antioch. This time, when he left them, he went directly west toward Ephesus (Acts 18:18-23; 19:1).

The work at Ephesus ranks in importance with that at Corinth. Unfortunately, Paul has left us very little information concerning it. The letter marked in our Bible "to the Ephesians" was probably not addressed to this church. As the margin of our American Standard Revision indicates, the oldest manuscripts omit the phrase "at Ephesus" from the first verse. In any case, the letter throws no light upon the church at all, and lacks wholly the local allusions, in which Paul's other letters abound. When we consider that Ephesus was Paul's headquarters for three years, the account in Acts is quite meager. The Corinthian letters were written during these three years, though not all from Ephesus, and give us some important items.

To these scanty sources some scholars have added another writing. They hold that the last chapter of our letter to the Romans has been added to this by mistake and is really a note which Paul addressed to the Ephesian church. The reasons for this can be readily seen. In this chapter is a long list of names of persons to whom Paul sends greetings. They are all known to him personally. Would he have known that many in Rome, where he had never been? With all the ease of travel in the Roman world this would not be likely with the relatively small numbers of a Christian community. Three of these names, moreover, point naturally to Ephesus. The first two are Prisca (or Priscilla) and Aquila, who were with Paul in Ephesus. A third is Epænetus, "the first fruits of Asia," that is, Paul's first convert in Asia, which with Paul means Ephesus.

What we have here, then, in Rom 16 is a writing different in character from any other writing of the New Testament. It is one of the "epistles of commendation" to which Paul refers in 2 Cor 3:1. These were very common in the early church, especially a little later. Between the little Christian communities men and women were constantly passing back and forth. These disciples were cared for by the brothers of the church wherever they went, and would not think of stopping at a public inn. Among them would be leaders of the church, including apostles and disciples. The churches would help these on their way, as Paul expected help from the Roman church on the way to Spain. To prevent imposture, letters of commendation or introduction were written, and were either sent direct or given to the person whom they concerned, just as is done today. Paul's enemies in Corinth had probably brought such letters from Jerusalem. In a similar way Paul writes to commend Timothy and later on Titus to the Corinthian church, and letters from Ephesus paved the way for Apollos when he went to Corinth (Acts 18:27). Phoebe was a prominent member of the church at Cenchreæ, one of the ports of Corinth. It may have been during Paul's last three months' visit at Corinth that she decided to go to Ephesus. Paul sends with her this letter of introduction. At the same time he takes opportunity to send greetings to his many friends there, naturally selecting those who were most prominent in the church or with whom he had close personal relations. Among the latter would be Rufus and his mother; Paul says, "his mother and mine." Probably Paul had lodged with her and received her motherly care. This brief note, as we shall see, has not a few suggestions as to Ephesus.

Paul sought his first opening at Ephesus, as usual, in the synagogue. For three months he used this as his place of teaching. He may have had some hope of winning the Jewish colony entire for the new faith. In any case, they gave him a ready hearing. Even at the end of this time he was not compelled to leave, and we hear nothing of open opposition from the Jews. In contrast with the situation elsewhere, it seems that during this whole period the converts simply met in the synagogue. When, however, a portion of the Jews refused his message, Paul separated the disciples and used the school of Tyrannus for his teaching. This use of a public hall was also unique. It fits in with the general picture that we have of a great success on Paul's part in this field.

Still another new feature in Paul's experience in Ephesus was his meeting with certain men who had become Christians apparently without direct contact with either the Jerusalem teaching or his own. One of these was Apollos, whom Aquila and Priscilla had found and instructed in the Pauline gospel and sent on to Corinth before Paul arrived, but whom we find later there with Paul. Then there are twelve disciples whom Paul himself finds. These men, we are told, knew only the baptism of John. It seems probable that they knew of Jesus' life teaching; Apollos "taught accurately the things concerning Jesus." They did not, it would seem, know Paul's gospel—that Jesus died, that his death was for the sins of men, that he arose again, and that the new life of the Spirit was given to those who believed. They may have preached John's word of repentance and judgment, but not Paul's word of salvation by the grace of God.

Apollos represents a new type that was to have great influence in the church. He stands for the Greek spirit, with its eloquence, its rhetoric, and philosophy. In Alexandria, whence he came, this spirit had entered the Jewish circles. We may think of Apollos' thought and style as being somewhat like that of the letter to the Hebrews, finding in the Old Testament all manner of types and suggestions of the gospel and setting this forth in beautiful language. No wonder that he was popular with the men of the Greek spirit at Corinth, though we of today would prefer the "rude" speech of Paul (Acts 18:24-28). The Christian message, then, even if in imperfect form, had reached such widely separated places as Ephesus and Alexandria apart from the work of Paul or the other apostles. It was spreading through the empire by many roads of which we know nothing today.

One other line we trace, which leads apparently to Jerusalem (Rom 16:7). Paul speaks of Andronicus and Junias as fellow Jews, as men who had been in prison with him, as men who had been Christians before Paul was, and as apostles. These were probably of the original company of disciples at Jerusalem. They too may have represented Christianity in Ephesus before Paul. Now we find them working in hearty cooperation.

All this suggests a picture of harmony and peace, as well as of great success. Paul gathers about him not only many converts but a fine group of workers. These carry the message throughout the province. Epaphras is one of these, who bore the gospel to Colossæ, Laodicea, and Hierapolis, cities to which Paul sends messages later. Paul mentions others as his "fellow workers"—Priscilla and Aquila, Urbanus, women like Tryphæna, Tryphosa, and Persis (Rom 16:3, 9, 12). Luke declares that "all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks" (Acts 19:10). As an illustration of Paul's success, he tells how the people who had been convinced by his message brought their books of magic and burned them, just as we read a few years ago of the great bonfires of pipes made by the Chinese who had given up opium. Luke declares that the value of these books was fifty thousand pieces of silver. What we gather from Paul's letters points to the same large results from the Ephesian labors. He declares that "a great door and effectual" was opened to him. Because of his labors he cannot at first go to Corinth himself. That he should stay three years at Ephesus is sufficient proof of the fruitful field that he found.

But there are darker sides to the picture also. While we know little of detail, it is evident that Paul nowhere faced greater foes or was in greater personal danger than at Ephesus. It is not the Jews and their plots that trouble Paul here, for he seems to have met from these considerable response and little resistance. It is, rather, paganism and its business interests. The pride of Ephesus was its magnificent temple of Diana, or Artemis, whose foundations were some three hundred and thirty feet long, which was surrounded by a magnificent double row of columns, and boasted among its adornments the work of such artists as Praxiteles. The central treasure was the image of the goddess, supposed to have fallen from heaven. Certain strange characters inscribed upon this image were held to have magic power. The religions of Asia Minor were on a very low plane, and Ephesus was a center of the immorality and superstition. This had its profitable side. A big business was done in reproductions of the shrine, in copies of the magical characters found upon it, and in other magical books and articles. Paul's preaching had made inroads into this traffic. It was not merely a question of his converts, but of the popular influence he might exert as his teaching spread. Demetrius the silversmith, who organized the mass meeting in protest, may have been the head of his guild for that year. He and his friends secured the popular support by the appeal to religious passion and prejudice and local pride. The local officials, however, seem to have been distinctly favorable to Paul's position, aside from fearing the results if such disorders should be reported to Rome. Paul, however, was in no personal danger in this case, the disciples and the local officials both persuading him to remain away.

He himself reports far more serious dangers. He gives us no definite statement as to what the perils were, but it is evident that his very life was at stake. He declares that Priscilla and Aquila "laid down their own necks" for his life (Rom 16:4). He writes the Corinthians from Ephesus about standing in jeopardy every hour, and adds: "If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me [that is, if the dead are not raised]?" 1 Cor 15:30-32). Later he says, "We would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life: yea, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead: who delivered us out of so great a death" (2 Cor 1:8-10). It seems, then, that Paul's life was more than once in danger, and he may even have fought with the wild beasts in the arena. In any case, here was a ministry upon a larger scale both of success and of danger than had marked Paul's work before.

The Asian ministry thus marks another stage in Paul's career. His enemies declared that he had persuaded the people "not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia." The interest of the Asiarchs, prominent provincial officials, showed that his influence had reached high quarters. Churches like those at Colossæ, Laodicea, and Hierapolis, founded by his helpers, looked to him as their apostle. The lower strata he reached also as in Corinth, for he refers to the slaves connected with two households, those of Aristobulus and Narcissus (Rom 16:10, 11). As elsewhere, the church was divided into smaller groups which met in particular private houses. Thus Priscilla and Aquila had a "church in their house" (Rom 16:3-5). When Paul speaks of "Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brethren that are with them," it is not unlikely that here too he is speaking of groups that met in different houses and mentioning the leaders of five such circles. In any case, it was a large and strong church that he left behind. It is interesting to note the number of women here mentioned, remembering that the list is not one of members but of leaders in the church and special friends. Here, as usual, Priscilla is named before her husband Aquila. However conservative Paul may have been in principle. in practice it is evident he gave generous recognition to the noble women of his churches, and these women played a large part in the church of the empire from the beginning.

Directions for Reading and Study

Acts 18:18-23; 19:1. Trace Paul's journey from Corinth to Jerusalem and back to Ephesus. Note the former fields of labor through which he passes.

Rom 16. Of those to whom Paul sends greetings here, which seem to be simply his personal friends? State the total number of names and the proportion of women.

Acts 18:24 to 19:41. Tell the story of Demetrius and the mob. This theater had a seating capacity of about twenty-five thousand.