Day 08 - Western Coast: Ephesus, Ephesus Museum

Hello people! Ethan Hebert here to give you a recap of day 8.

Today we got to go to the site I was most looking forward to - Ephesus. This is where the letter of Ephesians is written to as well as being the site of some substantial drama in the New Testament.

This city was crazy: 4th largest city in the Roman Empire, 250k people, 50+ temples, and housing arguably the greatest of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World, the Temple of Artemis. The metropolis was famous for its seaside location, monthly orgy parties, and rampant witchcraft.

We trekked through the very streets that Paul and many other Biblical figures would’ve walked on as we simultaneously trekked through Acts 19 (you should stop and go read this right now, it’s worth it). We discussed Ephesus’s abortion and adoption practices and how the language of adoption in Ephesians is meant to paint God as the ultimate compassionate Father. We also discussed the goddess Artemis and the level of influence she and her temple had on the city.

Understanding this context made Acts 19 so astounding. One man and one message - Paul and the Gospel - was able to flip the entire economy and social peace of a city upside-down. We sat in the exact square where Demetrius and his fellow silversmith guild would’ve sold their idols to Artemis, maybe even next to Paul selling his tents. For these men to be losing business in the idol game is shocking - this meant the gospel was really making waves in the city. We proceeded to walk the very path that these silversmiths would’ve barreled down to bring their mob of angry citizens into the theatre - a 25k person theatre still standing today. This was such a huge event that Romans, Jews, and Christians were each defending their positions with politicians and essentially the town mayor getting involved to calm it down. You just cannot make up a story like this with such a prominent location and such a great cloud of witnesses without it being true. It gave me goosebumps to imagine this happening.

We wrapped by discussing Jesus’ letter to the Ephesian church in Revelation 2:1-7. Ephesus was famous for its sound doctrine and strict refusal of evil. This makes total sense - you would hope the city would have some sound doctrine after being personally taught by Paul for 2 years straight. However, the church was lacking in their love - not necessarily for Christ, but for one another. If Jesus’ disciples are meant to be known by their love, this is an issue. To resolve this, Jesus encouraged their church to remember where God had brought them, trade their contempt for compassion, and do what they used to do when the church first sprouted. We were left with the question: If Jesus were to write a letter to you, what would it say?

After touring Ephesus, we enjoyed some lunch then perused a museum of Ephesus to see some more archeological finds. We then found ourselves at a Turkish leather shop. This was hilarious. We had their products modeled to us only for the models to grab some of our own to join them on the runway. I’ve never seen Jared Schuler move the way I did today. We then got to shop through their catalog and walk the streets of the modern city before returning to the hotel.

In the Forge we have a saying: “Esse quam videri” or “To be, rather than to seem.” This has been on my mind a lot lately as we’ve been in Turkey. We’ve had a running joke that the desserts at every hotel look totally extravagant then taste subpar at best. We’ve seen street salesman pushing Louis Vuitton bags for like $20 a pop. Heck, we were even debating if the genuine leather shop today was pushing real designer products. Why would they have a whole runway show just to lie to us? Would they really do that?

Today we learned about the emperor Domitian who had a 32 foot statue of himself erected in Ephesus. We saw the head and arm of it at the museum - this handsome man with flowing hair and a strong, veiny arm. The irony is that the real Domitian was bald, overweight, and incredibly insecure. In reflecting on this in a coffee shop, Jared pointed out a girl posing to take the perfect photo and having her friend retake the photo over and over and over again. It was comical at first and then just sad. The world has modeled some vision of the good life and is literally trying to pull us onto the runway to put on that same way of life, only for us to find that it never quite fits. We just look like fools trying to model a person that we aren’t. While the world wants us to build ourselves up into something greater than we are, we serve a God who is willing to empty himself out into something less than he is just for our sake. This is the gospel Paul could boldly stand on and die for and the one we can still stand on today. Praise God.