City Of Ephesus Research Articles

The Seven Sleepers Tradition (Ashab-ı Kehf) in Afşin, Tarsus and Lice: Comparative Analysis of their Intangible Heritage

The present article analyses the Ashab al-Kahf tale and sites in Turkey and my analyses intersects the diciplines of the History of Religions and Religious Anthropology. The tale is a shared hagiographic tradition amongst Christians and Muslims which is widespread in many countries. The primordial Christian tale of Seven Sleepers which arose in the mid 5th century CE Asia Minor, flowed later into Islamic religion (Koran, sura al-Kahf: 9-26) but with some relevant differences. It is based on a historical episode occurred in the city of Ephesus during the reign of the Roman emperor Decius (mid 3rd century CE). Seven young Ephesians refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods according to the Decian edict, because of their Christian faith. To avoid the persecution, they escaped in a cave on the mountain Penayir Daghi. According to the Christian tale about two hundred years later God resuscitated them during the kingdom of Teodosius II. This miracle confirms the doctrine of the resurrection and the victory of monotheism upon idolatry. Beyond the Ephesian site which pertains to the Christian lore, we find three other existent caves concerning Ashab al- Kahf, the Islamic tale in Turkey. The ziyaret (visits) to Tarsus, Afşin and Lice caves highlight the Turkish Muslims’ popular religiosity since the Eshab i-Kehf sites encompass a variety of devotional rituals and traditions. Keywords: Seven Sleepers, Ashab al-Kahf, Sura XVIII, Afşin, Tarsus, Lice Caves.

Die tempel-metafoor in Efesiërs 2:11–22 as deel van identiteitsvorming van die gelowige in-groep

The temple metaphor in Ephesians 2:11–22 as part of identity formation of the believing in-group. One of the basic human needs is to belong, feel accepted and be part of a group. During the first century people from different backgrounds believed in Jesus, consequently unity among believers became a challenge. The inclusive heart of God, the atonement of Christ and the Holy Spirit unites believers from different backgrounds and groups. This article examines spiritual unity as part of the believers’ identity as portrayed by the temple metaphor in Ephesians 2:11–22. Christians should acknowledge their differences, as the author of Ephesians clearly does, without causing division in the group. Identity formation is linked to group membership, therefore the identity of the early Christian group is examined, to determine the influence it still has on the present-day unity among believers. We divide our society into groups and tend to discriminate against those that are different from us. These phenomena were part of the social interaction of Christians in the first century. To better understand the social functioning of the ancient Mediterranean world, this article uses Social Identity Theory to identify and compare the groups in Ephesians. The Jews and Gentiles were the out-groups. In the context of the letter, Gentiles were Artemis-worshippers. The Christians formed the in-group. The identity of the out-groups, to which Christians previously belonged, should be considered to determine the identity of the in-group. The metaphor of the spiritual temple identifies believers as becoming part of the temple at the time of their conversion. Unlike the Jewish temple and the temple of Artemis, which were physical buildings with exclusive membership, the temple of the Holy Spirit is an inclusive unity of believers. The Jewish temple was part of the identity of the Jews, the Artemis temple gave identity to the city of Ephesus and the spiritual temple identifies the unity of the Christian in-group. The Christian-identity, whether in the first century or in contemporary society, is unifying and inclusive regardless of our differences. According to the author of Ephesians Christ-founded and Spirit-driven identity should determine Christian thinking and actions.Contribution: The temple of Artemis and the Jewish temple were places of religious, political, economic and social status and power. The temple of Ephesians 2, however, becomes a spiritual force to which every believer has access apart from political, economic, social, ethnic and gender status. Christian identity and unity are rooted in the redemptive work of Christ.

A Cartography of Kinship: Domestic Space, Tomb Cult, and the Re-Mapping of Ephesus in the Acts of John

Scholars have long dismissed the apocryphal Acts of John as insignificant for reconstructing Christian origins in Ephesus, despite the fact that this city serves as the primary locale for John's activities in the text's (extant) narrative. This is due in large part to the Acts's historical inaccuracies, especially its claim that the apostle John destroyed the Artemision a full two centuries before the famous temple would actually experience wholesale destruction. This article, by contrast, puts aside the issue of historical accuracy in favor of examining the Acts's inventive dimensions, namely, how and to what effect the Acts imaginatively reconfigures cultic space within (and outside) the city of Ephesus. I argue that the Acts privileges domestic and extra-urban spaces, such as the home and the tomb, as significant sites for Christian cultic activities at the expense of public polytheistic sites such as the temple of Artemis. In doing so, the Acts constructs a "counter-cartography" that places emphasis on the importance of cultic activities (e.g., domestic cult, burial rites), which underscore ties of kinship within nascent Christian communities. The article concludes by demonstrating important ties between the Acts's constructions of Christian space and the subsequent history of Christian Ephesus in late antiquity, thus underscoring how, despite its reputation for historical irrelevance, the Acts's "cartography of kinship" had important ramifications for the succeeding realities of Christian thought and practice in the ancient Mediterranean world.

Ephesos: Die antike Metropole im Spannungsfeld von Religion und Bildung

Ephesos: Die antike Metropole im Spannungsfeld von Religion und Bildung

A Road Trip with Strabo

A number of places that feature in Strabo’s description of the Asian peninsula were situated on the ancient road that ran between the Euphrates river and the city of Ephesus. It is likely that Strabo journeyed along the entire thousand-kilometre length of the road, even though he makes explicit reference to his presence in only a few locations. He most probably made the journey as a youth on his way to Roman Asia, in the south west of the peninsula, from Pontus in the north. Decades pass before Strabo, as an old man, writes theGeographyand includes in it the memories of places he had visited. The outdated tone of some of his descriptions reflects this passage of time.

The City of Ephesus in Early Christian Literature

Der Aufsatz beschreibt zunachst die Wahrnehmung griechisch-romischer Religiositat, vor allem des Artemis- und des Kaiserkultes, durch christliche Autoren. In einem zweiten Teil wird die Geschichte der christlichen Stadt dargestellt. Wichtig sind die mit Johannes verbundenen Traditionen, wahrend der Stadt danach bis 431 keine herausragende Rolle zufallt.

Pluralismo no cristianismo primitivo em Éfeso: tensões e estratificações

<p>No cristianismo dos primeiros séculos encontramos uma pluralidade de escolas e correntes, com luzes e sombras e notáveis conflitos. Considerando isto, este artigo oferece algumas reflexões e análises sobre a existência de pluralismo religioso no cristianismo primitivo na cidade de Éfeso, a capital da província romana da Ásia Menor, sede guardiã do culto imperial. Ele destaca as formas de articulação cultural, sua relação com o poder religioso e político imperial e das regiões nos quais se desenvolveram. Focaliza as formas populares do cristianismo primitivo, entendido como representante do estrato intermediário, ou seja, letrado, mas não erudito, porém capaz de expressar práticas e representações de um conjunto maior de pessoas das camadas subalternas da sociedade. As narrativas analisadas nos oferecem um acesso privilegiado a memórias do pluralismo religioso na cidade de Éfeso nos dois primeiros séculos da era cristã.</p>

“Not mad, but mated”: Trauma, Uncanny Misrecognition, and the Occult Environment in <em>The Comedy of Errors</em>

Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors is a farce of misrecognition between two sets of identical twins, which results in a major social disruption over one day in the ancient city of Ephesus. Years following the tempest that caused the traumatic fracture of their family, Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse search the city for their long-lost twins. The citizens of Ephesus mistake the Syracusans for their Ephesian twins and, facing these fearsome moments of uncanny misrecognition, the Syracusans attempt to rationalize these misunderstandings as emanations of the notoriously occult Ephesian environment. Incapable of fully assimilating the original trauma of their separation from their twins, their sense of the uncanny in Ephesus is that trauma taking on its belated form. When the Syracusans rely on the invisible spiritual energy of Ephesus to account for their uncanny experiences, they demonstrate the imperceptibility of their trauma: searching, but unable to understand that in being recognized as their Ephesians counterparts, they are the ones that have been found. By evaluating how these characters identify their experiences of heightened confusion in terms of their bodies’ interactions with the occult environment, we can understand the distinctly early modern way that Shakespeare writes about trauma, the environment, and selfhood.

Festivals, cultural intertextuality, and the Gospel of John’s rhetoric of distance

Imperial and civic-religious festivals pervaded the late first-century city of Ephesus where John’s Gospel was, if not written, at least read or heard. How did Jesus-believers as likely members of somewhat participationist synagogue communities negotiate such pervasive and public celebration of festivals? Did they participate in, ignore, or oppose such festivals? And how might John’s Gospel have encouraged them to respond?This article engages these questions by focusing on the narrative presentation of festivals in John’s Gospel (some 42 times) as, amongst other things, occasions of conflict and condemnation. Employing Sjef van Tilborg’s notion of ‘interference’, which prioritises the Ephesian civic interface of the Gospel’s audience, the article argues that the cultural intertextuality between the Gospel and an Ephesian context destabilises and problematises Ephesian civic festivals and shows there to be fundamental incompatibilities between Jesus’ work and Ephesian society, thereby seeking Jesus-believers to absent themselves from festivals. The Gospel’s presentation of festivals belongs to the gospel’s rhetoric of distance vis-à-vis societal structures.

“Servants must their masters’ minds fulfil”: Servitude and Social Mobility in Shakespeare's Ephesus

Recent scholarship on The Comedy of Errors has demonstrated that the play is a far more nuanced drama than early critical dismissals of its Plautus-inspired farcical style might suggest. By examining Shakespeare's use of biblical allusion alongside analogues in contemporary ephemera, this paper demonstrates the ways that the arrival of the Syracusian doubles highlights the fragility of the Ephesian system of verbal credit and indicates the degree to which native Ephesians depend on others to determine their social worth. Such a promotion of commercial values finds its origin in the presentation of Ephesus in Acts, but the later recommendations of Saint Paul in his letter to the Ephesians might also have provided Shakespeare with an opportunity to critique such values in his The Comedy of Errors. Along with their rejection of a credit-based commerce, the Syracusians bring with them an alternative arrangement of social relationships expressing a more compassionate form of obedience than that practised and expected by the Ephesians. Seen through the eyes of a sympathetic master–servant pair from Syracuse, The Comedy of Errors offers a Pauline critique of the social relations that make the city of Ephesus a successful centre of mercantile culture.

The geographies of ancient ephesus and the Artemision in Anatolia

AbstractThis study is a sedimentologic and geomorphologic analysis of ancient geographies of the floodplains and delta of the Küçük Menderes (ancient Cayster River) around the city of Ephesus and the Artemision in Aegean coastal Anatolia. The authors emphasize the interrelationship of archaeological dating and structure, and historical comment in interdisciplinary analysis of ancient geographies and their paleoenvironments. In some cases, the historical literature is specific and factual. In other cases, legend from prehistory may provide important clues to the reconstruction of ancient environments as related to archaeological and historical settings. Ephesus and the closely related Artemision, or Temple of Diana of the Ephesians, offer a chance to link the disciplines of geology, physical geography, archaeology, history, and epigraphy in a composite of paleoenvironmental/paleogeographical interpretations of geomorphology over the past three millennia. Holocene sea‐level rise and marine transgression provide the raised paralic settings of the harbors of Ephesus and the Artemision. The settings of the harbors were altered by continuing progradation of the ancient Cayster River delta‐floodplain over the past three millennia. This research shows how interdisciplinary research greatly enhances our understanding of the ancient geographies of Ephesus and the Artemision. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Protective Structure for Ancient Ruins at Ephesus, Turkey

Between 1500 BC and 700 AD, the city of Ephesus was one of the most important trading centres on the Mediterranean Sea. At its peak, the city, most famous for its Artemis Temple, was home to up to 70,000 people. In the last 150 years, many ruins have been uncovered, though much of the city is still awaiting thorough archaeological investigation. In order to protect the ruins of some residential buildings uncovered on the hillside alongside the main Curetes Street, the Owner decided to construct an aesthetic innovative structure over the area. The building should offer protection against environmental influences, such as sun, wind, rain and vegetation, generating an enclosed environment that ensures conservation of the ruins while allowing access for the public.

Ancient Ephesus: Processions as Media of Religious and Secular Propaganda

The significance of religious rituals often reaches beyond their strict religious intentions. Specifically a procession, performed in front of the public, is a most effective instrument of disseminating a message to the crowds. Consequently, this ritual, as is well known, has often been used not only in religious but also in secular contexts; a procession under the cloak of religion can even become a politically useful medium to avoid popular disturbances on peaceful terms. This was the case in ancient Ephesus, where Roman power conflicted with Greek culture from the middle of the first century B.C. onwards. In the beginning of the second century A.D. the public religious life in the city of Ephesus was to a great extent characterized by processions relating to the cult of Artemis Ephesia. The one traditionally performed on the birthday of the goddess called to mind the Greek origin of the city; it was strictly associated with the religious sphere bringing about a close relationship between the goddess and her adherents. The other, artificially created by a Roman, was entirely secular, and spread its message every fortnight in the streets of Ephesus. It referred to the political field of action and intended to strengthen the Roman rule over the city. The Greek origin of Ephesian culture was later included in the message of the procession, reminding the Greeks not to rebel against Roman rule.