You share Ephesus and its excavated glories with thousands of others.  Probably just as many people walk down the marble slabs of Curetes Street today as in Roman times.  The temples to the emperors are here.  The magnificently excavated Terrace Houses of the former wealthy class of Ephesus rise above the street to the south.  The restored Celsus Library stands as backdrops for throngs of modern visitors wanting to prove they too had visited Ephesus.  On the right of the library is the Gate of Mazeus and Mithridates leading into the commercial agora. More imperial ideology on display. 

CAVE OF ST PAUL

We made a special visit to the Cave of St Paul above Ephesus. 6^th Century images recount the story of Thecla.  Theoklia, Thecla’s mother, is defaced on the wall, as she stands in a preaching stance in Ephesus next to St Paul. This is the result of early theological clash. Some thought Paul meant Christian communities were open equally to all. Included were male or female, Christian Jew or pagan, free man or slave – the radical Paul. Others accommodated Christianity to everyday Roman values – male hierarchy. This kept the place of slaves under their masters, the godly authority of rulers – the reactionary Paul.

PRIENE – AUGUSTUS AS SON AND SAVIOR

Our last Pauline excursion took us to Priene and Miletus south from Kusadası separated by the mass of Mount Mycale – Dilek Dağı – 1237 meters.  The Temple of Athena Polius, in Priene, is re-dedicated to the “Imperator Caesar, the Son of God, the God Augustus”.  The temple was earlier dedicated to another man-god, Alexander the Great.  Here, again, the divinity of the emperor is loudly proclaimed.   Written on two inscriptions (now found in the basement of the Pergamon museum in Berlin) is the good news – gospel – of Augustus, “the global Lord, divine Son and cosmic Savior” in Crossan’s words.  Time reordered to match the birth date of the new god, New Year’s Day reset to 23 September, the birthday of Augustus. Augustus, the one who ended war and brought peace; the one who outdid all who had come before him and all who would ever come after him.

MILETUS – THEATER OF FAREWELL

The long-silted Gulf of Latmos are today cotton fields amongst the delta of the Büyük Menderes/Meander. Here, the ancient twin harbored port of Miletus preceded Ephesus in regional importance.  The large theater, rebuilt in Roman times, uses vaulted tunnels for spectators to use to gain access to the upper seats. One bench among the seats is inscribed as reserved for god worshippers, theosebeis. So, we have more evidence of those to whom Paul directed his evangelical message to.  It was also here in Miletus, Paul spoke his farewell to the Ephesian Christian leaders before his last journey to Jerusalem and imprisonment.

APOLLO SPEAKS

A last side trip took us further south to the site of the oracle at Didyma.  The large temple complex built here in honor of Apollo was the second ranking oracle in importance in the ancient Greek world to Delphi – the Didymaion.  To here came rulers, delegations, and others well off to seek the prophetic power of the priestess of Apollo. A temple of sorts was erected over a small sacred spring as early as the 8^th Century BC. Construction of the temple went on for centuries but was never completed, though the main body was finished about 100 BC.  There are two rows of ionic columns along the outside of the complex – many now dramatically tumbled by centuries of earthquakes.  The eastern columns date to the much later reign of the emperor Hadrian.

APOLLO CHANGES

But Christianity would win out and the Didymaion was reused with a small basilica built within the courtyard of the temple.  Those ruins removed by German archaeologists more interested in searching for earlier Hellenistic glories. They took few notes regarding the church they removed.  The original spring had dried up already in ancient times, but a new one emerged at the east end of the complex.  Christians used the spring to baptize new members.

While Didyma was the oracle, Miletus was the port.  A road – the Sacred Way – linked the two.  You can see – and walk – the path rebuilt in the time of Emperor Trajan.

PAULINE WRAP

The trip was truly a pilgrimage to Pauline sites and others from which the both the context of Paul’s world and the hopes of a new world that he hoped to help bring about could better understood.  To give Crossan the last word:

“… that Paul opposed Rome with Christ against Caesar, not because that empire was particularly unjust or oppressive, but because he questioned the normalcy of civilization itself, since civilization has always been imperial, that is unjust and oppressive.”

Two books further the ideas of Borg and Crossan,The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon written by both in concert and In Search of Paul: How Jesus’ Apostle Opposed Rome’s Empire with God’s Kingdom written by Crossan with Jonathan Reed.  They have written other fine books about early Christianity, the life and death of Jesus among others which I recommend for the ideas that these gentlemen bring to the fore.