is addressed apparently to one set of people, whose spiritual history had been marked by the so.me features. To get over tae difficulty arising from the absence of all personal references, and other difficulties, some have thought that Ephesus was not included among the places to which the letter was addressed; but fresh difficulties arise with this supposition: it makes it impossiblo to account for the words lv 'Et/>tCT'{l occurring so generally, and for the universal tradi- tion that the letter was addressed to that Church. Nor is it easy to conceive that Paul should write to a circle of Churches adjacent to the city where he spent three years, and say nothing to the Christians in that city. On the whole, taking both external and internal evidence into account, there seems to be no reason for giving up the traditional view that the Epistle was addressed to the Ephesians. It is not a question that admits of demonstration, but the difficulties attending this view are less than those attending any other. Even if it were a perfectly open question, if Ephesus were not now in possession, we should say that it had the best claim; certainly nothing has been advanced to show that that claim ought to be surrendered in favour of any other.
ill EPHESUS AND ITS CHURCH,
Ephesus was an important city, situated at the mouth of the river Cayster, near the middle of the western coast of the peninsula. of Asia Minor. The term" Asia," however, was in those times confined to the Roman province in the west of the peninsula, of which Ephesus had become the capital nearly two hundred years before it was visited by Paul. Its inhabitants were half Greek, half Asiatic, and their religion and superstitions were a compound of the East and the West. Diana, or Artemis, a. goddess of the West, was the chief object of worship; but the style of her worship had in it !:1Uch of Oriental mystery and munificence. The temple of Diana was renowned as one of the seven wonders of the world. It had been two hundred and twenty years building; its roof was supported by one hundred and twenty- six columns, each sixty feet high, the gifts of as many kings. The image of Diana, said to have fallen from heaven, was of wood, forming a striking contrast to the magruficence around. Ephesus was notorious for its luxury and licentiousness. Sorcery or magic, an importation from the West, was exceedingly common. The 'Et/>tCTta ypa.p.p.aTa were a celebrated charm, which continued to be used more or less till the sixth century, A.D. Ephesus wa.s a great and busy centre of commerce; "it was the highway into Asia from Rome; its ships traded with the ports of Greece, Egypt, and the Levant; and the Ionian cities poured their inquisitive population into it at its great annual festival in honour of Diana." Itis known from Josephus that Jews were established there in considerable numbers; it is the ouly place where we read of disciples of John the Baptist being found, and retaining that designation; while the case of Apollos coming to it from vi IN'l'RODUC'l'ION 'l'G
Alexandria, and that of Aquila and Priscilla from Rome and Corinth, show that it held ready intercourse with the rest of the world. The apostle paid his first visit to Ephesus in his second mission tour (Acts rnii. 19-21), but it was very short; in his third tour ho returned and remained two years and three months. The unusual length of time i,pent by him in the city shows the importanco he attached to the place and the measure of encouragement he received. His labours were very assiduous, for he visited "from house to house," and" ceased not to warn every one of them day and night with tears" (Acts xx. 20, 31). The opposition he met with was correspondingly great. He writes to the Corinthians that he had fought with beasts at EphesllS. and the tumult that occurred at the instigation of the silversmiths connected with the temple of Diana, where he was assailed ever so long with brute force and insensate yelling, justified the expression. At first, the opposition was chiefly from the Jews; latterly from the pagans too. On his last recorded journey to Jerusalem he sailed by Ephesus; and summoned the elders of the Church to meet him at Miletus, where he delivered a solemn charge to them to continue their work with fidelity and diligence. He laboured under a great dread of unfaithful teachers arising from among them, and heartless plunderers falling on them from without, that for selfish ends would make havoc of the Church. The anxiety which the apostle had about the Ephesian Church seems to have led him to place Timothy in a peculiar relation to it. There is no mention of Timothy having been ordained to any special office at Ephesus, but he is called to " do the work of an evan- gelist" (2 Tim. iv. 5). The apostle speaks of him more as his assistant and personal friend than as sustaining an independent and permanent office in the Church (1 Tim. i 3, 18; iii. 14, 15; iv. 6; 2 Tim. iv. 9, 13, 21). It has always been the tradition of the Church that the .Apostle John spent the last part of his life at Ephesus, although very recently this has been questioned by Keim, who holds that the John who laboured at Ephesus was not the apostle, but another John. This view, however, has obtained little support. .At Ephesus, Paul was helped by .Aquila and Priscilla, and by .Apollos, and he likewise enjoyed a special manifestation of supernatural power, for many miracles were wrought by him. The first scene of his preaching labours was the synagogue; but bis reception there was so umavourable tha~ he bad to leave it, and then he reasoned daily in the school of one Tyrannus. His success among the Gentiles was much greater than among the Jews. The power of the Word of· God was so great that it even subdued those who had become rich by lucrative sin. The power given to Paul to cast out evil spirits was so manifestly above any that they possessed, that many exorcists and persons who practised magical arts became converts to Christ, and gave proof of their sincerity by burning their books and abandoning for ever a business which may have enriched them for this world, but would have ruined their souls. 'l'llE EPJS'l'LE 'l'O 'l'llfo.: EPHESIA.i'.S. vii