Paul’s Third Journey: 3 Years in Ephesus (5 of 12)

Paul stayed longer in Ephesus than anywhere else, and it produced both his most concentrated period of church planting and his most concentrated period of writing.

It ended with a riot organised by men whose businesses he had ruined.

Why Did Paul Stay Three Years in Ephesus?

Because it worked, and the geography made it work.

Acts 19:9-10 has him holding daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus for two years, with the result that all the residents of Asia, Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.

One family of manuscripts adds the hours: from the fifth to the tenth. That is roughly eleven in the morning to four in the afternoon, which in that climate is siesta.

The Greek word for the building is schole, a lecture hall or school room, literally a place of leisure, where a teacher and pupils gathered for instruction and discussion. Public lectures in such a hall normally ran from early morning until about eleven.

So the slot Paul occupied was the one nobody else wanted, the hours normally reserved for meals and rest. The inference both Bailey and the standard reference works draw is the same: the hall would have been available cheaply, and Paul worked his trade in the early morning and the late afternoon on either side of it.

Who Tyrannus was is not recoverable. He may have been a Jew offering his own teaching space, a Greek who owned the hall and rented it out, or a Christian who lent it without charge.

Ephesus was the principal city of the province and the roads ran through it. Paul does not appear to have travelled much during this period. People came to him, were taught, and went home to their own towns.

The seven churches addressed in Revelation are all in that region. It is reasonable to think several of them were seeded from that lecture hall.

What Happened with the Sons of Sceva?

An attempt to use the name of Jesus as a spell went badly for the people trying it.

Acts 19:13-17. Itinerant exorcists, described as sons of a Jewish chief priest named Sceva, tried invoking the name Paul preached. The reply they got has stayed famous: Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?

The man they were trying to help overpowered all of them and they fled the house naked and wounded.

The point of the episode is not comic. It is a boundary. The name is not a technique, and it does not work for people who are not in the relationship it belongs to.

Why Did the Ephesians Burn Their Books?

Because the gospel beat the occult on its home ground, and the converts drew the obvious conclusion.

Acts 19:18-20 has believers openly confessing their practices, and a substantial number of those who had practised sorcery bringing their scrolls together and burning them publicly. Luke gives the value at fifty thousand drachmas, which is something in the order of a labourer’s wages for well over a century.

Ephesus was a centre of magical practice with a reputation across the Mediterranean. That is what makes the bonfire significant. It is not a general gesture against bad books. It is practitioners destroying their own professional libraries in the city that supplied them.

Luke’s summary follows: in this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

What Caused the Riot in Ephesus?

Economics, stated plainly by the man who started it.

Acts 19:23-34. Demetrius, a silversmith making shrines of Artemis, gathers the trade and tells them that this Paul has convinced large numbers of people that gods made with hands are not gods, and that their trade is in danger of losing its good name.

The crowd fills the theatre and chants great is Artemis of the Ephesians for about two hours.

It is worth being clear about what is happening. The riot is not primarily theological outrage. It is an industry watching its market collapse and organising accordingly. Demetrius says so before anyone mentions the goddess’s honour.

What Did Paul Write from Ephesus?

1 Corinthians, into a church with every problem a church can have.

Divisions, lawsuits between believers, sexual immorality, disputes over food offered to idols, chaotic worship, and doubts about the resurrection. Nearly every modern church controversy has a Corinthian precedent.

The letter is usually described as occasional and disorganised, written in a hurry in response to whatever Corinth asked. Bailey argues the opposite, and the argument starts with the address. 1 Cor 1:2 is written to the Corinthians together with all those in every place who call on the name of the Lord. Ambrosiaster, Chrysostom, a ninth-century Arabic translator named Bishr ibn al-Sari, and Calvin all read that as meaning what it says.

On Bailey’s reading the book is five constructed essays rather than a list of answers: the cross and Christian unity, men and women in the family, Christians living among pagans, men and women in worship, and the resurrection. The first and last are a pair, cross and resurrection. The second and fourth are a pair. The middle one stands alone.

If that holds, Paul selected from the Corinthian problems the ones the whole church was arguing about, and set the agenda himself rather than working down their list.

1 Cor 1:18 sets the frame: the message of the cross is foolishness to those perishing, but to those being saved it is the power of God.

And chapter 13 sits in the middle of that mess deliberately. Love is patient, love is kind, love never fails, written not for weddings but for a congregation tearing itself apart over which spiritual gifts ranked highest.

1 Cor 15:3-8 preserves what is very likely the earliest resurrection creed, material Paul says he received and passed on, with a witness list that includes more than five hundred at once, most of whom he notes are still alive. That last clause is an invitation to check.

What Is in 2 Corinthians?

The most personal thing he wrote, defending an apostleship that looks like a list of injuries.

It comes after a painful visit and a severe letter that does not survive, and it is written from Macedonia rather than Ephesus.

2 Cor 4:7-9 gives the governing image: this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God. Hard pressed but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, struck down but not destroyed.

2 Cor 11:24-28 is the résumé he offers against opponents boasting of their credentials. Five times the thirty-nine lashes. Three beatings with rods. One stoning. Three shipwrecks. A night and a day in the open sea. Danger from every direction, hunger, cold, exposure. And then, as though it outweighed the rest, the daily pressure of concern for all the churches.

The conclusion is 2 Cor 12:9-10, where the thorn is not removed and the answer is that grace is sufficient and power is made perfect in weakness.

When Did Paul Write Romans?

From Corinth, around AD 57, during a three-month winter stay near the end of the journey.

Romans is written to a church he had never visited, which is why it is the fullest and most orderly statement of his gospel. He is introducing himself and his message before arriving.

Rom 1:16-17 states the thesis, quoting Hab 2:4 on the righteous living by faith. Rom 3:23-24 gives the diagnosis and the remedy in one sentence. Rom 5:8 puts the timing of the cross before any improvement on our side. Rom 8 ends with the list of powers that cannot separate anyone from the love of God.

And Rom 15:23-28 lays out the plan: deliver the collection to Jerusalem, then come to Rome, then go on to Spain.

He reached Rome. In chains, at imperial expense, by a route he did not choose.

The letter was carried by Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, commended in Rom 16:1-2.

Part of a series following the Apostle Paul timeline.

Sources

The biblical texts cited: Acts 19:1-41, 20:31, 1 Cor 1:18, 10:13, 13:4-8, 15:3-8, 15:54-58, 2 Cor 4:7-9, 5:17-21, 11:24-28, 12:9-10, Rom 1:16-17, 3:23-24, 5:8, 8:1, 8:38-39, 15:23-28, 16:1-2, and Hab 2:4.

Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes: Cultural Studies in 1 Corinthians (IVP Academic, 2011), introduction. Supports the reading of 1 Corinthians as five constructed essays addressed to the whole church rather than an occasional reply to a list of questions, and the note on the Tyrannus lecture hours in the Western text. Supplied in full.

G. F. Hawthorne, “Tyrannus,” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, revised (Eerdmans, 1979-1988), 4:932. Supports the meaning of schole, the normal hours of public lecturing, the inference about affordable rent in the unused hours, and the range of possibilities for who Tyrannus was.

Where the sourcing stops: the suggestion that churches of Revelation were seeded from the Ephesian period is an inference from geography and timing rather than a documented connection. The severe letter referred to in 2 Corinthians does not survive and its relationship to the canonical letters is disputed.

Footnotes

1. The value Luke gives for the burned scrolls is the kind of detail that makes an ancient narrative feel like a report. He does not say the books were valuable. He gives a figure, and the figure is enormous, which tells you the scale of the industry being abandoned.
2. That 1 Corinthians 15 notes most of the five hundred witnesses were still living is an argumentative move, not an aside. Paul is writing roughly twenty-five years after the events to a city with regular traffic to Judea. The claim is checkable and he frames it that way.