Ephesus was the most important of the seven cities in the province of Asia. Located at the mouth of the Cayster River on the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea, it was the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire, after Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch in Syria. Ephesus was a Roman garrison city and a free city that was allowed to keep its own laws. The Roman proconsul visited the city periodically to hear major cases (Acts 19:38). Roman governors had to land in Ephesus when they came by sea from Rome to take office in the province of Asia before proceeding to the administrative capital of Pergamum, so the city was also called “the landing place.”
Ephesus was a major commercial center; goods from the Mediterranean had to pass through Ephesus to reach other parts of the province of Asia, and goods from the East had to pass through Ephesus to be shipped out. Roads from the Euphrates and Mesopotamia, from Galatia via Sardis, and from the Cayster and Maeander river valleys all converged in Ephesus, earning it the title “the marketplace of Asia” (Strabo, 63-23 BC). When Christians from the province of Asia were sent to Rome for execution, they also had to board ships in Ephesus, which is why the early church father Ignatius of Antioch (67-110 AD) called Ephesus “the station for martyrs.” Ephesus was a center of pagan religion, home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (Acts 19:27), and a Great Theater. The sale of amulets, exorcism spells, and sorcery was common (Acts 19:19), as were temples to the Roman emperors Claudius and Nero.
Ephesus had a complex population, with a significant number of Jews. Paul preached there for more than two years (Acts 19:8-10), longer than anywhere else. The church was founded by Paul during his third missionary journey, and Timothy was its first overseer (1 Timothy 1:3). Because Ephesus was a bustling metropolis with a constant flow of people, the church was more susceptible to disruption. When Paul said his final farewell to the church in Ephesus, he prophesied that “savage wolves will come in among you” (Acts 20:29), which had already come to pass by the time of Timothy (1 Timothy 6:21). However, the church of Ephesus was faithful in its service and stood firm in the truth, serving as a model for the early church. Church tradition holds that the Apostle John lived in Ephesus in his later years, and that Mary, the mother of Jesus, spent her final years there.