The Great Theatre of Ephesus

The Ephesus Theatre is located within the ancient city ruins of Ephesus. It’s a vast, semicircular amphitheater that was remodeled by the Romans between 41 and 117 AD. Built into a hillside and facing the sea, it has an impressive presence and could seat up to 25,000 people.

Constructed on a hillside slope, this semicircular structure is one of the best-preserved and most complete monuments in the Ephesus ruins. Archaeologists estimate that the theater was built in the 2nd century BC. By the time of Paul, it could hold 25,000 spectators, and expansion continued into the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, making it the largest theater in the province of Asia. The design, where each row of seats was steeper and more sloped than the one in front, improved the viewing and acoustics for the upper-tier audience.

Paul’s evangelism in Ephesus was very successful, although the book of Acts records that some in the Jewish synagogue were stubborn and disbelieving. Paul not only preached the Gospel but also performed many miracles of healing and casting out demons, leading many practitioners of magic to repent. Because of Paul’s great success, a large number of people who had previously worshipped the goddess Artemis stopped buying shrines, which led to an uproar among the craftsmen. Artemis was a goddess in the Greek polytheistic religion, associated with hunting, childbirth, fertility, and the harvest. In the traditional Greek depiction, Artemis is usually shown as a maiden with a bow and arrow in one hand and a deer’s antler in the other. However, a huge ten-foot-tall marble statue of her was discovered in the ruins of Ephesus, depicting her as a full-breasted middle-aged woman, with the lower half and surrounding carvings featuring numerous livestock, fruits, and plants. This image differed from the traditional Greek portrayal and instead blended with the goddess Cybele, worshipped by the native Phrygian people of the Asia region. Paul and his fellow apostles, facing the angry crowd and the riot, would have seen every stone carving and every brick bear witness to these events.