Can We Trust the Gospels?

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Syndication

Archeology and the Bible

The House of the Virgin Mary?

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

Part 10 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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Until recently, I have never given much thought to what happened to Mary, the mother of Jesus, after His death. I figured that she went to Jerusalem, where James, one of her other sons (or stepsons, if […]

Paul and the Silversmiths, Part 2

Monday, August 20th, 2007

Part 9 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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When we last left our series on Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament, the city was in an uproar. A gang of silversmiths, at the instigation of a certain Demetrius, were rioting, dragging several of Paul’s colleagues […]

Paul and the Silversmiths

Friday, August 17th, 2007

Part 8 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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Now that we know something about the goddess Artemis and her importance for Ephesus, we’re ready to get back to the story of Paul’s ministry in this city.
As Paul’s ministry began to thrive in Ephesus, a certain […]

Artemis and Her Temple

Thursday, August 16th, 2007

Part 7 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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In my last post I summarized the beginning of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus as it’s described in Acts 19. We saw that after first being stymied in his effort to reach out to Ephesian Jews through the […]

The Apostle Paul in Ephesus

Wednesday, August 15th, 2007

Part 6 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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In my last post I quoted a passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in which he wrote, “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to […]

Ephesus in the New Testament

Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

Part 5 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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Early Christianity was significantly an urban movement. This might sound surprising if you’re used to thinking of Christians continuing the mode of Jesus, whose ministry happened largely (but not only) in rural Galilee. Yet when we pay […]

Touring Ancient Ephesus, Part 2

Friday, August 10th, 2007

Part 4 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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A tour of Ephesus usually begins, as I explained yesterday, at the eastern end of the city because from the you walk downhill rather than uphill. In the map to the right you can see several of […]

Touring Ancient Ephesus

Thursday, August 9th, 2007

Part 3 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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In late June I took a tour of Ephesus. It lasted about two hours, and was quite informative. Our tour guide, a Turkish woman (in center of picture to the right) really knew her stuff. It turns […]

The Location and Environment of Ephesus

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007

Part 1 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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Ephesus, or what is left of it, lies on the western edge of modern day Turkey, just about five miles inland from the Aegean coast. The picture to the right shows the location of Ephesus. It is […]

Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament: Introduction

Monday, August 6th, 2007

Part 1 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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For many of us, the events of the Bible seem to take place in some magic world of “Bible lands,” a wonderland rather like the one discovered by Alice. We read about Jerusalem, Nazareth, Corinth, and Ephesus, […]