Ephesus

Today we visited Ephesus. The first site we went to was the virgin Mary's house. Many people believe that she accompanied John to Ephesus and lived here until her death. This house is located high in the mountains, rather far away from the rest of the city. The Catholics began looking for this site after a nun had visions of Mary in the hills above Ephesus. Sure enough, they found this crumbled down house from the first century AD and decided that it must be her house. Personally, I'm a skeptic. I believe in a lot of fantastic things, but I don't see why Mary would isolate herself on a mountain. Especially if she was aging. It would be very difficult to get necessities up there.

After visiting the supposed house of Mary we went to see St. Jean's Basilica. The place is a ruin, but we could still distinguish the basic layout of the church. We saw the baptismal located in front of the basilica, and the spot where St. John is buried.

Next we visited the main center of Ephesus. There we met a professor from Biola University who was a former archeologist at this site. We walked up a staircase that said "no entry" and at the top met another archeologist who had worked at the site for 41 years. Accompanied by the proper keys and people, we began to climb the hills above Ephesus. The trail was sketchy at best, but our efforts were well worth the reward. Our destination was a small cave. In the small cave were early Christian reliefs, in the front of the cave the relief pictured Paul, Thekla, and her mother. The back wall of the cave had a relief that pictured all twelve apostles. The archeologists were very kind and they let us take pictures of the site, they only asked us to not put pictures up on the Internet. I sill can't get over just how awesome the cave site was. Experiencing a piece of Christian history not open to the general public was totally epic.

After walking down the hill (far easier than walking up) we joined the general public in viewing the rest of Ephesus. We saw the reconstructed library, which has a minorah carved into the steps showing that there was a jewish presence in Ephesus. Throughout the site we would randomly see a pie-shaped symbol carved in the marble. I learned that this was actually an early Christian symbol, the Christians would use this symbol because the fish was too easy to recognize and it was very dangerous to be a Christian in Ephesus. This symbol was also the board to a popular game at the time so the soldiers did not recognize the symbol as Christian. Any other Christian knowing of this secret symbol would enter Ephesus and know that there were other Christians present.

The first century AD was a challenging time for Christians. It was a time of persecution because Christians acknowledged only one god; they denied the diety of the emperor. Being a Christian meant risking death, and so moderate Christianity was not really an option. This issue makes me wonder what made the church in Laodicea lukewarm. Did they also worship other gods? Were they attached to wealth?

Lukewarm Christianity is not what we see in the story of Paul and Thekla. Now it should be noted that the story of Paul and Thekla is not canonized, so it may or not be true. In all probability, some aspects of the story are true while others are not. Personally I find it likely that Thekla is a real historical figure because of the reliefs we saw in the cave above Ephesus. Whoever had the cave painted obviously knew her story and believed her to be a real historical figure. Despite the questionable authenticity of this story, the Thekla presented in this story is anything but lukewarm. She chooses Christianity over her marriage, the favor of her mother, and even over her life. She trusts that God can save her from the wild beasts.

The Bible certainly teaches Christians to be respectful towards authority. Jesus tells the Pharisees in Matthew 17:21 to, "...render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" (ESV). The early Christians maintained that taxes belonged to Caesar, but worship belongs to God alone. When the Emperor demanded worship as a God the Christians would have to refuse, because worshiping Caesar would not be rendering him his due. Unfortunately, Caesar himself did not see eye to eye with the Christians on this issue. This resulted in persecution as seen in the story of Paul and Thekla.

This issue of authority is still something wrestled with in contemporary ethics. One specific way this issue comes into conflict is with modern medicine practices. If a doctor thinks it is unethical to use stem cells or prescribe the "day after" pill, can the law require him to act contrary to his beliefs? Catholic hospitals around the nation have refused to administer abortions, and have threatened to shut down completely if the law requires them to act against their beliefs. Where exactly does the does religion separate from the medical world?