Conversations at Midnight #20 What's Hiding in the Soup?
What Was Cooking in Ephesus?
Last blog, I promised we'd look into what was cooking on the stove in Ephesus. Grab your apron, because we're about to see what's been simmering in the pot.
We have already met Timothy and learned about the assignment Paul gave him. We followed him into Ephesus, one of the most fascinating cities in the Roman world. And we've discovered a rather complicated sweater full of loose threads in Paul's instructions about women, teaching, authority, Adam, Eve, deception, and childbirth. But before we pull on those threads, let's turn the sweater inside out.
Sometimes the easiest way to understand where a thread belongs is to see what the whole garment looks like on the inside. And that brings us to the religious world of Ephesus.
Or, as I've already hinted...
the soup.
The Pot
Imagine making chicken soup for your sick family.
You start with chicken. You add onion and garlic—their antibacterial properties seem like a good idea. If you could only smell, some pretty tantalizing aromas are beginning to seep into your kitchen.
Next comes turmeric for its anti-inflammatory properties. Ginger for its immune-boosting and antioxidant properties. You pause and think, Man, I really want to get rid of this cold so we can finally get away for that thrice-cancelled weekend retreat.
It's double or nothing.
You keep adding powerhouse herbs and spices: cinnamon, oil of oregano, honey, cayenne...
Your hubby croaks from the other room:
“Don't forget Grandma's special magic sauce. That always worked in the past.”
You moan a response, but what have you got to lose? It's already Wednesday. Only two more sleeps until the weekend, and you are refusing to cancel again.
You add some more funky ingredients: goldenseal, arrowroot, Labrador leaves. You find a few more mysterious ingredients that have been sitting in the back of the cupboard since 1987 because now you're all in...And so are all the spices in your cupboard.
Individually, they all have some form of healing property. Together?
Pizza might have been the safer option. Definitely the more appetizing one.
More ingredients aren't guaranteed to make a better remedy. In fact, sometimes they make a poison. At least, that's what your taste buds tell you.
The religious world of Ephesus was a little like that soup: crowded, complicated, and full of ingredients that had accumulated over generations.
Welcome to Ephesus
Ancient religions didn't work like a “choose one” approach. Different gods and goddesses had different associations, different stories, unique powers, and different places in the life of a person or a city. One might be associated with childbirth. Another with healing. Another with fertility. Another with protection. Another with the household. Get the picture?
Some modern religions offer a patron saint for just about every discomfort you can imagine.
So did the ancients.
If you were frightened or desperate, why wouldn't you reach for the one you believed could help? Ephesus had plenty of choices.
Like the chicken in our soup, the biggest ingredient in the Ephesian pot was, hands-down, Artemis.
Artemis wasn't simply a goddess who happened to have a temple in Ephesus. She was woven into the city's civic identity. In Acts 19, when the silversmith Demetrius fears Paul's preaching will undermine the worship of Artemis, the city erupts into a riot. The crowd shouts, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” for about two hours. They finally settle down after the city clerk reminds them that their behaviour could put the city in danger with Rome, something nobody wanted.
Artemis was clearly a very big deal. Unfortunately, however, Artemis wasn't the only ingredient in the broth.
Ephesus sat at a crossroads where Greek, Anatolian, Roman, and Egyptian religious traditions met and mingled. The worship associated with Artemis itself had a long and complicated history involving earlier Anatolian traditions. Ancient religious traditions could overlap, adapt, and interact in remarkably complex ways.
There were traditions associated with the Great Mother, known in different settings as Cybele or Meter. There were Greek and Roman goddesses associated with women, marriage, fertility, and childbirth. There was Eileithyia, specifically associated with labour and childbirth. There was Isis, whose worship travelled far beyond Egypt and whose religious identity included motherhood, protection, and healing. And then there were household gods, healing cults, imperial worship, local traditions, imported traditions, and mystery religions.
The pot was getting pretty full, the runway very crowded.
And Then There Was Magic
Now Ephesus begins to read like a scene from a fantasy novel.
The city was famous for the Ephesia grammata—the “Ephesian letters”—magical formulas associated with protection.
Magical practices were so sufficiently embedded in Ephesian life that Acts 19 gives us a noteworthy picture of converts publicly renouncing them. People who had become believers brought their magical books together and burned them. Luke gives the astonishing value of those books: fifty thousand pieces of silver—a staggering sum, estimated in the original discussion at roughly $6 million US in present-day value. That's not somebody throwing one old spell book into the fireplace and roasting marshmallows. That's a roaring bonfire.
This bonfire reveals something important about conversion:
Becoming a follower of Jesus isn't simply a matter of adding one more belief to a collection of spices. Neither is Jesus the latest model on the religious runway. Following Jesus is exchanging things previously trusted for spiritual power and protection to trust in the One and Only.
Jesus has never been interested in sharing the Savior spotlight with another.
But What Got Into the Church's Pot, Specifically?
Let's take another look at Timothy. Paul had not left him in Ephesus because the church was running smoothly. On the contrary, he was asked to remain there because certain people were teaching false doctrines.
Paul specifically mentions myths and endless genealogies that were producing speculation rather than faith. He describes people who want to be teachers but have no idea what they're teaching. So the first problem Paul identifies is teaching.
And notice what he contrasts it with? Not more religious information or cleverer arguments.
But:
Love
A pure heart
A good conscience
Sincere faith
As we move through the letter, another disturbing strand appears. Paul warns about people who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving.
Wow.
These ascetics are pretty harsh.
And then... we encounter the women.
Teaching
Authority
Silence
Adam
Eve
Deception
Childbearing
Faith
Holiness
Self-control
Good grief. There are a lot of threads that need darning.
So What Exactly Was Paul Confronting?
This is where we may want to exercise caution. Paul doesn't begin 1 Timothy by saying:
“Timothy, there's a problem with the women.” At the risk of being redundant, the problem in Ephesus was a teaching problem.
As we move through the letter, other strange things appear:
Paul warns about people who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving.
He warns about men needing to be faithful to their wives, to not get drunk or be argumentative. He's especially concerned that leaders don't fall into these sins.
He's also concerned about young widows and a tendency towards idleness or gossiping from house to house. (Perhaps he had some specific ones in mind?)
And here's the passage that has caused Christians so much grief over the centuries:
I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.
And just a few verses later:
But she will be saved through childbearing...
That's a lot to unpack.
Something was definitely going on in Ephesus!
Before interpreting what Paul means when he tells women not to teach, can we ask:
What were women teaching?
And before we decipher what Paul means when he says a woman will be saved through childbearing, I can't help wonder :
What did childbirth mean to a woman living in first-century Ephesus?
Remember that woman?
She lived in a world where childbirth could be dangerous, where divine protections were eagerly—perhaps desperately—sought during pregnancy and labour.
That woman lived in a world where Artemis could be associated with women and childbirth, where Eileithyia was specifically connected with labour, where Isis was revered as a mother and protector, and where amulets, prayers, and magical practices could be used to ward off danger.
And that woman lived in a city where people had already learned that following Jesus might mean throwing some of their old spiritual practices into the fire.
Answering these questions may not make thing easier but it certainly makes it more interesting.
Before We Pull the Threads...
Remember we have one side of a very complicated telephone conversation, not the minutes of Paul and Timothy's board meeting. Since we're left trying to fill in the missing pieces, let's
summarize what we've already established—and what we can reasonably know.
This Christian community existed in the middle of a profoundly religious culture.
Ephesus was dominated by the cult of Artemis.
Magical practices were significant enough that converts publicly renounced them.
The wider Greco-Roman world contained a multitude of divine powers associated with fertility, childbirth, healing, protection, and the running of the household.
Paul's letter describes a Christian community struggling with teachings and practices that were pulling people away from the faith he had taught them.
To accurately identify which ingredients were actually in the church's pot, I think we need to keep asking questions:
Why were myths and genealogies so important?
Why were some people trying to become teachers of the Law?
Why was marriage suddenly forbidden?
Why did certain foods become a religious issue?
Why does Paul move from those problems into instructions about women?
And why, of all things, does he bring up Eve and childbirth?
Those questions are going to take us much deeper into the passage.
One Last Look at the Pot
Before sign off for this post, though, I want us to remember something.
The people who lived here were trying to make sense of sickness, fertility, childbirth, death, protection, prosperity, family, and the terrifying unpredictability of life. Gods and goddesses, rituals, prayers, magical formulas, and amulets reassured them that they were going to be okay... and, conveniently, contributed to the city's wealth and economic stability.
But these weren't random beliefs people picked up along the way. They were traditions handed down from parents and grandparents, helping solidify personal and corporate identities.
Paul came preaching a radically different message. Not:
“Here's one more god for the runway.” But:
There is one God, one Lord, one faith, one hope and one Savior.
That would change the balance of power immensely. The bonfire in Acts 19 becomes the watershed.
The Ephesian believers weren't simply adding Jesus to the pot. They were beginning to ask:
What doesn't belong here anymore?
Perhaps that's the question we need to carry with us as we return to Paul's troubling instructions to Timothy. Let's remember: the passage we're trying to understand isn't floating in midair.
It was written into this city.
This religious world.
To this church.
An overly complicated pot.
For the next post, let's look into what had now crept into the newly formed church of Ephesus? That's where our magical carpet ride will begin.
Sources & Notes
Acts 19:23–41 — Luke's account of the Ephesian uproar surrounding Artemis and Paul's preaching. The episode provides direct literary evidence for the civic and religious importance of Artemis in Ephesus.
1 Timothy 1:3–7 — Paul's stated reason for leaving Timothy in Ephesus: to confront “different” teaching, myths, genealogies, speculation, and misuse of the Law. The precise identity of these “myths and genealogies” remains debated.
1 Timothy 4:1–5 — Paul's warning concerning teachers who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods. The precise background of these restrictions remains debated, but the text clearly presents them as false teaching.
1 Timothy 2:12, 15 — Paul's instructions concerning women, teaching, authority, silence, and childbearing.
Guy MacLean Rogers, The Mysteries of Artemis of Ephesos (Yale University Press, 2013). Rogers documents the long history and importance of Artemis's mysteries and sacrifices at Ephesus.
R. A. Kearsley, “Women’s Life in Public and Private: Ephesian Inscriptions in Their Greco-Roman Context,” in New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity 11B: Essays on Ephesus. The Ephesian inscriptions provide evidence for women serving as cult officials, including within the cult of Artemis.
Alberto Bernabé, “The Ephesia Grammata: Genesis of a Magical Formula,” in The Getty Hexameters: Poetry, Magic, and Mystery in Ancient Selinous (Oxford University Press, 2013). Bernabé examines the development and use of the Ephesia grammata as magical formulas.
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