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Part 2: Artemis of Ephesus and her Temple

The Temple of Artemis in the First Century AD

Ancient Ephesus was one of the largest cities of the Roman province of Asia Minor and, in the first century AD, may have had a population of around one hundred thousand. The city had a busy seaport and was situated at a junction of two major roads that led to the interior of Asia Minor. “Owing to its strategic geographical position, Ephesus served the Roman senatorial province of Asia as the center for commerce and communication.” (Arnold 1989: 13)

The Ephesians were well known across the Greco-Roman world for their enthusiastic devotion to the goddess Artemis and for their magnificent temple dedicated to her. The temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and “was the largest building in the Greek world, about four times larger than the Athenian Parthenon.” (Baugh 2005: 19) Made of solid marble, the dimensions of this monumental building were 115 metres by 55 metres. The temple’s 127 Ionic columns were 18 metres tall and decorated with ornate friezes, brilliantly gilded in silver and gold. The altar was large enough to sacrifice hundreds of animals simultaneously. (LiDonnici 1999: 85)

As well as being a place where religious rituals were performed, the temple served as one of the largest banks of the ancient world. And it was “internationally recognized as the place of refuge” for those seeking protection and asylum. (Murphy-O’Connor 2008: 44) Furthermore, the temple was “filled with great works of art” (Rogers 2012: 7). The temple attracted many thousands of visitors each year, bringing wealth into the city. (See footnote 1 for more information on the Ephesian temple.)

A miniature model of the Artemis temple without the decorative gilding. (Wikimedia Commons)

Artemis of Ephesus

Several statues stood in the temple, including a large cult statue of the goddess Artemis. Approximately four hundred statues and figurines of her still survive today. These show the goddess wearing an elaborate costume that features a crown resembling her temple, various real and mythical animals on her skirt (lions, griffins, horses, bulls, and bees), garlands around her neck, and numerous bumps on her midriff. These bumps are interpreted differently by scholars. Some have thought they were breasts, others suggest they may be bull’s testicles or bee’s eggs.[2] (More on the costume of Artemis here.)

The Ephesian Artemis should not be confused with the Greek Artemis who was a huntress.[3] The Ephesian Artemis was unlike Greek gods and goddesses. She probably originated as a tree spirit and may have shared some attributes with other gods and goddesses of Anatolia. After the Ionians settled in Ephesus in around 1100 BC, they named the indigenous Ephesian goddess after their Greek goddess Artemis.[4]

The Ephesian Artemis was believed to have the power to bring new life into the world and to take life away. There is no evidence she was a mother goddess,[5] but several ancient documents reveal she was regarded as a “midwife”.[6] It was thought she helped women and animals in labour. Ephesian women would call on Artemis during childbirth to speed up the labour and ease the pain, or, in dire circumstances, they would call on her to bring about a quick death to end their suffering (e.g., Acts of Andrew 25). Artemis was also the champion and protector of virgins, both male and female.[7] She was considered a virgin and, unlike mother goddesses, she was not associated with any male consort or god.

During the syncretistic Hellenistic period, Artemis Ephesia and her cult took on some Greek features and she was increasingly conflated with the Greek Artemis. Like the Greek Artemis, the Ephesian Artemis was seen as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and as the twin sister of Apollo (whom she delivered despite being only a few days older than her brother.) The Ephesian and Greek Artemises shared the same birthday, the 6th of May. On this day each year, the Ephesians held a festive procession, performed special rituals, and participated in other celebrations.

During the Roman period, the goddess and her cult took on some Roman features. Most noticeably, she was increasingly called “Diana”, the Roman name for both the Ephesian and Greek Artemises.

The goddess continued to change and evolve. Still, the Ephesians regarded their goddess with deep devotion and warm affection, and she influenced many aspects of Ephesian life in ways that are difficult for us to imagine.[8] “There was no other Greco-Roman metropolis in the Empire whose ‘body, soul and spirit’ could so belong to a particular deity as did Ephesus to her patron goddess Artemis.” (Oster 1990: 1728)

Understanding the Ephesian Culture and Artemis

Paul in Ephesus

The apostle Paul visited Ephesus several times. In around 57–58 AD, he stayed there for over two years as part of his third missionary journey. (See Acts chapter 19.)[9] Paul’s effectiveness and success in spreading the gospel in Ephesus meant that some people were turning away from the cult of Artemis and converting to Christianity. Some Ephesians were also turning away from magic: “A number who practised magic collected their books and burned them publicly; when the value of these books was calculated, it was found to come to fifty thousand silver coins” (Acts 19:19).

This defection from Artemis threatened the businesses of the people who made shrines and statues of Artemis. One of these business proprietors was a wealthy silversmith named Demetrius. Ephesus was famous for its silversmiths who, as well as making shrines of Artemis, made miniature replicas of the temple and amulets inscribed with magic words.[10] Concerned that he would lose his livelihood, Demetrius addressed his fellow artisans. Part of his address shows the widespread regard for Artemis Ephesia. He said, “And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be scorned, and she will be deprived of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her” (Acts 19:27).

Demetrius incited a furious uprising, and for two hours the angry crowd shouted in unison: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:34). The town clerk then quieted the crowd and spoke to them drawing attention to unique relationship the Ephesians had with their own unique goddess: “Citizens of Ephesus, who is there that does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple keeper of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven? Since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash” (Acts 19:35). Despite the pervasive presence and formidable force of Artemis, a strong church was established in Ephesus. But there would be problems. In the late first century, the teaching that Paul had brought to the city was being threatened. This may, or may not, have had something to do with the goddess, as we will see in Part Three.


Footnotes

[1] The Temple of Artemis was destroyed and rebuilt several times. The first shrine to the goddess Artemis was probably built around 800 BC and may have contained a sacred stone—possibly a meteorite (cf. Acts 19:35).

In his Natural History 36.21, Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) writes about the construction of the temple which stood in Paul’s day. It took 120 years to build and was partially funded by the proverbially wealthy King Croesus of Lydia who conquered Ephesus in 550 BC. This temple was destroyed on July 21, 356 BC in an act of arson. It was rebuilt in 323 BC with no expense spared. Writing in about 140 BC, Antipater of Sidon included the temple of Artemis Ephesia in his famous list of the Seven Wonders of World and spoke enthusiastically about its splendour.

I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, ‘Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand. (Antipater of Sidon, Greek Anthology 9.58).

The last temple was destroyed in around AD 262 “by a marauding band of Goths, from which Ephesus never fully recovered.” (S.M. Baugh 2005: 14)

[2] Robert Fleischer (1973) has shown that the bumps are not part of the goddess’s body but represent removable parts of her clothing or adornments. Ovoid amber ornaments have been excavated from the site of Artemis’s temple.  One suggestion accepted by some scholars is that the bumps are, or represented, testicles from sacrificed bulls. The size and shape of the bumps closely match the relative size and shape of bulls’ testicles.

Bull's testicles in a butcher's shop.

These bulls’ testicles in a butcher’s shop closely resemble the oval-shaped objects on Artemis’s midriff.

Perhaps the bumps represent fresh dates which have a similar shape and pattern of clusters.

artemis ephesus breasts
Fresh dates. Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay

1 Timothy 2:12 Artemis of EphesusStill another suggestion is that the bumps are bees’ eggs. Artemis was associated with bees and she has bees on her skirt. Sarah Pomeroy (1999: 37) writes that “The bee was famous for purity and abstinence. Greeks thought that bees reproduced asexually; therefore they associated the insect with chastity.” Perhaps the bees are symbolic of the goddess’s virginal status. Furthermore, the bee was a symbol of Ephesus and this symbol appears on some Ephesian coins. Bees’ eggs, however, are relatively small in comparison with the oval objects on Artemis’s midriff. (More about Artemis’s clothing and its symbolism here.)

The illustration below depicts an above-ground nest of the common bumblebee Bombus terrestris. It shows adults, larvae, eggs, and honeypots made from wax, all in a nest surrounded by leaves, grass and moss. The shape of the eggs matches the shape of the bumps on Artemis’s chest. (Wikimedia)

1 Timothy 2:12 in Context (Part 2): Understanding the Ephesian Culture and Artemis

Update (October 19 2022): Here is a photo of a statuette of a goddess who was worshipped during the reign of the Attalids in Pergamum in Asia Minor (283–133 BCE). Note the apron with ten bumps arranged as a Tetractys, this arrangement is thought by some to have mystical properties. These bumps are almost identical to those on one of the figurines of Zeus of Labraunda. (See here.) The site of ancient Labraunda is approximately 120 km south of the site of ancient Ephesus. Labraunda and Ephesus were inhabited by Carians before the Ionian invasion. Is there a connection between the bumps on these gods with those on Artemis?

[3] Both the Greek and the Ephesian Artemises are also named Diana (the Roman name), which complicates easy identification. Jerome makes the distinction between the Greek Artemis/ Diana, and the Ephesian Artemis/Diana. In his Commentary on Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, he writes:

He [Paul] wrote to the Ephesians who worshipped Diana. Not the huntress who holds the bow and is girded, but that multi-breasted Diana which the Greeks call πoλυμαστις [many breasts], so that, of course, on the basis of the statue itself they might also falsely assert that she is the nurse of all beasts and living beings. (Translated by Heine 2002: 77)

Nevertheless, it seems that by the first century AD, the Ephesian Artemis/Diana had some association with hunting. In book one of Ephesiaca, Xenophon of Ephesus describes a procession as part of the annual festival for Artemis/Diana. As part of the procession, there were horses, hunting dogs and hunting equipment. (1.2.4) The beautiful fourteen-year-old heroine of the novel, Anthea, led the procession and wore, as part of her costume, a fawnskin from which hung a quiver of arrows. She also carried bows and javelins, and her hunting dogs followed. (1.2.6–7) Until recently, most scholars have thought that Xenophon lived and wrote in the second or third centuries AD, but more recent scholarship places Xenophon in the first century AD. If so, this makes him a contemporary of Paul.

[4] There are many goddesses called Artemis associated with different ancient cities. Each of these goddesses has an individual identity and a distinct cult, but a few may have had some connection with Artemis Ephesia. Clement of Alexandria identifies some of these other goddesses (with odd-sounding epithets):

An Artemis, named “the Strangled”, is worshipped by the Arcadians, as Callimachus says in his Book of Causes; and at Methymna another Artemis had divine honours paid her, namely, Artemis Condylitis. There is also the temple of another Artemis, Artemis Podagra or “the Gout”, in Laconica . . .  The Argives and Spartans reverence Artemis Chelytis, or “the Cougher”, from keluttein, which in their speech signifies to cough. Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, 2.

Clement also identifies a Tauric Artemis in chapter 3 and the Ephesian Artemis in chapter 4. The Ephesian Artemis was the most well-known of these goddesses in the first century AD, and should not be confused or conflated with other goddesses called Artemis who copied either the Greek or Ephesian Artemis. Furthermore, there was an Artemis worshipped by the Macedonians well before the Hellenistic period (320–20 BC). The Seleucid kings introduced this goddess to the lands they controlled.

[5] More recent scholars regard Artemis as a saviour goddess (e.g., Rogers 2012: 7). It was previously thought that Artemis of Ephesus had some similarities with ancient mother goddesses. The mother goddess is one of the oldest and most pervasive religious concepts of the ancient Near and Middle East, and she was regarded as the universal mother of all life. In Phrygia, the mother goddess was called Cybele. The Ephesian Artemis is sometimes too closely compared with the Phrygian Cybele. The cult of Artemis Ephesia in the first century AD was distinct from the cult of Cybele. Cybele was just one of many gods and goddesses worshipped in Ephesus.
In Syria, the mother goddess was called Atargatis. In Babylon and Assyria, she was called Ishtar. In Phoenicia, she was called Astarte. In archaic Canaan, she was called Asherah, a name that appears frequently in the Old Testament. (The ancient Israelites worshipped Asherah and her consort Baal when they fell into pagan idolatry.) This Canaanite goddess embodied fertility, and some scholars believe sacred sexual intercourse was a ritual in which divine propagation of life was portrayed. In the Old Testament, pagan practices meshed with orthodox worship practices in which shrine prostitutes became involved. (See 2 Kings 23:7; also 1 Kings 14:22–24; Gen. 38, esp. 38:21; 1 Sam. 2:22 cf. Deut. 23:17–18.)
Scholars have debated whether ritual prostitution was part of the Artemis cult, but there is simply no evidence for such a practice. S. M. Baugh (1999: 449) notes that “Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Dio Chrysostom, Pausanias, Xenophon of Ephesus, Achilles Tatius, nor any other ancient author speaks explicitly or even hints at cult prostitution in either the narrow or broad sense in Ephesus of any period.” (It’s also doubtful ritual prostitution was part of the cult of Aphrodite in Corinth. See here.)
Artemis was neither a mother goddess nor a fertility goddess. David Braund makes this comment about the Ephesian Artemis and the idea that she was a fertility goddess.

… the commonplace notion that Ephesia was a fertility goddess is unsatisfactory, for the notion turns upon Christian polemic which also erroneously characterised the protuberances on her image as a mass of breasts. It has been well observed that in the rest of the tradition there is a deafening silence about fertility in her regard. No doubt her concern to protect did include the assurance of an adequate food supply, but that hardly marks her out as a goddess of fertility.
Braund, Greek Religion and Cults in the Black Sea Region: Goddesses in the Bosporan Kingdom from the Archaic Period to the Byzantine Era (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 130. (A PDF of this book is here.)

See also my blog post Sandra Glahn Debunks Myths About Artemis.

[6] The Ephesian Artemis as Midwife and Helper of Women in Labour
On July 21, 356 BC, the temple of Artemis was destroyed by fire. The reason given for this catastrophe was that Artemis was away from her city and acting as midwife in the delivery of Alexander the Great who was born on the same night. In his Life of Alexander 3.6, Plutarch records Hegesias the Magnesian (c. 300 BC) as saying, “It was no wonder that the temple of Artemis was burned down, since the goddess was busy bringing Alexander into the world.”

There is a reference to Artemis as relieving women in labour in the famous story The Golden Ass, also known as Metamorphoses, written by Apuleius before AD 170. In the story, the protagonist Lucius has been turned into a donkey (or, ass) and he prays to the “Queen of Heaven.” This goddess is primarily identified as Isis (11.5), but in his desperation, and not wanting to leave any powerful goddess out, Lucius lists various guises of the “Queen of Heaven.” One of these guises is the Ephesian Artemis who he describes as, “Phoebus’ sister, who by relieving women in labour with your soothing remedies have raised up many peoples, and now are venerated in your shrine at Ephesus.” Apuleius, The Golden Ass 11.2 (Internet Archive pp. 170-171.) (Phoebus is another name for Apollo.)

In an ode to Artemis, written in the third century BC by Greek poet Callimachus, Artemis speaks and explains why she is called upon during labour.

On the mountains will I dwell and the cities of men I will visit only when women vexed by the sharp pang of childbirth call me to their aid even in the hour when I was born the Fates ordained that I should be their helper, forasmuch as my mother suffered no pain either when she gave me birth or when she carried me in her womb, but without travail put me from her body.
Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis line 26.

Part of Artemis mythology, of both the Greek and Ephesian Artemis, is that the goddess delivered her twin brother, Apollo. (It was thought gods and goddesses were born as fully functioning “adults” and not as babies.)

In The Suppliant Women, a play by Athenian playwright Aeschylus, the Chorus makes this statement about a goddess identified as Artemis-Hecate, “We pray that … Artemis-Hecate watch over the childbirth of their women.” (Suppliant Women 674) This play was written in the first half of the fifth century BC, possibly in 463 BC. Already at this date, the goddess Artemis, as helper of women in childbirth, was being appropriated by cities and city-states, such as Athens, other than Ephesus.

In the context of midwives typically being post-menopausal women who have given birth themselves but are unable to have more children, Plato makes this comment through the voice of Socrates,

They say the cause of this is Artemis, because she, a childless goddess, has had childbirth allotted to her as her special province. Now it would seem she did not allow barren women to be midwives, because human nature is too weak to acquire an art which deals with matters of which it has no experience, but she gave the office to those who on account of age were not bearing children, honoring them for their likeness to herself.
Plato, Theaetetus 149b-c.

There is even a Christian source that mentions the role of Artemis in childbirth. In the apocryphal Acts of Andrew 25 (AD 150–200), a woman prays to the Ephesian Artemis (or Diana) to speed along her sister’s labour.
(More still in the following footnote.)

[7] “A lengthy record of a second-century AD oracle gives Artemis Ephesia’s epithets in classic Homeric form and terms. She is ‘the virgin’ (παρθένον, line 14), the ‘renowned, vigilant maiden’ (line 12), and ‘Artemis the pure’ (line 16). As the goddess who watches over childbirth, she is the ‘midwife of birth and grower of mortals’ and the ‘giver of fruit’ (lines 3–4).” (Baugh 2005: 25) In lines 11 and 12 of this oracle, Artemis is described as a huntress indicating that by the second century AD she shared some traits with, and had been conflated with, the Greek Artemis/ Diana.
More Homeric Hymns to Artemis are on the Perseus website. Here’s one of them.

[8] Christine Thomas (1998:85) has calculated that of all the references to Ephesus in ancient Greek literature, “fully one-third of the passages referring to Ephesus or things Ephesian refer to the goddess, her sanctuary, or her cult personnel”. Devotion and affection for Artemis is portrayed especially in the Ephesus-centred novels by Xenophon and Achilles Tatius. It is also attested to in the numerous devotional inscriptions. Ephesus has been well studied, and there is a wealth of ancient documents and inscriptions concerning the city that survive to the present day. Paul Trebilco (2004:11) has estimated that over 4000 inscriptions have been discovered on the site of ancient Ephesus. Writing just over a decade later, S.M. Baugh (2016) estimates that we have approximately 6000 inscriptions from Ephesus.

[9] See especially Acts 19:24–28, 35–37. As well as Paul, many well-known New Testament figures ministered at EphesusPriscilla and Aquila had a house church there. Apollos and Timothy ministered there. Towards the end of their lives, the apostle John and perhaps Mary the mother of Jesus lived at Ephesus. Tradition holds that both were buried there. It is believed that John wrote his gospel from Ephesus.

[10] The Ephesia Grammata (literally “Ephesian letters of the alphabet”) were six “magic” words. The Ephesia Grammata was supposedly engraved on the statue of Artemis of Ephesus (Pausanias, ap. Eust. Od. 19, 247). But no evidence has been found to corroborate Pausanias’s statement. The six words are provided by Clement of Alexandria in his Stromata 5.42: askion, kataskion, lix, tetrax, damnameneus, aisia. Because there was no apparent meaning to the words, even in antiquity, they fostered intense speculation. Yet they were used both orally and in written form to ward off evil, and to bring protection and safety or salvation. For example, they were spoken in exorcisms (Plutarch’s Moralia 706 de), and spoken over a bridal couple for their protection (Men. Fr. 313). (Fritz Graf; Murphy-O’Connor 2008: 51) Arnold (1989: 24) writes that the Ephesia Grammata were sometimes used as a love spell to help seduce unwilling lovers, and he states that Ephesus was a centre for magic arts. Strelan (1996: 86ff), however, disputes that Ephesus was a centre of the magic arts.

© Margaret Mowczko 2009
All Rights Reserved
Last edited on August 24, 2023.

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Postscript: The Famous Wooden Statue of Artemis

Pliny the Elder makes these comments about the main statue of Artemis.

As to the statue of the goddess, there is some doubt of what wood it is made; all the writers say that it is ebony, with the exception of Mucianus, who was three times consul, one of the very latest among the writers that have seen it; he declares that it is made of the wood of the vine, and that it has never been changed all the seven times that the temple has been rebuilt. He says, too, that it was Endæus [in the 6th century BC] who made choice of this wood, and even goes so far as to mention the artist’s name, a thing that really surprises me very much, seeing that he attributes to it an antiquity that dates before the times of Father Liber, and of Minerva even. He states, also, that, by the aid of numerous apertures, it is soaked with nard, in order that the moist nature of that drug may preserve the wood and keep the seams close together: I am rather surprised, however, that there should be any seams in the statue, considering the very moderate size it is. Pliny, Natural History 16.79.


1 Timothy 2:12 in Context

Part 1 – Introduction: Using 1 Timothy 2:12 as a Proof Text
Part 2 – Artemis of Ephesus and her Temple
Part 3 – The Heresy in the Ephesian Church
Part 4 – 1 Timothy 2:11–12, Phrase by Phrase
Part 5 – 1 Timothy 2:13–15: The Creation and Salvation of Woman


Explore more

The Regalia of Artemis Ephesia
The Prominence of Women in the Ephesian Cults
Sandra Glahn Debunks Myths About Artemis
All my articles on topics related to 1 Timothy 2:12 are here.
At Home with Priscilla and Aquila
Aphrodite and Temple Prostitution in Corinth

13 thoughts on “1 Timothy 2:12 in Context (2): Artemis of Ephesus

  1. Converted to Christianity, the Ephesian women were trying to import their leadership roles in the worship of Artemis into the church, hence Paul’s epistle to the church in Ephesus where Timothy ministered and also the church in Corinth. Leadership roles has not been given by God throughout the Bible after the fall (see Genesis 3:16). Out of the 66 Books of the Bible, no woman wrote even one book. Jesus didn’t choose a woman apostle. When a replacement was sought for Judas Ischariot, a woman was not selected. On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood with the eleven. The man is the head of the woman, and the woman was made for the man as polish was made for the shoe. women are regarded as weaker vessels in the epistle of Peter. when leaders were being sought in Acts chapter six to oversee women affairs, all the seven deacons were men. In Titus 1:5- when Paul asked Titus to ordain elders in every city, the qualifications given concerned men. Leadership role in the church has not been given to women.

    1. “The woman was made for the man as polish was made for the shoe.” Now that’s an interesting metaphor for women and men, but one that doesn’t square with Genesis 1 or 2 (as you indicate), or with other parts of the Bible, especially the biblical narrative and letters that were written after Pentecost, 1 Corinthians 11:9 not withstanding.

      It sounds like you have thought a bit about the issue of leadership in the church. Have you thought about who lead some of the local house churches in Rome, Corinth, Philippi, Laodicea and other part of Asia Minor in New Testament times? I’ve written something on this here: https://margmowczko.com/equality-and-gender-issues/the-first-century-church-and-the-ministry-of-women/

      I don’t dispute the statements you make which are directly drawn from the Bible; however I disagree with several of your inferences: inferences which do not line up with the whole counsel of Scripture. There are many other statements which can be drawn directly from the Bible which are about wise and godly women who were leaders in biblical times, women who were respected and valued by their communities and by men such as Barak, King Josiah’s delegation, Mordechai, King Lemuel, Apollos, and others.

      I do wonder about your general attitude to women. In Christ we are brother and sister, we are both “sons of God”. Your metaphor is poorly chosen.

    2. Michael, your first sentence here is powerful. Can you give me a citation where women were trying to import their leadership roles in the worship of /Artemis into the church? I need to verify that before I can put forth this thesis – which I believe was certainly true. Thanks.
      Larrydellis@!diakoniahosting.com

      1. Hello Larry. I’m not sure that Michael will see your comment. He is not a regular reader of my blog.

        There is no concrete evidence that women in the cult of the Ephesian Artemis had more power than women in other cults. Other cults of other gods and goddesses had female priests, but no one suggests these priestesses somehow influenced the culture of the churches at Corinth, Philippi, or Rome, for example. And there were plenty of male priests and male officers, even high priests, associated with Artemis of Ephesus also.

        I frequently hear the idea that women in Ephesus thought they were superior to men because of Artemis, but to date, no one has cited an ancient source that supports this idea. I’ve looked for the idea myself and have come up with nothing.

        I suspect it’s like the “bald prostitutes” idea about Corinth (cf. 1 Cor. 11:6). Someone suggests an idea that sounds plausible and it gets passed around and repeated enough so that people believe it as fact.

        There were rich women in the Ephesian church (1 Tim. 2:9-10). There were probably even wives and daughters of powerful Asiarchs in the Ephesian church (Acts 19:31). These women would have had clout themselves. There are ancient accounts of wealthy Christian women domineering their husbands (e.g., Acts of John 63). And I suspect this is the backstory to 1 Timothy 2:11-15. More here: https://margmowczko.com/chastity-salvation-1-timothy-215/

        I believe the woman spoken about in 1 Timothy 2:11-15 may have been one of the wealthy women in 1 Timothy 2:9-10.
        my article 1 Timothy 2:12 in a Nutshell is here: https://margmowczko.com/1-timothy-212-in-a-nutshell/

        I’ve written about the idea of prominent women in Ephesus here.
        https://margmowczko.com/the-prominence-of-women-in-the-cultic-life-of-ephesus/

        1. Superb article. Thanks. I am doing research on idolatry in Ephesus and Corinth. I have never read what Mike posted. Should it be true, I would like to refer to the original source. Perhaps we have no evidence that it was true. I am nearing the completion of a new book on the role of leadership and a study of Paul’s guidances. Thanks.

          Larry

          1. Because of my interest, I come across the “superior Ephesian women” idea a lot. Just yesterday I was discussing this idea with another person, “Curious Thinker,” in comments here: https://margmowczko.com/don-carson-tim-keller-tgc-1-timothy-2_12/

            I enjoy entertaining and floating different ideas but, like you, I want original sources to support actual claims.

  2. Hi Marg! I enjoyed this article so much! I didn’t know that there are two main “Diana’s”, the Ephesian Artemis and the Greek one! I remember Ron Pierce describing Artemis as being a huntress who protects innocent animals from being hunted. So he is confused in that? In the footnotes you mention that by first century AD the Ephesian Artemis was associated with hunting. I guess there’s no way to no for sure.
    Your articles are fascinating! Thank you!

    1. Hi Krysta,

      I don’t recall coming across the idea of Artemis protecting innocent animals, but Ron Pierce knows a lot more than I do.

      By the late first century CE, the Ephesian Artemis was taking on more of the attributes of the Greek Artemis.

  3. These books may be of some interest but some information is disputed by more recent findings

    Discoveries at Ephesus including the site and remains of the Great Temple of Diana by J. T. Wood (1877)
    https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuo.ark:/13960/t6j13cg2p&view=1up&seq=19&skin=2021

    Ephesus and the Temple of Diana by Edward Falkener (1862)
    https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo1.ark:/13960/t3rv13z26&view=1up&seq=9&skin=2021

  4. […] Furthermore, some see 1 Timothy 2:15 as a Christian response to women calling on the Ephesian Artemis to help during childbirth. This goddess was known as a midwife who helped women in labour. I’ve looked long and hard at Artemis of Ephesus, but at this point in time, I do not think she is firmly behind 1 Timothy 2:15. Artemis is not mentioned in the letters to Timothy. On the other hand, there are blatant clues in these letters that point to sexual asceticism as being an issue in the Ephesian church (1 Tim. 4:3; 5:11–14). […]

  5. […] 1 Timothy 2:12 in Context: Artemis of Ephesus […]

  6. […] Wherever the Gospel has gone, many new believers have found it difficult to quickly and completely let go of long-held beliefs and superstitions. These difficulties were due to the fact that beliefs were often interwoven with local culture and customs. In Roman Catholicism, for example, most of the “Madonnas” and “Our Ladies” started off as local pagan goddesses which were later morphed into “Marys” when Christianity came. Perhaps some Ephesian Christians were conflating Mary and Artemis, and trying to fit Eve into the mix as well. In Gnostic texts Eve, like Artemis and Mary, is a celebrated virgin. [More on Artemis here.] […]

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