Bible Synapse
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
Site · rebuilt after 356 BC · The early church · also called Artemision, Temple of Diana
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- rebuilt after 356 BC (the temple that stood in Paul's day)
- Found
- Near Selçuk, Turkey, 1869. J. T. Wood searched for the temple for the British Museum from 1863 and reached its remains at the turn of 1869–70. D. G. Hogarth dug there in 1904–05, and Austrian teams excavated the sanctuary from 1965 to 1994.
- Now
- At the site, Selçuk, Turkey
- Passages
- Acts 19:23–41
What it is
The sanctuary of Artemis outside Ephesus, whose great marble temple was counted among the Seven Wonders of the World. After a fire in 356 BC the Ephesians rebuilt it on an even larger scale, and this later temple was the one standing in the 1st century AD. Today only foundations and a single re-erected column remain on the site; sculptured column drums from the later temple are in the British Museum.
How it connects to the Bible
In Acts 19 Demetrius warns his fellow craftsmen that Paul's preaching endangers both their trade and “the temple of the great goddess Diana” (Artemis), whom “all Asia and the world worshippeth”. The town clerk then calls Ephesus the guardian of the goddess and of her image. The excavated sanctuary shows how large and famous the cult was in Paul's day.