The Great Theatre of Ephesus

Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's travelling companions, were seized by a crowd in Ephesus that rushed into a theatre.

Scripture: The whole city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul’s companions in travel.

Why the anger? Acts describes workmen whose trade made them wealthy. Their speaker feared Paul's message would hurt that trade, and that the temple of Artemis would be counted as nothing.

Now the carved fragments. They come from the theatre's decoration, not from a named day in Acts. Two carved frieze fragments, with hunting Cupids, decorated this theatre's stage building. One source dates them to the second half of the first century AD, while Livius dates the theatre's decorations to Trajan.

What does this confirm? At most the setting: Ephesus had a large theatre, later given a decorated stage. Nothing here names Gaius, Aristarchus or that day. It's context, not testimony.

In Acts, Paul wanted to go in, but the disciples wouldn't allow it. Some Asiarchs, men given a title linked to the region of Asia and described as his friends, begged him to stay away. One source calls them men of high honorary rank, probably delegates to a provincial council, though their exact functions are unclear. Most in the crowd didn't know why they had come.

The carving hints at the stage's decoration; the story gives us the people. When you read about a crowd in the Bible, whose voice do you listen for first? Follow along for the next story, and may the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today.