By Will Hall, Baptist Message Executive Editor
ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – Archaeological discoveries are helpful not just for countering attacks against the truthfulness of the Word, but also for giving “texture” to our understanding about the people, places and phenomena recorded in the Bible.
A REVELATION ABOUT EPHESUS
Consider, for instance, Ephesus.
This city was the commercial, political and pagan religious center of Rome’s Provincia Asia, yet the church there thrived as a faith community, especially as a hub for expanding Christianity into that region (now modern-day Turkey).
In fact, the congregation of Ephesus was blessed to enjoy the leadership, at different times, of Paul, Priscilla and Aquila, Apollos, Timothy and John the Beloved:
— Acts 18, 19 and 20 detail how Paul helped to lay the foundation for the church in that city.
— He counseled Timothy about how to lead the church in Ephesus (1 Timothy 1).
— Then while imprisoned in Rome, Paul wrote a letter to the church in Ephesus to encourage them, among other things, “to be strengthened” by the Holy Spirit and to remind them that they were “rooted and grounded in love” and that they have experienced the width, length, depth and height of “the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:16-19).
However, in the revelation given to John, the church in Ephesus was the subject of a letter from God that rebuked the Christians there for having “left your first love” (Revelation 2:4). Moreover, He warned them to remember their first love, repent for abandoning their first love and return to that first love in the work they had been doing from the beginning, “or else, I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place” (Revelation 2:4-5).
Despite all the advantages it had enjoyed, the church at Ephesus lost its lampstand, and archaeology has shown how God used changes in His creation, a foreign invasion and a natural disaster to remove it:
— Over the centuries, silt deposits eventually moved the coastline far away from the city, and without the trade provided by a port, commerce declined and so did the population.
— There were invasions by the Goths, who largely destroyed the city including the Temple of Artemis that was a vital marketplace for the huge silver trade in Ephesus.
— Finally, an earthquake in A.D. 614 destroyed what little of the city remained. The once-vibrant body of believers vanished with the city’s demise, and thus, no more lampstand.
Sadly, the only visitors to Ephesus today are tourists and archaeologists.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Regular discoveries being made offer pieces of information, fitting like broken glass in a mosaic that is not finished, with each tessera (or tile) adding clarity to what is seen.
The 2004 discovery of the pool of Siloam in Jerusalem, which is still being restored, adds details about the history of the ancient city, and could tell us why Jesus chose it as the place for His sermon about the promised Holy Spirit as “living water” (John 7:37-39) and why He used it as a means for the healing of a man who was blind from birth (John 9:1-41).
Similarly, the 1968 and 2017 discoveries of nails in human heel bones dating to Roman rule (first century, Jerusalem, and fourth century, Great Britain), confirm the Bible’s description of Jesus’ crucifixion by the Romans. Although not considered “proof” by archaeological standards, both give ghastly reminders to believers about the painful torture Jesus endured, as described in the Gospels, to forgive our sins.
But faith is not the culmination of reassurances from extra-biblical sources such as excavated relics (whether it is gopher wood from Noah’s Ark, or the cup used by Jesus for the Last Supper) or translated ancient writings (by any historian or official).
Indeed, Jesus scolded a doubting Thomas, who refused to believe without seeing for himself the physical appearance of the risen Lord, telling him, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). He was reminding Timothy, and us, that our confidence rests in our relationship with Him through the Holy Spirit, Whom God has given us (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), Who dwells with us and in us (John 14:16-17), and Who guarantees our spiritual inheritance of salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14).
