Acts 19:24

Acts 19:24. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana. The temple of Artemis or Diana, the glory of Ephesus, was built of white marble on an eminence at the head of the harbour, and was esteemed by the ancients as one of the wonders of the world. The sun, it was said, in its course saw nothing more magnificent than the temple of Diana at Ephesus. There were three temples built in succession on the spot to the goddess. Of the earliest, which was erected in the days of the Athenian colonists, we know little or nothing. The second temple was erected previous to the Macedonian reign, and its adornment was shared in by all the cities of Asia. Crœsus, king of Lydia, was among those who contributed. The work was begun before the Persian war, and was slowly continued even through the Peloponnesian war; its dedication was celebrated by a poet contemporary with Euripides. On the night in which Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, was born, a fanatic named Herostratus set the buildings on fire and the temple was destroyed. It rose, however, again speedily from its ashes, and was adorned with more sumptuous magnificence than before. History tells us how the ladies of Ephesus gave their jewellery to assist in the restoration work. The citizens were never tired of adding to the grandeur and stateliness of their temple. So late as the second century, a long colonnade was built which united the fane with the city. When the Goths sacked Ephesus in the reign of Gallienus, the Diana temple was robbed of its treasures and defaced. It was never restored; and as Paganism gradually, during the third and fourth centuries, sank into disrepute and oblivion, the famous temple of Ephesus remained a deserted ruin serving, however, as a quarry whence precious stones and marbles were hewn out for the decoration of cathedrals and churches where the God whom Paul the wandering tentmaker had originally preached in Ephesus was alone worshipped. Its stately remains are still to be found in some of the Italian churches, but more especially in the desecrated mosque of Stamboul, once Justinian's proud cathedral of St. Sophia, the metropolitan church of the East.

The temple at Ephesus dedicated to Artemis (Diana) was of vast size and of exquisite proportions, 425 feet in length and 220 feet in breadth. It was supported by columns sixty feet high. There were 127 of these pillars, each of them, we are told, the gift of a king; the folding-doors were of cypress wood; the part which was not open to the sky was roofed over with cedar; the staircase was formed of the wood of one single vine from the island of Cyprus. In the temple treasury in its palmy days a great treasure was supposed to be laid up. A large establishment of priests, priestesses, and attendants was kept up for the service of the goddess. Provision was made for the education of the young connected with this great centre of idolatrous worship, which was visited annually by a vast concourse of pilgrims from all parts of the known world.

Brought no small gain unto the craftsmen. The pilgrims worshipping at the shrine were in the habit, before they left Ephesus, of buying as memorials of their visit small models of the temple, and a shrine possibly containing a little image of the goddess. These were made in wood, and gold, and silver. The workmen of Demetrius used the last-named material. These little models of temples were very common among pagan peoples, and were termed άφιδρύματα. They were often set up in their homes on their return as objects of worship, and were not unfrequently of such a size as could be carried about upon the person, and were looked on in the latter case as charms or amulets which had the power to avert diseases and other dangers. These models were not only sold in Ephesus, but were sent as articles of traffic into distant countries. The little shrines of Diana of Ephesus are expressly mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.