Local Details: Ephesus - centre for magic
'Testing Luke' #17
What's in the series? Previous: Erastus in Corinth Next: Artemis in Ephesus
Ephesus was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. It was famous as a centre for magic and sorcery. Documents that contained secret spells were called 'Ephesian letters.'
The book of Acts, in the Bible, records how Paul the apostle visited Ephesus. He stayed there for several years, and people all over the Roman province of Asia heard the Christian message.
Many people who had been practising magic believed Paul's message, and stopped their magic. Luke says that some of them had a public bonfire where they burned their books of incantations. The books were worth several million dollars.
Obviously, we can not confirm this specific event, but we can see once again that Luke gets the local details right – in this case, Ephesus being an important centre for magic and sorcery.
To discuss this video please visit www.facebook.com/godnewevidence.
