scene of the tumult in the Acts-is brought vividly before our eyes in Mr Wood's inscriptions. The theatre appears as the recognized place of public assembly. Here edicts are proclaimed, and decrees recorded, and benefactors crowned. When the mob, under the leadership of Demetrius, gathered here for their demonstration against St Paul and his companions, they would find themselves surrounded by memorials which might stimulate their zeal for the goddess. If the 'town-clerk' had desired to make good his assertion, 'What man is there that knoweth not that the city of the Ephesians is sacristan of the great goddess Artemis?' he had only to point to the inscriptions which lined the theatre for confirmation. The very stones would have cried out from the walls in response to his appeal. Nor is the illustration of the magistracies which are named by St Luke less complete. Three distinct officers are mentioned in the narrative-the Roman proconsul (avoúraтos), the governor of the province and supreme administrator of the law, translated 'deputy' in our version; the recorder (ypaμμATEús) or chief magistrate of the city itself, translated 'town-clerk;' and the Asiarchs ('Aoiapxaí), or presidents of the games and of other religious ceremonials, translated 'the chief of Asia.' All these appear again and again in the newly-discovered inscriptions. Sometimes two of the three magistracies will be mentioned on the same stone. Sometimes the same person will unite in himself the two offices of recorder and Asiarch, either simultaneously or not. The mention of the recorder is especially frequent. His name is employed to authenticate every decree and to fix every date. But besides these more general illustrations of the account in the Acts, the newly-discovered inscriptions throw light on some special points in the narrative. Thus where the chief magistrate pronounces St Paul and his companions to be 'neither sacrilegious (iepooúλovs) nor blasphemers of our goddess',' we discover a special emphasis in the term on finding from these inscriptions that certain offences (owing to 1 Acts xix. 37, where lepoσúλous is oddly translated 'robbers of churches.' the mutilation of the stone, we are unable to determine the special offences) were treated as constructive sacrilege against the goddess. 'Let it be regarded as sacrilege and impiety' (ἔστω ἱεροσυλία καὶ ἀσέβεια), says an inscription found in this very theatre', though not yet set up at the time when the 'town-clerk' spoke. So again, where the same speaker describes the city of Ephesus as the 'neocoros,' the 'temple sweeper,' or 'sacristan of the great goddess Artemis,' we find in these inscriptions for the first time a direct example of this term so applied. Though the term 'neocoros' in itself is capable of general application, yet as a matter of fact, when used of Ephesus on coins and inscriptions (as commonly in the case of other Asiatic cities), it has reference to the cultus not of the patron deity, but of the Roman emperors. In this sense Ephesus is described as 'twice' or 'thrice sacristan,' as the case may be, the term being used absolutely. There was indeed every probability that the same term would be employed also to describe the relation of the city to Artemis. By a plausible but highly precarious conjecture it had been introduced into the lacuna of a mutilated inscription. By a highly probable but not certain interpretation it had been elicited from the legend on a coin. There were analogies too which supported it. Thus the Magnesians are styled on the coins 'sacristans of Artemis*;' and at Ephesus itself an individual priest is designated by the same term 'sacristan of Artemis". Nor did it seem unlikely that a city which styled itself the nurse of Artemis' should also claim the less audacious title of 'sacristan' to this same goddess. Still probability is not certainty; and (so far as I am aware) no direct example was forthcoming. Mr Wood's inscriptions supply this defect. On one of these 'the city of the Ephesians' is described as 'twice sacristan of the Augusti according to the decrees of the Senate and sacristan of Artemis'.' One other special coincidence deserves notice. The recorder, desirous of pacifying the tumult, appeals to the recognized forms of law. If Demetrius and his fellow-craftsmen,' he says, 'have a matter against any one, assizes are held, and there are proconsuls. Let them indict one another. But if you have any further question (ie., one which does not fall within the province of the courts of justice), it shall be settled in the lawful (regular) assembly.' By a 'lawful (regular) assembly' (ἔννομος ἐκκλησία) he means one of those which were held on stated days already predetermined by the law, as opposed to those which were called together on special emergencies out of the ordinary course, though in another sense these latter might be equally 'lawful.' An inscription, found in this very theatre in which the words were uttered, illustrates this technical sense of 'lawful.' It provides that a certain silver image of Athene shall be brought and 'set at every lawful (regular) assembly (κατὰ πᾶσαν νόμιμον ἐκκλησίαν) above the bench where the boys sit".' With these facts in view, we are justified in saying that ancient literature has preserved no picture of the Ephesus of imperial times-the Ephesus which has been unearthed by the sagacity and perseverance of Mr Wood-comparable for its life-like truthfulness to the narrative of St Paul's sojourn there in the Acts. I am tempted to add one other illustration of an ancient Christian writer, which these inscriptions furnish. Ignatius, writing to the Ephesians from Smyrna in the early years of the 1 Inscr. vi. 6, p. 50. are * Acts xix. 38, ἀγόραιοι [30. ἡμέραι] ἄγονται καὶ ἀνθύπατοί εἰσιν, translated 'the law is open, and there deputies,' in the Authorised Version, but the margin, 'the court days are kept,' gives the right sense of the first clause. In the second clause 'pro consuls' is a rhetorical plural, just as e.g. in Euripides (Iph. Taur. 1359) Orestes and Pylades are upbraided for 'stealing from the land its images and priestesses (κλέπτοντες ἐκ γῆς ξόανα καὶ Ovnoλous), though there was only one image and one priestess. 3 Inscr. vi. 1, p. 38. second century, borrows an image from the sacred pageant of some heathen deity, where the statues, sacred vessels, and other treasures, of the temple are borne in solemn procession. He tells his Christian readers that they all are marching in festive pomp along the Via Sacra-the way of love-which leads to God; they all are bearers of treasures committed to them, for they carry their God, their Christ, their shrine, their sacred things, in their heart'. The image was not new. It is found in Stoic writers. It underlies the surname Theophorus, the 'God-bearer,' which Ignatius himself adopted. But he had in his company several Ephesian delegates when he wrote; and the newly-discovered inscriptions inform us that the practice which supplies the metaphor had received a fresh impulse at Ephesus shortly before this letter was written. The most important inscriptions in Mr Wood's collection relate to a gift of numerous valuable statues, images, and other treasures to the temple of Artemis, by one C. Vibius Salutaris, with an endowment for their custody. In one of these (dated A.D. 104) it is ordained that the treasures so given shall be carried in solemn procession from the temple to the theatre and back ‘at every meeting of the assembly, and at the gymnastic contests, and on any other days that may be directed by the Council and the People.' Orders are given respecting the persons forming the procession, as well as respecting its route. It must pass through the length of the city, entering by the Magnesian Gate and leaving by the Coressian". 1 Ign. Ephes. 9. 2 Inscr. vi. 1, p. 42. |