1While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus and found certain disciples. 2He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They said to him, “No, we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3He said, “Into what then were you baptized?”
They said, “Into John’s baptism.”
4Paul said, “John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Christ Jesus.”
5When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke with other languages and prophesied. 7They were about twelve men in all.
8He entered into the synagogue and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning God’s Kingdom.
9But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. 10This continued for two years, so that all those who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
11God worked special miracles by the hands of Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out. 13But some of the itinerant Jews, exorcists, took on themselves to invoke over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14There were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did this.
15The evil spirit answered, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?” 16The man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived at Ephesus. Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18Many also of those who had believed came, confessing and declaring their deeds. 19Many of those who practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. They counted their price, and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20So the word of the Lord was growing and becoming mighty.
21Now after these things had ended, Paul determined in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”
22Having sent into Macedonia two of those who served him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. 23About that time there arose no small disturbance concerning the Way. 24For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen, 25whom he gathered together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, “Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth. 26You see and hear that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods that are made with hands. 27Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing and her majesty destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships.”
28When they heard this they were filled with anger, and cried out, saying, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29The 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. 30When Paul wanted to enter in to the people, the disciples didn’t allow him. 31Certain also of the Asiarchs, being his friends, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater. 32Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was in confusion. Most of them didn’t know why they had come together. 33They brought Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. Alexander beckoned with his hand, and would have made a defense to the people. 34But when they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for a time of about two hours cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35When the town clerk had quieted the multitude, he said, “You men of Ephesus, what man is there who doesn’t know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great goddess Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus? 36Seeing then that these things can’t be denied, you ought to be quiet and to do nothing rash. 37For you have brought these men here, who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess. 38If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a matter against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. Let them press charges against one another. 39But if you seek anything about other matters, it will be settled in the regular assembly. 40For indeed we are in danger of being accused concerning today’s riot, there being no cause. Concerning it, we wouldn’t be able to give an account of this commotion.” 41When he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.
The city of Paphos occurs twice in the Bible (Acts 13:6, 13). Paphos is located on the western shore of the island of Cyprus (biblical Kittim, cf. Amos 9:7). According to legend, Cinyras, the first king of Paphos, named the city after his mother. The apostle Paul, along with Barnabas and John Mark (Acts 13:2, 16) traveled “through the island” on his first missionary journey (Acts 13:1—14:28) to Paphos, arriving around the spring of 48 A.D. (Acts 13:1-14:28).
The Paphos to which Luke refers is actually New Paphos, which was built in the fourth century B.C. (the older city is approximately ten miles away). The seaport of the original Paphos eventually became the dominant population center, thus forming New Paphos. New Paphos was made the capital of Cyprus under the Ptolemies, and was so until the fourth century A.D. The entire island of Cyprus, and with it the city of New Paphos, was annexed to Rome in 68 B.C., and became a Roman senatorial province in 22 B.C.
The worship of Aphrodite, the promiscuous Greek goddess of love, is particularly associated with the city. In Greek mythology, Aphrodite (Roman "Venus") emerges from the ocean on the beach adjacent to the original Paphos. Accordingly, Paphos became a center of Aphrodite worship, which included temple prostitution, in the ancient world.
Against the backdrop of entrenched paganism, Paphos was also the site of active Jewish synagogues at the time of Paul's arrival (cf. 1 Macc. 15:16-23; Ant. 13:284-287). Paul's powerful ministry resulted in the first assemblage of believers in Jesus the Messiah on the island. Through his standard modus operandi of missions, Paul introduced ethnic and proselyte Jews to Jesus by first preaching in the synagogues (Acts 13:15). The salient ministry of Paul resulted in polarization. Paul was resisted by "Bar-jesus" (Acts 13:6, literally Aramaic for "son of Joshua" or Jesus, a name not uncommon in the era; also known as Elymas in 13:8), a Jewish sorcerer, perhaps along the lines of Sceva (Acts 19:13-19) or the Samaritan magician Simon Magus (Acts 8:9-24). Paul's instituting temporary blindness upon the Jewish magician demonstrated that God's power is truly in Paul's Gospel (cf. Rom 1:16).
When Paul came to Cyprus, Acts 13.6 says that he traveled “through the island” to “new” Paphos, where the Roman proconsul was stationed, which agrees with Luke’s account of Sergius Paulus summoning Paul and Barnabas. As the governor appointed by the Roman senate over Cyprus (13:7), Sergius Paulus, described as an "intelligent" man personally and officially, is in the middle of the conflict of Bar-jesus and Paul. Sergius Paulus was a wise Roman (Acts 13:7) who was open to the Gospel (Acts 13:7). He may have been the first Roman civil ruler converted to Christ.
In 2000 Italian archaeologists working at Paphos discovered the fragments of a first or second-century marble inscription that they think may refer to Paul. The fragment was found in what is believed to be a first or second century Christian church and reads, “…los …osto…” They argue the original read “Paulos Apostlos.”1 If this is correct, it is a very early archaeological evidence of Paul’s presence on the island. Additional archaeological excavations have revealed architecture dating to the Roman era, including an odeon (musical theater), an agora (marketplace or ancient open air mall), a temple, a theater, and two palatial villas (one of which may have been the Roman governor's palace).
Judith Harris, “Putting Paul on the Map: Apostle’s Name found on Cyprus Inscription,” Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol 26, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 2000) 12-14. Online: http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=26&Issue=1&ArticleID=7 (accessed April 23, 2010). ↩︎