"Turkish Delight" - On The Move
Updated: Thursday, 20 April 2000

After Istanbul we set off to visit the Seven Church of Revelation.

Click on picture to ENLARGE.

Replica of the Wooden Horse of Troy.

Pictured is the Theatre of Ephesus. St Paul arrived in Ephesus in about 53 AD on his return from his second missionary journey. But there was a settlement long before Paul put it on the Christian map, so to speak. Tradition has it that it was in the eleventh or tenth century BC that the first Greek settlers arrived and found local people living around a temple dedicated to the Anatolian Great Mother which stood by the sea on the northern slope of Mount Pion. During those centuries before Christ was born the city was variously destroyed, rebuilt and even moved when Cayster river silted up.

The Church of St. John

Between 37 and 45 AD the church in Jerusalem came under attach by the authorities and the Apostles dispersed. It is thought that John came to Anatolia and Ephesus in particular. He brought the Virgin Mary with him. After the death of Paul John assumed authority over all the churches in Asia Minor. He was buried in the Church which bears his name. In the fourth century when Christianity had gain status a church was built over the site of the grave. This was first built of wood, but later during the reign of Justinian (527-565 AD) of stone.

In the 7th and 8th centuries when the area was being attacked by the Arabs a defence wall was built round the church and the castle on the hill above. By the beginning of the Middle Ages the church was in a very poor state of repair. After the start of the Ottoman Empire the church became a mosque for a short period until a proper mosque could be built.

The Pursuit Gate and the Walls. There were three gates and twenty towers in the curtain wall. The main gate has been restored. The building materials for the church and fortifications came in part from the ancient stadium in Ephesus where in former times the Christians had fought with wild animals and been put to death by torture. The opportunity to use the material to build a church was a means of destroying their past torments and at the same time use readily available material of a high standard. The main entrance to the church is through the Pursuit Gate. Inside the gates there was a small courtyard with other doors at the far side. If the outer gates were breached the enemy were let into this courtyard and then attacked from all sides from the walls above.

The Atrium. At the western end of the church it measures 34 by 47 metres and built at the same level as the naves. The sloping site being countered by step walls.

The Narthex is located between the atrium and the nave, and three doors gave access from one to the other. It originally had five domes.

The nave and burial chamber is a cross shaped central area of the church. It originally had six large domes, supported on brick and stone columns. The burial chamber was at the end of the nave in front of the apse. It was raised on two steps.

The Treasury was located adjacent to the north transept.

The Baptistery was a long hallway which stretched along the north wall of the nave with interconnecting doors. The baptismal pool had steps on two sides. It is believed that this is the oldest part of the church and pre-dates the main body of the church.

Under the Emperor Justinian this church became a Cathedral.

A local peasant woman in Dulmen, Westphalia by the name of Anna Katharina Emmerich (1774-1824) suffered from and incurable illness. She had been bedridden for twelve years. During this period she had a number of visions about the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. They were very detailed and full of facts about places and people. Many of these were written down. In 1835 the details were reread and published.

Amongst the writings was the following passage:
"After Our Lord’s Ascension Mary lived for three years on Mount Zion, for three years in Bethany, and for nine years in Ephesus, whither St. John took her soon after the Jews had set Lazarus and his sisters adrift upon the sea."

"Mary did not live in Ephesus herself, but in the country near it where several woman who were her close friends had settled. Mary’s dwelling was on a hill to the left of the road from Jerusalem some three and a half hours from Ephesus."

"This hill slopes steeply towards Ephesus ... narrow paths lead southwards to a hill near the top of which is an uneven plateau, some half an hours journey in circumference, overgrown with wild trees and bushes. It was on this plateau that these Jews settled."

"John had a house built for Mary before he brought her there. The whole district is lonely and unfrequented."

In 1890 a copy of these notes came into the hands of a priest who lived in Izmir. After much discussion with his friends it was decided that they should go and try and locate the house. They went on Wednesday 29th July 1891 (St. Joseph’s Day and the Feast of St Martha). On reaching a plateau they were overcome with thirst and enquired of water from some local peasant women working in the field. They were told to go to a spring nearby and there found the remains of an ancient building. They had found Mary’s house.

"Woman, this is your son. Then he said to the disciple: This is your mother, ... and from that moment on, the disciple made a place for her in his home." John 19. 26-27

There is little mention of Mary in early Christian writings until the 5th century. At the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD the first church in the world was dedicated to Mary.

The site was excavated from 1894 and many buildings erected after the original were uncovered with water jars and coins from the 6th and 7th centuries.

The ruins have been sympathetically restored and the chapel is used regularly for acts of worship. The local community of nuns invites Christians of all denominations to use their chapel for their own services whilst on pilgrimage.

In addition to the Christian visitors it is a place of prayer for Moslems. Mary is mentioned in the Koran in several places. She is credited as being the only woman not touched by Satan and was a virgin when she gave birth to Isa (Jesus) because of a word pronounced by God through the angel Jibril.

The message of St John to the church in Ephesus is found in Revelations 2: 1 – 7. It was my privilege to read this during a communion service we held in a chapel in the House of the Virgin Mary complex on a hill nearby. Yes, this was something else I hadn’t taken on board before my visit, the tradition that St John took Mary, who was entrusted to him by Christ on the cross, to Ephesus where she lived for more than a decade before dying there at the age of sixty-four.