Ephesians: Power and Magic

In 16 B.C. Rome was so full of people selling powers that all the magicians were expelled from the city. Years later Vespasian outlawed astrology, too. Yet because of his friendship with a famous Ephesian astrologer, Balbillus, Vespasian allowed Ephesus to continue holding "sacred" games in Balbillus’s honor.

In the Book of Acts we find a story set in first-century Ephesus about magicians who convert to Christianity (Acts 19:19). They bring out their expensive magic books and build a bonfire with them. (Note the difference between choosing to burn your own books and having someone confiscate them against your will…)

This happened in a context where Artemis of the Ephesians was believed to be powerful enough to overcome the astrological world. When I photographed her first-century statue last summer, I noticed the signs of the zodiac inscribed on her chest (above). And a statue of Hecate, the goddess of the underworld, stood in her temple. One theory as to why Artemis’s “legs” are covered with animals is that she was considered to have power over anything in the earthly realm, including human and beast.

So thanks to Artemis, Ephesus was a center of commerce for people trafficking in the supernatural. Magicians could charge a lot for love potions. Or people would give them large sums to create curses using a combination of the “Ephesian letters”—a set of separate letters that people had inscribed in leather that they would use in varying combinations for spells.

Scholar Clinton E. Arnold sees a connection between Ephesus’s reputation for the demonic and the biblical Book of Ephesians, which includes the only extended section in the New Testament about how to arm oneself against the dark powers (e.g., shield of faith, sword of the Sprit). That’s not to say he thinks the Book of Ephesians was written only to those in Ephesus. He sees all of western Asia Minor engaged in an ongoing struggle against “powers.” Nor does he see the Book of Ephesians as purposed primarily for “casting out demons” or anything like that. What he does see is a cultural background that could explain why “power” as a motif keeps showing up.

In Paul’s epistle, we find Christ presented as supreme and exalted, which would have comforted believers coming out of the occult and fearing what the powers of evil might do to them. Paul assures his readers about their new identity—that of new citizens transplanted from the dark kingdom to the kingdom of light. He describes them as sharers in divine power through faith, and he describes the evil order as led by the enslaving "prince of the authority of the air." Though Paul acknowledges the continuing power of evil, he assures believers that ultimately all powers will be subjected to Christ.

All of this Arnold lays out in his scholarly work, Power and Magic: The Concept of Power in Ephesians. His findings fit with my theory that the words "a woman shall be saved through childbearing," written to Timothy in Ephesus were not a pronouncement about a woman's "place." Rather, they were intended as an encouragement to new Christ-followers who had departed from Artemis, also the goddess of midwifery. The new converts did not need to fear Artemis's rage and thus fear dying in childbirth. Why? Because Jesus is stronger than Artemis.

Yes, Arnolds's book was another on my "antiquities" list. The good news is that my three bibliographies have finally been approved for my exam fields. (I've been waiting since August.) That means I hope to take my PhD exams within the month. Feel free to speak on my behalf to the One with ultimate power!