What was the religion of Ephesus?

Answer 1

Ephesus was a great port city in modern-day Turkey. There were many gods worshiped there, but Artemis/Diana the primary one: "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" Acts 19:28,34,35. Paul, the Apostle spent three years establishing the Christian church in Ephesus, and later sent Timothy there as the Pastor to keep the church on the right track spiritually. Acts 20:31; 1 Timothy 1:3-7. Ultimately the church shows up in the book of Revelation, having some struggle, because of lack of focus on it's first love for Christ. Revelation 2:1-7.

Answer 2

Ephesus is mentioned by Luke in his work called the Book of Acts, chapter 19 in particular. At the time of the mid-1st Century when Paul was reaching out to all the gentiles to preach the Kingdom of God, Ephesus was a great center for the pagan Roman goddess Diana.

William Barclay comments about the temple of Diana: It was 425 feet long by 220 feet wide by 60 feet high. There were 127 pillars, each the gift of a king. They were all of glittering marble and 36 were marvelously gilt and inlaid. The great altar had been carved by Praxiteles, the greatest of all Greek sculptors. The image of Diana was not beautiful. It was a black, squat, many-breasted figure, signifying fertility; it was so old that no one knew where it had come from or even of what material it was made. The story was that it had fallen from heaven (Daily Study Bible, 1975, comment on Acts 19:1-71).

Eventually, the cult of Diana died down and ironically was replaced by Christianity. The Virgin Mary took on many traits of the goddess Diana - almost as if a chain of descent was being developed. It would be at the Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431, that veneration of Mary became an official element of the Roman Catholic church.