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94-595: This epistle was probably written in Ephesus between 95 and 110 AD. The author advises Christians on how to discern true teachers: by their ethics , their proclamation of Jesus in the flesh, and by their love . The original text was written in Koine Greek . The epistle is divided into five chapters . The main themes of the epistle are love and fellowship with God. The author describes various tests by which readers may ascertain whether or not their communion with God

188-961: A concordance of the Dead Sea Scrolls . In 1963, he served as an expert adviser, known as a peritus , to Joseph P. Hurley , the Bishop of St. Augustine, at the Second Vatican Council . Brown was appointed in 1972 to the Pontifical Biblical Commission and again in 1996. He was the Auburn Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he taught from 1971 until 1990, when he retired with

282-742: A doctorate in Sacred Theology from St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore . He earned a second doctorate in Semitic languages in 1958 from Johns Hopkins University , where one of his advisors was William F. Albright . Following his studies, Brown taught at his alma mater , St. Mary's Seminary, until 1971. During this period, he was a research fellow at the American Schools of Oriental Research in Jerusalem , where he worked on

376-460: A Latin accent. Many had lived in Ephesus, and statues and monument of Roman citizens in Ephesus were also destroyed. But when they saw how badly the people of Chios had been treated by Zenobius, a general of Mithridates, they refused entry to his army. Zenobius was invited into the city to visit Philopoemen , the father of Monime , the favourite wife of Mithridates, and the overseer of Ephesus. As

470-661: A Parthian destination for 1 John . This tradition, however, is known only from Latin sources. (Three late Greek manuscripts of 2 John label it "to the Parthians".) On balance, it is likely that John's first letter was written for the Ephesian church and that the Parthian label results from a misreading or misunderstanding. "1 John 4:16" is a song title in the album " The Life of the World to Come ", inspired by this verse, which

564-482: A blunt way. Past statements are not rejected but are requoted with praise and then reinterpreted at the same time....What was really going on was an attempt gracefully to retain what was salvageable from the past and to move in a new direction at the same time." In a detailed 1965 article in the journal Theological Studies examining whether Jesus was ever called "God" in the New Testament, Brown wrote, "Even

658-561: A century until 197 BC. The Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great tried to regain the Greek cities of Asia Minor and recaptured Ephesus in 196 BC but he then came into conflict with Rome. After a series of battles, he was defeated by Scipio Asiaticus at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC. As a result of the subsequent Treaty of Apamea , Ephesus came under the rule of Eumenes II ,

752-401: A few ancient cities, or extensive settlement outside the city walls. This would have been impossible at Ephesus because of the mountain ranges, coastline and quarries which surrounded the city. The wall of Lysimachus has been estimated to enclose an area of 415 hectares (1,030 acres). Not all of this area was inhabited due to public buildings and spaces in the city center and the steep slope of

846-529: A huge indemnity, along with five years of back taxes, which left Asian cities heavily in debt for a long time to come. King Ptolemy XII Auletes of Egypt retired to Ephesus in 57 BC, passing his time in the sanctuary of the temple of Artemis when the Roman Senate failed to restore him to his throne. Mark Antony was welcomed by Ephesus for periods when he was proconsul and in 33 BC with Cleopatra when he gathered his fleet of 800 ships before

940-402: A population between 138,000 and 172,500 . J.W. Hanson estimated the inhabited space to be smaller, at 224 hectares (550 acres). He argues that population densities of 150~250 people per hectare are more realistic, which gives a range of 33,600–56,000 inhabitants. Even with these much lower population estimates, Ephesus was one of the largest cities of Roman Asia Minor, ranking it as

1034-776: A prologue or introduction concerning the Incarnate Word. Like the Prologue to John's Gospel, this introduction tells us that what the author proposes to write about is the Word which is the Life. Anglican commentator Alfred Plummer notes that "the similarity to the opening of the Gospel is manifest", but with a significant difference, in that the gospel refers to the existence of the Ancient Greek : λόγος , lógos , word, before

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1128-752: A reputation as a superior lecturer. Born in New York City , the son of Robert H. and Loretta Brown, Raymond studied at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. , where he received a bachelor's degree in 1948 and a Master of Arts degree in 1949 as a Basselin scholar . In 1953, he was ordained a Catholic priest for the Diocese of St. Augustine . In 1955, he joined the Society of Saint-Sulpice following his reception of

1222-658: A self-criticism of the historical method". Brown's scholarship was controversial for questioning the inerrancy of the whole of scripture and casting doubt on the historical accuracy of numerous articles of the Catholic faith. He was regarded as occupying the center ground in the field of biblical studies, opposing literalism found among many fundamentalist Christians but not carrying his conclusions as far as many other scholars. His critics included Cardinal Lawrence Shehan , Father Richard W. Gilsdorf , and George A. Kelly. Gilsdorf defined Brown's work as "a major contribution to

1316-488: A simple style, without syntactical flourishes, and makes frequent use of asyndeton , where related thoughts are placed next to one another without conjunctions. In contrast to the linear style used in the Pauline epistles , biblical scholar Ernest DeWitt Burton suggests that John's thought "moves in circles", forming a slowly advancing sequence of thought. This is similar to the parallel structure of Hebrew poetry , in which

1410-679: A successful warrior, and as a king he was able to join the twelve cities of Ionia together into the Ionian League . During his reign the city began to prosper. He died in a battle against the Carians when he came to the aid of Priene , another city of the Ionian League. Androklos and his dog are depicted on the Hadrian temple frieze, dating from the 2nd century. Later, Greek historians such as Pausanias , Strabo and Herodotos and

1504-495: Is a statement by an official reviewer, appointed by a bishop, that "nothing stands in the way" of a book being given an imprimatur; the imprimatur , which must normally be issued by a bishop of the diocese of publication, is the official endorsement "let it be printed" that a book contains nothing damaging to Catholic faith and morals. Brown was the expert appointed to review and provide the nihil obstat for The Jerome Biblical Commentary and The New Jerome Biblical Commentary ,

1598-410: Is genuine, and teaches that the proof of spiritual regeneration is a life of active righteousness. It also distinguishes between the world (which is full of evil and under the dominion of Satan) and the children of God (who are set apart from the world). The epistle is not written in the same form as the other biblical epistles, as it lacks an epistolary opening or conclusion. The epistle is written in

1692-541: Is traditionally held to have been composed by John the Evangelist , at Ephesus , when the writer was in advanced age. The epistle's content, language and conceptual style are very similar to the Gospel of John , 2 John , and 3 John . Thus, at the end of the 19th century scholar Ernest DeWitt Burton wrote that there could be "no reasonable doubt" that 1 John and the gospel were written by the same author. Beginning in

1786-631: The Pope Victor I , Bishop of Rome, defending the Quartodeciman position in the Easter controversy . A legend, which was first mentioned by Epiphanius of Salamis in the 4th century, purported that Mary, the mother of Jesus, may have spent the last years of her life in Ephesus. The Ephesians derived the argument from John's presence in the city, and Jesus' instructions to John to take care of his mother, Mary, after his death. Epiphanius, however,

1880-527: The Book of Glory . The Book of Signs recounts Jesus' public miracles, which are called signs. The Book of Glory features Jesus' private teachings to his disciples, his crucifixion, and his resurrection. Brown identified three layers of text in John: 1) an initial version Brown considers based on personal experience of Jesus; 2) a structured literary creation by the evangelist which draws upon additional sources; and 3)

1974-534: The Goths in 263 AD. This marked the decline of the city's splendour. However, emperor Constantine the Great rebuilt much of the city and erected new public baths. Until recently, the population of Ephesus in Roman times was estimated to number up to 225,000 people by Broughton. More recent scholarship regards these estimates as unrealistic. Such a large estimate would require population densities seen in only

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2068-535: The Sasanian War , which initiated a drastic decline in the city's population and standard of living. The importance of the city as a commercial centre further declined as the harbour, today 5 kilometres inland, was slowly silted up by the river (today, Küçük Menderes) despite repeated dredging during the city's history. The loss of its harbour caused Ephesus to lose its access to the Aegean Sea , which

2162-627: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World . Its many monumental buildings included the Library of Celsus and a theatre capable of holding 24,000 spectators. Ephesus was a recipient city of one of the Pauline epistles and one of the seven churches of Asia addressed in the Book of Revelation . The Gospel of John may have been written there, and it was the site of several 5th-century Christian Councils ( Council of Ephesus ). The city

2256-460: The baptism of John the Baptist . Later a silversmith named Demetrios stirred up a mob against Paul, saying that he was endangering the livelihood of those making silver Artemis shrines. Demetrios in connection with the temple of Artemis mentions some object (perhaps an image or a stone) "fallen from Zeus". Between 53 and 57 AD Paul wrote the letter 1 Corinthians from Ephesus (possibly from

2350-460: The battle of Actium with Octavius . When Augustus became emperor in 27 BC, the most important change was when he made Ephesus the capital of proconsular Asia (which covered western Asia Minor) instead of Pergamum . Ephesus then entered an era of prosperity, becoming both the seat of the governor and a major centre of commerce. According to Strabo , it was second in importance and size only to Rome. The city and temple were destroyed by

2444-574: The 'Paul tower' near the harbour, where he was imprisoned for a short time). Later, Paul wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians while he was in prison in Rome (around 62 AD). Roman Asia was associated with John , one of the chief apostles, and the Gospel of John might have been written in Ephesus, c 90–100. Ephesus was one of the seven cities addressed in the Book of Revelation , indicating that

2538-575: The 18th century and based on a critical edition do not include this text, or include it as a footnote. Because the addition supports the doctrine of trinitarianism , it featured in Protestant and Catholic debates on this subject in the early modern period . Plummer suggests that here, "as at the end of [John's] Gospel and the Second Epistle , ' Amen ' is the addition of a copyist". The Textus Receptus version includes "Ἀμήν", Amen , at

2632-417: The 20th century, however, critical scholars like Heinrich Julius Holtzmann and C. H. Dodd identified the Gospel of John and 1 John as works of different authors. Certain linguistic features of the two texts support this view. For instance, 1 John often uses a demonstrative pronoun at the beginning of a sentence, then a particle or conjunction, followed by an explanation or definition of the demonstrative at

2726-591: The Attalid king of Pergamon , (ruled 197–159 BC). When his grandson Attalus III died in 133 BC without male children of his own, he left his kingdom to the Roman Republic , on condition that the city of Pergamon be kept free and autonomous. Ephesus, as part of the kingdom of Pergamon, became a subject of the Roman Republic in 129 BC after the revolt of Eumenes III was suppressed. The city felt Roman influence at once; taxes rose considerably, and

2820-530: The Bülbül Dağı mountain, which was enclosed by the wall. Ludwig Burchner estimated this area with the walls at 1000 acres. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor uses an estimate of 345 hectares for the inhabited land or 835 acres (Murphey cites Ludwig Burchner). He cites Josiah Russell using 832 acres and Old Jerusalem in 1918 as the yardstick estimated the population at 51,068 at 148.5 persons per hectare. Using 510 persons per hectare, he arrives at

2914-612: The Catholics. It came to be called the Robber Council of Ephesus or Robber Synod of Latrocinium by its opponents. Ephesus is believed to be the city of the Seven Sleepers , who were persecuted by the Roman emperor Decius because of their Christianity, and they slept in a cave for three centuries, outlasting their persecution. Raymond E. Brown Raymond Edward Brown PSS (May 22, 1928 – August 8, 1998)

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3008-534: The Cimmerians had been driven away, the city was ruled by a series of tyrants. Following a revolt by the people, Ephesus was ruled by a council. The city prospered again under a new rule, producing a number of important historical figures such as the elegiac poet Callinus and the iambic poet Hipponax , the philosopher Heraclitus , the great painter Parrhasius and later the grammarian Zenodotos and physicians Soranus and Rufus. About 560 BC, Ephesus

3102-593: The Greek cities of Asia Minor into the Achaemenid Empire . Those cities were then ruled by satraps . Ephesus has intrigued archaeologists because for the Archaic Period there is no definite location for the settlement. There are numerous sites to suggest the movement of a settlement between the Bronze Age and the Roman period, but the silting up of the natural harbours as well as the movement of

3196-711: The Kayster River meant that the location never remained the same. Ephesus continued to prosper, but when taxes were raised under Cambyses II and Darius , the Ephesians participated in the Ionian Revolt against Persian rule in the Battle of Ephesus (498 BC) , an event which instigated the Greco-Persian wars . In 479 BC, the Ionians, together with Athens , were able to oust the Persians from

3290-786: The New Testament, beginning in 1522. Bibles translated from his edition integrate the passage, including the King James Version (1611), which renders it as follows ( in italics ): For there are three that beare record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that beare witnesse in earth, the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood, and these three agree in one. Translations made since

3384-467: The befogged wasteland of an 'American Church' progressively alienated from its divinely constituted center." George A. Kelly found fault with Brown's questioning of whether the Virgin birth of Jesus could be proven historically. Other writers, critical of historical Christian claims about Jesus, criticized Brown for excessive caution, arguing that he was unwilling to acknowledge the radical implications of

3478-566: The capital of the kingdom of Arzawa (another independent state in Western and Southern Anatolia/Asia Minor ) was Apasa (or Abasa ), and some scholars suggest that this is the same place the Greeks later called Ephesus. In 1954, a burial ground from the Mycenaean era (1500–1400 BC), which contained ceramic pots, was discovered close to the ruins of the basilica of St. John . This was

3572-605: The cardinal said, was "a great loss to the Church." Brown was one of the first Catholic scholars in the United States to use the historical-critical method to study the Bible. In 1943, reversing the approach that had existed since Pope Leo XIII 's encyclical Providentissimus Deus 50 years earlier, Pope Pius XII 's encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu expressed approval of historical-critical methods. For Brown, this

3666-454: The centre of ancient Ephesus (as attested by excavations at the Seljuk castle during the 1990s). The mythical founder of the city was a prince of Athens named Androklos , who had to leave his country after the death of his father, King Kodros. According to the legend, he founded Ephesus on the place where the oracle of Delphi became reality ("A fish and a boar will show you the way"). He was

3760-481: The church at Ephesus was strong. According to Eusebius of Caesarea , Saint Timothy was the first bishop of Ephesus. In the early 2nd century, the church at Ephesus was still important enough to be addressed by a letter written by Bishop Ignatius of Antioch to the Ephesians which begins with "Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Church which is at Ephesus, in Asia, deservedly most happy, being blessed in

3854-453: The cities of Ionia was ceded again to Persia. These wars did not greatly affect daily life in Ephesus. The Ephesians were surprisingly modern in their social relations: they allowed strangers to integrate and education was valued. In later times, Pliny the Elder mentioned having seen at Ephesus a representation of the goddess Diana by Timarete , the daughter of a painter. In 356 BC

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3948-577: The creation, whereas here the point is that the word existed before the incarnation . A Trinitarian gloss (marginal note) known as the Johannine Comma , added to Latin translations of the epistle in the 4th century, was interpolated (added to the main text) within 1 John 5:7-8 over the course of the Middle Ages . Although no Greek manuscripts before the 15th century include the passage, Erasmus added it to later editions of his edition of

4042-644: The critical methods he was using. Literary critic Frank Kermode , in his review of The Birth of the Messiah , accused Brown of being too eager to secure the imprimatur of the Catholic Church. The Hebraic Jesus scholar Géza Vermes , speaking of the Nativity narratives , has described Brown's coverage as "the primary example of the position of having your cake and eating it ." In his obituary for The New York Times , Gustav Niebuhr wrote: "Father Brown

4136-647: The death of Lysimachus the town again was named Ephesus. Thus Ephesus became part of the Seleucid Empire . After the murder of king Antiochus II Theos and his Egyptian wife in 246 BC, pharaoh Ptolemy III invaded the Seleucid Empire and the Egyptian fleet swept the coast of Asia Minor. Ephesus was betrayed by its governor Sophron into the hands of the Ptolemies who ruled the city for half

4230-468: The debate over Jesus's nature: the debate over "flesh" or the incarnation . In early Christianity , some advocated for docetism , a view that Christ had been a purely divine being. Most notably, the group that would eventually become the Gnostics were docetic. 1 John fiercely denounces this belief in favor of the view that Jesus had a real appearance "in the flesh" on Earth. Chapter 4 writes that "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in

4324-411: The edited version that readers of the Bible know today. Brown has been described as "the premier Johannine scholar in the English-speaking world." Terrence T. Prendergast stated that “for nearly 40 years Father Brown caught the entire church up into the excitement and new possibilities of scriptural scholarship." Much of Brown's work was given a nihil obstat and an imprimatur . The nihil obstat

4418-438: The end but critical editions do not. Around 415, Augustine of Hippo wrote a commentary in Latin On the Epistle of John to the Parthians (in Latin, ad Parthos ), in which he identifies the addressees of John's letter as Parthians . It has occasionally been suggested that this refers to a community of converts in the Jewish community of Babylonia . Around 730, Bede wrote that Athanasius of Alexandria had also believed in

4512-453: The end of the sentence—a stylistic technique which is not used in the gospel. The author of the epistle also "uses the conditional sentence in a variety of rhetorical figures which are unknown to the gospel". This indicates, at the very least, the linguistic characteristics changed over time. Today, following the work of J. Louis Martyn and Raymond Brown , the majority of scholars believe that John and 1 John were written by different members of

4606-426: The epistle have been lost; some of the earliest surviving manuscripts include: The Muratorian fragment , dated to AD 170, cites chapter 1, verses 1–3 within a discussion of the Gospel of John. Papyrus 9 , dating from the 3rd century, has surviving parts of chapter 4, verses 11–12 and 14–17. Different versions of the Greek manuscript have different wording for some verses. Verses 1-4 of the first chapter constitute

4700-454: The epistle is really John's commentary on a selection of traditional parallel couplets. While this theory, first propounded by Ernst von Dobschütz and Rudolf Bultmann , is not universally accepted, Amos Wilder writes that, "It is at least clear that there are considerable and sometimes continuous elements in the epistle whose style distinguishes them from that of the author both with respect to poetic structure and syntactic usage." The epistle

4794-413: The first time in 1390. The Central Asian warlord Tamerlane defeated the Ottomans in Anatolia in 1402, and the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I died in captivity. The region was restored to the Anatolian beyliks . After a period of unrest, the region was again incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1425. Ephesus was completely abandoned by the 15th century. Nearby Ayasuluğ ( Ayasoluk being a corrupted form of

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4888-440: The flesh is from God" (NRSV), and other passages say that Jesus shed blood, and if he could not shed blood then his death was meaningless. Chapter 2 also includes a passage that refers to a group of proto-Gnostics: a group that was once with the church but have since left it and deny that the human Jesus was also the spiritual Christ. The author denounces these secessionists as "antichrists". The introduction possibly also addresses

4982-454: The fourth Gospel never portrays Jesus as saying specifically that he is God" and "there is no reason to think that Jesus was called God in the earliest layers of New Testament tradition." He wrote that, "Gradually, in the development of Christian thought God was understood to be a broader term. It was seen that God had revealed so much of Himself in Jesus that God had to be able to include both Father and Son." Thirty years later, Brown revisited

5076-403: The fracturing of the Johannine community itself". The author wrote the epistle so that the joy of his audience would "be full" (1:4); that they would "not practice sin" (2:1); that they would not be deceived by false teachers (2:26); and that "you who believe in the name of the Son of God ... may continue to know that you have eternal life " (5:13). There are two main approaches to understanding

5170-439: The greatness and fullness of God the Father, and predestinated before the beginning of time, that it should be always for an enduring and unchangeable glory" ( Letter to the Ephesians ). The church at Ephesus had given their support for Ignatius, who was taken to Rome for execution. Polycrates of Ephesus ( Greek : Πολυκράτης ) was a bishop at the Church of Ephesus in the 2nd century. He is best known for his letter addressed to

5264-413: The issue in an introductory text for the general public, writing, "three reasonably clear instances in the NT (Hebrews 1:8–9, John 1:1, 20:28) and in five instances that have probability, Jesus is called God," a usage Brown regarded as a natural development of early references to Jesus as "Lord". Brown analyzed the Gospel of John and divided it into two sections, which he labelled the Book of Signs and

5358-408: The issue, especially if the identification of the author as John, or a pseudepigraphic claim to have been a disciple, is assumed: Chapter 1 writes of having evidence of the truth via eyes and touch. The author may thus be claiming to have known the physical Jesus personally and is emphasizing his physicality as a flesh-and-blood person rather than a spirit or phantasm. The earliest written versions of

5452-445: The king's second wife, Arsinoe II of Egypt . After Lysimachus had destroyed the nearby cities of Lebedos and Colophon in 292 BC, he relocated their inhabitants to the new city. Ephesus revolted after the treacherous death of Agathocles , giving the Hellenistic king of Syria and Mesopotamia Seleucus I Nicator an opportunity for removing and killing Lysimachus, his last rival, at the Battle of Corupedium in 281 BC. After

5546-428: The largest city after Sardis and Alexandria Troas . Hanson and Ortman (2017) estimate an inhabited area to be 263 hectares and their demographic model yields an estimate of 71,587 inhabitants, with a population density of 276 inhabitants per hectare. By contrast, Rome within the walls encompassed 1,500 hectares and as over 400 built-up hectares were left outside the Aurelian Wall, whose construction

5640-435: The most important city of the Byzantine Empire in Asia after Constantinople in the 5th and 6th centuries. Emperor Flavius Arcadius raised the level of the street between the theatre and the harbour. The basilica of St. John was built during the reign of emperor Justinian I in the 6th century. Excavations in 2022 indicate that large parts of the city were destroyed in 614/615 by a military conflict, most likely during

5734-437: The original Greek name ) was turkified to Selçuk in 1914. Ephesus was an important centre for Early Christianity from the AD 50s. From AD 52–54, the apostle Paul lived in Ephesus, working with the congregation and apparently organizing missionary activity into the hinterlands. Initially, according to the Acts of the Apostles , Paul attended the Jewish synagogue in Ephesus, but after three months he became frustrated with

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5828-507: The overall purpose of the letter, tests of life (popularized by Robert Law) and tests of fellowship (popularized by John Mitchell and Zane Hodges ). Whereas the Gospel of John was written for unbelievers ( John 20:31 ), this epistle was written to those who were already believers (5:13). Ernest DeWitt Burton found it likely that its audience was largely gentile rather than Jewish, since it contains few Old Testament quotations or distinctly Jewish forms of expression. The epistle also partakes of

5922-444: The people expected nothing good of him, they threw him into prison and murdered him. Mithridates took revenge and inflicted terrible punishments. However, the Greek cities were given freedom and several substantial rights. Ephesus became, for a short time, self-governing. When Mithridates was defeated in the First Mithridatic War by the Roman consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla , Ephesus came back under Roman rule in 86 BC. Sulla imposed

6016-434: The period of the Mycenaean expansion, when the Ahhiyawa began settling in Asia Minor , a process that continued into the 13th century BC. The names Apasa and Ephesus appear to be cognate, and recently found inscriptions seem to pinpoint the places in the Hittite record. Ephesus was founded as an Attic-Ionian colony in the 10th century BC on a hill (now known as the Ayasuluk Hill), three kilometers (1.9 miles) from

6110-465: The poet Kallinos reassigned the city's mythological foundation to Ephos, queen of the Amazons . The Greek goddess Artemis and the great Anatolian goddess Kybele were identified together as Artemis of Ephesus . The many-breasted "Lady of Ephesus", identified with Artemis, was venerated in the Temple of Artemis , one of the Seven Wonders of the World and the largest building of the ancient world according to Pausanias (4.31.8). Pausanias mentions that

6204-496: The river Cayster (Grk. name Κάϋστρος) silted up the old harbour, the resulting marshes caused malaria and many deaths among the inhabitants. Lysimachus forced the people to move from the ancient settlement around the temple of Artemis to the present site two kilometres (1.2 miles) away, when as a last resort the king flooded the old city by blocking the sewers. The new settlement was officially called Arsinoea ( Ancient Greek : Ἀρσινόεια or Ἀρσινοΐα ) or Arsinoe (Ἀρσινόη), after

6298-428: The ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Humans had begun inhabiting the area surrounding Ephesus by the Neolithic Age (about 6000 BC), as shown by evidence from excavations at the nearby höyük (artificial mounds known as tells ) of Arvalya and Cukurici . Excavations in recent years have unearthed settlements from the early Bronze Age at Ayasuluk Hill . According to Hittite sources,

6392-420: The sake of salvation," Brown pointed out the ambiguity of this statement, which opened the way for a new interpretation of inerrancy by shifting from a literal interpretation of the text towards a focus on "the extent to which it conforms to the salvific purpose of God." Brown saw this as the Catholic Church "turning the corner" on inerrancy, saying, "the Roman Catholic Church does not change her official stance in

6486-422: The same community: the "Johannine Community". Most critical scholars conclude that John the Apostle wrote none of these works. "The Fourth Gospel addresses itself to the challenges posed by Judaism and others outside Johannine circles who have rejected the community's vision of Jesus as preexistent Son, sent by the Father." The New Jerome Biblical Commentary suggests that the three Johannine epistles "describe

6580-419: The second verse of a couplet often carries the same meaning as the first, although in this epistle the frequent recapitulations of already expressed ideas serve also to add to what has previously been said. In summary, the epistle may be said to exhibit a paraenetic style which is "marked by personal appeal, contrasts of right and wrong, true and false, and an occasional rhetorical question". The text refers to

6674-418: The shores of Asia Minor. In 478 BC, the Ionian cities with Athens entered into the Delian League against the Persians. Ephesus did not contribute ships but gave financial support. During the Peloponnesian War , Ephesus was first allied to Athens but in a later phase, called the Decelean War, or the Ionian War, sided with Sparta, which also had received the support of the Persians. As a result, rule over

6768-440: The standard basic reference book for Catholic Biblical studies, and he served as one of its editors and authors along with dozens of other Catholic scholars. Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI , complimented Brown saying that he "would be very happy if we had many exegetes like Father Brown". Later on however, Ratzinger would critique the overuse of historical criticism and parts of Brown's scholarship, saying that "we need

6862-553: The stubbornness of some of the Jews, and moved his base to the school of Tyrannus . The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary reminds readers that the unbelief of "some" ( Greek : τινες ) implies that "others, probably a large number, believed" and therefore there must have been a community of Jewish Christians in Ephesus. Paul introduced about twelve men to the ' baptism with the Holy Spirit ' who had previously only experienced

6956-474: The surrounding Christian regions were organised, some officially sanctioned by the state and some by private parties. The town knew a short period of prosperity again during the 14th century under these new Seljuk rulers. They added important architectural works such as the İsa Bey Mosque , caravansaries, and hamams (bathhouses). Ephesians were incorporated as vassals into the Ottoman Empire for

7050-504: The temple of Artemis was burnt down, according to legend, by a lunatic called Herostratus . The inhabitants of Ephesus at once set about restoring the temple and even planned a larger and grander one than the original. When Alexander the Great defeated the Persian forces at the Battle of Granicus in 334 BC, the Greek cities of Asia Minor were liberated. The pro-Persian tyrant Syrpax and his family were stoned to death, and Alexander

7144-467: The temple was built by Ephesus, son of the river god Caystrus , before the arrival of the Ionians. Of this structure, scarcely a trace remains. Ancient sources seem to indicate that an older name of the place was Alope ( Ancient Greek : Ἀλόπη , romanized :  Alópē ). About 650 BC, Ephesus was attacked by the Cimmerians who razed the city, including the temple of Artemis. After

7238-589: The terms of the surrender, the Turks pillaged the church of Saint John and, when a revolt seemed probable, deported most of the local population to Thyrea, Greece . During these events, many of the remaining inhabitants were massacred. Shortly afterwards, Ephesus was ceded to the Aydinid principality that stationed a powerful navy in the harbour of Ayasuluğ (the present-day Selçuk , next to Ephesus). Ayasoluk became an important harbour, from which piratical raids on

7332-816: The title of professor emeritus . He served as the President of the Catholic Biblical Association , the Society of Biblical Literature (1976–77), and the Society of New Testament Studies (1986–87). Brown was awarded 24 honorary doctoral degrees by universities in the United States and Europe, including many from Protestant institutions. Brown died at Saint Patrick's Seminary and University in Menlo Park, California . The Archbishop of Los Angeles , Cardinal Roger Mahony hailed him as "the most distinguished and renowned Catholic biblical scholar to emerge in this country ever" and his death,

7426-657: The town in December 1147. In 1206, the city came under the control of the Laskaris . It was an important religious and intellectual center during the 13th century. Nikephoros Blemmydes , a prominent intellectual of the time, taught in the city. However, the Byzantines lost control of the region by 1308. On 24 October 1304, the town surrendered to Sasa Bey, a Turkish warlord of the Menteşoğulları principality. Contrary to

7520-481: The treasures of the city were systematically plundered. Hence in 88 BC Ephesus welcomed Archelaus , a general of Mithridates , king of Pontus , when he conquered Asia (the Roman name for western Anatolia ). From Ephesus, Mithridates ordered every Roman citizen in the province to be killed which led to the Asiatic Vespers , the slaughter of 80,000 Roman citizens in Asia, or any person who spoke with

7614-578: The vicinity of the Temple of Artemis, enlarging the city. Later in the same century, the Lydians under Croesus invaded Persia. The Ionians refused a peace offer from Cyrus the Great , siding with the Lydians instead. After the Persians defeated Croesus, the Ionians offered to make peace, but Cyrus insisted that they surrender and become part of the empire. They were defeated by the Persian army commander Harpagos in 547 BC. The Persians then incorporated

7708-596: The visions of Augustinian sister the Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824). It is a popular place of Catholic pilgrimage which has been visited by three recent popes. The Church of Mary near the harbour of Ephesus was the setting for the Third Ecumenical Council in 431, which resulted in the condemnation of Nestorius . A Second Council of Ephesus was held in 449, but its controversial acts were never approved by

7802-567: The writer's audience several times as "little children" ( Ancient Greek : Τεκνία , teknia ). This affectionate diminutive appears seven times in the letter, once as "my little children" (1 John 2:1), and the phrase also appears in John 13:33 . Paul also uses the phrase "my little children" when addressing the Galatian churches in Galatians 4 :19. Some scholars have proposed the idea that

7896-568: Was a "Magna Carta for biblical progress." In 1965, at the Second Vatican Council , the Church moved further in this direction, adopting the Dogmatic constitution on Divine Revelation, known as Dei verbum , which superseded the conservative schema, "On the Sources of Revelation", that originally had been submitted. While it stated that Scripture teaches "solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for

7990-541: Was a small village. The Byzantines resumed control in 1097 and changed the name of the town to Hagios Theologos. Crusaders passing through were surprised that there was only a small village, called Ayasalouk, where they had expected a bustling city with a large seaport. Even the temple of Artemis was completely forgotten by the local population. The Crusaders of the Second Crusade fought the Seljuks just outside

8084-463: Was an American Sulpician priest and prominent biblical scholar . He was a specialist on the hypothetical Johannine community , which he speculated contributed to the authorship of the Gospel of John , and he also wrote studies on the birth and death of Jesus . Brown was professor emeritus at Union Theological Seminary (UTS) in New York City , where he taught for 29 years. He was the first Catholic professor to gain tenure there, where he earned

8178-434: Was begun in 274 AD and finished in 279 AD, the total inhabited area plus public spaces inside the walls consisted of ca. 1,900 hectares. Imperial Rome had a population estimated to be between 750,000 and one million (Hanson and Ortman's (2017) model yields an estimate of 923,406 inhabitants), which imply in a population density of 395 to 526 inhabitants per hectare, including public spaces. Ephesus remained

8272-495: Was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital, by Attic and Ionian Greek colonists. During the Classical Greek era, it was one of twelve cities that were members of the Ionian League . The city came under the control of the Roman Republic in 129 BC. The city was famous in its day for the nearby Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), which has been designated one of

8366-540: Was conquered by the Lydians under king Croesus , who, though a harsh ruler, treated the inhabitants with respect and even became the main contributor to the reconstruction of the temple of Artemis. His signature has been found on the base of one of the columns of the temple (now on display in the British Museum ). Croesus made the populations of the different settlements around Ephesus regroup ( synoikismos ) in

8460-502: Was destroyed by the Goths in 263. Although it was afterwards rebuilt, its importance as a port and commercial centre declined as the harbour was slowly silted up by the Küçükmenderes River . In 614, it was partially destroyed by an earthquake. Today, the ruins of Ephesus are a favourite international and local tourist attraction, being accessible from Adnan Menderes Airport and from the resort town Kuşadası . In 2015,

8554-440: Was greeted warmly when he entered Ephesus in triumph. When Alexander saw that the temple of Artemis was not yet finished, he proposed to finance it and have his name inscribed on the front. But the inhabitants of Ephesus demurred, claiming that it was not fitting for one god to build a temple to another. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, Ephesus in 290 BC came under the rule of one of Alexander's generals, Lysimachus . As

8648-534: Was important for trade. People started leaving the lowland of the city for the surrounding hills. The ruins of the temples were used as building blocks for new homes. Marble sculptures were ground to powder to make lime for plaster. Sackings by the Arabs first in the year 654–655 by caliph Muawiyah I , and later in 700 and 716 hastened the decline further. When the Seljuk Turks conquered Ephesus in 1090, it

8742-608: Was keen to point out that, while the Bible says John was leaving for Asia, it does not say specifically that Mary went with him. He later stated that she was buried in Jerusalem. Since the 19th century, The House of the Virgin Mary , about 7 km (4 mi) from Selçuk, has been considered to have been the last home of Mary, mother of Jesus before her assumption into heaven in the Roman Catholic tradition, based on

8836-623: Was released by the American band The Mountain Goats in 2009. Ephesus Ephesus ( / ˈ ɛ f ɪ s ə s / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἔφεσος , translit.   Éphesos ; Turkish : Efes ; may ultimately derive from Hittite : 𒀀𒉺𒊭 , romanized:  Apaša ) was a city in Ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia , 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province , Turkey . It

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