Type "Ephesus" into Google Maps and you arrive at 37.94°N, 27.34°E — near the modern Turkish town of Selçuk, in Izmir Province. The site that Acts 19, the letter to the Ephesians, and the first of Revelation's seven letters all address is the largest Roman archaeological site in the eastern Mediterranean, drawing roughly 1.5 million visitors a year.
A Verse to a Specific Church
Revelation 2 opens with seven short letters dictated to seven churches in western Asia Minor. Ephesus is first.
"Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks."
The verse names a specific congregation in a specific city. The seven churches are arranged on the postal route a messenger from Patmos would have followed: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea — a roughly circular sweep through the seven major Roman cities of the province of Asia. The letter to Ephesus is the longest of the seven.
Three Years on the Ground
Acts 19 records that Paul spent roughly three years in Ephesus during his third missionary journey, longer than in any other city of his career. He taught daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. The chapter culminates in a riot in the city's great theater, called by silversmiths who feared their trade in Artemis figurines was being undercut. Great is Diana of the Ephesians, they shouted for two hours (Acts 19:34). The theater is still there. It still seats 25,000. It still has the same acoustics that carried that chant.
What's Excavated
The Library of Celsus, built in AD 117 to house some 12,000 scrolls, has been partially reconstructed and is the most photographed building of the site. The Curetes Way — the marble main street that runs from the upper agora down to the harbor — is still walkable. The first-century terrace houses on its slope, with their original mosaic floors and frescoes, are visible under a modern roof. The Temple of Artemis is mostly gone; only one re-erected column marks where one of the Seven Wonders once stood. Six kilometers north, the Basilica of St. John on Ayasuluk Hill marks the traditional site of the apostle's tomb.
What Has Moved
The Aegean Sea has receded several kilometers since the first century — what was a busy harbor town for Paul is now an inland site, the silt of the Cayster River having gradually filled the bay. Tradition also holds that the Virgin Mary spent her last years near here at a small house outside the city; the Meryem Ana Evi shrine is visited by Christian and Muslim pilgrims alike. Pope Paul VI declared a public Mass there in 1967. The verse stayed; the coastline moved.
Ephesus Today
Selçuk, the modern town, has about 35,000 residents and lives largely from the archaeology. The site is open daily; the August evenings sometimes include performances in the Roman theater. The seven churches of Revelation are now seven archaeological sites scattered across western Türkiye, each at a different stage of excavation. Ephesus is the most visited of them.
The city held Paul for three years and a verse for two thousand. The verse is still doing the holding.