The First Urban Churches 3

The third volume of this series edited by James R. Harrison and L. L. Welborn focuses on the urban context of Christian churches in first-century Ephesus. As with previous volumes, contributors illustrate how an investigation of the material evidence will help readers understand properly the challenges, threats, and opportunities that the early Ephesian believers faced in that city. Essays focus on the inscriptions, archaeological remains, coins, and iconography of ancient Ephesus in order to reconstruct the past and its social, religious, and political significance. The essays demonstrate decisively the difference that such an approach makes in grappling with the meaning and context of the Pauline epistles in the New Testament, including particularly Ephesians, Acts, and Revelation.