Demeas Inscription, Ephesus Turkiye
“He (Paul) reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” Acts 19:9-10
Luke records that residents of Ephesus whose life and livelihood were based in the temple worship of the pagan god Artemis were alarmed and offended by Paul’s teaching. In spite of this, Christianity spread in and out from Ephesus. The city became an important center for the early Christian church. There is an early Christian inscription in Ephesus, located just across from the Celsus Library, near the site of its excavation at the Hadrian Gate monument, that celebrates of victory of Christ over idols.
This inscription, called the Demaus inscription, reads: “Demeas in truth, set up this monument; (to) God, the destroyer of idols, and in honor of the cross, the deathless, victory-bearing symbol of Christ”. The inscription dates from the late 4th century. The stone used for this cross and inscription (the top is now missing) is believed to have been a statue of Artemis. The dating of the monument is shortly after the Roman legalization of Christianity, and elements of the style of the Greek letters date to the late 4th century. Thank you to Professor Mark V. Hoffman for giving us a translation!
In 2023 at the end of our visit to Ephesus, we spent about 45 minutes running around photographing every inscription we could find because we wanted a picture of this one and had no idea where it was. We recently saw an article about the inscription and realized that we have a picture!! This happens a lot - never delete a picture! Especially we amateurs who may not understand what we are seeing until after the fact!
The word “Christ” in the Demeas inscripiton at Ephesus.
