Eustache Le Sueur - The Preaching of St Paul at Ephesus - WGA12613

The book burning at Ephesus is an event recorded in the

Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of The gospel, its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make u ...

, where Christian converts at

Ephesus Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...

, influenced by

Paul the Apostle Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Apostles in the New Testament, Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the Ministry of Jesus, teachings of Jesus in the Christianity in the 1st century, first ...

, burned their books of magic.

Acts 19 Acts 19 is the nineteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records part of the third missionary journey of Paul, focussing on his time spent in Ephesus. The author of the book containing this c ...

provides an account of the event:

Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. (Acts 19:18–19 ESV)

The pieces of silver could refer to the Greek drachma; this would come to a total value of approximately $6 million

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

in present-day currency. The following verse relates how "the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily" (Acts 19:20 ESV). Simon Kistemaker sees these things as closely connected: "The city of Ephesus purged itself of bad literature by burning magic books and became the depository of sacred literature that made up the canon of the New Testament." Saint_Paul_and_the_burning_of_pagan_books_at_Ephesus

Saint_Paul_and_the_burning_of_pagan_books_at_Ephesus

References

Acts of the Apostles

Ephesus Paul the Apostle {{Early-Christianity-stub

See also

References