The topography of Ephesus
In Apoc. 2,7 the contra-cultural analogue of the sacred τεμενος of the temple of
Artemis at Ephesus is the παραδεισος του θεου The cross that
is the tree of life (δωσω αυτω φαγειν εκ του ξυλου της ζωης)
constitutes the contra-eikon of the tree-shrine depicting the birth of Artemis. From long antiquity that τεμενος had been a place where criminals had sought
and obtained asylum. There is evidence that Domitian extended this area and
thus compounded the abuse to which two letters of Apollonius of Tyanna,
allegedly contemporary with this reign, attest (65 and 66). Such extensions
would have reactivated public alarm at the scandal of the criminal refugees in
the area and given pertinence to this reference, since Augustus had tried to
limit the area and therefore the abuse. Thus the case for a Domitianic date
is strengthened. Furthermore we have already described the "union of
necorates" in Asia formed from the assimilation of Ephesus as νεωκορος
της
μεγαλης ‘Αρτεμιδος (Acts 19,35)
with the Imperial Cult from Domitian's time onwards (2C 2.3.2.3). (Allen
Brent, The Imperial Cult and the Development of Church Order: Concepts and Images
of Authority in Paganism and Early Christianity Before the Age of Cyprian [Supplements
to Vigiliae Christianae 45; Leiden: Brill, 1999], 168)
