This volume of the New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity series introduces scholars and students to the historical, political, civic, religious, cultural, and social context of Ephesian inscriptional evidence. Each of the twenty-five entries in this volume includes one or more original inscriptions, English translation, and a commentary that sheds light on early Christianity, particularly as it relates to Ephesians, Acts, Revelation, and the Pastoral Epistles. Contributors Bradley J. Bitner, James R. Harrison, Phillip Ort, and Isaac T. Soon examine topics such as the gods and the founder of Ephesus, the political and economic relationship between Ephesus and Rome, Ephesian elites and the dynamics of honor, building activity, local sites, and graffiti.

James R. Harrison is Distinguished Professor at the Sydney College of Divinity. He is the author of Paul and the Imperial Authorities at Thessalonica and Rome (2011), Paul and the Ancient Celebrity Circuit (2019), and Reading Romans with Roman Eyes (2020) and coeditor of SBL Press’s The First Urban Churches (2015–).

Bradley J. Bitner is Associate Professor of New Testament at Westminster Seminary California. He is the author of Paul’s Political Strategy in 1 Corinthians 1:1–4:6: Constitution and Covenant (2015). He has published articles in Novum Testamentum and Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies.