Falkener, Edward: Ephesus and the temple of Diana (London, 1862)

ST. JOHN.

150 MODERN EPHESUS.

died A. D. 217,) at which time the Ephesian
games were still celebrated.1 That the people, on
embracing Christianity, continued for some time
to inhabit the ancient city, is evident from the
existence of two churches in the centre of Ephesus ;
and from the existence of these churches it is
probable that St. John's Church stood also at
Ephesus, on Mount Pion, and not at Aiaslik.
church op The accounts of the situation of the Church of
St. John are exceedingly contradictory. " In the
Greek Synaxaria, p. 21, the church of St. John is
said to have been built on a hill in old Ephesus,
which was called H?Jfiot.Toy, (a name which would
denote its being higher than the adjoining hill or
hills). To the west of this hill was the tomb of
Timothy. The tomb of Mary Magdalene, and that
of the Seven Sleepers, or boys, as the original
calls them, are to be found on an adjoining hill,
which is called XsiXstojv or Xs/As'coo, a name clearly
designating the clefts or quarries of Mount Pion."2
Now this would lead us to conjecture that the church
stood on the southern or higher eminence of Mount
Pion, the tomb of Timothy3 near the theatre, and
those of Mary Magdalene and the Seven Sleepers
on the adjoining eminence of Mount Pion: for no
one would imagine Aiaslik to be the site of ancient
Ephesus.

1 Dallaway, Const, p. 21G. 2 Arundell, Discov. ii. 253.

3 Chandler also supposes Pion to be here signified.—[Travels,
i. 155.)