The entire sixteenth chapter of Romans, which is a series of personal greetings, is probably a note to a Christian congregation
in Ephesus that somehow became attached to that book. The third verse of this series is a greeting to Prisca and Aquila who
"risked their necks to save my life" (Romans 16:3). In 1 Corinthians 15:32 Paul writes, "If, as the saying is, I 'fought wild
beasts' at Ephesus, what have I gained by it?" The beasts may have been human or they may have been lions from which, perhaps
with the aid of Prisca and Aquila, he mercifully escaped.
Paul's second letter to the Corinthians from Ephesus (probably written in the same year as the first) reinforces a sense
of frustration that one does not find in Acts: "…We should like you to know, dear friends, how serious was the trouble
that came upon us in the province of Asia. The burden of it was far too heavy for us to bear, so heavy that we even despaired
of life" (2 Corinthians 1:8).
How much of the suffering and the persecution mentioned in other portions of 2 Corinthians (6:4-10, 11:23-27) occurred
in Ephesus we do not know. In Romans 16:7 there is a word of greeting to "Andronicus and Junias my fellow countrymen and comrades
in captivity." This strengthens the evidence that Paul was imprisoned in Ephesus.
Many scholars now believe that it was during an Ephesian imprisonment that Paul wrote Philippians, and perhaps also other
letters now in the New Testament. A mute reminder of Paul's possible imprisonment there is a solid stone building sitting
on a hill about 1/2 mile west of the theatre and known today as St. Paul's Prison.
Reference:
Text from Biblical Sites in Turkey used with permission.
Blake, Everett C. and Anna G. Edmonds. Biblical
Sites in Turkey. © SEV Matbaacilik ve Yayinlik A.S.
Script of the film Apostle Paul and the Earliest Churches.
