November 7, 2025

Turkey shares borders with seven countries: Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Because of this fact Turkey has worn a whole wardrobe of names across history, each one reflecting a different era twisting through time like a ribbon in the wind. Among them: Anatolia, Asia Minor, Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire and most recently Türkiye. Turkey (the long-standing English exonym) is often called “the cradle of civilization.”

I came to Turkey to specifically visit Ephesus. Why? Because Ephesus glows through the Bible like a lantern, illuminating where early Christianity took shape. It shaped the people who shaped the New Testament.

First, Ephesus was one of the most significant places Paul ever worked. He stayed there around three years, longer than almost anywhere else. His stay was not without controversy.

At the time, Ephesus was home to the massive Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. When Paul’s preaching began to threaten the lucrative idol-making trade, a silversmith named Demetrius started a huge riot. He dragged Paul’s companions into the theater, and the whole city erupted into chaos. It showed the first signs of Christianity colliding with the old world of pagan worship and how powerful and disruptive the new faith had become. It was only the beginning of the social and economic tensions surrounding the early church.

Paul was exiled from the city and wrote The Letter to the Ephesians one of the New Testament’s most influential writings urging the Christians in Ephesus
to show spiritual strength and maturity. From the letter came the famous “armor of God” passage.

But it was not only Paul, but John the Apostle who lived in Ephesus later in life where he wrote the Gospel of John. Mary, the mother of Jesus, also lived in the region and it was my mission to try and find the home that she lived in supposedly under John’s care.

Now to be clear prior to leaving on this trip I did some research, and I could find no concrete evidence that Mary’s house existed. The genesis of the story is, if you recall, when Jesus was being crucified his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and John stood at the cross. Jesus speaks a tender, world-shifting line from the cross, entrusting his mother to the care of the disciple he loved. The passage is John 19:26–27: “Woman, behold your son.” “Behold your mother.”

Even at his time of death, Jesus tends to one of the simplest human duties: caring for a parent. He places Mary in the protection of someone he trusts completely.

It’s important to remember that John was the only one of the 12 apostles who lived into later years. All the other apostles were martyrs. It made sense to me that if John and Mary were both living in Ephesus, he would have become her caretaker. On the way to the house, I came across a dead olive tree that was harboring some fresh greenery in its trunk. At the bottom stood one lone pansy. As I looked closer, soon I saw another and I was amazed to see its definitive face.

Now I did find the house, yet I still have no proof that it is the actual house where Mary lived.

Honestly, I am not sure if that matters. What I did find as I have found in my travels around the world are people of faith who had made pilgrimages to a place, they consider holy to petition a God they also believe to be Holy. In those environments I feel a great kinship with fellow believers.

Perhaps by joining Mary and John, Jesus models a new kind of community that will define the Christian church. It’s not built on bloodlines but on love, hope, and shared faith.

When I was leaving this holy site in Ephesus, I gazed upon a petition wrapped in a red bow that hung dangerously on the end of a high branch of a Mulberry tree. Whoever placed it there put themselves in a precarious situation. I don’t know anything about the individual who put it there except for one thing…

They sure had a lot of faith.

Albert Einstein said: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

I prefer the later.

Thanks for travelling with us.