“GREAT is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Can you imagine a theater, capable of holding twenty-five thousand spectators, packed with people in an angry religious frenzy who were shouting the above phrase incessantly for two hours? It happened!​—Acts 19:28, 34.

Why such ardent fervor? Who was Artemis?

Ephesus was a religious center of the ancient world and boasted a temple so great that it was called one of the seven wonders of the world.

The goddess Artemis, or Diana, was worshiped in this plush temple, where gold is reputed to have been used between the joints of marble blocks. On occasion, as many as seven hundred thousand from Ephesus and distant lands would line the streets as the “virgin goddess” was paraded through the city. The making and selling of silver images of this multibreasted goddess of fertility was a thriving business in Ephesus.​—Acts 19:24, 25.

It was into a city of this kind that the man Paul came preaching Christianity to the Ephesians. He had been commissioned by Jesus Christ to be “an apostle to the nations.” (Romans 11:13) A congregation was formed and grew rapidly in Ephesus. The new ones quickly discarded their images and books on magic. (Acts 19:19) Because this fast-growing new religion opposed the use of images, Demetrius, the silversmith, incited the people to near riot, resulting in their crying, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”