Two sites near Ephesus are commonly, and incorrectly, treated as the same place: St John's Basilica and the Church of Mary, where the Council of Ephesus was held in 431 AD. They are separate buildings with separate histories, and knowing the difference matters for anyone tracing the physical footprint of the church addressed in Paul's letter and, later, in Revelation.
St John's Basilica
St John's Basilica sits on Ayasuluk Hill in modern Selçuk, built in the 6th century under the Byzantine emperor Justinian over what tradition holds is the tomb of the Apostle John. The basilica itself, in its final Justinian-era form, postdates both Paul's letter and Revelation by four to five centuries, but the site's association with John runs deeper than the building: tradition places John in Ephesus in his later years, and the tomb beneath the basilica's altar has been venerated as his burial place since antiquity.
What stands today is largely the footprint and reconstructed columns of Justinian's basilica, one of the largest churches built in the world at the time of its construction, along with the site of the tomb itself. It is one of the most visited Christian heritage sites in the Ephesus region and, for pilgrims tracing the New Testament's connection to the city, the most direct physical link to an apostle personally associated with the letters to the church here.
Full visitor details are covered in our St John's Basilica guide.
The Church of Mary and the Council of Ephesus, 431 AD
A separate structure, known as the Church of Mary or the Double Church, sits closer to the ancient harbor area of Ephesus and is a different building entirely from St John's Basilica. This is the site where the Council of Ephesus was convened in 431 AD, one of the earliest ecumenical councils of the Christian church, called by the Roman emperor Theodosius II and attended by roughly 200 bishops.
The council's central question was whether Mary could properly be called Theotokos, "God-bearer" or "Mother of God," a title Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria defended and Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople disputed. The council ruled in favor of the title, a decision with lasting significance across the Orthodox, Catholic, and Oriental Orthodox traditions, and it is a notable historical detail that this pivotal ruling on Mary's title was decided in a church in the very city whose congregation had, four centuries earlier, received both Paul's letter and John's letter in Revelation.
The Church of Mary's remains are less visited and less reconstructed than St John's Basilica, but the site itself, and its documented role in the Council, is well established in the historical record and remains part of the wider Ephesus archaeological area.
The Great Theatre and Acts 19
A third site completes the physical picture, older than either church building: the Great Theatre of Ephesus, seating roughly 25,000, where the riot described in Acts 19 took place. This is the site tied most directly to Paul's actual time in the city, the nearly three years of ministry that both the traditional and critical readings of Ephesians agree took place, regardless of which position a reader takes on when the letter itself was written. Full details are in our Great Theatre guide.
Visiting These Sites Today
Between the Great Theatre and the wider ancient city, St John's Basilica on Ayasuluk Hill, and the Church of Mary near the harbor, a visitor tracing the physical history behind the Letter to the Ephesians and the later letter in Revelation can cover the full arc in a single well-planned day, from Paul's recorded ministry through the fourth-century council that settled one of Christianity's foundational theological questions in this same city.
Our private, faith-sensitive guided tours are built specifically around this kind of itinerary, pairing the archaeological and theological detail with a historian's depth rather than a standard sightseeing pace. See our Biblical and pilgrimage tour options for details on visiting St John's Basilica, the House of the Virgin Mary, and the wider Ephesus site together.
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