Corpus-Paul

[Rick Strelan <rick.strelan AT mailbox.uq.edu.au>]

In terms of numbers of Christians in Ephesus, Thomas Robinson claimed in
his 1985 doctoral thesis that by the end of the first century there were
about 1000 Christians in Ephesus. In his published thesis a few years later
[1988] he lowered that figure to about 500, although he thinks that is
'unrealistically low' because it would mean conversions were at a rate of
about 15 per year. Robinson, unlike me, thinks Paul was a 'stunning
success' at Ephesus, yet even he can only come up with between 15 and 30
converts a year - and that by the end of the first century [which includes
a time long after Paul is gone; and presumably also includes those under
'John's' influence]

Reicke ['The NT Era', 1969] also has a guess at Christian numbers in Asia
Minor, for those interested.

For what it's worth,

Rick

Dr Rick Strelan
Studies in Religion
University of Queensland
Brisbane, Australia 4072