Worshipper

Worshipper in the New Testament most distinctively appears in Acts 19:35, where the Greek neokoros (literally "temple-sweeper" or "temple-warden") is applied to the city of Ephesus: the city clerk calms the riotous crowd by reminding them that "the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper [neokoros] of the great goddess Diana" — meaning that Ephesus held the officially recognized status as guardian city of the Artemis temple, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. The title neokoros was a formal civic honour awarded by Rome to cities that hosted an imperial cult temple, and Ephesus held it multiple times over. The speech of the city clerk in Acts 19:35–41 is a masterpiece of civic pragmatism, using the city's prestigious status to argue against the riot on grounds of Roman order rather than theology. The episode illuminates the civic and economic stakes of Paul's mission: the gospel's success in Ephesus threatened not merely a religious tradition but the city's identity and economic base.