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Philadelphia Church Pillars |
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Sardis walls |
We drove quite a distance to reach our destinations
today. Both Philadelphia and Thyatira are very small sites because they are in
the midst of modern cities that have been built on top of them. Philadelphia consisted only of a small
area in the city of Alasehir, with three (out of six original) outsize columns
that are almost all that remain of the Byzantine church of St. John. It’s hard
to imagine what the church was like. Its area couldn’t have been very big, yet
the columns are massive. I’m just guessing here—perhaps they were inspired by
John’s message to the church at Philadelphia: “If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God” (Rev
3:12).
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Marble Court of Sardis Gymnasium |
Sardis was a prominent city
associated with the Phrygian king Midas and the Lydian kingdom. Aesop, who was
a Phrygian, was supposed to have spent time here as well. That was all up
on a well-defended mountain--though sometimes not well-defended enough, especially when
Cyrus of Persia showed up. From the Persians Sardis passed, like
everything else, to Alexander the Great, then the Seleucids, and finally Rome. From
Greek times there was a large Jewish population in Sardis, who had been
transferred in from Babylon, and later Christianity flourished there as well. Sardis
was home to the second-century bishop Melito, whose relationship to Judaism was
evidently complex—on the one hand he is remembered as having been the first to
call the killing of Jesus deicide, a malicious charge against Jews that became increasingly popular among
Christians. On the other hand he insisted on celebrating Easter on
the Jewish Passover rather than on Sunday. I imagine church historians have more context for sorting that out.
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Synagogue Courtyard |
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Wall in Thyatira |
The ruins we visited were down
below the mountain. Sardis is quite a large site, though not a whole town. There is an
enormous structure, the remains of a second-century Roman gymnasium—a boys’
school—and bath. The scale of this structure is not like anything else I have
seen on this trip--the small arched door in the right hand wall is taller than any human. I admired the exposed stone and brick, but according to the
guidebook this was all covered with marble. Beside it was the largest ancient
(3rd century) synagogue ever found outside of Palestine, with a mosaic floor. I
can’t think of one larger than this one even in Palestine, though there are
more elaborate and well-preserved mosaic floors there. This synagogue was
originally part of the gymnasium and served as either classrooms or dressing
rooms, but it was later converted into a synagogue.
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Thyatira city street |
Last today we visited Thyatira,
which is only a square in the midst of the prosperous modern town of Ahiskar. Thyatira
was the home of Lydia in the book of Acts, and is also addressed in the book of
Revelation. The ruins that we saw were of a fifth or sixth century public
building. When I was done with that I walked across the street into a cooking store in search of a pepper grinder for Claire. With much pointing, hand motion, and noise that I hoped resembled the grinding of pepper I established what I wanted and was told, "Yok," which the tour guide said means something like "doesn't exist." Communication established with the natives.
In the late afternoon we drove
to Kusadasi on the Aegean Sea. I can hear the waves crashing below my window. I caught a glimpse of them before night fell.
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