It's intersting to consider just how much travel Paul did on his missionary journeys. We have spent countless hours on coaches, a cruise ship, chair-lifts, and later this week, a plane flight - all while enjoying a high-level of accomodation and an abundance of fine food. We may be tracing the steps of St Paul, but we are certainly not wearing out our shoes in the same way. Paul covered an amazing amount of ground!
On Monday morning we disembarked at Athens. We have a new guide, James, - very different from Cem in personality - but an amazing guide nonetheless. James is an evangelical Christian who has an unbelievably good knowledge of history and archeology of Christian sites and their connection to the Bible. If you know anyone who has difficulty in believing the historicity of the New Testament, you need to introduce them to James - he is incredibly credible, and we have learned a lot just listening to him. James also has a great knowledgeof Greek mythology and philosophy and their influences on some of the arguments of the New Testament.
Well, I mentioned in my last post that the time aboard the ship was deemed to be "down time," our entry into Athens, therefore, definitively marked the end of this as we had a big day in the sun visiting the site of the Akropolis, the Parthenon and Mars Hill (in Greek, Areogapus). Paul had come to Athens from Macedonia on his "Second Missionary Journey" (49-52 AD). Chapter 17 illustrates this and verses 16-33, record his address to the council. I encourage you to read it here before reading on. What's particularly amazing about Paul's interaction with the Athenians is that he doesn't provide proofs for the resurrection of Christ from Scripture (why would he? ... they weren't Jews), instead he observes their practices and speaks from their own context. By the end of his speech, some are convinced and wish to hear him again.
Now, you will see amongst the photos pictures of Mars Hill. However 'Areogapus' is a word similar to 'Parliament' which can mean the building or the gathering of parliamentarians/counsellors - so it is difficult to pin-point where this speech took place, despite the 'X' that marks the spot on the hill. The Agora (gathering place) of Athens was a bit like a university where people gathered to discuss and debate new ideas/philosophies/etc. ... so it was the perfect place for Paul to addres the Athenians. However, on the other hand it was also illegal to introduce foreign deities, so Paul was risking prosecution for his address. What's more, his listeners thought that he was promoting two foreign gods, Jesus Christ and Anastasis ('anastasis' being the Greek word for 'resurrection').
All these factors, together with the grandeur of this site, do help to give some context for Paul arriving (solo, as his companions had remained in Macedonia) and challenging the belief system of a people who considered themselves to be especially enlightened and knowledgeable regarding spiritual things.
The famous Parthenon (at the pinnacle of the Akropolis, a word that simply means the highest point in the city), also has an amazing history: It was the culmination of the Doric style of architecture. It was ercted in 447-438 BC as the cardinal feature of the Pericles' plan initially as a pagan temple dedicated to the goddess, Athena, from whom the city of Athens gets her name. In the sixth century AD it was converted to a Christian Church. Under Justinian it was first dedicated to Hagios Sophia (Holy Wisdom), then as a Catholic Church dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God (Theotokos), adding a bell-tower; then as a Cathedral of the Frankish Dukes. During the Ottoman occupation, the bell-tower came down and minurettes went up and it became a mosque. It wa partially destroyed by the Ventians in the seveneenth century and was used for the housing of artillery.
Additionally, the Parthenon is a construction of mathematical/engineering genius that allows it to look perfectly symmetrical, accounting for the way the eye sees things converging on the horizon.
After a great lunch in the Plaka, we visited the National Archaeological Museum (there are many photos from the museum, we have tried to photograph the plaques near the statues to help us recall what they are when we look at them later). That night we lodged and dined at our hotel in Athens, and after dinner I enjoyed an Ouzo with Tim, Peter, Brett & Heather at a cool nearby bar, which also boasted free wi-fi.
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The following day, whilst maintaining our lodging at Athens, we made our way to Corinth. Now I was particularly excited to be visiting Corinth as I will be doing a research project on worship in Corinth based on chapters 11-14 in the second half of this year. On the way to Corinth, we stopped at the Corinth Canal briefly, and also drove through Cenchrea which we're told in Romans 16.1 was the home of Phoebe the Deacon. Paul commends the Roman Church to welcome her and help her as with any of the saints (Rom 16.2).
You will note in the photos of Corinth some interesting things:
- Firstly, there is an interesting section of pavement with an inscription in Latin. The inscription reads "Erastus, in return for his aedilship (treasurer-ship), laid the pavement at his own expense." It is likely that this is the same Erastus, the city treasurer mentioned by Paul as sending greeting to the Church in Rome (Romans 16.23). Erastus was apparently and unpopular name which gives further credibility to this claim. The piece of pavement was only found only in 1929.
- Secondly, we saw the speaker's platform (also called the Judgement Seat) called the 'Bema' which is the very likely place where Paul would have been brought before Gallio (Acts 18.12-17). Here Gallio dismissed Paul saying that this was a matter of Jewish law and therefore of no interest to the Roman authorities. The mention of Gallio here dates Paul's time in Corinth, as Gallio was procounsel of Acachia from June 51 - May 52. A much more recent excavation in another region shows an inscription to Gallio with title and date.
- Thirdly, Acts 18 also records that when Paul was thrown out of the Synagogue he 'set up shop'next door in the home of Titus Justus. A piece of Graffiti with the words "Hebrew Synagogue" have been recovered which gives us an idea of where both the synagogue and the home of Titus (and hence the early Corinthian Church) was.
- Fourthly, there is also a museum at Corinth with a lot of the stautues and items recovered from the site. Amongst them is a room of plaster casts of many body parts. The Temple dedicated to Asklepeieon existed in Corinth and was a place where people came for healing. If they received a healing, they would have a plaster cast made of the body part as a testament to the healing and as a part of the ritual to the pagan god. Some believe that it was against this bacground that Paul used the analogy of the Church as one body with many parts (1 Cor 12).
We concluded the day with a visit to Mycenae. Though not a biblical site, Mycenae boasts a bee-hive shaped tomb and many other historic sites. By the time we arrived at Mycenae, Heather and I were quite tired and didn't take in a great deal, so ... not much to report here. However, the views were magnificent and you will see some of these included with the pictures.
That evening Heather and I went out together into the city of Athens, after a long walk, we found ourselves a nice place to eat and had a bit of catch-up time.
The following day we embarked on a five hour bus-trip to the Meteora monastery. Meteora is in the north of Greece in the mountains. The mountains created by a rare geological pnenomenon producing looming rocks which thrust skywards from the plain of Thessaly. The word 'meteora' (from where we get the word meteor) means something that is suspended in the sky. During fog, these mountain-top monastery buildings appear to be floating in mid-air.
James, our tour guide, took us to one of the monastery chapels on the mountain, he explained much of the Orthodox iconography. Perhaps the most interesting learning (that I didn't know) is that Jesus is often depicted with Mary (his mother) and John the Baptist (the forerunner). Also Greek Orthodox Christians depict the twelve apostles as including Paul (as the replacement for Judas).
The Narthex - traditionally the area where the non-Baptised catechumens would gather - show icons not only of the exaltation of Christ, but also graphic depiction of the martyrs and the various deaths they suffered at the hands of their persecutors, together with a depiction of the final judgement, These semed to function both as a witness to these not-yet-believers as well as an encouragement that the path they were on was the right one. Unfortunately, we were not permitted to take photos in the Chapel, so we do not have images of these icons.
Following the visit to the monastery, we lodged in Kalmbaka, at the bottom of the mountain. We had a swim, dinner and group meeting and concluded the evening with a quiet drink out the front of the hotel with Steph.
4 July 2012
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