If you are following these posts via the blog and/or Facebook, you will see many more photos have been added. Heather is doing a great job as official photographer and I am trying to keep up with backingm up and sharing them with friends back home!
My previous post took us from Istanbul to Galipoli and Cannakale. The map below shows our movement south from Istanbul. I have included the numbers to indicate the order of our travels from Tuesday 26 - Friday 29 June.
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| From Turkey Map |
You will also note the blue astricks, these are the original sites of the seven churches that John is commanded to write to in the book of Revelation. If you are not familiar with this section of scripture you may wish to familiarise yourself by reading this short section of Revelation 2.1-3.22. If you take the time to scroll through the pictures you will see that the sites look quite similar. Most of these ancient cities are in ruins today. An exception is Smyrna which today is still a trade city called Izmir. Ephesus, while an ancient city that is not inhabited, is the largest of the Revelation cities we visited which gives us some idea of the scope of what was once a bustling town.
Our days were broken up as follows:
Tuesday: A visit to Ancient Troy (known for its famous Trojan horse whereby the Greeks were able to take the city - fact or legend?), then a drive to Pergamum (cf. Rev 2.8-11.) which involved a chairlift up to the ancient city, then a long drive to Smyrna (modern-day Izmir, cf Rev 2.12-17.), where we spent the night. The site at Smyrna had closed early and we didn't get to investigate, yet a few good photos are included that we were able to take from behind the gates. See pics above ...
Wednesday: A stop at Sardis (Rev 3.1-6.) on the way to Thyatira (Rev 2.18-29). We then drove through the region of Philadelphia (Rev 3.7-13) a forty minute drive to the ruins which were apparently quite minimal and then onto Hierpolis which boasts natural calcium streams (you will see some photos that look like ski slopes covered in snow, these are in fact the calcium springs). Hieropolis is mentioned in the bible in conjunction with Philip (Acts 21.8), but it also is a large site (like Ephesus) that gives us a sense of what an ancient city was like. On Wednesday evening we camped at Pamukkale (near Hieropolis) and enjoyed some more of the renown natural springs of the area. More pics below ...
Thursday: We visited Laodicea (which though smaller, was an extraodinary site that is still in the process of being excavated, see pictures of men at work here, (cf. Rev 3.14-22). We later stopped at nearby Colossae, by contrast to Laodicea and other sites, Colossae is an unexcavated site. No doubt one day work will be done here, but at the moment, it is just a large mound with odd biuts of rubble here and there. Colossae is not a Revelation Church but has its own epistle by Paul in the New Testament. We later visited Aphrodisias, original site of the Temple of Aphrodite and significant city at the time of the early Church, though not specifically mentioned in scripture. We retreated that evening to the amazing Charisma Resort at Kusadasi (near Ephesus) where Heather and I also celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. The venue was too nice to leave, so Gem, our tour guide, organised a private table away from our tour group to celebrate the ocassion together overlooking a fabulous sunset.
Friday: Today we visited Ephesus. We know a lot about Ephesus as one of the Revelation Churches, (Rev 2.1-7), its own Pauline Epistle and also the pastoral letters to Timothy from Paul in the New Testament. We spent a fair bit of time at Ephesus. Heather led the group in a celebration of the Lord's Supper at the site of Str Mary's Church at Ephesus and we also visited the Ephesus Museum. Lunch was at a Turkish Rug factory, which was an experience all unto itself. We had the afternoon to ourselves and enjoyed our time swimming, relaxing and eating again at the Charisma Hotel at Kusadasi. Ephesus pics at the end of this post
What have we been learning?
Well, in each of the Revelation cities, we had a mini-lecture from either Tim, Lindsay or Andrew. I will save the details for the assignment but in each city we got a sense of some of the traits that characterised these cities, for example:
- Ephesus and Smyrna were both great trade cities. Izmir (modern-day Smyrna) is still a bustling city (one of the largest in Turkey) and as soon as we got off the bus, people were trying to sell things to us. To the Church in Smyrna, Jesus says "I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich." (2.9).
- Pergamum was the city that had the throne of Zeus in it (now in the Berlin museum). This is possibly the reference in 2.13 to "I know where you are living, where Satan's throne is. Yet you are holding fast to my name."
- Sardis had a reputation for fine black clothing and had great wealth, in this letter Jesus makes reference to "... you have a few in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; yet they walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy."
- The letter to Laodicea is probably the one with the most specific references. At a time when they had needed to rebuild their city they had refused assistance from Rome and proudly covered their own costs, they also had great medical knowledge and had invented a salve for the eyes that cured eye diseases, people came from all over the Roman world for cures and to gain medical knowledge. In 3.17-18, the letter reads: "For you say, Í am rich, I hav prospered, I need nothing.' You do not realise that you are wretched, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes that you may see." The people of Laodicea, also had water pumped from some distance that arrived to them lukewarm, this reference is there too in vv 15-16.
There is so much more to say ... however let me summarise at this point by saying that it has been a great privilege to walk through these places and tangibly witness the issues that afflicted these Churches in some cases, idolatry and paganism ... industry ... knowledge ... pride ... as well as the Churches that were praised for their faithfulness. The map that I included, above, also shows something of these cities proximity to one another (not unlike an Anglican deanery or diocese). Despite the highly apocalyptic language of the latter chapters of Revelation than can sometimes cause confusion due to our unfamiliarity with this style of writing, we see here in chapters 1 and 2 an appeal to seven churches with language and metaphors easy for them to understand: Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and keep what is written in it; for the time is near (Rev 1.3).
(We have had limited internet access these past few days which has delayed the publication of this post)
30 June 2012
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