ATHENS, CORINTH, AND THE CHURCHES OF ASIA

Athens. Corinth. The Churches of Asia: Ephesus. Pergamum. Thyatira. Sardis. Philadelphia. Smyrna. Laodicea.

The greater part of Biblical history was enacted in Palestine and the great valleys of Mesopotamia and the Nile. The Apostle Paul, however, broke the Jewish bonds of primitive Christianity and carried the Gospel to the coasts of the Ægean Sea. In cities of this region he spent years of his active missionary life; to churches of this region most of his epistles were sent, and to churches of this part of the world the seven messages to the churches were addressed. We cannot, therefore, conclude this sketch of what archÆology has done to throw light upon the Bible without saying a few words concerning exploration and excavations in certain parts of Greece and Asia Minor. It will be impossible for lack of space to go thoroughly into the history of this region, but as these lands were not, like Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, and Palestine, closely connected with Biblical history for a long period, detailed history of them before the Apostolic age will not be missed by the student of the Bible.

The results of scattered discoveries at Thessalonica and elsewhere will be presented in Part II, Chapter XXVII. At this point attention will be directed to a few important cities.

1. Athens, the chief city of Attica, one of the least productive parts of Greece, is the far-famed mistress of the world’s culture and art. Emerging from obscurity in the seventh century before Christ, gaining a position of leadership in the Persian wars after 500 B. C., Athens established a considerable empire. In this period fell the age of Pericles, 460-429 B. C., when the artistic and literary genius of Athens reached a height never equaled in human history. Socrates was born here in 469 and lived till 399 B. C. Here Plato, who was born about 428, became a pupil of Socrates and afterward taught. Hither came Aristotle, after the year 367, to sit at Plato’s feet. Here from the age of Pericles the acropolis was crowned with those architectural creations that are at once the admiration and the despair of the world; (see Fig. 277). It stirs the imagination to think of Paul in such a city.

In the time of Paul, Athens was a Roman city, though still one of the great artistic and philosophical centers of the world. At a little distance from the acropolis on its northern side, a forum of the Roman period was laid bare in 1891; (see Fig. 272). Possibly this is the market-place in which Paul, during his stay there, reasoned every day with them that met him (Acts 17:17), though of this we cannot be certain, for, while this was a market-place in the Roman period, the older market of the Athenian people lay to the westward of it.

To the west of the acropolis lies the old Areopagus, or Mars’ Hill (Fig. 273), from which it was long supposed that Paul made the address recorded in Acts 17:22-31. Ramsay,[319] following Curtius, has made it probable that the address was delivered to the city-fathers of Athens, not because they were putting Paul to a judicial trial, but because they wished to see whether he was to be allowed to teach Christianity, which they took for a new philosophy, in the university of Athens—for Athens itself was a kind of university. It seems probable that the meetings of the city-fathers, who were collectively called the Areopagus (Acts 17:22), were held not on the top of the rock, but in the market-place. The Athenian altar “to an unknown god” is treated in Part II, Chapter XXVII, § 2.

2. Corinth.—From Athens, Paul went to Corinth, where he spent a year and a half (Acts 18:1, 11). Corinth was one of the old cities of Greece. In Homeric and earlier times it appears to have been subject to Argos. Situated on the isthmus between northern Greece and the Peloponnesus, the sea-trade of Corinth made it an important city. It rose to prominence in the seventh century before Christ. At some early time foreigners from the east, probably Phoenicians, had settled in Corinth and established the worship of the Semitic goddess Astarte on Acro-Corinthus, a hill that rises some five hundred feet above the city. The goddess was here known as Aphrodite,[320] and the debasing character of her worship tended to foster that lack of sensitiveness in matters of social morality with which Paul deals in his First Epistle to the Corinthians. The trade of Corinth made it rich and its riches excited the enmity of Rome. It was accordingly destroyed by the Romans in 146 B. C., but a century later was rebuilt by Julius CÆsar. Ancient Corinth has now entirely vanished.

Excavations were begun at Corinth by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in 1896 under the direction of the late Prof. Rufus B. Richardson. The work has been carried forward season by season ever since.[321] Although there were no topographical indications to help the excavators at the start, the theater, the Agora or market-place, a Roman street, the road to LechÆum, and the temple of Apollo have been discovered; (Figs. 274, 276).

Of greatest interest to the student of the Bible is a stone discovered in 1898 on the LechÆum road near the propylÆa, or gateway leading to the market-place. This stone once formed the lintel of a door and bore an inscription in Greek letters. Although the beginning and the end of the two words written on it are broken away, it is clear that the inscription was “Synagogue of the Hebrews.”[322] The cutting of the letters was poorly done, and the block was a second-hand one, adapted from some other use. It seems probable, therefore, that the Jewish community at Corinth was not wealthy. The block was of considerable size and so was probably found not far from where the synagogue stood. If so, this synagogue, which is probably identical with the one in which Paul preached (Acts 18:4), stood on the LechÆum road not far from the market-place. Other discoveries in the neighborhood indicate that this was a residence quarter of the city, and we learn from Acts 18:7 that the house of Titus Justus, where apparently Paul organized the first church in Corinth, “joined hard to the synagogue.” The house of Justus must, then, have been here, and the LechÆum road often echoed to the footsteps of Paul. Probably the judgment-seat to which the Jews dragged Paul for the hearing before Gallio (Acts 18:12) was in the market-place, so that the excavations have revealed to us the parts of Corinth of special interest to a reader of the Bible.

3. The Churches of Asia.

(1) Ephesus was situated on the Cayster river in western Asia Minor, about three miles from the sea, but in ancient times the sea was navigable up as far as the city. Cities which form the point of contact between land and sea traffic become in most countries populous and wealthy. In western Asia Minor four cities, situated at the mouths of the four river valleys through which caravans could proceed into the interior, became populous and important. These were Miletus (see Acts 20:15, 17, f.) at the mouth of the MÆander, Ephesus at the mouth of the Cayster, Smyrna at the mouth of the Hermus, and Pergamum on the Caicus. In the earliest times known to us Ephesus was eclipsed in importance by Miletus, but before the beginning of the Christian era Ephesus had outstripped her rival. This was due to several causes, one of which was the partial silting up of the harbor of Miletus. In Roman times Ephesus lay on the great line of communication between Rome and the East in general.[323] In later centuries the harbor of Ephesus was in its turn silted up, and the site is now deserted except for a neighboring wretched Turkish village.

In Homer’s Iliad[324] the Carians are called the “barbarous-speaking Carians.” This would indicate that they were not Greek, and it is thought by some that they may at this time have been of Hittite stock. Miletus was in Caria, and at that time Ephesus also. It is certain that the earliest inhabitants of Ephesus were not Greek, but of Asiatic origin. They established here, either on a mountain top about five miles from the sea, just above the modern railway station of Ayassuluk, or on a mountain a little to the south, the worship of an Asiatic goddess, probably Hittite. Later, in the seventh century before Christ, the Ionian Greeks came and settled among the Asiatics. They identified the goddess with their own Artemis (Authorized Version, Diana), and moved her temple down into the plain,[325] where it continued to stand far into Christian times. In the sixth century B. C. Ephesus was conquered by the Lydians, and then by the Persians. In later centuries it passed under the control of Alexander the Great, of the SeleucidÆ of Syria, and of the kings of Pergamum. In 133 B. C. it passed with the rest of the kingdom of Pergamum into the hands of Rome and became a part of the Roman Province of Asia. Because of its situation it quickly became the most important city of the province. It was noted for its wealth and its commerce. Rome became the patron of Hellenic culture in the East, so Ephesus was, of course, made an architecturally beautiful city.At first Pergamum was the capital of the Province of Asia. In the second and third centuries of the Christian era Ephesus had become the capital. Buchner[326] thinks that this transfer was made in the reign of Claudius, 41-54 A. D. If this were true, Ephesus was the capital of the province at the time of Paul’s residence there, but there is considerable doubt about the facts, and in the beginning of the second century A. D. Pergamum still ranked as the official capital.[327]

The temple of Artemis lay about two miles to the northeast of the ancient city. Its site was determined in 1869 by the English explorer, J. T. Wood, who partially excavated it (1869-1874).[328] Wood brought to light various marble fragments which are preserved in the British Museum, but he was more interested in making conjectural restorations of the temple than in telling what he found. As he was not an expert in ancient architecture his work is, accordingly, unsatisfactory. In 1904-1905, the British Museum employed Mr. Hogarth to complete the excavation of the site. Hogarth carried the excavation down to the virgin soil, and, being a skilled archÆologist, he was able to reconstruct the history of the building.[329]

There seems to have been a small tree shrine on the site of the temple before the Ionians came. Between the seventh century and the fifth, three different structures were erected on the spot. The last of these was called the temple of Croesus, because this king of Lydia presented some beautiful columns to it, though the structure was not completed till a century after his time, or 430 B. C. This structure was burned in 356 B. C. on the night that Alexander the Great was born. Later a larger temple, 425 by 220 feet, was built on the site, with the help of contributions from the whole of Asia. This was standing until long after Paul’s time. It was very beautiful. Some of the porphyry columns now in Santa Sophia at Constantinople are said to have been taken from it. It has been thought by some that this beautiful temple suggested to Paul his figure in 1 Cor. 3:10-17, since the words were written from Ephesus.

This temple was venerated over all of western Asia Minor. To it came many pilgrims every year, to whom Ephesian silversmiths sold little replicas of the temple. It was because Christianity became so popular through the preaching of Paul that the profitable sale of these shrines was interfered with, that the riot in Ephesus occurred as described in Acts 19:23-41.

Before Mr. Wood had discovered the site of the temple he had discovered the theater within the limits of the ancient city. This has been examined more thoroughly by the Austrian, Dr. Wiberg, who, beginning in 1894, conducted excavations at Ephesus for many years. All the lower parts of this theater still remain (see Figs. 280, 281) and bring vividly to the imagination the assembly held in it on the occasion of the riot just referred to. (See Acts 19:29-41.) The Austrians have also laid bare a considerable part of the central street of the Ephesus of Roman times; (see Fig. 278).

A little to the north of the theater is the ancient stadium. Some scholars think that when Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:32, “If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus,” he is speaking of an incident that literally occurred, and suppose that he was actually condemned to be thrown to the beasts in the stadium, to make a spectacle for the Ephesian populace, and that in some way he escaped alive. It is possible that this may be true. If so, this stadium (see Fig. 282) presents to the eye a spot which is of great interest to every Christian.

Ephesus, as the mother-church of the churches of Asia, is the first one to which in the book of Revelation a letter is addressed. By the time Revelation was written the first glow of Christian enthusiasm had worn off, gnostic heresy had found a place in the Church, and its “first love” was gone.

(2) Pergamum, the modern Bergama, lay in the valley of the Caicus in Mysia, about fifteen miles from the sea. The city was built on a hill about three miles north of the river. It was apparently a place of some importance at a comparatively early date, but its chief importance began with the reign of PhiletÆrus, who made it an independent kingdom and ruled it from 284-263 B. C. PhiletÆrus had been a trusted servant of Lysimachus, King of Thrace, one of the trusted generals of Alexander the Great. Under the dynasty founded by PhiletÆrus, Pergamum became one of the chief seats of Hellenic culture. Eumenes I (263-241 B. C.) endeavored to make Pergamum a rival of Alexandria as a literary center, and when the king of Egypt forbade the exportation of papyrus in order to check the literary aspirations of Pergamum, the servants of Eumenes invented a prepared kind of skin on which to write. It was called pergamena, but time has corrupted it to “parchment.”In the course of the second century before Christ the kingdom of Pergamum included all of western Asia Minor north of the Taurus. When in 133 B. C. Attalus III, the last of the kings of Pergamum, died, he left his kingdom by will to the Roman republic, with which Pergamum had long been in alliance. Rome thus came into possession of her Province of Asia, the first of her Oriental provinces. Pergamum was its capital, certainly until the reign of Claudius, and probably until the second century A. D. The Romans regarded themselves as the patrons of Hellenic culture in the East and for centuries kept Pergamum the beautiful city which the Pergamene kings had made it. Bergama, the squalid modern Turkish city, lies apart from the splendid ruins of the ancient town; (see Fig. 283).

More than thirty years ago the Germans began to explore and to excavate at Pergamum,[330] and the Museum at Berlin is enriched with many beautiful objects found there. The visitor to Pergamum may still see, however, the great gymnasium with many graceful columns still standing. Above it, on a higher slope, are the sites of theaters and temples, and the great altar of Zeus. Farther up the hill stood the temple of AthenÆ Polias, which was also a library, and above this the temple of Rome and of Augustus.

In Rev. 2:13 the church at Pergamum is said to dwell where “Satan’s throne is.” Interpreters have been divided in opinion as to whether this is a reference to the worship of Æsculapius, or to the presence of the great throne-like altar of Zeus, or to the fact that Pergamum was the seat of the worship of the Roman emperor.[331] On the whole, it seems probable that “Satan’s throne” is a reference to the fact that Pergamum was the seat of the government and of the worship of the emperor of Rome. When Augustus inaugurated emperor-worship in order to give the empire a bond of common sentiment, the first temple of the cult was erected at Pergamum. This was in 29 B. C. Under Vespasian and his successors it became a test of one’s Christianity whether he would or would not[332] offer incense to the statue of the emperor, and Christians were often persecuted because they would not. It is probable that in the remains of the temple to the emperor archÆologists have brought to light Satan’s throne. If, however, that throne were the altar of Zeus, it has nevertheless been brought to light.

(3) Thyatira, the modern Ak-Hissar, lay in a valley which joined the valley of the Hermus to the valley of the Caicus. The general direction of this valley was north and south. It was made an important city by Seleucus I of Syria (312-282 B. C.) in the latter part of his reign. Before this it had been an obscure village. Josephus declares[333] that Seleucus made Jews citizens of the cities which he founded in Asia, and apparently Thyatira was one of these, for there appears to have been a flourishing Jewish colony there. A little later than Seleucus, Thyatira became a city of Pergamum, and passed in 133 B. C. with the territories of that realm under the dominion of Rome. Thyatira was noted for its dyeing. Madder root, with which they dyed a Turkey-red, grows abundantly in the neighborhood.[334] As the ancients employed the names of colors with great laxity, this was often termed purple. Lydia, an enterprising seller of this purple, a Jewess from Thyatira, was present at Philippi when Paul and Silas preached there (Acts 16:14). Lydia was converted, and perhaps it was she who carried the Gospel back to Thyatira. Nothing has been discovered at Thyatira that throws light on the message to its church in Rev. 2:18-29.

(4) Sardis was one of the oldest cities of western Asia. It is situated on the south side of the great valley of the Hermus, just at the point where the river Pactolus issues from the Tmolus mountains. Pottery found in the course of excavations there carries its history back to sub-MycenÆan, if not to MycenÆan, times.[335] It was the seat of the worship of Atys or Cybele, a goddess that seems to have been kindred to the mother-goddess of the Hittites. It is probable that, could we penetrate back far enough, we should find that the place was once occupied by Hittites. Herodotus traces the descent of the first dynasty that ruled over the country to the goddess just mentioned.[336] Following this dynasty was, he says, another of twenty-one kings who ruled before the dynasty founded by Gyges. The Lydian kingdom of which we know began with Gyges in 697 B. C. and ended with Croesus in 546 B. C. Lydian inscriptions found at Sardis are written in the same alphabet as Etruscan inscriptions found in Italy. This indicates that the Lydians and Etruscans were closely akin, but, as the inscriptions have not yet been deciphered, they do not throw much light on either people.[337] It is possible that both peoples were related to the Hittites, but that is at present only a hypothesis.

The mountains to the south of Sardis are composed largely of gravel deposits left there by the melting of the glaciers at the end of the last glacial period. From these gravels the Pactolus brought down gold in ancient times. This was one of the sources of the wealth of the Lydian kings, and contributed to those riches which are still celebrated in the saying: “As rich as Croesus.”

The Lydian kingdom fell when Cyrus captured Sardis in 546 B. C. With the fall of the Persian empire the city passed into the hands of Alexander the Great, and subsequently into the hands of his general, Antigonous, then to the SeleucidÆ of Syria, then to the kings of Pergamum, and so to the dominion of Rome.

In 17 A. D. Sardis was shaken by a great earthquake which nearly destroyed the city. A mass of gravel and conglomerate rock was then hurled from the hill of the Acropolis of Sardis down into the city toward the temple, where the work of the excavator shows that it still lies.[338] A part of the city must have been buried under it. The city recovered from this disaster and by the end of the first century a Christian church existed there (Rev. 3:1-6). Sardis continued to be a city of importance until 1400-1403 A. D., when the Tartar conqueror, Timur or Tamerlane, swept over the country destroying everything before him. From this destruction Sardis never recovered. Two or three tiny wretched Turkish villages are now all that occupy the spot.[339]

The Acropolis of Sardis was composed of gravel and a comparatively soft conglomerate rock. It looks imposing and in ancient times looked far more imposing than now. It has been gradually crumbling away through the centuries. Ramsay thinks that this instability on the part of the city itself is alluded to in the words, “thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead” and in the exhortation to be watchful and to strengthen the things that remain, which follows it (Rev. 3:1, 2); (see Fig. 284).

Excavations were begun at Sardis by Princeton University under the direction of Prof. Howard Crosby Butler in 1909, and the digging continued for five seasons until interrupted by the great war.[340] The work began at the point where two columns of the ancient temple of Cybele were still protruding from the soil. The temple has been cleared and a considerable area around it has been examined. It appears that the temple was built in the fourth century B. C., that it suffered greatly in the earthquake of 17 A. D., and never was as splendid afterwards, though it was still in use in the second century A. D.[341] Many objects have been discovered which throw light upon the history and art of Lydia, and two bi-lingual inscriptions, one Lydian and Aramaic, the other Lydian and Greek, were found. These may afford the key to the decipherment of both Lydian and Etruscan. Jewelry resembling Etruscan jewelry found in Italy was also discovered.[342]

To the student of the Bible the most interesting discovery at Sardis was a little Christian church built at the southeast corner of the temple.[343] The entrance to this church was from the temple platform itself. The structure was entirely of brick and was in a remarkably good state of preservation. The building had apparently lost only its wooden roof. The apse of the church was toward the east, and still contained its primitive altar. It is uncertain at what date altars became a part of Christian worship. Origen in the third century A. D. admits the charge of Celsus that the Christians had no visible altar,[344] but Eusebius[345] in the next century speaks as though altars existed throughout the Christian world. This church at Sardis was built after the temple of Cybele had fallen into disuse, and even if not earlier than the fourth century of our era, this little structure is evidence that the name of the church had not been blotted out of the book of life (Rev. 3:5), but that it had rather appropriated to itself the once splendid precincts of the ancient heathen goddess.

(5) Philadelphia was situated twenty-eight miles east of Sardis, and lay in the valley of the Cogamis, a tributary of the Hermus. It is still a flourishing city of about 15,000 inhabitants. It is now called Ala-Sheher.[346] It is not to be confounded with the Philadelphia of the Decapolis in Palestine.[347]Philadelphia was founded by Attalus II, King of Pergamum, 159-138 B. C., who was called Philadelphus because of his devotion to his predecessor and brother, Eumenes II. Hence the city was named Philadelphia. It was founded for the purpose of spreading Hellenism in the eastern part of Lydia, and so was a missionary city from the first. With the other Pergamene territories it became a dependency of Rome in 133 B. C. In 17 A. D. it suffered severely from the same earthquake that destroyed Sardis. Indeed, at Philadelphia the quakings were even more severe. The trembling of the earth lasted for a long time. When Strabo wrote in 20 A. D. earthquake shocks at Philadelphia were an every-day occurrence. Few people lived in the city; most of the inhabitants spent their time outside.[348] Allusion to this is, perhaps, made in Rev. 3:12: “he shall go out thence no more.”

After the earthquake the city appealed to Rome for help. Tiberius granted it and also permitted the city to change its name to NeocÆsarea, or the city of the young CÆsar.[349] This, too, seems to be alluded to in Rev. 3:12, where another new name is to be conferred.

At Ala-Sheher a part of the city wall of Philadelphia may still be traced, and the sites of the acropolis, the theater, and the stadium may also be seen, as well as the ruins of an old Christian church.[350]

(6) Smyrna, at the mouth of the Hermus, is one of the very old cities of Asia Minor. A colony of Æolian Greeks founded a city here more than a thousand years before Christ. A little later the place was captured by Ionian Greeks, who held it till about 600 B. C., when it was conquered by the kings of Lydia and destroyed.[351] For three hundred years the name designated a district rather than a city. Lysimachus, the general of Alexander the Great who became king of Thrace (301-282 B. C.), refounded Smyrna as a Greek city about three miles southwest of the old site, and it has continued ever since to be an important seaport of Asia Minor. It passed with the other cities of the region successively under the sway of the kings of Syria, the kings of Pergamum, and of Rome. Smyrna is today one of the largest cities of the East with a population of between two and three hundred thousand.

Smyrna claimed to be the birthplace of Homer. Ælius Aristides (born 117 A. D.), who lived at Smyrna, several times likens the city to a crown, and apparently the crown was in some way associated with Smyrna; (see Fig. 287). The goddess of the place, who was a kind of Cybele, is pictured as wearing a crown.[352] This is, no doubt, the reason why in Rev. 2:10 a crown of life is promised to the church of Smyrna if she is faithful. No excavations have been made at Smyrna, but above the city the tomb of Polycarp,[353] said in tradition to have been a disciple of the Apostle John, is shown. Polycarp was martyred in 155 A. D. in one of those times of tribulation predicted in Rev. 2:10.

(7) Laodicea is situated a hundred miles east of Ephesus, in the valley of the Lycus, where the Lycus empties into the MÆander. It was founded by Antiochus II of Syria, 261-246 B. C.,[354] and named for his wife. Like Philadelphia, it was designed to be a missionary of Hellenism to the country of the region. Like the other Hellenic cities it was beautified with temples, theaters, and colonnaded streets. Later Laodicea passed under the control of Pergamum, and with that kingdom fell to Rome in 133 B. C. An influential element in its population was Jewish, and before Paul’s imprisonment in Rome a Christian church had been founded there (Col. 4:13). The city of Laodicea appears to have been devoted to commerce and to material things. In Rev. 3:15 its church is said to have been lukewarm. Except that its lukewarmness may have come from its commercial spirit, there is nothing in the history or archÆology of the city that illustrates the letter[355] to it in Rev. 3:14-22.

The site of Laodicea is now almost deserted. Only the wretched Turkish village of Eski Hissar represents habitation, but hundreds of acres are covered with the ruins of the once splendid city. For hundreds of years the villagers of neighboring hamlets have used the place as a quarry, but nevertheless its ruins are impressive. Two theaters are in a fairly good state of preservation; the seats are still in place.[356] The stadium is in a similar condition of preservation. Its aqueduct and its gates are still imposing in their dilapidation, but the desolation of Laodicea recalls the words: “I will spew thee out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16); (see Fig. 288).