by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
The last of the 7 letters dictated to the Apostle John was for the messenger to the church/congregation/assembly located in Laodicea. Ancient Laodicea’s ruins are near the modern village of Ekihisar, in the province of Denizli, Turkey.
To continue our study of the 7 Churches of the Apocalypse, as usual I sent out pictures of our October 2019 trip to Turkey to show the location of ancient Laodicea and its ruins archaeologically revealed today together with my translation of Revelation 3:14-22; both of which we will refer to. As before, we start by reviewing the historical and cultural context of Laodicea.
According to the NASB Life Application Study Bible, Laodicea was the “wealthiest of the seven cities, known for its banking industry, manufacture of wool, and a medical school that produced eye salve.” The NIV Study Bible asserts that Laodicea “was the wealthiest city in Phrygia during Roman times.” The ESV Global Study Bible concurs and even notes that the city was “so wealthy that it declined (Roman) imperial disaster relief after an earthquake in A.D. 60.” This is attested by antiquity records; the Roman historian Tacitus (Annals, 14:27) says that Laodicea was “overthrown by an earthquake and without any relief from us recovered itself by its own resources.”
Laodicea (Greek Λαοδικεία, “Laodikeia”) was a city by the Lykos (Lycus) River founded in Phrygia by Antiochus II Theos (261-246 BC), a Seleucid king in 260 BC. There are 2 notions of the origin of the city’s name: one, it was named after the wife (and cousin) of Antiochus II Theos, who was the daughter of Antiochus I Soter; the other view says that it was named after the mother of Seleucus I Nicator (https://www.britannica.com/place/Laodicea). Both women were apparently named Laodice (Greek Λαοδικη, “”Laodike”). The name is also prominently found in several ancient Greek documents related to the Seleucid royalty (http://www.attalus.org/names/l/laodice.html). In Homer’s Iliad, Laodice is also cited as a daughter of the Trojan War’s King Priam and Hecuba of Troy (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/laodice).
Laodicea was apparently the name for many cities in Asia Minor; the most important was the one in Phrygia by the Lycus River, hence the name appendage Laodicea ad Lycum (https://www.britannica.com/place/Laodicea). Laodicea is a compound name made up of 2 Greek words: λαός, “laos” meaning “people” and δίκη, “dike” meaning “right” or “legal judgment” or “justice” (from Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006, 2011 by Biblesoft, Inc., as referenced in https://biblehub.com/greek/2993.htm). Hence, Laodicea would mean “justice of the people.” Historically, the Turkish Archaeological sources say that Laodicea as a place/settlement was formerly named “Diospolis” or the City of Zeus, and then “Rhodas” (https://turkisharchaeonews.net/site/laodicea-lycus). But its Seleucid dynasty royal name replaced these earlier names.
Laodicea occurs only 6 times in the New Testament (NT); 4 times in Colossians (2:1; 4:13, 4:15 and 4:16) and twice in Revelation (1:11 and 3:14). It is interesting to note that in the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, he mentions Laodicea and Hierapolis. In fact, these 3 places are very near to each other: 10 km. north of Laodicea is the Roman Spa city of Hierapolis; 14.5 km. to the east is Colossae. One can see in Slide 5 the proximity of these 3 cities. Our short side trip to Hierapolis-Pamukkale, a UNESCO World Heritage Site from Laodicea, as shown in the Slides 25-30; gives one a sense of something reflective of what was written in the 7th Letter to the messenger of the church in Laodicea and other writings in the NT.
There is an interesting side note about the church/assembly in Laodicea. As some Biblical scholars note, the letters of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians and to the Colossians bear so much similarity. Some scholars duly note that a letter to the Ephesians may have been a circular letter specifically meant by Paul to be shared by different churches. The Epistle to the Colossians certainly point this out for a letter to the Laodiceans (see Colossians 4:16). Unfortunately, we do not have an extant copy of this letter to the Laodiceans. But as some Biblical scholars are postulating (as per NIV Study Bible), the existing letter to the Ephesians may have been the actual letter to the Laodiceans. Some early Greek manuscripts of the Apostle Paul’s letter to Ephesians do not contain the name of Ephesus in the very first verse and verse 1:15 also sounds very strange for Paul to say since he stayed in Ephesus for about 3 years. Hence, while the letter to the messenger of the church in Ephesus in the Book of the Revelation is truly for that city; the letter to Ephesus by the Apostle Paul might have been the “lost” letter to the Laodiceans referred to in Colossians 4:16. What do you think?
As stated in the beginning, Laodicea was heavily damaged by earthquakes in its history. There were earthquakes every 20 years in that region. After the 60 AD destruction, the city was rebuilt without Roman help. It literally pulled itself up by its bootstraps (“reboot” in computer lingo). The wealth of Laodicea enabled it to survive hundreds of years even with so much destruction. Recall that our Tour Guide mentioned that major earthquakes are quite frequent occurrences in Asia Minor during ancient times; not only in the 1st century but also in the 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th centuries AD. Some sources say that Laodicea was abandoned in the 7th century AD after a devastating earthquake destroyed it (again!). The colonnaded Syria Street our Tour group walked on (as shown in Slides 6-12) is a testament to how the earthquake(s) toppled columns, arches and made the street wavy and the marble blocks disjointed. But Byzantine records speak of the city even up to the 13th century.
However, some facts are indisputable: Laodicea was a prominent and very wealthy banking center in the entire ancient Asia Minor; its famous black wool; and its “Phrygian powder” eye salve, called “kollyria” made up of local sources of zinc and alum (https://turkisharchaeonews.net/site/laodicea-lycus). The modern equivalent of their level of banking can be thought of as akin to global funds transfer or big trade/merchant money transactions. It goes way beyond the mundane banking transactions most people regularly do.
The size of this ancient city itself was indicative of its importance and wealth. Its area encompassed 5 square kilometers. It even had 2 Theaters. The Western Theater was built during the Greek period while the Northern Theater which we saw (Slides 13-15) was during the Roman era. While the capacity of this Northern Theater was 20,000 people; it was smaller in comparison to the Great Theater in Ephesus that could seat 25,000 people; but bigger than the Theater in Pergamum which could accommodate 10,000 people. And by the way, the older, Hellenistic Western Theater that was destroyed in the 5th century AD by an earthquake, could seat 15,000 Laodiceans in its heyday.
Historians know that the Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great (223-187 BC) brought to Phrygia (and other nearby areas including Philadelphia) some 2,000 Jewish families from Babylon. The presence of these Jews became firmly established and their wealth was staggering. The Roman statesman, Cicero mentions that this Jewish community sent 9 kg. of gold to the Temple in Jerusalem every year (https://turkisharchaeonews.net/site/laodicea-lycus)!
As a side note, Antiochus III the Great was the father of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 BC), the ruler who later desecrated the same Jerusalem Temple which brought about the Maccabean Revolt and Jewish independence before the Romans conquered Judea in 64 BC.
It is plausible that the first Jewish believers of Jesus Christ in Laodicea, Hierapolis and Colossae came from the descendants of this community. After all, Phrygia is mentioned in the Pentecost event in Acts 2 (v. 10).
The ruins of the Church of Laodicea (Slides 16-23) are its top tourist attraction today. It was discovered via ground radar in 2010 and the Turkish archaeological authorities have been busily restoring it. It was originally built in the 4th century AD by Constantine the Great of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. But no one can say for sure if this church was built upon the foundations or even location of the 1st century AD church that the Apostle John sent the letter to. In later Church History, Laodicea during the centuries became a recognized Christian bishopric and a Cathedral once existed there (Slide 24). But the Cathedral has not yet been restored compared to the 4th century Church of Laodicea that our Tour group visited.
We can now proceed to study the letter to the messenger of the church in Laodicea based on the common outline of Revelation 2 and 3.
Destination – Revelation 3:14. The letter is addressed to an individual messenger-leader (Greek αγγελος, “angelos”) of the church in Laodicea.
Description of Jesus Christ – Revelation 3:14. Jesus is the “Amen,” the “faithful and true witness,” and “the beginning of the creation of God.”
Rebuke/Condemnation – Revelation 3:15-17.
Commendation – None.
Exhortation – Revelation 3:18-20, 22.
Promise – Revelation 3:21.
We will continue next week.
God bless us all.