Assos Sunrise, Pergamon, Sardis, & Thyatira

May 2

May 2, 2023

We got an early start today with some more drone filming over Assos just at sunrise. Then we loaded the bus for a 2 hour drive to the site of Pergamon, one of the seven churches in the book of Revelations:

Rev 2:12 -14 ‘And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: 'The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.

“I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel …

Many Scholars associate the “Seat of Satan” with the massive altar to Zeus that protruded from the Acropolis and was visible to all below and was the site of Christian martyrdom. Most of the altar was taken to Berlin during the excavations of this site and was reassembled in the Berlin Pergamon museum. The steps leading up to the altar are still visible.

To get to the acropolis there is gondola thank goodness! The most startling feature of this site visible today is the impossibly steep theater. Climbing from top to bottom and back again is a workout!!

Pergamon had a library that rivaled the library at Alexandria, only a portion of a wall is visible now.

The temple to Trajan is another impressive feature. This site also has a middle and lower city and an asklepion (early version of a hospital), which we didn’t get to see.

On the way to our next site, Sardis, we were thrilled that our leader Jim agreed to stop at the tiny archeological site of Thyatira. None of us had been there before and it is one of the 7 churches of Asia Minor mentioned in Revelations. Quick stop to see the very small park and for Craig to put the drone in the air - which was stressful in the middle of a big crowded city, poor reception for the drone controls.

Sardis is an archeological site famous for a massive temple to Artemis and for having the largest synagogue in antiquity outside of Israel. In Revelations this church is cautioned about compromising too much of their faith in order to fit into the Greco-Roman culture of their day. This is evident in how the synagogue has Roman images of eagles and in the way it shares a long wall with the massive gymnasium complex. There is a long line of shops outside the other wall of the synagogue, some with Christian symbols.

A long day due to the distances we had to drive, but now we are two nights in one place. Tomorrow we see Ephesus and St Paul’s grotto - an early Christian cave church (3-4th century AD) containing the earliest know art depicting Paul.