Gortyna Crete and Titus
“Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ…To Titus, my true child in a common faith; Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior…This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order…” Titus 1:1,4,5
The Basilica of St Titus at Gortyna commemorates the ministry of Titus on Crete, where Titus is considered Crete’s first bishop. The basilica is from the 6th century AD, but Gortyna itself has evidence of settlement from the 7th century BC on. It was an important city in the Roman era and is mentioned in the Apocrypha in such a way that it is clear there was an active Jewish community here - though no synagogue has yet been found.
The site is huge. The less developed area contains ruins of many temples, Roman baths, a theater, hippodrome and Praetorium. Unfortunately we had just a little time so we saw the basilica area, the Odeon and the famous Gortyna law code inscribed on the Odeon wall in the 1st century AD.
The code dates from 500 BC and was inscribed on the walls for all to see. These stones with inscriptions were reused in building a new Odeon in the 1st century over the same site. Archeologist were able to partially reconstruct the wall and inscriptions. Scholars have translated the law code, written alternating right to left the left to right (boustrophedon writing style) and found detailed laws relating to all aspects of life dating from the Minoan era.
The city of Heraklion also has a church dedicated to Titus, Haggis Titos. The building was constructed in 1869 as a mosque and was converted to a church in 1925.
We included some pictures from the Heraklion archeological museum related to the Bronze Age Minoan civilization on Crete. Also some photos from the Minoan Palace of Knossos. The Minoan civilization is still a mystery and their writing undeciphered, but some have speculated that Minoans could be predecessors of the Biblical Philistines and “sea peoples”. Philistine pottery has similarities to Minoan pottery.
Gortyna, Crete
