ΣΑΜΟΣ: Smyrna

October 4 - We are flying back today from Istanbul by way of Izmir. Izmir is the biblical Smyrna, one of the Seven Churches of the Revelation. I am collecting visits to these places like I used to collect baseball cards. Smyrna is number three on our list.

Ancient Smyrna lies about 1/2 mile from the present coastline, right in the middle of big, bustling Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey. We visited two sets of ruins from two different eras. These sites are several miles apart. The first four pictures show archaic Smyrna, which was destroyed by Cyrus the Great around BC 545. This city was built on a small hill at the mouth of the Hermus River. We were able to walk around the excavated walls in under half hour, so it could not have contained more than a couple thousand souls.

The Smyrna of Paul's day was built south of the Hermus River, stretching from a harbor on the Aegean Sea up the slopes of Mt. Pagus. It was founded about 300 BC. Due to the terracing of streets and homes up the hillside, this city was praised far and wide for its beauty. It may or may not be a coincidence, but the acropolis atop Mt. Pagus was called the "Crown of Smyrna," see Rev. 2:10. We saw the lower agora area, with several standing temple pillars, and the basement of an adjacent basilica that had been partially excavated. Most of our pictures show the massive stone arches of that underground basement. Smyrna was one of the greatest cities of the Roman province of Asia, boasting almost 100,000 citizens.

We learn from Rev 2:9 that Smyrna was one of the churches which gave ear to the false apostles, the circumcising missionaries who were teaching gentiles to keep Torah: "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy (ie, slander) of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." This is a concise, but very accurate, description of the proto-Catholic movement. The other church which had to contend with this doctrine was Philadelphia, see Rev. 3:9. Smyrna was the center of the early Catholic Church until it was superseded by Rome in the middle of the second century. The Catholic elder of Smyrna, Polycarp, is one of the few links to the apostles claimed by the Roman and Orthodox churches. We still possess an account of his death, The Martyrdom of Polycarp, reliably dated to AD 155.

The day we left Istanbul, we were warned that space on ferries and rental cars would be scarce. I asked why, and was told the Festival of the Sacrifice would begin the next day. I had never heard of it, but the Muslims commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac on Mt. Moriah. So we ended up flying to Izmir. Once there, we got on the bus and just before we hit the metropolitan area, we saw what appeared to be a county fair. Huge tents, livestock, and lots of cars parked in a field. The faithful were buying their sheep and cattle for the festival. Both our taxi driver and a hotel man volunteered the information that, when they butch it, 1/3rd goes to their family, 1/3rd to the neighbors and friends, and 1/3rd to the poor. It brings out an aspect of the Jewish Passover that might be a little unpleasant to our American sensibilities. One lady told us she finds butchering distasteful, so she just sends money to the poor in Africa.

Pictures of archaic Smyrna