Cappadocia Part 6 Antioch

TMay 15 - The first cities Paul visited on the Anatolian plateau were Antioch and Iconium.  One of the objectives of this mission was to tell the Jewish community that the Messiah, the hope of Israel, had come.  Paul and Barnabas therefore visited the synagogues in each city, where they got a hearing after the reading of the Law and Prophets on Shabbat.  But it was immediately clear that the Jews did not accept the Good News, and so they turned to the God-fearing Gentiles.  They responded enthusiastically, and on their trip home Paul and Barnabas organized the believers into little home-churches and appointed elders.

Iconium is now called Konya, a city of about one million people.  It is the center of the Mevlevi Order, the sect of the whirling dervishes.  Antioch, on the other hand, is a heap of ruins.  The pictures below are from Antioch near modern Yalvac, Turkey.

I was surprised at the size of Antioch.  In Paul's day, it must have had 50,000 or 60,000 inhabitants.  The amphitheater itself held 15,000 spectators.  The city is built on a gentle hill which faces the south.  There is a high, snow-covered mountain to the southwest.  It had two main streets which still have the original paving stones.  At the top of the city, overlooking everything, was a Roman temple.  The main square was just below it, and the temple was accessed by 12 steps.  One of the early excavators believed the synagogue Paul preached in lay at the bottom of this square.  There are remains of a Catholic Church at that location, and they found several Jewish artifacts there.  The amphitheater was cut into the natural hillside just below the synagogue.  Antioch had a large Jewish population and the Romans had encouraged soldiers to settle there as well.

Acts 13:14  "But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.  And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.  Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.  The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it................  And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.  Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.  And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.  But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.  Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.  For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.  And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed."

William Ramsey thought the synagogue of Paul's day lie beneath the ruins of this Catholic Church.

This picture was taken just above the 12 steps that led to the Temple of Zeus.  The broad area beyond is the main public square, and the synagogue lie at the far end.

This picture shows the public pool where people went every day for water.

The amphitheater stood in the center of Antioch

This was the plumbing supply shop of Antioch.  Smile.

The aquaduct leading to the city

Cappadocia Part 4 Ballooning

"Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon, 

Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon, 

We could float among the stars together, you and I
For we can fly, we can fly
Up, up and away
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
The world's a nicer place in my beautiful balloon
It wears a nicer face in my beautiful balloon
We can sing a song and sail along the silver sky"

(Apologies to the Fifth Dimension)

May 14 - We talked about doing a ballon ride, but when it actually came time to buy tickets, I decided not to go.  We learned that you have to get up at 4:30.  In the morning.  Even the sun isn't up that early.  But then we heard that the weather would be better than it had been all week.  Perfect, in fact.  I got to thinking about all of the wonderful pictures one could take with the right light.  All of a sudden, 4:30 AM didn't seem so unreasonable............

One cannot describe the ride.  It is smooth beyond belief.  You don't feel a thing as the balloon silently starts to take off from the ground.  You have to look down to confirm you are moving.  Our driver took us to 1000', and then slowly turned the basket in every direction.  He took us over the Rose Valley, the very place we had just hiked two days before.  We could see the rope we had climbed to get up on the bluff; the place where we had lunch.  He took us down to within 3' of the ground several times.  I could have picked flowers from the basket.  We counted over 60 balloons in the air.

They carefully blow in the hot air until the balloon stands up

This was the basket they put us in.  

The crew and Achmet, the driver

You can see where they just added hot air to this balloon to get it to rise.

There were balloons EVERYWHERE.

Cappadocia Part 5 Baglidere Valley

May 14 - We hiked Baglidere Valley today, which runs directly west of Goreme.  Later, the kids went four-wheeling, including a section of this valley.

Mike and Michelle went four wheeling 

The crew in front of the little restaurant

We enjoyed lunch in the hut in the background

Denita took this picture while four wheeling on the cliff above the valley

Cappadocia Part 3 - The Underground Cities

May 12 - The high plains of central Anatolia have been invaded from east and west many times over the millennia.  Instead of building walled cities, the usual way of protection, the inhabitants stumbled upon a novel way to survive. Under their villages, they dug elaborate tunnels and chambers where they could hide and wait for the enemy to pass.  Presumably the Persians and others passing through, finding a deserted village, assumed that the people had fled.

We drove above 15 miles to see the largest of these underground cities, Derinkuyu.  In it's heyday, they estimate it could hold 10,000 people.  It consists of ten levels of tunnels and rooms, the bottom four or five levels which are inaccessible. They had places to feed livestock, very deep wells, air shafts leading to the surface, places for worship and smaller niches in the rock for bedrooms.

The crew lined up near the entrance tunnel.

One particularly zany area

A large chamber about four levels down

Cappadocia Part 2 Rose Valley

May 13 - We hiked up the spectacular Rose Valley today.  The lighting was pretty marginal for an hour or so, but when the sun finally came, we got a few nice shots.  We stumbled upon a place that sold fresh orange juice and flatbread, which is seen in the first picture.

We went through several churches cut into the soft Cappadocian rock

Cappadocia Part 1

May 10 - We flew to Kayseri, Turkey on this date along with Mike and Michelle Robinson, and Kaitlyn Wieweck.  We are meeting my German buddy Roland von Ziehlberg, the subject of my Blog entitled "Give to Him that Asks." Cappadocia is a weird and wacky land smack dab in the middle of Turkey, and Goreme, where we are staying, is like something out of the Hobbit.   

Acts 2  "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.  And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.  Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.  And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?  And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?  Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,  Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God."

1 Peter 1  "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia ....." 

A view of the town of Goreme

Goreme is one of the strangest places I have ever seen,

with these "fairy chimneys" poking up everywhere.

The town of Goreme lies on the other side of these rocks

Viewing toward the Rose Valley

The so-called Open Air Museum, which used to be a monastic community

Spectacular Patmos, Revisited

This picture shows the bay at the northern end of the island

This picture was taken from the Prophet Elias Monastery,

at the south end of the island, and looks toward Grikos

This picture show Grikos

This picture views north toward the main town of Skala

Mike and Michelle

May 1 - Special Meetings here on the island have come and gone.  Mimi Beyer of Germany stayed an extra week, and we showed her some of interesting spots here.  One of Denita's old workers from Fred Meyer days, Judy Lawson, flew in and will stay a little over a week.  And on Friday, Mike Robinson, our daughter Michelle, and Kaitlyn Wieweck from Salem flew in!  We will show them the sights of Samos, and next week we fly to Cappadocia.

The eastern shore of Samos, which faces Turkey

The ancient church up the hillside at Vathy

Michelle Robinson and Kaitlyn Wieweck at Manolates

A view of Samos Harbor with Turkey in the background on the left

Kaitlyn Wieweck at Kokari, Samos

Jesus as Prophet

In Mathew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13, Jesus spoke about three future events: the destruction of the Temple, the end of the world, and his second coming.  One of them has come to pass; the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70.  His predictions on that event can be checked and we can thus evaluate his record as a prophet.

1.  "And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.  And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down (Mathew 24:1, 2).

There is a reason the disciples were astonished when he said that not one stone would be left on another.  According to Josephus, the stones that comprised the temple were 25 cubits by 12 cubits by 8 cubits.  In another place he gives the dimensions of the stones in the Antonia Tower: 20 cubits x 10 cubits by 5 cubits.  Construction of the temple commenced in the 18th year of Herod's reign, or BC 25.  In John 2 it tells us it had been 46 years in the making, so it had been completed only a few years when he uttered these words.  Today, the only stones remaining of this magnificent structure is the Western Wall, a remnant of the supporting wall of the temple compound.  So this prediction came true. 

2.  He predicted the time of the destruction.  It would happen to the generation then living.  Luke 11:49-50 - "Of this generation".  Luke 23:28-29 - "For your children".  Jesus was cruxified in A.D. 29 or A.D. 30, and the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70.  This prediction checks.

3.  Luke 21:20  "And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.  Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto."  The first Roman general Cestius began the conquest of Israel from the north.  He made his way down to Jerusalem late in A.D. 66, was in the process of taking the city when, according to Josephus, he left for some inexplicable reason.  No one knows why.  The next general, Vespasian, was near the city when he was called to Rome to be the emperor.  The saints in Jerusalem were given a second chance to escape.     

4.  He predicted the method of attack.  Luke 19:41-44 "Cast a trench about thee and keep thee in."  After Titus pierced the first two walls of the city, he built a wooden fence that hemmed them in.  It was 4.9 miles long, and it was built in just 3 days.  Now they could no longer forage for food. 

5.  Jesus wept over the City, and said it would be a time like no one had seen before.  Matthew 24:21 "For then shall there be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor shall ever be."  The actual siege of Jerusalem lasted 5 months.  Because of in-fighting between rivaling factions, all of the grain stored in the City was burned.  The situation became even more serious after the city was fenced in.  Toward the latter end of the siege, the starvation was so horrific that women cooked and ate their own children.

6.  Luke 21:24  "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations......... " Josephus records that 1.1 million Jews were killed and 97,000 were taken away captive.  In the aftermath of the war, so many slaves came on the market that slave prices in the Middle East were depressed for years.

7.  Luke 21:24  "and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."  After the Second Jewish Revolt ended AD 135, the Roman Emperor Hadrian banned Jews from the Holy City on pain of death.  It was thereafter controlled by Gentiles until the re-establishment of Israel in 1948.

8.  Daniel 9:27 said the sacrifice would cease in the middle of the week.  There are a lot of references to 42 months and 3 1/3 years.  The Daily Sacrifice ceased forever on August 4, A.D. 70.  It had been 3 1/2 years since the Romans first invaded the country. 

The Lord's predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem have been proven accurate down to the smallest detail.  This gives us confidence in his promises for our lives and eternal future.

The Greek Easter

April 12 - Easter is by far the most important event of the Orthodox year.  The excitement it generates is only matched by Christmas (or football) in a western country.  Oddly enough, the Orthodox and the Catholics rarely celebrate this holiest of seasons on the same day.  The Greek Orthodox use the old Julian calendar, which originated in Roman times, while the Roman Catholics use the calendrical innovations authorized by Pope Gregory in the 16th century.  And so it was that this year, Americans celebrated Easter one week before the Greeks.

Last week was Holy Week.  Every day, we were treated to an extra barrage of church bells. Then, on Friday evening, the racket reached a fever pitch.  I went down to the church to investigate.  I stood by the front door along with throngs of the faithful.  The priest came out, shook the holy water disperser known as the aspergillum, and my camera became a blessed machine.  Yes, I could see miracles in the next few pictures!  Mysterious little bubbles, but strangely, when I cleaned the lens, they disappeared.

I only got one decent picture of the procession.  It was dark, of course. I believe the symbolic coffin held aloft represents the death of Christ on this day.

The Greeks have a custom of roasting lamb on Easter Sunday, and our Greek friends invited us to their feast.  I immediately thought of the original Passover instructions in Exodus 12.  As many as could partake of a lamb would gather in a house.  I discovered there is not that much meat on a lamb.  One would think that a single lamb would feed ten or twelve people at the most.   It's a beautiful picture of a Sunday morning meeting.  The main reason we gather together on the Lords Day is to remember the Lamb of God.  He is the central focus of our meeting. There's nothing in the world as satisfying as feeding on the Lamb and leaving meeting with joy in our heart.  In an ironic twist, the Jews themselves no longer eat lamb with their Passover supper.  Because traditionally the lamb was slain in the Temple precinct, and today there is no Temple, they substitute a roasted leg (shank) bone in its place.

Exodus 12:1  "And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, .................  In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:  And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:  And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.  And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.  And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.  Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof."

The lamb is skewered top to bottom, the limbs wired to the spit, rosemary and other spices sprinkled inside, and then it was sewn up.

The lamb slowly turned on the spit for three hours until it was golden