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sunset while watching people fish, dodging vendors of nuts and cold drinks, and enjoying an almost cool breeze from the water.

Ephesus

Ephesus is known to Christian folk mainly from Paul’s visit in Acts 19 and the letter he later wrote to the church there. I don’t know how big the church was, but the city was huge. And in the summer, it was hot. It still is. The upper city was home to offices and such for city officials and upper class folk. Ordinary people weren’t allowed, though I suspect any number of service people would have been working there at any time. What looks like a small theater was used as a council house for city business. Next door was a sacred area dedicated to the Roman emperor and to Artemis, whose statue was found there.

Fancy terrace houses hugged the hillside across from the Temple of Hadrian, some of them featuring fancy mosaics, wall paintings, indoor plumbing, and heated floors. The hoi polloi used public bathrooms across the street.

The most impressive building in the city was not a temple, but a multi-story library that housed up to 12,000 scrolls and doubled as a tomb for Gaius Julius Celsus Plemanenus, the governor of

Asia. Built

by his son, Galius Julius Aquilla, it was reportedly the third-largest library in the ancient world, behind

The baptistery in the ruins of the the Basilica of St. John near Ephesus

Alexandria and Pergamum. Four women symbolic of wisdom (Sophia), valor (Arete), intelligence (Ennoia), and knowledge (Episteme) adorned the facade, which is architecturally designed to produce an optical illusion: the outside columns are slightly shorter than the ones in the middle, making it look larger. I loved it. A famed arena in Ephesus could reportedly hold 25,000 people. It was there, according to Acts 19, that angry silversmiths dragged some of Paul’s companions and started a near-riot, shouting “Great is Artemis (Diana) of the Ephesians!” The arena stood at the end of a road leading directly from the

city harbor, which was at the end of a narrow inlet from the Aegean Sea. Unfortunately, the harbor silted in over the years, making the site less suited for commerce. The city entered a period of decline, and was eventually abandoned. Ephesus today is six miles from the sea, and inhabited only by tourists and cats. In nearby Celchik, the Basilica of St. John was one of the

largest basilicas of the ancient world. Built in the sixth century by the Emperor Justinian, it featured six domes over a large cruciform floor plan. Nothing is left of the domes, but my favorite part has survived: a real live walk in-walk out baptistery. Who would have thought?

Thyatira and Pergamum

With Smyrna (Izmir) and Ephesus (Epes) down, Day Two’s mission was to visit Thyatira (Akhisar) and Pergamum (Bergama). After an early departure from Manisa, we traveled to Thyatira, whose church was congratulated in Revelation for growing in deeds, faith, and love – but criticized for tolerating a woman called Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess but reportedly promoted immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. What’s left of first century Thyatira is a small fenced-off area

in the middle of modern Akhisar, where the remains are jumbled and largely from later periods. Trying to imagine what it looked like when Lydia (Acts 16:14) was purveying her purple cloth was difficult. From Thyatira we drove through Soma, where 301 coal miners were killed in an explosion in May, sparking widespread (Continued on next page)

Paul during his two-year ministry in Ephesus. Polycarp never knew Paul, but he did know his writings and quoted them often. He certainly knew those who had been won to faith in Christ through the witness of the great apostle. Indeed, Polycarp would later write his own letter to the church at Philippi, the same congregation Paul had addressed from prison. “I am not able to follow the deep wisdom of the blessed and glorious Paul,” Polycarp wrote – what he says is over my head – but you all keep on steeping yourselves in his wisdom, keep on studying his letters by which “you will be able to build yourselves up into the faith given you.” Polycarp commended Paul, but he had a personal relationship

with the apostle John. We know this through the witness of Irenaeus, the great teacher and bishop of Lyons, who was also a native son of Smyrna. Irenaeus grew up in this city in the very shadow of Polycarp, sitting at his feet just as Polycarp had earlier sat at the feet of John. As an old man remembering something vivid from his youth, Irenaeus tells us how he recalled the very chair where Polycarp sat, how he tilted his head, the sound of gravel in his voice when he spoke, the weight of his hand on his shoulder.

(Continued on next page) BWA Reprints

Turkish New Testament The Baptist World Alliance provided particle

funding for the reprinting of 15,000 copies of the Turkish New Testament Bible that were made available to Baptists in Turkey and Moldova. The BWA is delighted in “making the Bible available to the Turkish people in their heart language,” said Baptist World Aid Director Rothangliani Chhangte. “My hope and prayer is that in reading the Bible, the people will re- discover their Christian roots and come to know and accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior.”