What have the Seven Churches of Revelation got to do with the classic western movie ‘The Magnificent Seven’?
Nothing except, the number Seven (7). This would be my favourite Western movie. This passage related to The Letter to the Seven Churches is fast becoming a favourite passage of Scripture. How many survived in the movie? Three. Chris, Vin and Chico, the other four perished. How many of these cities / churches survived? I will let you work it out. I have spent the time researching both the historical details of the cities and the survival of the churches. I decided I wanted to find out what happened to each of these cities and more importantly to the churches in each place. I have laid my findings out for you to ponder. I have summarised it in such a way that gives those of you who want the detail and those of who just want a quick summary to both be satisfied. Look carefully at the evidence and come to your own conclusions.
Ephesus – The City
- Ephesus became a part of the Roman Empire in 129 BC.
- 27 AD when Augustus made Ephesus the capital of proconsular Asia.
- Ephesus then entered an era of prosperity, becoming both the seat of the governor and a major centre of commerce.
- It was second in importance and size only to Rome.
- The city and temple were destroyed by the Goths in 263 AD.
- Emperor Constantine rebuilt much of the city and erected new public baths. Eventually the harbour became silted up, and the city lost its natural resources.
- In 341 AD a council of the Christian church was held there. The city itself soon lost its importance and decreased in population. The sculptured stones of its great buildings, which were no longer in use and were falling to ruins, were carried away to Italy, and especially to Constantinople for the great church of Saint Sophia.
- Ephesus remained the most important Byzantine city in Asia after Constantinople in the 5th and 6th centuries AD.
- Ephesus declined when Constantinople became the seat of Roman government.
- The Basilica of St John was built during the reign of Emperor Justinian I in the 6th Century AD.
- The city’s fate declined after the Sasanian War – Byzantine vs Sasania (Iran) in 614/615 AD.
- The importance of the city as a commercial centre further declined as the harbour (today 5 km inland) was slowly silted up by the river despite repeated dredging.
- The Arabs sacked the city in the year 654–655 AD and later in 700 and 716 AD.
- When the Seljuk Turks conquered Ephesus in 1090 AD, it was a small village.
- The Byzantines resumed control in 1097 AD and changed the name of the town to Hagios Theologos.
- They kept control of the region until 24 October 1304 AD when the town surrendered to Sasa Bey, a Turkish warlord.
- The Turks pillaged the Church of Saint John in 1308 AD and took possession of the little that remained of the city, and deported or murdered its inhabitants.
- The Cayster River, overflowing its banks, gradually covered the site where the Temple of Diana had once stood, and the site was forgotten.
- Crusaders passing through were surprised that there was only a small village, called Ayasalouk, where they had expected a bustling city with a large seaport.
- Even the temple of Artemis was completely forgotten by the local population.
- Ephesus was completely abandoned by the 15th Century AD.
Ephesus – The Church
- Ephesus became a Christian city early in the process due to Paul’s preaching.
- The Church in Ephesus had the pick of leadership: Paul, Timothy, John, Apollos, Priscilla, Aquilla and more.
- In the early 2nd century, the church at Ephesus was still important enough to be addressed by a letter written by Bishop Ignatius of Antioch.
- The church at Ephesus had given their support for Ignatius, who was taken to Rome for execution.
- Polycrates of Ephesus then succeeded Timothy as bishop of Ephesus in the 2nd Century AD.
- Ephesus hosted the Third Ecumenical Council in 431 AD
- A Second Council of Ephesus was held in 449 AD, but its controversial acts were never approved by the Catholics. It came to be called the Robber Council of Ephesus.
- Ephesus had an autonomous archbishopric, the Metropolisan of Ephesus until the 9th Century. (?)
Smyrna – The City
- In Roman times, Smyrna was considered the most brilliant city of Asia Minor, successfully rivalling Pergamos and Ephesus.
- Its streets were wide and paved. It was celebrated for its schools of science and medicine, and the birthplace of Homer, the poet – the Homerium.
- On the slope of Mt. Pagus was a theatre which seated 20,000 spectators.
- Smyrna became an early Christian city.
- Smyrna suffered frequently, especially during the years 78-80 AD, from earthquakes, but it always escaped entire destruction.
- After a destructive earthquake in 178 AD, Smyrna was rebuilt in the 2nd century under the emperor Marcus Aurelius.
- Smyrna declined when Constantinople became the seat of Roman government; the trade between Anatolia and the West diminished in importance.
- During the Middle Ages the city was the scene of many struggles.
- The Seljuk Turk commander Tzachas seized Smyrna in 1084 and used it as a base for naval raids, but the city was recovered by the general John Doukas.
- The city was several times ravaged by the Turks and had been ruined when the Nicaean emperor rebuilt it about 1222.
- The city was still in ruin when the chieftain of the Beylik of Aydın had conquered it about 1330 and made his son, Umur, governor. It became the port of the Emirate.
- During the Smyrniote Crusade in 1344, on October 28, the combined forces of the Knights Hospitaliers of Rhodes, the Republic of Venice, the Papal States and the Kingdom of Cyprus, captured both the harbour and city from the Turks, which they held for nearly 60 years;
- The citadel fell in 1348, with the death of the governor Umur Baha ad-Din Ghazi.
- 1402 Tamerlane, an Afghan Mogul, stormed the town and massacred almost all the inhabitants. In 1424 Tamerlane filled up the smaller inner harbour so it could no longer be used.
- His conquest was only temporary, as Smyrna was recovered by the Turks under the Aydın dynasty.
- The Ottomans took over the lands of Aydın after 1425.
- The occupation of Smyrna came to an end when the Turkish army of Kemal Atatürk entered the city on September 9, 1922, at the end of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922).
- In the immediate aftermath, a fire broke out in the Greek and Armenian quarters of the city on September 13, 1922, known as the Great Fire of Smyrna.
- The death toll is estimated to range from 10,000 to 100,000. Greek influence was so strong in the area that the Turks called it “Smyrna of the infidels” (Gavur Ä°zmir).
- Modern Smyrna is still the largest city in Asia Minor, with a population of about 250,000, of whom half are Greek and less than one-fourth are Muslims.
- Two separate parts of the city were controlled by two different powers, the upper Izmir being Muslim and the lower part of the city Christian.
Smyrna – The Church
- A Christian church and a bishopric existed here from earliest times, probably originating in the considerable Jewish colony.
- Saint Ignatius of Antioch visited Smyrna and later wrote letters to its bishop, Polycarp.
- Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna, was martyred there in the city in 153 AD. His grave is still marked in a cemetery there.
- Polycrates reported a succession of bishops including Polycarp of Smyrna.
- The church in Smyrna was one of the churches that Tertullian felt had real apostolic succession.
- During the mid 3rd century, most inhabitants became affiliated with the Greco-Roman churches.
- Already from the early Christian years Smyrna was a part of the archbishopric of the wider Metropolisan of Ephesus.
- During the 9th Century AD the local archbishopric was promoted to a Metropolisan. At the time of its promotion, the diocese of Smyrna held the 39th position in the Notitiae Episcopatuum, while during the reign of Emperor Leo VI (886–912) it held the 44th position.
- The city was also the place of exile of the monk Theodore the Studite, who played a major role in the revivals both of Byzantine monasticism and of classical literary genres in Byzantium.
- In the 13th Century AD the city thrived under the Empire of Nicaea, when several churches and monasteries were erected.
- With the Fall of Constantinople (1453) to the Ottomans, a major reorganization occurred in the ecclesiastical administration.
- The diocese of Smyrna survived and managed to retain its status as a Metropolisan of the Orthodox Church.
- During the 17th and 18th Centuries a significant number of local Christians were martyred for rejecting conversion to Islam and were tortured by the Muslim authorities.
- At that period the Christian community increased enormously.
- The most important Greek educational institution of the region was the Evangelical School that operated from 1733 to 1922.
- Orthodox Christianity in Smyrna ended as a result of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922.
- In September 1922, during the events of the Great Fire of Smyrna, thousands of civilians lost their lives and the survivors found refuge to Greece.
- It is estimated that of a total of 459 priests and bishops of the Metropolisan of Smyrna, 347 of them were murdered by the Turkish army.
- Among them, the Bishop of the Metropolisan, Chrysostomos.
- In the mid-2010s, several Greek churches in Izmir were renovated by the municipal authorities and opened for occasional services.
- On 29 August 2016, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople elected the elder Bartholomew Samaras as Metropolitan of Smyrna.
- There exists a list of the early Bishops and an incomplete list of the martyrs in Smyrna.
Pergamum – The City
- Under Trajan, Pergamum had undergone a massive rebuilding programme in 113/114 AD and was raised to the rank of Metropolis in 123.
- In the middle of the 2nd century Pergamon was one of the largest cities in the province, and had around 200,000 inhabitants.
- The economic strength of Pergamon collapsed during the crisis of the Third Century when the Roman Empire nearly collapsed,
- The city was badly damaged in an earthquake in 262
- Pergamum was sacked by the Goths shortly after.
- In AD 663/4, Pergamon was captured by raiding Arabs for the first time. The extent of the city was reduced to the Acropolis.
- The city was largely formed of refugees from the Muslim conquests.
- In 716, Pergamon was sacked again by the armies of Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik.
- It was again rebuilt and refortified after the Arabs abandoned their Siege of Constantinople in 717–718.
- Pergamon suffered from the Seljuk invasion of western Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.
- Attacks in 1109 and 1113 largely destroyed the city, which was only rebuilt, by Emperor Manuel I Komnenos around 1170.
- After the Sacking of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, Pergamon became part of the Empire of Nicaea.
- When Emperor Theodore II Laskaris (r. 1254–1285) visited Pergamon in 1250, he was shown the remains of the house of Galen, but the theatre had been destroyed and the monuments of the Attalids and the Romans were only plundered ruins by this time.
- With the expansion of the Anatolian Beyliks, Pergamon was absorbed into the Beylik of the Karasids shortly after 1300,
- Pergamum was then conquered by the Ottoman Beylik.
- The town fell into the hands of the Seljuks in 1304
- 1336 it was taken by Suleiman, the son of Orkhan, and became Turkish.
- The modern name of the town, which is of considerable size, is Bergama, with 15 mosques. One of which is the early Byzantine church of Sophia.
- Note the Turkish version of the ancient name.
Pergamum – The Church
- 92 AD Antipas was burned to death by a mob in front of the Temple of Serapis. (Inside a brazen bull incense burner)
- Under Isaac II Angelos (1185–1195), the local See was promoted to a Metropolisan Bishopric, having previously been a suffragan diocese of the Metropolisan of Ephesus.
- During the Byzantine times Pergamos still continued as a religious centre with a bishop in residence there.
Thyatira – The ‘City’
- Thyatira was a small, insignificant town. It stood on none of the Greek trade routes, but upon the lesser road between Pergamos and Sardis, but never a metropolis.
- In 366 AD, a battle fought near Thyatira saw the army of Roman Emperor Valens defeat Roman usurper Procopius.
Thyatira – The Church
- The Apostle Paul and Silas might have visited Thyatira during Paul’s second or third journey, Acts 16:13-16. They visited several small unnamed towns in the general vicinity during the second journey.
- While in Philippi, Paul and Silas stayed with a woman named Lydia from Thyatira, who continued to help them even after they were jailed and released.
- The city was home to a Christian community from the Apostolic period.
- The community continued until 1922, when the Orthodox Christian population was deported.
- Records exist for a 19th-century bishopric for Thyatira
- There is a Byzantine Basilica of Thyatira
- The Archdiocese of Thyatira and Great Britain is an archdiocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
- In 1922, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople appointed an exarch for Western and Central Europe with the title Archbishop of Thyateira.
- The current archbishop of Thyatira (since 2019) is Nikitas Lulias.
- The Archbishop of Thyatira resides in London and has pastoral responsibility for the Greek Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta and the Channel Islands.
- The adherents are largely of Cypriot Greek descent, mainland Greek migrants and their descendants, and more recently native British converts along with a few Poles, Belarusians, and Ukrainians.
- The see of Thyatira is also included, without archiepiscopal rank, in the Roman Catholic Church’s list of titular sees.
- The first recorded organised Greek Orthodox community in England was established in 1670 by a group of 100 Greek refugees from Mani.
- Their priest was Daniel Boulgaris, who also seems to have taken the initiative to gain permission from the Anglican Bishop of London to build a permanent church for his growing flock.
- The church was confiscated in 1684 and handed over to Huguenot refugees from France, much to the anger of the Greek archbishop.
- During the next 150 years, the community had to worship in the Imperial Russian Embassy. Finally, in 1837, an autonomous community was set up in Finsbury Park in London.
- There is a list of six archbishops who have served this bishopric since 1922.
- 114 parishes and monasteries in the UK and Ireland (as at 2021).
Sardis – The City
- One of the oldest and most important cities of Asia Minor, Sardis was occupied for at least 3500 years, settled before 1500 BC.
- But through the failure to watch, however, the acropolis had been successfully scaled in 549 BC by a Median soldier.
- Sardis was conquered by Cyrus the Great around 547 BC.
- In 499 BC, Sardis was attacked and burned by the Ionians as part of the Ionian Revolt against Persian rule.
- In 334 BC, Sardis was conquered by Alexander the Great. The city was surrendered without a fight.
- For the next two centuries, the city passed between Hellenistic rulers.
- 12 years later in 322 BC it was taken by Antigonus.
- In 301 BC, it fell into the possession of the Seleucidan kings who made it the residence of their governor.
- 218 BC was scaled by a Cretan soldier and the city captured
- In 219 BC, Sardis became part of the Roman Empire and continued to prosper and gain political importance in the province of Asia.
- In 190 BC it became free again when it became part of the empire of Pergamos, and later of the Roman province of Asia.
- In 17 AD, when it was destroyed by an earthquake.
- Sardis never recovered its former importance.
- In 295 AD, after the Roman province of Asia was broken up, Sardis became the capital of Lydia.
- In 615 AD Sardis was one of the cities sacked in the Byzantine–Sasanian War, in the invasion of Asia Minor by the Persian Shahin.
- Though the Byzantines eventually won the war, the damage to Sardis was never fully repaired.
- Sardis began to decline in the 600s AD.
- It remained part of the Byzantine Empire until 1071 AD, when it was conquered by the Seljuk Turks.
- It was reconquered in 1097 by the Byzantine General, John Doukas.
- In 1118, Byzantine General Philocales recaptured Sardis from the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum.
- It came under the rule of the Byzantine Empire of Nicea when Constantinople was taken by the Venetians and Franks in 1204.
- However once the Byzantines retook Constantinople in 1261, Sardis and surrounding areas fell under the control of Ghazi emirs (Arab Bedouin).
- Andronikos, Bishop of Sardis, in 1283 AD made several attempts at East-West reunification.
- The Ottoman Turks captured Sardis in 1306; the city was finally destroyed by Timur in 1402.
- Sardis flourished until 1402 when it was so completely destroyed by Tamerlane (Tamur or Timur) that it was never rebuilt.
- Among the ruins there now stands a small village called Sert / Sart close to the original site of Sardis.
- By the 1700s, only two small hamlets existed at the site.
- In the 20th century, a new town was built.
It is ironic that in the mountains above Sardis there is a robber gang led by the notorious Chakirjali. No government force can take him; again and again he swoops down on one part of the region or another. From time immemorial these mountains have been the haunts of robbers; which adds meaning to the words of Jesus: ‘I will come upon thee as a thief.’
Sardis – The Church
- Sardis retained its titular supremacy and continued to be the seat of the Metropolisan bishop of the province of Lydia, formed in 295 AD.
- It was enumerated as third, after Ephesus and Smyrna, in the list of cities of the Thracesion thema given by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the 10th century.
- Andronikos was Bishop of Sardis in 1283 AD
- The Metropolisan of Sardis, who had once ranked sixth in precedence in the Eastern church, continued to hold that rank into the 13th century.
- In 1369, Philadelphia replaced Sardis as the See of the Metropolisan bishop.
- A representative of Metropolisan of Sardis, Dionysius, participated in the Council of Florence in 1438
- Over the next four centuries it came under the Bishopric of Philadelphia, along with Magnesia-upon-Sipylum.
- There are 15 named bishops listed as Bishop of Sardis from Clement to the present day.
Philadelphia – The City
- Philadelphia was founded after 189 BC on one of the highways which led to the interior.
- Another name it bore during the 1st Century AD was Neo-Kaisaria.
- Rome took control of the Province of Asia in 129 BC, and therefore the town of Philadelphia.
- During the reign of Vespasian, the town was called Flavia.
- It grew in power, and retained its importance even until late Byzantine times.
- Philadelphia remained a major Christian centre after the New Testament period.
- Philadelphia was a prosperous Byzantine city in the 6th century AD when the Basilica of St. John was built.
- The city was taken by the Seljuk Turks in 1074 and 1093–1094.
- In 1098, during the First Crusade, it was recovered by Byzantine Emperor Alexios I.
- It was the centre of several revolts against ruling Byzantine emperors: in 1182, led by John Komnenos Vatatzes,
- Frederick Barbarossa entered it while on his crusade in 1190.
- 1188–1205 or 1206, Theodore Mangaphas, a local Philadelphian, defended the city against Isaac II Angelos.
- Twice, in 1306 and 1324, it was besieged by the Seljuk Turks
- it retained its independence until after 1390, when it was captured by the combined forces of the Turks and Byzantines.
- The city was prosperous especially in the 13th century when it was a Genoese trading colony.
- By the 14th century, the city was surrounded by Ottoman emirates but maintained nominal allegiance to the Byzantine emperor.
- It was the last Byzantine Greek stronghold in Asia Minor.
- Philadelphia was an independent neutral city under the influence of the Latin Knights of Rhodes, when it was taken in 1390 by Bayezid I.
- In 1403 Tamerlane captured it, and, it is said, built about it a wall of the corpses of his victims.
- Later, it passed into the rule of Junayd until it was ultimately captured by Murad II.
- From 1867 until 1922, the name was changed to AlaÅŸehir, and became part of the Aidin Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire.
- In the Greco-Turkish War, 1919-1922 AlaÅŸehir was severely affected by a fire that broke out. It is estimated that some 3,000 lives were lost, and 4,300 out of 4,500 buildings were destroyed in the burning of AlaÅŸehir.
- In 1969, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck the city and killed 53 people.
Philadelphia – The Church
- AlaÅŸehir is still a Christian town; one-fourth of its modern population is Greek, and a Greek bishop still makes his home there.
- Church of St John stands as a feature of Philadelphia’s Christian heritage. (AlaÅŸehir)
- Included in the ancient episcopal Sees of the late Roman province of Lydia and listed in the Annuario Pontificio as Titular Sees
- In 1206 AD, the Bishopric of Philadelphia was promoted to Metropolisan.
- In the 14th century, Philadelphia was made the Metropolisan of Lydia by the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, a status that it still holds.
- There is a named list of Bishops from 344 AD to 431 AD, plus John (680). Two others from 1283 – 1382 AD.
- Although the Philadelphia area was an Orthodox area, the Roman Catholic Church have maintained a titular bishopric of Philadelphia since the 1500s.
- Philadelphia remains the seat of the Metropolisan of Philadelphia, which has been a Titular See since the Greco-Turkish Population Exchange in 1923 to the present day.
Laodicea – The City
- This city was founded by Antiochus II (261-246 BC) of Syria and populated it with Syrians and with Jews who were transplanted from Babylonia to the cities of Phrygia and Lydia.
- Though Laodicea stood on the great highway, it was a place of little consequence until the Roman Province of Asia was formed in 190 BC.
- The area often suffered from an earthquake (60 AD) and the town was completely destroyed.
- But the inhabitants declined imperial assistance to rebuild the city and restored it from their own means.
- The martyrdom of Lulianos and Paphos is believed to have happened here.
- The Byzantine writers often mention Laodicea, especially in the time of the Komnenian emperors.
- In 1119, Emperor John II Komnenos and his military commander, John Axouch, captured Laodicea from the Seljuk Turks in the first major military victory of his reign.
- It was fortified by the emperor Manuel I Komnenos. In 1206–1230, it was ruled by Manuel Maurozomes.
- The city was destroyed during the invasions of the Turks and Mongols.
- In 1071 the city was taken by the Seljuks;
- in 1119 it was recovered to the Christians by John Comnenos,
- in the 13th century it fell finally into the hands of the Turks.
Laodicea – The Church
- Little is known of the early history of in Laodicea and much conjecture surrounds the details.
- Timothy, Mark and Epaphras (Col 1:7) seem to have been the first to introduce Christianity.
- Laodicea came under the chief Bishopric of Phrygia.
- The first three bishops are people mentioned in the New Testament: Archippus (Colossians 4:17)
- (A man named Nymphas or, according to the best manuscripts, a woman named Nympha, mentioned in Colossians 4:15)
- Diotrephes (3 John 9).
- 166 AD Sagaris, a bishop was martyred.
- Sisinnius is mentioned in the Acts of the Martyr (Saint Artemon, a priest of his church).
- Nunechius assisted at the Council of Nicaea (325).
- Eugenius, known by an inscription, was probably his successor.
- When Phrygia was divided into two provinces 400 AD, Laodicea became the Metropolisan of Phrygia Pacatiana.
- Some twenty bishops are listed besides those already mentioned.
- The last mentioned occupied the See in 1450.
- Since then, the bishopric has become a Titular See, listed as Laodicea in Phrygia by the Catholic Church.
- The last appointment was in 1968.
- A list of Sixty Canons of a Council of Laodicea exists, written in Greek.
- Some Protestants have used one of them in opposition to the veneration of angels.
I will leave the detail there for the moment. It has taken me a number of days to pull together this information from a variety of sources. I will leave you to read and or scan the details and ponder for yourself. Ask any questions you like. There is too much detail for me to spell out all the terms and names at this stage. I will comment on the things I have noticed from the raw data in the next Gem and draw this detail to a conclusion. Ask yourself the question: How many of these seven churches do you think survived as a true Christian church? I will share my opinion with you in the next Gem. Following that I plan to return to my question concerning why Thyatira was chosen among the Seven.
If you were put on trial for being a follower of Jesus would there be enough evidence to convict you?
Ian
When you go through persecution, you may feel like you’ve been buried, but the fact is, you’ve simply been planted. You’re coming back!
Christine Caine
Faith is that strength, that secret weapon of the soul, which allows us to persevere even when facts seem damning and the truth unbearable.
T D Jakes
Persevere. Don’t give up. Never ever ever never give up.
Winston Churchill