{"id":1124,"date":"2010-07-24T20:12:44","date_gmt":"2010-07-24T20:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/lands-of-the-bible-2010--the-island-of-st-nick.html"},"modified":"2010-07-24T20:12:44","modified_gmt":"2010-07-24T20:12:44","slug":"lands-of-the-bible-2010-the-island-of-st-nick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/lands-of-the-bible-2010-the-island-of-st-nick.html","title":{"rendered":"Lands of the Bible 2010&#8211;  The Island of St. Nick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Christians began in the fourth century to go on pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, if they were coming from Italy, Greece, Turkey or anywhere west of Israel, they tended to come most of the way by boat. And one of the favorite stopping spots was on an island off the south west coast of Turkey, the island of St. Nickolas of Myra. Here are some pictures from this island which is loaded with ruins of small chapels and churches. <\/p>\n<p>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/Bble%20Lands%202010%20553.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-none\" alt=\"Bble Lands 2010 553.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/137\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bble Lands 2010 553-thumb-400x711-15615.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"711\" \/><\/a><\/span>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The description above gets you oriented to what you will see when you land on this small island. <\/p>\n<p>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/Bble%20Lands%202010%20551.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-none\" alt=\"Bble Lands 2010 551.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/137\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bble Lands 2010 551-thumb-400x225-15617.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/Bble%20Lands%202010%20555.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-none\" alt=\"Bble Lands 2010 555.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/137\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bble Lands 2010 555-thumb-400x225-15619.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This little island, like so many in the region is very hilly as the view from the top here will show. Almost all of the ruins here are church ruins. <\/p>\n<p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/Bble%20Lands%202010%20554.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-none\" alt=\"Bble Lands 2010 554.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/137\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bble Lands 2010 554-thumb-400x225-15621.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/Bble%20Lands%202010%20557.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-none\" alt=\"Bble Lands 2010 557.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/137\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bble Lands 2010 557-thumb-400x225-15623.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/Bble%20Lands%202010%20558.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-none\" alt=\"Bble Lands 2010 558.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/137\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bble Lands 2010 558-thumb-400x711-15625.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"711\" \/><\/a><\/span>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The basilica of St. Nickolas is the largest of the churches (see below). Nikolas was of course a real person, a bishop know for his generosity and gift giving, and probably the main origin of our jolly old St. Nick. Indeed Santa Claus is just a sort of hispanic and germanic combo way of saying St, Nick-claus.&nbsp; He was a real person with a real story of kindness and generosity, and there are churches in various place in Turkey dedicated to him and his example.<\/p>\n<p><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/Bble%20Lands%202010%20559.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-none\" alt=\"Bble Lands 2010 559.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/137\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/Bble Lands 2010 559-thumb-400x225-15627.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Christians began in the fourth century to go on pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, if they were coming from Italy, Greece, Turkey or anywhere west of Israel, they tended to come most of the way by boat. And one of the favorite stopping spots was on an island off the south west&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lands of the Bible 2010- The Island of St. Nick - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/lands-of-the-bible-2010-the-island-of-st-nick.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lands of the Bible 2010- The Island of St. Nick - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Christians began in the fourth century to go on pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, if they were coming from Italy, Greece, Turkey or anywhere west of Israel, they tended to come most of the way by boat. And one of the favorite stopping spots was on an island off the south west&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/lands-of-the-bible-2010-the-island-of-st-nick.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-24T20:12:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lands of the Bible 2010- The Island of St. Nick - The Bible and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/lands-of-the-bible-2010-the-island-of-st-nick.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lands of the Bible 2010- The Island of St. Nick - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"When Christians began in the fourth century to go on pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, if they were coming from Italy, Greece, Turkey or anywhere west of Israel, they tended to come most of the way by boat. And one of the favorite stopping spots was on an island off the south west&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/lands-of-the-bible-2010-the-island-of-st-nick.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2010-07-24T20:12:44+00:00","author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/lands-of-the-bible-2010-the-island-of-st-nick.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/lands-of-the-bible-2010-the-island-of-st-nick.html","name":"Lands of the Bible 2010- The Island of St. Nick - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-07-24T20:12:44+00:00","dateModified":"2010-07-24T20:12:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/lands-of-the-bible-2010-the-island-of-st-nick.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/lands-of-the-bible-2010-the-island-of-st-nick.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/07\/lands-of-the-bible-2010-the-island-of-st-nick.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lands of the Bible 2010&#8211; The Island of St. Nick"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"description":"Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&amp;E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}