{"id":812,"date":"2009-06-07T20:40:01","date_gmt":"2009-06-07T20:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/laodicea--on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html"},"modified":"2009-06-07T20:40:01","modified_gmt":"2009-06-07T20:40:01","slug":"laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html","title":{"rendered":"Laodicea– on a Not so Luke-warm Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laodicea of course is a city familiar to all bibliophiles, since it famously is the city referred to in Rev. 3 for its wealthy citizens of diffident faith.  It also has connections with the Pauline churches mentioned in Colossians. But we would not necessarily guess from these passing references how truly remarkable and large this city was. <\/p>\n

Turkish archaeologists have been working very hard indeed on this site over the last several years and the results are remarkable.   There is brand new signposting at the site which gives one a good overview of how vast Laodicea was as a city, and how much there is to uncover here.
\"May<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
This city was, along with Hierapolis, the most important of cities in the Lycus valley. Nearby Colossae was a dwarf by comparison (and still has not been dug as of this summer, but we live in hope).   The population size of a city is often judged by the size of its theaters and then one multiplies by 10.  On this showing Laodicea was truly urban, with a population around 100,000 at its peak. <\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

Laodicea of course however famously had a problem with its water. It had too many minerals in it and was brackish.  Perhaps the most remarkable new find at Laodicea is the filter found connected to the indoor plumbing at a large house just off Syria St. Notice the left side of the filter is for the water leaving the building but the middle and right side is for the water entering the building.<\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/span> 
You will also note in this picture the snow-capped peaks hovering over the Lycus valley even in late May. Turkey is a country of beautiful mountains and fertile valleys, and Laodicea was famous as the city in the valley with industry and even a medical college of sorts.  The archaeologists have found  huge  remains of the storage jars used in homes for grain and the like.  For example, see below.  This was a city full of people who had considerable purchasing power.<\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

The main archaeological work on the site has been to reconstruct the major streets of one part of the city, including the main street, called Syria street.<\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

\"May<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\"May<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
The signs of agriculture are everywhere around this city, and so we must imagine not the modern scenario of cities built on top of cities in urban gridlock as in the northeastern corridor of the U.S. but rather cities dotted amongst largely agrarian areas.<\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

Day to day life in the city or the nearby fields was not all work and no play.  Here below you will see the ancient equivalent of a backgammon board.<\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

Laodicea was a city that had its ups and downs, not least due to earthquakes, but it still existed in Byzantine times as the evidence of a Byzantine church on the site makes clear. The Byzantines however clearly did not have the same sort of funds or imperial backing for rebuilding after yet another earthquake, and so we see evidence of the recycling of odd shaped stones and even grinding stones to repair walls.<\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

\n

There is much more to be said, but let this be said at this juncture.  The archaeological evidence at Laodicea simply confirms what the NT suggests about the city– it was large,  rich in the first century, a city materially on the rise, but sometimes prosperity has a deadening effect on spirituality as John of Patmos reminds.   The reconstruction of the city today is a work still in progress— but then, so are we. If even Laodicea warrants a visit from the Master who knocks and promises to enter and sup with them, despite all its sin and shortcomings, then there is still hope for us.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laodicea of course is a city familiar to all bibliophiles, since it famously is the city referred to in Rev. 3 for its wealthy citizens of diffident faith.  It also has connections with the Pauline churches mentioned in Colossians. But we would not necessarily guess from these passing references how truly remarkable and large this…<\/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-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nLaodicea- on a Not so Luke-warm Day - 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\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Laodicea- on a Not so Luke-warm Day - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Laodicea of course is a city familiar to all bibliophiles, since it famously is the city referred to in Rev. 3 for its wealthy citizens of diffident faith.  It also has connections with the Pauline churches mentioned in Colossians. But we would not necessarily guess from these passing references how truly remarkable and large this…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-07T20:40:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/May%20161-thumb-600x800-5571.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Laodicea- on a Not so Luke-warm Day - 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\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Laodicea- on a Not so Luke-warm Day - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"Laodicea of course is a city familiar to all bibliophiles, since it famously is the city referred to in Rev. 3 for its wealthy citizens of diffident faith.  It also has connections with the Pauline churches mentioned in Colossians. But we would not necessarily guess from these passing references how truly remarkable and large this…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2009-06-07T20:40:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/May%20161-thumb-600x800-5571.jpg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html","name":"Laodicea- on a Not so Luke-warm Day - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/May%20161-thumb-600x800-5571.jpg","datePublished":"2009-06-07T20:40:01+00:00","dateModified":"2009-06-07T20:40:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/May%20161-thumb-600x800-5571.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/06\/May%20161-thumb-600x800-5571.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/06\/laodicea-on-a-not-so-luke-warm-day.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Laodicea– on a Not so Luke-warm Day"}]},{"@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&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\/812","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=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}