April 2017

Smyrna was the second of the seven churches that Jesus addressed in His letters dictated to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos. Located on the Aegean Sea just 40 miles northwest of Ephesus, Smyrna (modern day Izmir) was a major seaport city with a population of 100,000 people at that time. It was a very beautiful city, resplendent with civic and sacred districts (Roman cult worship), schools of science and medicine, agoras, theatres, gymnasia, and a stadium. The famous poet Homer was said to have made his home there. Smyrna contested with Ephesus and Pergamum to be the “First of Asia in beauty and size.” This phrase was boastfully imprinted on some of its coins. Today, only the ruins of a portion of the three level agora (marketplace), forerunner of a modern day mall, and an accompanying small area of the acropolis, where civic buildings and temples once stood, have been unearthed. The agora is thought to have been the largest in the ancient world and is the best preserved example of an ancient marketplace in Turkey. There are excellent views of it in the video posted above.

Ephesus was the first of the seven churches that Jesus addressed in His letters dictated to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos. It is not surprising that Ephesus was singled out first as it lay claim to a number of pre-eminent characteristics, not the least of which was its Christian maturity and depth of revelation as evidenced in Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. As is so often the case, Christianity shines the brightest when the context all around it is darkness. That was true of Ephesus as it had the distinction of being the center for the worship of the goddess Artemis and was a city renowned as a place where magic arts were practiced (Acts 19:17-20).