Today my tour group visited Ostia Antica, and saw some of the excavations there. Over time, the port silted up, but in antiquity it was of vital importance to Rome. The Lexham Bible Dictionary has the following information:
OSTIA An ancient port of Rome located at the mouth of the Tiber River. A vital strategic and commercial site of the Roman Empire.
Location and Biblical Relevance
Ostia was the nearest port that granted access to Rome for seafaring travelers of the New Testament world. Its name is derived from the Latin term ostium, meaning “doorway” or “entryway.” The name encapsulates the importance of the site, for it served as the maritime gateway to the capital of the Roman Empire.
The city and port of Ostia was located 22 miles (35 km) downstream from Rome at the mouth of the Tiber River. It was associated with sea trade, which brought in wares and cultural goods from throughout the Mediterranean.
Ostia was also an early base for Roman naval activities. In its first centuries, the city was hardly more than a Roman army camp populated by citizen colonists (Salmon, Roman Colonization, 26–27). Ostia was not an excellent harbor; its anchorage was exposed, leaving it vulnerable to storms and pirates. These problems would not be solved until the first and second centuries ad, when the rival port of Portus was constructed.
Brand, S. The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.
As one first enters the archaeological area, there is a statue of Minerva-Victory.
The writer of Hebrews closes with several imperatives, including this admonition in 13:5: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (ESV). For comparison: “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU” (NASB). The NET renders, “Your conduct must be free from the love of money and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you and I will never abandon you.”
Some years ago, while at Samsun (Biblical Pontus) on the Black Sea, Ferrell Jenkins and I visited the Samsun Archaeology and Ethnography Museum there. Here are some photographs which might be helpful visuals in teaching this biblical text (Heb. 13:5):
One should note that it is not the money that is itself sinful, but the LOVE of money (compare 1 Timothy 6:10).
Also note the Hebrews 13:5 states what “He Himself” (God) has said. What follows is to be the Christian’s response: “So that WE may boldly say, ‘The LORD is my helper; I will not fear, What can man do to me?'” (v.6). This kind of “answering speech” runs throughout scripture: God takes the initiative, He speaks, He reveals Himself, and then there is to be the appropriate repsonse, the answer of faith on the disciple’s part. “Speak, LORD, thy servant heareth” (1 Samuel 3:9).
Pontus is mentioned three times in the New Testament. Jews from Pontus were present in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:9). Aquila, one of Pau’s invaluable helpers, was from Pontus (Acts 18:2). Also the Apostle Peter addressessed Pontus (1 Pet. 1:).
Samsun (Amisus) was a leading city of Pontus. Regarding its biblical significance, Dr. Mark Wilson writes, “Amisus was at the northern terminus of the main road that ran across Asia Minor to Tarsus. Peter’s messenger undoubtedly disembarked at Amisus and initally made his way south along this route” (Biblical Turkey, pp. 334,336). Samsun is located between the deltas of the Kızıl and Yeşil rivers.
My first opportunity to do some aerial photography in Israel was with Ferrell Jenkins, as he and I were on a personal study trip in 2009. Among the sites we photographed from that (tiny) plane was biblical Joppa.
Here in the foreground you can still see some of the ruins of the ancient harbor, an ancient Mediterranean harbor of Canaan and Israel, dating back to Old Testament time. At center is the old city, the geographical setting for many biblical events:
When Solomon was to construct the temple, the king of Tyre offered, “We will get all the timber you need from Lebanon and bring it in raft-like bundles by sea to Joppa. You can then haul it on up to Jerusalem.” (2 Chron. 2:16, NET).
Joppa was again used in this same manner when the second temple was rebuilt (Ezra 3:7). It’s about 35 miles from Joppa to Jerusalem.
Joppa figures in with the narrative of Jonah, who, when God told him to preach to Nineveh, “Instead, Jonah immediately headed off to Tarshish to escape from the commission of the LORD. He traveled to Joppa and found a merchant ship heading to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard it to go with them to Tarshish far away from the LORD” (Jonah 1:3, NET).
In NT times, there were disciples of Christ at Joppa. It was here that Peter raised Tabitha from the dead (Acts 9:36-43). Peter remained at Joppa for “many days” (Acts 9:43) and was there when the Gentile Cornelius, a Roman centurion stationed at Caesarea, sent for him, that he could hear the Gospel message of salvation (Acts 10; 11:1-18; see esp. 11:14).
I visited Joppa for the first time in 1999. It gives a different perspective to see such sites from above.
In a class studying Hebrews in our local congregation, we are impressed with the many references to the Tabernacle (9X, NKJV). The Old Testament and its priesthood “serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (Heb. 8:5), and are among the things “having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things” (Heb. 10:1). It is a matter of typology: the OT tabernacle, its priests, its sacrifices, point forward to the High Priest Jesus, with His sacrifice (His blood), and the “true tabernacle” (Heb. 8:2) with its “holy place” which is “heaven itself” (Heb. 9:24).
In this post we will share some visuals of the life-size model of the tabernacle in Timna, southern Israel.
Here is a view inside the tabernacle, where you see the lampstand on your left, the table of showbread on your right, and the altar of incense at back just in front of the veil. Also you can see models of the priest, and High Priest.
Acts 27:39-Acts 28:1 describes the shipwreck on which the Apostle Paul was a prisoner en route to Rome:
When it was day, they did not recognize the land; but they observed a bay with a beach, onto which they planned to run the ship if possible. And they let go the anchors and left them in the sea, meanwhile loosing the rudder ropes; and they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore. But striking a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves. And the soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape. But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land, and the rest, some on boards and some on parts of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped safely to land. Now when they had escaped, they then found out that the island was called Malta.
Acts 27:39-Acts 28:1
Here is the site proposed by many scholars of that area, known as St. Paul’s Bay:
Having just returned from a personal study trip to Malta, I hope to share some of the sites and artifacts we were able to photograph in upcoming posts.
Some biblical texts are especially illuminated by archaeological finds. For example, Acts 21:28 records the false charge against Paul, “He also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place” (v.28). The next verse shows this they “supposed” (NET “assumed). Ephesians 2:14 speaks of Jesus’ death breaking down “the middle wall of separation” between Jews and Gentiles.
Temple Inscription Fragment. Israel Museum. Photo by Leon Mauldin.
Our photo shows one of the warnings posted marking the boundary within the temple complex beyond which no Gentile could proceed. The inscription read, “NO FOREIGNER IS TO GO BEYOND THE BALUSTRADE AND THE PLAZA OF THE TEMPLE ZONE. WHOEVER IS CAUGHT DOING SO WILL HAVE HIMSELF TO BLAME FOR HIS DEATH WHICH WILL FOLLOW.” I took this photo earlier this month in the Israel Museum.
A complete tablet is housed in the Istanbul Museum, as seen in our photo here:
Complete Temple Inscription. Istanbul Archaeology Museum. Photo by Leon Mauldin.
So the Acts 21 text means that Paul was charged with taking a Gentile beyond the balustrade marked off by signs just like thsee.
The Ephesians 2 text shows that with Jesus’ death on the cross, reconciliation is made possible between men (Jew and Gentile) and God, and those reconciled unto God are reconciled to each other. The reconciled are in one body (the church, Eph. 1:22-23). That distinction epitomized by the wall of separation, and reflected by these warning signs, has been removed!
The Roman Emperor Hadrian (r. 117-138 AD) built a temple devoted to Jupiter over the site venerated as Jesus’ tomb. Later Constantine (r. 306-337 AD) ordered Hadrian’s temple to be destroyed and ordered that a church be built over Jesus’ tomb. Despite the years of destruction and rebuilding, enough remains from earlier structures to provide a plan of Constantine’s buildings.
The site of the crucifixion itself is thought to be very near the place of Jesus’ entombment. Previously Hadrian had erected a Venus statue over Golgotha, ironically marking the spot! Constantine constructed the Martyrium Church over the site of the crucifixion itself.
After the Apostle Paul left the younger evangelist Titus at Crete, he wrote, “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you” (Titus 1:5). There were many cities (Greek polis) on the island of Crete, as can be seen from this map by bibleatlas.org:
In each of these cities where congregations of Christians were established, qualified men were to be appointed to serve as elders (bishops, pastors are biblically interchangeable terms). The list of qualifications was given as follows:
if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.
Titus 1:6-9
The archaeological excavations of Arthur Evans at Knossos got underway in 1900. He is credited with inventing the term “Minoan,” naming the civilization after King Minos, who ruled the island of Crete, according to legend.
A deity worshiped by the Minoans was the bull. In the Biblical Archaeology Society publication (2008), Island Jewels: Understanding Ancient Cyprus and Crete, we read:
Again, we rely on the evidence of frescoes and gems that show how the Minoans practiced an astonishing ritual that consisted of grasping a bull by its horns and leaping over its back. When we add this to the ubiquity of stylized bulls’ horns, so-called “horns of consecration,” as well as the bull’s head rhyta (drinking vessels; singular, rhyton) and vivid portraits of individual beasts, there can be no doubt that the Minoans treated the bull with deep reverence…The bull may well have represented the young male consort of the goddess of love, a pattern that recurs throughout the ancient near east from Tammuz and Ishtar to Venus and Adonis, although if this is the case we cannot even give names to the Cretan versions of the divine couple (pp. 49-59).
BAS
In keeping with this information, note our photo of the gigantic bull’s horns below:
It is thought by many that these restored horns symbolized the sacred bull, and that they once adorned the top of the palace at Knossos, Crete.
The palace at Knossos was the largest of the Minoan palaces and served as the home of the legendary king Minos. This palace complex was named and excavated in 1900 by the Englishman Arthur Evans. Arthur Evans is also responsible for naming this sculpture-like object which resembles the horns of a bull, as “”horns of consecration.”” The horns in this slide, which are located outside the South Propylaea at the Knossos complex, are a 20th century reconstruction. Different depictions of horns of consecration can be found throughout Minoan culture, such as on Minoan sarcophagi. Overall, the bull was considered to be a sacred animal in ancient Crete, playing a large role in religious rituals. Since Evans, scholars and archaeologists have debated the true function and meaning of the horns of consecration. One scholar has suggested that these horns were used as seats of honor for nobility or gods. Other scholars have thought that the horns originally served as a pot-support in a hearth. Today, there is still a lack of consensus among scholars as to the function of these horns.
We recently began a class study of Paul’s letter “to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are of Colossae” (Col. 1:2) in our local congregation. Knowing somewhat of the geographical setting helps one to enter the biblical world as the text is studied.
Colossae (also spelled Colosse) was a city in the Roman province of Asia, located in the Lycus River Valley about 100 miles east of Ephesus. It was situated near the cities of Hierapolis and Laodicea (see map here).
Location of Colossae. Map curtesy of BibleMapper.com.
I took a group to biblical sites in Greece/Turkey this past October, and Colossae was included on our itinerary.
During the Persian period, Colossae was a prosperous city, but by the time of the 1st century, it declined in importance, being eclipsed by Laodicea and Hierapolis. “Though commercially less successful, Colossae continued to be a place of importance in the Roman imperial period, as is shown by an inscription of this time and by second and third century A.D. coins that depict the usual city officials, showing that it had the rights of a city under the Romans” (Mare, W. H. (1976). “Archaeological Prospects at Colossae.” The Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin, 7, 43).
Back in 2006, Ferrell Jenkins and I made a personal study trip that included this site. Here is a photo from that occasion, giving a more distant shot than that above.
Unlike many of the recipients of Paul’s letters, Paul had not personally established the Colossian church, but apparently those who learned the truth of the Gospel during Paul’s stay at Ephesus (Acts 19:10), had taught and converted the Colossians.
Further, a comparative reading of Colossians with the personal letter to Philemon will show that Philemon was a Colossian also, so in reality two of the New Testament books were directed initially to this location.
Both letters were written when Paul was in chains.
Timothy joined Paul in both.
Epaphras, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas & Luke joined in salutations.
Onesimus was one of the messengers by whom Colossians was sent.
Archippus is addressed in both.
Colossae has not been excavated as of yet. Click on photos for larger view.
Among the sites our group was able to visit in Corinth was the bema, the judgment seat, mentioned in Acts 18:12-17:
When Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, 13 saying, “This fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.” 14 And when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or wicked crimes, O Jews, there would be reason why I should bear with you. 15 “But if it is a question of words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves; for I do not want to be a judge of such matters.” 16 And he drove them from the judgment seat. 17 Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. But Gallio took no notice of these things.
The Bema, Judgment Seat of Galillo at Corinth where charges against Paul were dismissed. Acrocorinth is in background. Photo by Leon Mauldin.
We also saw the Erastus inscription:
Erastus Inscription in foreground. Many identify this Erastus with Paul’s host at Corinth mentioned in Romans 16:23. Photo by Leon Mauldin.
Paul wrote the New Testament letter of Romans from Corinth, 3rd Missionary Journey. In Romans 16:23 we read, “Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you, and Quartus, a brother.”
In 1929 an inscription was discovered at Corinth naming an Erastus as the one who paid for the paving of the street. The inscription reads “ERASTVS. PRO. AED. S. P. STRAVIT” which is translated, “Erastus in return for his aedilelship laid [the pavement] at his own expense.” It would seem that the Erastus of the inscription is the same as the one mentioned in the biblical text.
We also saw the famous ruins of the temple of Apollo.
Temple of Apollo at Corinth. Photo by Leon Mauldin
Regarding this site BAS says,
The Temple of Apollo at Corinth was 700 years old by Paul’s time. On the hill directly overlooking the Roman city’s main forum, its sturdy Doric columns served as a dramatic reminder of Corinth’s ancient grandeur. But the temple was already in ruins; to Paul it would have served merely as a sermon illustration of the impotence of the Greeks’ “pagan” gods.
As noted above, the temple was in ruins in the days of Paul, but the centuries of pagan idolatrous influence was still very much there.
The Apollo temple originally had 38 columns of the Doric order. Today seven are standing.
We also drove to the base of the Acrocorinth. What a view!
Acrocorinth. Photo by Leon Mauldin.
Finally, time for lunch at the Corinth Canal.
Some of our group sitting down to lunch at the Corinth Canal. Photo by Leon Mauldin.
This nice restaurant is on the eastern side of the Corinth Canal. You might see someone you know.
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