06.19.09
The Apostles Were Here
While writing my post yesterday of our visit to the Pompeii exhibit at the LACMA, it had dawned on me that Pompeii was a town that was contemporary with the Apostles in the Bible. I wish I had thought about that while looking at the artwork because it would have been a nice reference to think that these artifacts were the types of things that was likely commonly seen by the Apostles and even Jesus. Like a dope it only hit me while I was at home typing that Pompeii and the surrounding cities that were buried by the Vesuvius eruption around 79AD was just around the time parts of the NT were written. For instance there was a herm head of Gaius Julias Cesear and Nero, who was likely the emperor of Rome during the days Jesus walked the earth and who Paul appealed to. I believe this is the same Nero who is thought to have later killed both Peter and Paul. So in this light I wanted to continue my blog post from yesterday by putting up a few pictures we took during our trip to Turkey. These select pictures are areas from which I believe the Apostles must have visited at one point in time or at least seen similar sculptures and peoples dressed in this fashion.
Often when I think of “holy land tours,” I think of Israel. But really there are other places that are specifically mentioned in the NT such as the “seven churches of Asia” which is referred to in Revelation. These churches in Asia minor are where we know today as Turkey. One of the most popular sites is Ephesus, the location whereby Paul had written his letter to the church of the Ephesians in the NT. Here’s one of the walkways going towards the Ephesian Library.
I’m standing off to the right with with a black top, and my left hand on one of the stone carvings. Further down this path will be the Ephesus Library.
Here’s a view of what is left of the Ephesus Library.
I believe Ephesus and Alexandria were the more popular intellectual centers during their time. The Ephesians were known to be intellectuals, and the first recorded librarian was Zenodotus (284 to 260 BC) of Ephesus. However, he was librarian at the Library of Alexandria about 250 years before Jesus and the Apostles came onto the scene. I’m sure Paul must have been here at the Library at Ephesus before and walked through these roads and buildings. Here’s the sign that was posted off to the left of the Library.
I took a lot of pictures at Ephesus, but have too many to put on the blog. However, I really liked this picture of Aaron sitting at the steps of the Library at Ephesus. We were there in 2006 May, and it’s funny to see how young he looks here compared to now and it’s only been three years ago. He was about 12 in this picture and now he’s 15. What a difference three years makes on a child!
Another area we visited that was mentioned in the Bible was Colossae. In the NT Paul wrote to the church of Colosse in his epistle to the Colossians. We stayed at the Colossae Thermal Hotel and visited their hot springs at Pamukkale. The warm water apparently has a high level of calcium and thus creates their “cotton castle.” More pictures of Pamukkale can be seen at Wiki. People are allowed to walk through the hot springs as the water trickles down. We found that this is a popular vacation site for Germans and there were lots of German gals running around in the bikinis here, heheh. I didn’t wear a bikini, but I did take a walk along the springs. Here’s a pic of me with my pants slightly rolled up. All the white is the calcium deposits, and my shoes are off because there’s water streaming down which might be hard to see in this picture.
Pamukkale is very close to Colossae, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Paul had visited this place. I have no idea if it was like this back then, but who knows?
Another place Paul visited along with Barnabas was Perge or Perga as mentioned in Acts. Here’s a picture of what the ruins look like now.
The path up ahead has grooves in the walkway which is believed to have been for the chariot wheels as they passed through Perge. Many of the sculptures and statues have been removed and are now displayed in the Antalya Museum, which I’ll attach some pictures from there as well. They allowed unlimited photography, which I think is so neat. Anyway, back to Perge, they also had bath houses there. Here’s a pic of me sitting in one of the bath house areas. It can be barely seen in this picture, but I’m holding a red poppy. They were all over the place in Turkey, and I just loved them!
Okay so here’s a picture from the Antalya Museum where the sculptures from Perge were taken and are now on display. Funny how my skirt matched the wall paint, heheh. I had no idea it was going to be that color in there. . .
These were the kinds of statues that were in Perge, and what the Apostle Paul and Barnabas might have seen while walking through there. I tried to look up what the name is for those Roman skirts, and according to Hadrians.com those skirts are also known as “kilts.” Hmm. And here I thought those only referred to the Celtic kilts.
Here’s another shot of more Roman statues wearing kilts.
Out of curiosity I looked up “Roman underwear.” Just curious to know what they wore under those kilts. According to Hadrians.com they often didn’t wear underwear, yikes! Well, that’s not to say that they never wore anything underneath as Hadrians.com states that:
“The closest article of clothing to modern underwear was a pair of shorts or loincloth called a subligaculum.
“Both men and women wore the subligaculum or subligar, at least some of the time”
Well, I think I’d better start working on dinner, so will quit here for now. Come to think of it, I still have more pictures of places in Asia Minor that was mentioned in the Bible such as Pergamum. So I’ll try to continue on another post with those.
In case I don’t get back online this weekend, hope everyone has a Happy Father’s Day!
Marlakins
