Sardis

Sart

Sardis (Sart)

Map of the 7 Churches of Revelation

Wealthy Roman Sardis had a large Jewish population. The bustling former capital of Lydia helped grow the Church in the area.

The Sardis site is small, but has worthy remains like a Temple of Artemis, Sardis Synagogue, and Byzantine churches.

Sardis' church was the fifth of the seven churches of Revelation. Christ faults it for appearing alive while being spiritually dead (Revelation 3:1). Referencing its history of two surprise attacks, He warns them to awaken and repent lest he “come like a thief” to judge them (Revelation 3:2-3).

BLP: Sardis was the capital of the ancient Lydian kingdom of the 6th century BC, portrayed as a dying church. We visit the great Temple of Artemis and the Temple of Cybele, which became a ByzanIne Church. We will also visit some ancient Lydian houses, and the restored gymnasium and reconstructed Synagogue.

Background

Sardis was the capital of the ancient Lydian kingdom of the 6th century BC, portrayed as a dying church.

Sardis was occupied for at least 3500 years. In that time, it fluctuated between a wealthy city of international importance and a collection of modest hamlets. It was an ancient city best known as the capital of Lydian Empire.

After the fall of the Lydian Empire, it became the capital of the Persian satrapy of Lydia and later a major center of Hellenistic and Byzantine culture. Now an active archaeological site, it is located in modern day Turkey, in Manisa Province near the town of Sart.

UNESCO: Sardis was one on the preeminent cities of the ancient world, the capital of an empire that rules western Anatolia, the birthplace of coinage, and the home of Croesus, whose name became synonymous with unimaginable wealth.

Great Temple of Artemis

The Temple of Artemis at Sardis, the fourth largest Ionic temple in the world, is situated dramatically on the western slopes of the Acropolis, below the mass of the Tmolus Mountains in a broad valley opening into the ancient Pactolus River bed.

In Greek mythology Artemis is the Goddess of the moon, hunting, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children and chastity. She is the twin of Apollo. Apollo was the god of practically everything — including but not limited to music and dance, poetry, art, prophecy, truth, archery, plague, healing and diseases, sun and light. Apollo and Artemis are the children of Zeus and Leto (goddess of motherhood, childbirth and modesty).

Temple of Cybele

About Sardis, Temple of Artemis Cybele:

Built in 300 BC by the Greeks and later renovated by the Romans in the 2nd century AD, it was twice as large ad the Parthenon in Athens and considered one of the seven largest Greek temples. It became a Byzantine Church.

Question: Are Artemis and Cybele the same? They were simply worshipped under other names and with different rites in the various countries. So the goddess Artemis and Cybele of Asia Minor were equated: they were no longer regarded as two different goddesses, but as one and the same divinity with various names. Artemis was also identified with Diana, a Roman goddess.

The name Sardis has Greek origins and it means “red ones” or “reddish” in reference to the red-colored stone or soil found in the region where the ancient city of Sardis was located.

Ancient Lydian houses

Restored gymnasium

Harvard Univ. Press:

The Bath-Gymnasium at Sardis is the most important known example of a complex that combines the gymnasium, a Greek institution, with the Roman bath, a unique architectural and cultural embodiment comparable in size and organization to the great Imperial thermae (public bath) of Rome.

Reconstructed Synagogue

The Byzantine Legacy: It is the largest known synagogue of the ancient world. Discovered in 1962, the building and its decorations have been partly restored. The synagogue was entered from the east into a colonnaded forecourt. The forecourt was roofed around the sides but open to the sky in the center.

Title image credit

More to come...

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