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To: P-Marlowe; sanormal; Buggman
Historical Background

Philadelphia sat in an important location. Expositor's Bible Commentary says, "About twenty-five miles southeast of Sardis, along the Hermus River valley, lay the important high plateau city of Philadelphia, modern Alasehir. A main highway that ran through the city connected Smyrna (about a hundred miles due west) to northwest Asia, Phrygia, and the east. Furthermore, the imperial post road of the first century A.D., which came from Rome via Troas, Adramyttium, Pergamum, and Sardis, passed through this valley and Philadelphia on the way to the east. So situated, Philadelphia became a strong fortress city. To the northeast was a great vine-growing district, which, along with textile and leather industries, contributed greatly to the city's prosperity."

The name Philadelphia came from the founder of the city, "Attalus II (159-138 B.C.), who had been given the epithet ‘Philadelphus' (brother lover)" because of his love for his brother (Expositor's Bible Commentary). But this was not the city's only name.

"Still another name of the city was Decapolis, because it was considered as one of the ten cities of the plain. A third name which it bore during the 1st cent. AD was Neo-kaisaria; it appears upon the coins struck during that period. During the reign of Vespasian, it was called Flavia. Its modern name, Ala-shehir, is considered by some to be a corruption of the Turkish words Allah-shehir, ‘the city of God,' but more likely it is a name given it from the reddish color of the soil.

"In addition to all of these names it sometimes bore the title of ‘Little Athens' because of the magnificence of the temples and other public buildings which adorned it. Philadelphia quickly became an important and wealthy trade center, for as the coast cities declined, it grew in power, and retained its importance even until late Byzantine times" (International Standard Bible Encylopaedia, Electronic Database, 1996, article "Philadelphia").

"According to Strabo, the whole region was earthquake prone (Geography 12.579; 13.628). In A.D. 17 an earthquake that destroyed Sardis and ten other cities also destroyed Philadelphia. Consequently, many people preferred to live in the rural area surrounding the city. The fear of earthquakes caused those who continued to live in the city to leave it at the slightest sign of a tremor.

"After the devastating earthquake, Tiberius came to the peoples' aid and had the city rebuilt. In gratitude the citizens renamed it Neocaesarea (‘New Caesar'). Later the name was changed to Flavia (A.D. 70-79), and this, along with Philadelphia, continued to be its name through the second and third centuries A.D…" (Expositor's Bible Commentary).

50 posted on 09/19/2005 7:28:15 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It!)
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To: xzins; blue-duncan; Buggman; sanormal
this, along with Philadelphia, continued to be its name through the second and third centuries A.D

And I just guessed that.

It is also interesting that Laodicea was destroyed before the earliest date for the Book of Revelation. By the time the book was written Laodicea was considered once again a rich city. It probably took at least 10-15 years to go from rubble to rich thus belying any assertion that the book of Revelation was written within just a few short years of such a major devastation.

Apparently Laodicea was completely restored at the beginning of the second century thus making the 95 AD date for Revelation much more likely than a 66-67 AD date. I suspect that in 67 AD the city was still on the rebound and would not have been referred to as "rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing". I suspect that in 67 AD they were still in need of much.

52 posted on 09/19/2005 7:46:55 PM PDT by P-Marlowe
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