|
|
 |
St. John and Seven Churches The persecution that broke
out after the murder of Stephen is often cited as the occasion for John
coming to Ephesus. Acts 8:1 says that the church was scattered throughout
Judea and Samaria; however, the apostles remained in Jerusalem. There is
no biblical evidence that John went to Ephesus in the 30s. A more likely
scenario is that John, heeding Jesus’ warning to flee Jerusalem when it
was surrounded by Roman armies (Luke 21:20–21), moved with a community of
Palestinian Jewish believers to Ephesus after the Jewish revolt broke out
in 66 CE. Both Peter and Paul had recently been martyred in Rome under
Nero, so John would have naturally filled their leadership vacuum. He
ministered for some three decades to Christians in and around Ephesus,
writing the Revelation, the Gospel and three Epistles.
As the leader of the Asian church John was targeted by Roman authorities
and exiled to Patmos (Rev. 1:9). While on the island John received his
apocalyptic vision about the spiritual situation of seven Asian churches
as well as about the future of the church and the world (1:10–11, 19). The
order of the seven churches—Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis,
Philadelphia, and Laodicea—follows a route that a messenger would
naturally follow in visiting the cities. During Paul’s ministry in Ephesus
many churches were established in Asia. Hence these seven churches seem to
represent many other churches that were in Asia at the time (e.g., Miletus,
Troas, Assos, Cyzicus, Magnesia, Tralles, Metropolis, etc.). The style of
the seven messages is similar, with the heart of each focused on
commendation and correction concluding with a promise of victory. The
historical and spiritual situation of each church aids in interpreting the
details of its message.
The addressees of the book of Revelation were seven churches in the Roman
province of Asia. W. M. Ramsay states that the province “embraced the W.
parts of the great peninsula now called Asia Minor, including the
countries Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and great part of Phrygia, with the Dorian,
Ionian, and Aeolian coast-cities, the Troad, and the islands off the coast
(Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Patmos, Cos, etc.)” (“Asia,” Hastings Dictionary of
the Bible, 1.171). Why these churches were singled out over other churches
in the area has been an ongoing topic of discussion. The result of Paul’s
2 1/3 year residence in Ephesus (a.d. 52–54) was that “all the Jews and
Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts
19:10). Such widespread dissemination of the gospel thus occurred some two
decades (early dating c. 69) or four decades (late dating c. 95) before
Revelation was written.
Six other sites are certain locations of churches in the first century:
Troas (Acts 16:8–11; 20:5–12; 2 Cor. 2:12; 2 Tim. 4:13), Miletus (Acts
20:15, 17; 2 Tim. 4:20), Colossae (Col. 1:2), Hieropolis (Col. 4:13),
Tralles and Magnesia (Ignatius). Richard Oster has listed 37 Anatolian
cities where Christian communities were established in the first and
second centuries. None of the cities that follow are on his list, although
he acknowledges that because such books as Revelation were designed as
circular letters, this increases “the number of Christian sites that can
be inferred from early Christian literature” (“Christianity in Asia Minor,
” Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1.938). Other possible sites include Assos,
which was approximately twenty miles overland from Troas via a Roman road,
Mitylene, Chios, and Samos (Acts 20:13–15). Priene was an important Greek
city along the route between Miletus and Ephesus, and Cyzicus was the most
important Asian seaport on the Propontis (Sea of Marmara). The late E. M.
Blaiklock suggested that Aphrodisias “will probably soon be added to the
list of Ten Towns of Asia known to have been first-century centers of
Christian witness” (NIDBA [ed. E. M. Blaiklock; Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1983] 31).
In a personal letter responding to my question regarding the source of
that assertion, Edwin Yamauchi wrote: “As I am not aware of any first-century
evidence for Christians at Aphrodisias (and think it highly unlikely), I
suspect that Dr. Blaiklock was probably guessing when he wrote on
Aphrodisias” (May 3, 1992). The excavator of Aphrodisias, the late Kenan
T. Erim, wrote: “The earliest known name of an Aphrodisian bishop is that
of Ammonius, who participated in the Council of Nicaea in 325. Two early
Christian martyrs, apparently put to death under Diocletian, were also
ascribed to the city” (Aphrodisias: City of Venus Aphrodite [New York:
Facts on File, 1986] 33). Given the prominence of Aphrodisias (re Augustus’
statement: “Aphrodisias is the one city from all of Asia I have selected
to be my own” [ibid., 1]) and its proximity to the three churches of the
Lycus valley, undoubtedly the gospel was preached there at an early date.
No historical evidence has yet been discovered to verify the existence of
a first- century church there, however.
Several of these cities are more prominent than Thyatira and Philadelphia.
W. M. Ramsay has convincingly suggested that the order of the churches in
Revelation represented a circular postal circuit that a courier would
follow. Thus these churches were primary communication centers fcontentrom
which secondary messengers would be dispatched so that other churches in
their respective districts could read the correspondence. Revelation, then,
was meant for a larger audience than the designated churches. But I want
to return to two more basic questions: why just seven churches? And of
these seven churches, why begin with Ephesus?
SEVEN CHURCHES
Ephesus
Smyrna
Pergamum
Thyatira
Sardis
Philadelphia
Laodicea
|
