Rocks, Rubble, Ruins, and Relics

It's hard to imagine it's only the third day of visiting sites! We've seen so many different things, and every day someone says "surely it can't get better than this!" then Dr. Weima brings us somewhere new that proceeds to blow our minds.

Today's class portion took place at the Turkish crack of dawn: 8:00am. We were hot out of the gates as we learned about the message sent to the church of Laodicea in Revelation 2 and 3, offering a cornucopia of insight into our visit to that city yesterday.

Today was unfortunately a travel day for the most part after our morning study session with the exception of one major stop. Today's visit was to our first, and possibly only non-biblical city, the city of Aphrodisias. Of course named for the Greek goddess, Aphrodite, the city is rich with ancient cultural significance. The site, being excavated by experts from the University of New York, was home to an enormous stadium, a large temple to Aphrodite, and a few of the standard things we're getting used to seeing, like an Agora, a Roman Bath House, and a Theatre. The most significant building we saw had us all huddling close in so as to hear Dr. Weima clearly. The only example of this building in the entire ancient world is found here and is called The Sebasteion. A three story high monument to the glory of the Roman Empire, The Sebasteion contains somewhere near 200 marble reliefs portraying significant events as well as a number of G reco-roman myths. It was a spectacular display of craftsmanship, and the splendour of this handi-work was throughout the city. The time and skill that went into these things must have been remarkable.

All in all, I continue to be amazed every single day, not only by the physical things we're seeing and touching and learning about, but also by the valuable insight into the texts surrounding these things from Dr. Weima. That's all for tonight! Tomorrow, we're off to Ephesus!

Benjamin Verkerk