02.31. People of influence

People of influence

Although biblical references to Asia Minor are usually associated with Paul’s missionary journeys, there are occasional references in the Old Testament. The names mentioned often belonged originally to individuals and were used later of peoples descended from them or the places where they lived. Among such places were Gomer, Magog, Tubal, Meshech and Togarmah.¹ Asia Minor was also the original land of the West Asian people known as the Hittites.²

Jews from Asia Minor were in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, and may have been among the first Christian converts.³ There is a tradition that Peter and Mark preached in some parts of Asia Minor while Paul preached in others. The Bible preserves a letter Peter wrote to Christians in certain provinces, among them Bithynia and Pontus beside the Black Sea and Cappadocia in the central plateau.⁴

Towards the end of the first century, John sent letters to churches in seven towns of another province, Asia. John was a prisoner on an island off the west coast, but the messenger who carried the letters, after landing at Ephesus, probably delivered the letters one by one as he moved from that church around the other six – Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.⁵

Some of the seven towns are now only ruins, but some are alive with activity. Laodicea, for example, is a hill of scattered rubble, but Smyrna, present-day Izmir, is Turkey’s third largest city. Ephesus, with extensive ruins, is the place whose associations with the New Testament can be most readily identified.

Ephesus remained an important centre through the early centuries of the church, and in AD 431 was the location for one of the four great church councils of that period. The other three⁶ were also held in Turkey, either in Constantinople or nearby.

1. Genesis 10:2-5; Ezekiel 27:13-14; Ezekiel 38:2; Ezekiel 38:6 2. Genesis 26:34

3. Acts 2:9-10

4. 1 Peter 1:1 5. Revelation 1:4; Revelation 1:9-11 6. Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381), and Chalcedon (451)

Thyatira, modern Akhisar, Turkey