Philadelphia

Philadelphia (Turkey) Philadelphia Philadelphia Ephesos Ephesos

Philadelphia (Asia Minor)

Philadelphia or Philadelpheia (Greek: Φιλαδελφία or Φιλαδελφεῖα) was an ancient city in the countryside of Lydia in Asia Minor (today Turkey). It was located south of the Kogamis at the foot of the Tmolos Mountains on the road connecting Sardis and Colossae, at the site of present-day Alaşehir.

Philadelphia was founded in the 2nd century BC by the Pergamenian king Attalus II Philadelphus. The name (Philadelphia = "brotherly love") goes back to the close relationship between Attalus and his brother Eumenes II.

The city was destroyed several times by earthquakes and lay almost entirely in ruins in Strabon's time (63 BC - AD 23). The city was rebuilt again and again. In the 1st century AD, an early Christian community gathered here, which is mentioned in the Revelation of John. It was the last Byzantine city in Asia Minor to defend itself against the Ottomans until 1390. When Philadelphia fell, the rest of Asia Minor had already been under Ottoman rule for about 50 years (except for the Trapezuntine Empire, which the Ottomans did not occupy until 1461). Under Ottoman rule, the city was renamed Alaşehir ("City of God" or "City of Allah").

When the Mongol Khan Timur (Tamerlan, died 1405) destroyed the Christian communities of Asia Minor, Philadelphia was miraculously saved, according to Ludwig Albrecht. The inhabitants of the small city were the only ones to preserve the Christian faith in the midst of the Muslim population of the region. A Christian community is documented until at least the beginning of the 20th century..

The early Christian church there, like Ephesus, was one of the seven churches in Asia Minor addressed in Revelation. The Epistle of Revelation 3:7–13 was addressed to the church in Philadelphia. In it, their perseverance during the persecution of Christians was highlighted.

Epistle to the Community of Philadelphia

„7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. 8 “I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. 11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. 12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’“

– Revelation 3:7–13

Rudolf Steiner remarks:

„Gradually, in the cultural epochs of our earthly development, Manas is being formed and pushed into the astral body. The consciousness soul, after having been prepared in the last third of the Atlantean time, must again be transformed in the next cultural epochs by the Yahweh-Christ principle.

In the ancient Indian period the etheric body is permeated by the I, which has now entered the human being; in the Persian period the astral body is permeated by the I; in the Egyptian period the sentient soul; in the Greco-Latin period the intellect soul; in our culture the consciousness soul; in the "Philadelphia" period the spirit self or manas. Then people who, through theosophical-spiritual teachings, have made themselves capable of recognising the Christ, will be able to see him in a new form of existence, in his fine etheric body, for he will come again. Through wisdom, through theosophy, the I will be educated in such a way that it will receive manas or spirit-self and will be able to recognise the Christ again.“ (Lit.:GA 104a, p. 125f)

According to Rudolf Steiner, the community of Philadelphia represents the future Slavic cultural epoch which will follow our present consciousness-soul age as the sixth cultural period. It is dedicated to the further development of the spirit self (manas). Whoever has developed this sufficiently receives the Key of David, with which he can open the gate to the spiritual world, but also close it.

„And if we go this way, we bring into the sixth period the right spiritual life of wisdom and love. Then what we work out as anthroposophical wisdom becomes the love impulse of the sixth period, which is represented by the congregation, which already expresses itself in its name as a representative of the sixth period: the congregation of brotherly love, Philadelphia. All these names are not chosen in vain. Man will develop his I to the right height, so that he becomes independent and in freedom shows love to every other being in the sixth period, which is represented by the congregation of Philadelphia. This is to be prepared as the spiritual life of the sixth period. There we will have found the individual I in a higher degree within us, so that no external force can enter us unless we want it to; so that we can lock up and no one will unlock without our will, and when we unlock, no opposing power will lock up. This is the " Key of David." That is why the one who inspires the letter says that he has the key of David. "And unto the angel of the church which is in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the Key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; he that shutteth, and no man openeth" - "Behold, I have given before thee an open door, and no man can shut it" - the I that is found in himself (Revelation 3:7).“ (Lit.:GA 104, p. 85)

In this time the image of the I of Jesus of Nazareth will also increasingly enter into the souls of striving people. Today this is already being prepared by the anthroposophical Rosicrucian spiritual current:

„Thus, through this Theosophical-Rosicrucian spiritual current, we draw to ourselves again that which is present of the copies of the I of Jesus of Nazareth. Thus those who prepare themselves will draw into their souls the image of the I of Jesus of Nazareth. Through the fact that his inner being is like a seal imprint of the I of Jesus, such a person will receive the Christ principle into his soul. - Thus Rosicrucianism prepares something positive. Theosophy is to become life, and the soul that really takes it into itself is gradually transformed. To take Theosophy into oneself means to transform the soul in such a way that it can come to the understanding of Christ. The theosophist makes himself a living recipient of what is given to Moses, to Paul in the Yahweh-Christ revelation. Thus, in the fifth letter of the Apocalypse, it is said how the people of the fifth cultural period are those who truly receive into themselves what will then be something self-evident for the cultural period of the Church of Philadelphia. The wisdom of the fifth cultural period will blossom as a flower of love in the sixth cultural period.“ (Lit.:GA 104a, p. 104f)

Literature

• Theodora Stillwell MacKay: Philadelphia (Alaşehir) Turkey. In: Richard Stillwell u. a. (Editor): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. 1976, ISBN 0-691-03542-3.
• Georg Petzl: Tituli Asiae minoris. Band 5. Tituli Lydiae linguis Graeca et Latina conscripti. Fasc. 3. Philadelpheia et ager Philadelphenus. Verl. d. Österr. Akad. d. Wiss., Wien 2007, ISBN 978-3-7001-3736-8.
• Rudolf Steiner: Die Apokalypse des Johannes, GA 104 (1985), ISBN 3-7274-1040-X English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Aus der Bilderschrift der Apokalypse des Johannes, GA 104a (1991), ISBN 3-7274-1045-0 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Vorträge und Kurse über christlich-religiöses Wirken, V, GA 346 (2001), ISBN 3-7274-3460-0 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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