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

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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