Today, we left Bursa and drove to İznik, which may not sound familiar to many but which was an important city in early Christian history. İznik was known in ancient times as Nicaea – or, more accurately, as Νίκαια (Nikaia). It was the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea—respectively, the first and the last of the seven ecumenical councils of the Christian church—during the first of which the Nicene Creed originated. It was also the... Read more
First thing this morning, we visited the hilltop ruins of the ancient Greeek city of Assos ( Ἄσσος), which are located near today’s Behramkale or Behram on the Aegean coast in the province of Çanakkale. It is on the southern side of the Biga Peninsula, which isbetter known by its ancient name of “the Troad.” Specifically, Assos sits on the coast of the Adramyttian Gulf (in Turkish, the Edremit Körfezi) During the period of the town’s greatest flourishing, Hermias of Atarneus, a student... Read more
The church of Smyrna (Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or Σμύρνα, Smýrna) was also one of the seven churches of Asia that are mentioned in the Revelation of John. (See Revelation 2.) Since around 1930 (in the wake of the founding of the Republic of Turkey), Smyrna has been known as Izmir. It’s where we spent last night. It is a port city that is located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Türkiye or Anatolia. Smyrna was situated at the mouth of a... Read more
Newly posted for your enjoyment on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Conference Talks: Cherubim and Seraphim: Iconography in the First Jerusalem Temple, presented by John Gee Our first stop this morning was at Colossae, which is, now, little more than a tumulus or a tell that awaits excavation. And this morning it was a muddy one. (See “John and Paul, but no George or Ringo.”) We next visited Alaşehir, the town known anciently (and, in... Read more
I’ve failed to call your attention to an article of mine that recently appeared in Meridian Magazine. So I’m going to call your attention to it right now. This article recently appeared in Meridian Magazine: “A New Film About Prophetic Succession After the Death of Joseph Smith, Now in Production.” Our first visit this morning, driving past Ephesus, was to the traditional House of the Virgin Mary. Legend has it that the apostle John brought Jesus’s widowed... Read more
We were up very early this morning to fly from Kayseri to Izmir. Izmir is the ancient Smyrna, the traditional birthplace of the enormously important Greek poet Homer. Kayseri is only one of several towns named Caesarea in the ancient world – think, for example, of Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast of Israel and of Caesarea Philippi in the northern Galilee; everybody in antiquity wanted to flatter the emperor – and, in the Middle Ages, was once... Read more
We held a sacrament service this morning at our hotel in Ürgüp. It was very enjoyable. Steve Densley conducted it, and Murat Çakır, who served as the branch president and in the mission presidency here for quite a while (and who currently teaches Sunday school), was our speaker. (More on that, perhaps, later.) Brother Çakır helped us to organize this trip, and he and his wife, Susan, have been traveling with us. At least four Muslim members of... Read more
Two new articles appeared yesterday on the website of the Interpreter Foundation. I’m behind in calling attention to them, partly because I’m nine hours ahead of the time zone in which Interpreter is headquartered and partly because, well, I’m really busy. Anyway, here they be: “Joseph Smith’s Education and Intellect as Described in Documentary Sources,” written by Brian C. Hales Abstract: Although Joseph Smith has been credited with “approximately seven full school years” of district schooling, further research... Read more
We spent the night in Adana, a very old city that is mentioned not only in Homer but in the famous ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. I’ve never before been to Tarsus, so I’ve been looking forward to today. The city is located on the mouth of a river that empties into the Mediterranean. Anciently, that river was called the Cydnus, but is now known as the Berdan. Tarsus is also located at the southern end of the Cilician... Read more
This morning, we went first to the Hagia Sophia (Ἁγία Σοφία)—also called, depending upon the language, Ayasufya and Santa Sophia and Sancta Sapientia and the Church of Holy Wisdom (or Divine Wisdom). Sophia isn’t the name of a female saint; it is the Greek equivalent of English “wisdom.” After its completion in AD 537, Hagia Sophia was the largest Christian church in the world for roughly a thousand years—only being supplanted in that rank in the early sixteenth... Read more
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