Revelation 3:14-22 - Indepthbible.org

Revelation 3:14-22, Translation with Footnotes:
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3.14 And to the messenger / angel of the church in Laodicea, write: These things
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The city of Laodicea was located in southwestern Phrygia, a part of the Roman
Province of Asia, in what is now western Turkey. The Seleucid King Antiochus II founded the
city in the third century B.C., naming it after his wife Laodice. The city was built in the fertile
Lycus Valley, on the south bank of the Lycus River, a tributary to the Maeander River--which
flowed to the west, emptying into the Aegean Sea at the sea-port city of Ephesus.
Six miles to the north of Laodicea was the city of Hierapolis and ten miles to the east
was the city of Colossae. Laodicea was located at the juncture of some very important
highways--the main highway running across Asia Minor passed through Laodicea as it came
from the northeast, from Dorylaeum and northern Phrygia, and then led to the sea-port cities
of Ephesus and Miletus, just a little over a hundred miles to the west. On that highway to the
east was located the central plateau heartland of Asia, and beyond that, Syria. There was
another road that ran from Laodicea to Philadelphia, Sardis, Thyatira, and Pergamum in the
northwest. To the southeast from Laodicea, another highway ran to the Mediterranean coast,
ending at the city of Attalia (in Pamphylia).
Because of its location at this strategic crossroads, Laodicea became an increasingly
prosperous commercial and administrative center in Roman times--indeed, the wealthiest city
in Phrygia, the central section of western Asia Minor. So great was its prosperity that in 60
A.D., when the city was destroyed by an earthquake, the Laodiceans were able to rebuild their
city by themselves, without an appeal to Caesar Nero for financial assistance.
Ancient Roman records show that Laodicea became an important center of banking
and finance. Strabo writes concerning the distinctive products that came out of Laodicea--
including fine linen clothing, and glossy-black wool from the sheep which were tended in large
numbers in that area, and which furnished the raw material for the manufacture of widely
renowned woolen garments and carpets.
Laodicea had a notable medical center, famous for its medical school attached to a
temple for Asclepius, the god of healing. That school became famous for its practice of
ophthalmology, and the manufacture of a "Phrygian powder" which was used as a cure for
weak eyes.
However, Laodicea had one very noticeable disadvantage--having been built on a
location determined by the crossing of important highways, it had no sufficient water supply of
its own, and archaeological research has shown that the city was forced to pipe water from hot
springs located to the south of the city--water that was very hot, even boiling at its source, but
that lost most of its heat by the time it arrived in Laodicea--resulting in a great deal of encrustation
in the remains of the stone water-pipes that have been found. The modern city of Denizli
which is the descendent of Laodicea has been located much closer to those ancient hot
springs.
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