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The Salt of the Earth
The City of SardisLocated on Mount Tmolus in southern Turkey, the city of Sardis stood at the crossroads of Asia Minor, the most prosperous, powerful, fertile, and pagan province of the entire Roman Empire. First-century Sardis had a unique blend ...
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Scenes from Caesarea Philippi: Niches
These niches originally held statues of the pagan gods worshipped at Caesarea Philippi. The largest is actually an artificial cave that leads to a niche in the cliff itself. This niche apparently held a statue of Pan. Above it is another niche wit...
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Scenes from Caesarea Philippi: The Grotto of Pan
Against the cliff and in the large cave on the left, in the third century BC, was a cult center to the fertility god Pan. This center probably was built to compete with the high place at Dan, about three miles away.The presence of the spring formi...
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Scenes from Caesarea Phillipi: Temple Podium
The reconstructed platform, or podium, near the cave at Caesarea Philippi was originally the base of a temple either to the Roman emperor Augustus or to Pan (or possibly both). The entrance to the Grotto (or cave) of Pan is seen to the left of the...
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The City of Dan
LocationThe city of Dan, originally called Laish, is located in northern Israel. To the east are the remarkable slopes of Mount Hermon, and the city of Caesarea Phillippi. About 30 miles south of Dan lays the Sea of Galilee.ArchaeologyArcheologist...
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The High Place at Dan
Five standing stones (or masseboth) were found in the high place of the gate at Dan. This high place is similar to the ones Josiah destroyed in his reform (2 Kings 23:8) because they were used in the fertility rites of the culture. Standing stones...
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The Oasis of Jericho
This photograph displays the sharp contrast between the barrenness of the wilderness and the fertility of the oasis of Jericho. The lushness of Sodom and Gomorrah against the desolate plain would have appeared this way to Lot.
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The Philistines
The Old Testament frequently mentions the Philistines, a pagan people who clashed with God's children in the Promised Land. The Bible itself provides many interesting facts about Philistine culture, and archaeological discoveries have added to our...
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The Promised Land
When the Israelites finally reached the edge of the Promised Land after wandering 40 years in the barren wilderness, they must have been overwhelmed by Canaan's fertility. To North Americans, it does not look particularly lush; but to desert nomad...
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The Temple at En Gedi
En Gedi is one of the oases around the Dead Sea. Sodom and Gomorrah would have looked like this oasis. High on the cliff above En Gedi, archaeologists discovered a pagan temple already old at the time of Abraham and Lot. Sodom and Gomorrah probabl...
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The Theater at Ephesus
In the world of the early believers, the theater was a significant institution for communicating the Hellenistic view of the world. Every major city in the Roman world had a theater, and the theater in Ephesus was spectacular. The Greek king Lysim...
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Serapis Definition
Egyptian god of fertility and medicine, ruler of the dead. Worshiped by the Greeks and Romans also.
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