Seven Churches in Judaea

In my post on the Seven Churches in Asia being the historical context of Revelation I spoke rather dismissively of any theory that suggests the names of those Churches are mere codes and all this is really in Judaea.  And that is still my main view.

But I’ve decided to play Devil's Advocate with that possibility, especially since I do believe the Message to the Seven Churches are applicable well beyond their original immediate context.  I do hold to the theory that every Church can to some extent fit into the category of one of these Seven Churches.  So it could be a fun thought experiment. 

The first question is what cities are even confirmed to have had Christian populations?  Biblically in Acts Jerusalem is where it started, then the "City of Samaria” in Acts 8.  Then Lydda, Joppa and Caesarea Maritima in Acts 9-11.  But more that are not specifically named are implied.

The Last of the Seven is actually the easiest to make a Judaean identification for.  You see in Jewish Literature the city of Laodicea on the Lycus and Lydda/Lod in Judah are often confused or conflated with each other, at least when talking about Lulianos and Paphos the Slain of Lydda.

Another interesting fact about Lydda is that its Wikipedia Pages say it was a city that became majority Christian by at least as early as AD 200 and maybe even as early as 120.  I’ve never seen any other claim of any City becoming majority Christian already before the Fourth Century much less in the second.  And the precise nature of what is wrong with the Church of the Laodiceans in Revelation kind of makes the most sense if they are the most demographically privileged of these Congregations. 

Smyrna and Pergamon in Asia are where the explicit references to martyrdom happen because they were also the chief centers of the Imperial Cult. The chief centers of the Imperial Cult in Judaea were where Herod The Great built two Temples to the deified Augustus, Caesarea Maritima and Samaria which became known as Sebaste because of the Augustus worship there. Caesarea is like Smyrna in being a port city and where most Christians Martyrdoms happened during the Diocletian Persecution.  The Message to Pergamon makes reference to Balaam and Balak, characters who first appear in Numbers but the way they are referenced is arguably drawing on Micah 6:5 which is in context about the House of Omri who first built Samaria. 

The big question we need to ask when considering this is since both my view of when Revelation was written and the most mainstream view place it between AD 70 and the Bar Kochba Revolt was there a Church in Jerusalem during that period?  The overwhelming evidence is that during this period Jerusalem wasn’t inhabited at all besides the Legio X Fretensis being garrisoned there.  But Eusebius refers to some Jewish Christian community there that was expelled with the Jews when they were forbidden to live anywhere Jerusalem was even visible from. 

It’s probable there was a Christian community considered the Jerusalem Church still even though that wasn’t where they literally resided anymore but rather in nearby villages like Bethany, Bethpage or even Bethlehem which the later Greek Bishops of Jerusalem considered part of their jurisdiction. But in order to be close enough Jerusalem has to at least be visible from there, so Shechem/Nablus is too far North and Lydda too far west.

So then which of the Seven Churches in Revelation makes the most sense to identify with Jerusalem? Maybe more than one could if they were residing in up to three different villages?  But each Jerusalem candidate I’m about to suggest has alternative theories.

The name of Jerusalem appears in the text of Revelation only when naming New Jerusalem and thus in chapters 2-3 only in the message to Philadelphia. But perhaps that makes Philadelphia the least likely?  The name is used there explicitly in a non literal fashion in a message where having your name changed is a theme. And I indeed have other ideas for Philadelphia I’ll get to later. 

The Seven Church Ages theory (which I consider partially true but have unique takes on) leads to identifying Ephesus poetically with the beginning of Church History.  And the way it’s addressed as “of Ephesus” rather than “in” like most of the following Churches alongside how Paul met with the Ephesian Elders as Miletus means it can also be associated with the concept of a Church residing in a different location then where it was founded. 

Anti-Paulians who believe Paul and Barnabas are the False Apostles Ephesus rejected also love to imagine the Jerusalem Church rejecting them too.  But Epiphanes of Salamis confirms continuity between the Jerusalem Church and the Nazarenes who he also confirms did not reject Paul.  Hegesippus’s account of the events surrounding the death of Simeon the second Bishop of Jerusalem blames it on Heretics within the Church, those could be the False Apostles alluded to in Revelation. 

Ephesus is also the one I have the weakest alternative identification for.  The “City of Samaria” referred to in Acts 8 could be argued to be the first Daughter of the Jerusalem Church and Simon Magus could be the False Apostle they rejected. But I’ll return to that city later.  I’ve also considered Joppa because of how it was Peter’s base of operations for a while. 

The description of Babylon in the rest of Revelation is kind of repeating imagery of Thyatira (but also Pergamon and Smyrna as places of Martyrdom). And I go back and forth on Babylon being Jerusalem or Rome. Thyatira means daughter and both Babylon and Jerusalem are often Daughters in Biblical Language. Rome in Judaea would be the Imperial Cult Centers I already addressed. Though if you believed in a post Bar Kochba Revolt (or post its inciting incident) authorship date for Revelation then the former site of Jerusalem became a new Imperial Cult center as Aelia Capitolina. 

The use of the name Jezebel in the message to Thyatira has me thinking of Jezreel as a candidate. It continued to be inhabited through Hellenistic and Roman times eventually being called by the Arabic name Zirin. 

I above kept putting “City of Samaria” when referencing Acts 8 in quotes because in my view it’s ambiguous if that’s Samaria/Sebaste or the city that was the center of the Samaritan culture, Shechem/Sychar which is called “a City of Samaria” in John 4. 

It is often argued part of the reason Names are such a theme in the message to Philadelphia is because during the reign of Vespasian its official name was changed to Flavia Philadelphia. Well there was also a City renamed Flavia in Judaea, Shechem/Sychar which was renamed Flavia Neapolis from which we get modern Nablus. Neapolis means “New City” hence poetically fitting an allusion to New Jerusalem. And if this is the “City of Samaria” of Acts 8 then it’s notable that the name of Philip is cognate with the first syllable of Philadelphia. 

I’ve avoided expanding these speculations northwards into Galilee so far besides Jezreel which I’m unsure if that counted as part of New Testament era Galilee or not. But Acts 9:31 says there were Churches in Galilee.  Another city known for having multiple names was Sepphoris.  During the 66-73 War it renamed itself in honor of the current Emperor as Neornias to express its desire not to join in the rebellion.  But also around this time took the name of Eirenopolis which means City of Peace essentially a Greek Translation of the meaning of Jerusalem. But it also took the name Diocaesarea during the reign of Hadrian.

The aspects of Laodicea's described that made me feel it fit being a city where Christians were the majority is also part of its contrast to Philadelphia, in that city the Christian presence may have been so small it’s not even possible to independently verify it had a Christian population this early.  This is very true of Philadelphia in Asia and it happens to also fit both Neapolis and Shechem. Justin Martyr was born in Neapolis but he wasn’t raised Christians his conversion came after leaving. 

I also feel attracted to looking for Sardis in Zebulun because of the name Sarid from Joshua 19:10-12, there is a seeming phonetic similarity, and Sarid means Remnant or Remain, a word used in the message to Sardis. Sarid is not the name of a City though but a boundary marker.  So I’ve considered identifying the city closest to it with Nazareth, Japhia, Sepphoris or even as far west as Haifa. 

It could be in its Judaea application each of these even Churches has more then one city.  In Asia just these Seven essentially account for all of the Christians in the province but Judea as where The Church started can be expected to have way more than just seven.  I haven't even gotten to the Phoenician Churches connected to the Hellenized Jewish Christians who came there in Acts 11 yet. 

Maybe we could try equating some of them with entire regions of Israel.  Make Caesarea and Sebaste both Pergamon as both being part of Biblical Manasseh.  Meanwhile Smyrna is named after a woman in Greek Mythology tied to Phoenicia and Adonis.  Both the Haifa and Acre sub-districts of modern Israel are part of the Biblical Allotment of Asher. Smyrna was an Aeolian Greek city and the Aeolians can also be tied to Phoenicia and Asher.