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Evangelical

2025-06-10T22:21:33-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Cotton Castle Cliff

Last updated on: June 10, 2025 at 10:21 pm By Ben Witherington

Hierapolis has an unusual natural feature— calcium carbonate cliffs. You can see these cliffs from a great distance on the highway as you are driving down the Lycus Valley. In the 20th century this became a major tourist attraction with hotels built right next to these cliffs. Fortunately, the government intervened, and had them removed. When there is insufficient water cascading down these cliffs, they become brown, so the wise thing to do was to provide such water on an... Read more

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no Dover

White cliffs

2025-06-10T13:01:20-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

How Mobile were the Ancients?

Last updated on: June 10, 2025 at 1:01 pm By Ben Witherington

There used to be a time when skeptical scholars asserted that it is unlikely Paul travelled as much as Acts suggests he did. Ancient people, it was assumed were too sedentary, and apart from the Roman army, they did not take long trips by land or sea. Unfortunately for this theory, the evidence suggests something else. For one thing, Jews in the ‘western’ diaspora, were not simply carted off as slaves by Alexander and the Romans. Yes, the Romans did... Read more

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On the road again...

2025-06-10T11:37:01-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Recent Developments at Laodicea– Part Three

Last updated on: June 10, 2025 at 11:37 am By Ben Witherington

Laodicea is an ongoing project, and the latest development is fascinating. It involves Trajan’s provision of a fountain, complete with his statue, and some new rules about the use of water, which reminds me of the water restrictions you hear about from time to time in L.A. The climate at Laodicea is similar in that there is no rain to speak of during the hot summer months. Here is a shot of what the site looked like before the dig….... Read more

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but not a drop to drink.

Water

water everywhere

2025-06-10T09:46:26-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Recent Developments at Laodicea– Part Two

Last updated on: June 10, 2025 at 9:46 am By Ben Witherington

Turns out the agora had a beautiful colored wall, as we have mentioned before. But it also had a collonaded street with gorgeous marble columns. Laodicea was indeed a wealthy city as Revelation 3.14-22 also makes clear, but the city had a serious problem, a water problem, and for a city of about 100,000 or a little less this was indeed a serious issue. The water they had was brackish, not really very potable, with too much calcium carbonate. They’ve... Read more

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What a big farmer's market

2025-06-10T09:38:46-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Recent Developments at Laodicea– Part One

Last updated on: June 10, 2025 at 9:38 am By Ben Witherington

We’ve chronicled the ongoing archaeological work at Laodicea which is so impressive (shout out to Prof. Shimshek and his crew), and in this post I’m showing some of the most recent upgrades at a couple of sites, and a brand new site in the last of these series of posts. This is the afternoon theatre which has been thoroughly put back together and is even now used again for concerts. But as you can see from the crane, there’s still... Read more

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Are you not entertained?

2025-06-09T20:55:44-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Colossae— Can You Dig It?

Last updated on: June 9, 2025 at 8:55 pm By Ben Witherington

Below you see a map which highlights the three major cities of the Lycus valley and their location in Turkey. For decades and decades, Biblical scholars have been hoping and waiting for the tel or mound at Colossae to be finally excavated to see what’s left of the city that was destroyed in the A.D. 60s, but later rebuilt without Rome’s assistance. Well I am very happy to report, having just recently returned from there, that by the time I’m... Read more

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Overlooking Colossae is a colossal mistake

2025-06-03T14:41:02-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Life in Rome Recreated

Last updated on: June 3, 2025 at 2:41 pm By Ben Witherington

While this is not perfect, it does give us a glimpse of various aspects of ancient Roman life. Read more

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A Taste of the first century

2025-05-22T07:48:11-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

You Can’t Domesticate Those Critters

Last updated on: May 22, 2025 at 7:48 am By Ben Witherington

This is why raccoons and frogs are not circus animal. You can’t train them. Read more

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Don't be frog hopping to conclusions

2025-05-22T07:42:47-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Null and Void, Mostly Void

Last updated on: May 22, 2025 at 7:42 am By Ben Witherington

Of course they could have been thinking about Genesis 1, and creation. Read more

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When is a void devoid of meaning

2025-05-22T07:35:30-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Dog Gone Good Time

Last updated on: May 22, 2025 at 7:35 am By Ben Witherington

Dogs are alright, but they are too high maintenance, unlike cats. Someone should invent Pampers for dogs. But these two pictures encapsulate the joy dogs have exploring and playing with other critters…. though the turtle appears to be freaking out. Read more

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It's a dogs world

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