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SMYRNA

(Gk. Smýrna)

A city (modern Izmir) located at the terminus of inland trade routes that followed the Hermus (Gediz) and Maeander valleys out of the east. From its sheltered harbor in the southern Aegean, trade made its way west to the Greek mainland. A Greek colony dominated the area as early as the 10th century b.c., claiming to be the birthplace of Homer. In the Roman era, the city was invited to be one of the custodians for the temple of Augustus. It is listed among the seven churches of Asia Minor in Rev. 1:11 (cf. 2:8-11).

In NT times Smyrna was an important commercial city. It competed with and was comparable to Ephesus to the south. John’s letter in Revelation is our first hint at a Christian community in Smyrna. He commends the Christians for their strength against formidable persecution by a local synagogue. That courage in the faith is also cited later by Ignatius (d. a.d. 120), who stopped in Smyrna en route to Rome and martyrdom and wrote four letters there. Polycarp was martyred in the city’s stadium in 156, evidence of continued Jewish-Christian animosity. Irenaeus (d. 202), bishop of Gaul, came from Smyrna. In 1932 and 1941 the agora was excavated, but the remains are under the modern city (pop. 500,000).

Bibliography. E. M. Blaiklock, Cities of the New Testament (London, 1965), 98-103; C. J. Cadoux, Ancient Smyrna (Oxford, 1938); C. Foss, “Archaeology and the ‘Twenty Cities’ of Byzantine Asia,” AJA 81 (1977): 469-86; C. J. Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting (1986, repr. Grand Rapids, 2000).

Gary M. Burge

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SMYRNA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)