Bible Synapse
Pergamum
Site · 3rd century BC – Roman period · The early church · also called Pergamon, Pergamos
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- 3rd century BC – Roman period (the Attalid and Roman city)
- Found
- Bergama, İzmir Province, Turkey. Excavated by Carl Humann from 1878 and by German archaeologists in many later campaigns, most recently under Felix Pirson. Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2014.
- Now
- At the site, Bergama, Turkey
- Passages
- Revelation 1:11, Revelation 2:12–17
What it is
The hilltop capital of the Attalid kings, who ruled from here in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, and later a leading city of Roman Asia. Excavations on the acropolis have uncovered a steep theatre, a library, temples including one to the emperor Trajan, and the foundations of the Great Altar, whose sculptured frieze is now in Berlin. Below the hill lay the Asclepieion, a famous healing sanctuary.
How it connects to the Bible
Revelation's letter to Pergamos (Pergamum) says the church lives “where Satan's seat is” and names a faithful witness, Antipas, who was killed there (2:13). Commentators have linked this seat or throne to the Great Altar, to the city's early temple of the emperor cult, or more generally to its standing as a centre of Roman rule and pagan worship. None of these readings is certain.