Bible Synapse
Sardis
Site · 7th century BC – 6th century AD · The early church
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- 7th century BC – 6th century AD (the Lydian, Persian, Greek and Roman city)
- Found
- Sart, Manisa Province, Turkey. Excavated by Princeton University under Howard Crosby Butler in 1910–14, and since 1958 by the Harvard–Cornell Archaeological Exploration of Sardis.
- Now
- At the site, Sart, Turkey
- Passages
- Revelation 1:11, Revelation 3:1–6
What it is
The capital of the Lydian kings, below a steep acropolis that was famous in antiquity as almost impregnable. Excavations have uncovered the great Hellenistic temple of Artemis, the Lydian city walls, a Roman bath-gymnasium complex and a large late Roman synagogue. Sardis was badly damaged by an earthquake in AD 17 and rebuilt with help from the emperor Tiberius, as the historian Tacitus records.
How it connects to the Bible
Revelation's letter to Sardis (3:1–6) says the church has a name for being alive but is dead. It warns, “Be watchful”, and “I will come on thee as a thief”. Many commentators read this against the city's history: its citadel, thought to be safe, fell to Persian soldiers who climbed an unguarded cliff in the 6th century BC, and in the 3rd century BC the troops of Antiochus III took the city by a similar surprise climb. The image of the thief is also used elsewhere in the New Testament for the Lord's coming.