Tag Archives: earthquakes

The letter to Philadelphia: Trouble with tremors

lettersThe part of Turkey that was once known as Asia Minor is an area that has historically been earthquake prone. Philadelphia was especially hard hit, as I note in Letters From The Lamb:

The area around Philadelphia was very active seismically, especially in the first decades after the birth of Christ. The city was hit by a violent earthquake in 17 A.D. and strong tremors continued to be felt in the city for years. The historian Strabo commented that the buildings in the city were structurally unsound; he was amazed at the persistence of the people of Philadelphia, who sought ways to counteract through construction the frequent movement of the ground. Strabo questioned the sanity of those who chose to return to the city, noting that many opted to live in the open countryside in order to avoid the dangers of falling masonry. The terror of the earthquake and the ensuing aftershocks had a lasting effect on the people of Philadelphia and undoubtedly hurt the growth of the city and its economy.

(Letters From The Lamb, pp. 120-21)

Later, Jesus is going to promise the faithful that they will be pillars in God’s temple and “Never again will he leave it.” Those words would have had special meaning to a people used to having to flee from their lives when the earth began to shake.