[MAP] OF THE 7 CITIES

The City of Thyatira The site is now called Ak Hissar (White Castle)

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This cosmopolitan colony was adjacent to the road which went from Pergamum to Sardis. Though predominantly Macedonian there were also Asian, Greek, Chaldean, Jewish and many Italian residents which probably gave rise to an intermixing of religious beliefs.

There were city guilds which included bakers, makers of brassware, potters, tanners, weavers, robe manufacturers, and dyers of purple. They held banquets associated with idolatry.

Lydia was a seller of purple from Thyatira..  [Acts 16:12-15]

The principle god was the Macedonian sun-god Appolo, the god of wisdom, whom they called Tyrimnas. The Ephesian goddess of fertility, Artemis, the huntress, whom the Romans called Diana, was also worshipped and the Roman imperial family was deified. Games were held in honour of Tyrimnas, Hercules and the emperor. There was also a Jewish superstition that a woman named Sambatha was a sibyl. That is a mouthpiece of God.

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