Laodicea: lukewarm
To Laodicea, rich and in need of nothing in its own eyes: neither cold nor hot.
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To Laodicea speaks the Amen, the faithful and true witness. The church said, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knew not that it was wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. It was counseled to buy gold tried in the fire, white raiment, and eyesalve to anoint its eyes, that it might see.
Then comes one of the best loved verses in the Bible: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). To him that overcometh he grants to sit with him in his throne.
Laodicea was a banking city so rich that it rebuilt itself after an earthquake in AD 60 without help from Rome, famous for its black wool and for an eye salve from a school of medicine nearby. Excavations since 2003 have uncovered its streets, its theaters and a church of the fourth century.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Revelation 3:16, KJV
Where it happened
Laodicea, Near Denizli, Turkey.
The ruins of Laodicea, near Denizli. Its water came by aqueduct and arrived tepid, between the hot springs of Hierapolis and the cold streams of Colossae, a picture many see in the letter.
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More from Revelation
Revelation
Sources and editorial method
Research and editorial references used for this page include:
- The King James Bible, as published by bible-api.com
- The Book of Enoch, translated by R. H. Charles (1917), Project Gutenberg
Every story is told from the King James Bible, and from the Book of Enoch in R. H. Charles’s translation (1917) where a story names it. Every quotation was checked word for word against those texts. Where a place is not known, the page says so. The paintings and the narration were made for the house.
