Philadelphiaan open door

The whole story

To Philadelphia speaks he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth. The church had a little strength, yet had kept his word and not denied his name, and he set before it an open door. He promised to keep it from the hour of temptation that was to come upon all the world.

Like Smyrna, Philadelphia receives no rebuke: “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown” (Revelation 3:11). Him that overcometh he makes a pillar in the temple of God, to go no more out, with the name of God and of the new Jerusalem written upon him.

Philadelphia, now Alaşehir, stood on a road into the high plateau of Phrygia, a city founded to carry Greek ways inland. After the great earthquake of AD 17 it was shaken so often that many of its people lived outside the walls. It kept its Christian faith long after the cities around it fell, holding out until 1390.

I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

Revelation 3:8, KJV

Where it happened

Philadelphia, Alaşehir, Turkey.

Alaşehir, on the road east from Sardis.

Every story stands at its place on the Worldwide Watch map: the Bible’s world, on the map.

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.