situation, where a change was made from land-travel to sea-faring, offered a peculiarly favourable

opportunity for intercourse and the spread of a new system of thought and life. Troas, therefore,

undoubtedly played a very important part in the development of the Asian Church; yet it is not mentioned

among the Seven.

Figure 10: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum--"First of Asia"

(4.) It may also be regarded as practically certain that the great cities which lay on the important roads

connecting those Seven leading Cities with one another had all "heard the word," and that most of them

were the seats of Churches, when the Seven Letters were written. We remember that, not long afterwards,

Magnesia and Tralleis, the two important, wealthy and populous cities on the road between Ephesus and

Laodicea, possessed Churches of their own and bishops; that they both sent deputations to salute, console

and congratulate the Syrian martyr Ignatius, when he was conducted like a condemned criminal to face

death in Rome; and that they both received letters from him. With these facts in our mind we need feel no

doubt that those two Churches, and many others like them, took their origin from the preaching of St. Paul's

coadjutors and subordinates during his residence in Ephesus, AD 54-56. Magnesia inscribed on its coins

the title "Seventh (city) of Asia," referring doubtless to the order of precedence among the cities as

observed in the Common Council of the Province, technically styled Commune Asiae. This seems to prove

that there was some special importance attached in general estimation to a group of seven representative

cities in Asia, which would be an interesting coincidence with the Seven Churches. Of the seven cities

implied in the Magnesian title five may be enumerated with practical certainty, viz., the three rivals "First of

Asia," Smyrna, Ephesus and Pergamum, along with Sardis and Cyzicus. The remaining two seats were

doubtless keenly contested between Magnesia, Tralleis (one of the richest and greatest in Asia), Alabanda

(chief perhaps in Caria), Apamea (ranked by Strabo next to Ephesus as a commercial centre of the Province)

and Laodicea; but apparently at some time under the Empire a decision by the Emperor, or by a governor of

the Province, or by the Council of Asia, settled the precedence to some extent and placed Magnesia

seventh. Neither Thyatira nor Philadelphia, however, can have had any reasonable claim to a place among

those seven leading cities of the Province.

(5.) Another city which can hardly have failed to possess an important Church when the Seven Letters were

written is Cyzicus. Not merely was it one of the greatest cities of the Province (as has been mentioned in the

preceding paragraph): it also lay on one of the great routes by which Christianity spread. It has been

pointed out elsewhere that the early Christianisation of Bithynia and Pontus was not due (as has been

commonly assumed) to mis sionaries travelling by land from Syria across Asia Minor to the Black Sea coasts.

Those cross-country routes from south to north were little used at that period; and it was only during the

last quarter of the first century that Cappadocia, which they traversed, began to be properly organised as a

Province; for before AD 74 Cappadocia was merely a procuratorial district, i.e., it was governed in the

interest of the Emperor as successor of the old native kings by his procurator, who administered it on the

old native lines. Moreover, it is stated that inner Pontus was hardly affected by Christianity until the Third

century, while Pontus on the coast was Christianised in the first century and the pagan ritual had almost

fallen into disuse there by AD 112, as Pliny reported to Trajan. Those maritime regions therefore must have

been Christianised by sea, in other words by passengers on ships coming from "the parts of Asia" or from

Rome itself. On the route of such ships lay Cyzicus, one of the greatest commercial cities of Asia Minor,

which must have attracted a certain proportion of the merchants and passengers on those ships. It was

along the great routes of international communication that Christianity spread first; and Cyzicus can hardly

have been missed as the new thought swept along this main current of intercourse. But Cyzicus has no

place among the Seven Churches, though it was the leading city and capital of a great district in the north of

the Province.

It is therefore evident that those Seven must have b een selected out of a much larger number of Churches,

some of them very important centres of thought and influence, for some reason which needs investigation.

Now it is inconceivable that St. John should simply write to Seven Churches taken at random out of the

Province which had been so long under his charge, and ignore the rest. One can understand why St. Paul