My Covid Walk: 8. Honaz

Where could I have walked to if I had walked through a year of Covid in one direction?  My eighth and final possibility is Honaz.  Honaz is in the middle of Turkey.

Wikipedia:

Honaz is about 12 miles east of Denizli on the slopes of Mount Hinaz, the highest peak in the Aegean Region of Turkey.  It is just to the south of Honaz Cayi, a river known in ancient times as the Lycus.  In antiquity Honaz was known as Colossae.  Like many other cites in the region Colossae was destroyed by earthquakes with few ruins remaining.  Today the economy is centred on growing cherries.  It is also the home area of many oil wrestlers including the three-time national champion.

Is it Covid-safe?

Turkey is currently on the Red List - so no.

On the Plus Side:

Some natural beauty - a bit rugged - and I like cherries.

On the Minus Side:

Too hot for this time of year.  Lots of history but none to see.

Has it got a Football Team?

Denizlispor (from the nearby city) were, until last month, in the Turkish Superleague.  But after finishing 21st out 21 they are there no longer of course.   

Has it got a Baptist Church?

No.  Has it any Christian Church?  Not that I can see.  There are a handful in Denizli - the nearest Baptist Church may be in Izmir, three hours by car.  The incongruity of the lack of Christian witness in this area - as in Benghazi (My Covid Walk 6.) is made more amazing in the light of Paul's words to the Colossians of old: 

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

But if the pandemic has taught us anything, it has taught us that human influence and trends are not within humans' power: Honaz has yet to encounter anyone else who has divine, creation and resurrection power - and it never will.  It's still Jesus or bust in Colossae.

Prospects out of Ten:

Four.  Sitting in the searing sun, eating a bag of cherries and pondering Colossians.

William

Here’s a Bible verse for a new academic year...

But [Paul and Barnabas in Iconium] found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country. [Acts 14:6]

“Eh?”, I hear you mutter.

William was studying hard and very successfully at a time when very many people were casting doubt on the Bible. As a historian he, like them had no real time for its reliability, believing it to be the enthusiastic writings of religious wishful thinkers.

After being awarded prizes as the Best Student at university he devoted himself to the study and research that he loved so much. He had many setbacks - illnesses laid him low, one piece of research prepared over ten years was entirely lost and had to be completely rewritten (and he wasn’t using a computer!). He learned Greek and Latin in astonishing detail so that he could pursue the study of Roman and Greek culture and he delved into previously uncharted studies of these cultures, particularly in what today we call Turkey.

Such was the detail of his archaeological research that he found Luke, in writing Acts 14:6 (above), was not strictly accurate. Iconium (from which Paul was fleeing) was also in Lycaonia so Luke had been mistaken to wite 'to the Lycaonian cities of...' - Paul was in that district already.

It was a minor point to the rest of us, but William Ramsay’s research had proved, he thought, more accurate than Luke's.

Until he found out that Luke was right. Studying more deeply still, he found that Iconium had changed districts and Luke’s history was exactly right. And so it was that Acts 14:6 became William’s transformational text. If Luke was so accurate about Lycaonian geography William thought he must have been right about more important things. William Ramsay set about reading the scriptures as truth rather than fiction. He went on to fiercely defend the truth of the Bible.

Learning is not the enemy of the truth when it is honestly and open-mindedly pursued.