Bible Reading From Olive Tree Part 3.

“Paul began preaching in Damascus until he had to escape arrest by being lowered over the wall in a basket (Acts 9:20-25; 2 Cor. 11:32-33). Paul went to Arabia, then returned to Damascus for a time before he began his missionary travels (Gal 1:17). Damascus soon became a center for early Christianity. Today a chapel stands in the city, commemorating Paul’s conversion, and made out of the Roman gate believed to be the one Paul escaped through. Ephesus Greco-Roman city on the western coast of modern Turkey. It contained a busy artificial harbor during Paul’s time and sat at the intersection of several major roads, making it a strategic place for his missionary travels in Asia. Ephesus was at its height in the first century A.D., hosting a population as much as 500,000 people. Paul sailed there with Priscilla and Aquila on his second missionary trip after meeting them in Corinth and preached at the local synagogue, promising to soon return (Acts 18:18-21). The early Christian evangelist Apollos arrived in Ephesus soon afterwards and was discipled by Priscilla and Aquila, who had stayed in the city (Acts 18:24-26). Paul came back to Ephesus during his third missionary trip and stayed for several years, during which he wrote several of his New Testament letters (Acts 19:1,10; 1 Cor. 16:8). He left when a large riot formed at the local theater to protest him for threatening local businesses that supported the world-famous temple of the goddess Artemis at Ephesus (Acts 19:23-41). Near the end of his life, Paul wrote a letter to Timothy instructing him to remain in the city (1 Tim. 1:3). Though the New Testament book of Ephesians bears the city’s name, a few important early manuscripts do not contain an address to Ephesus, casting doubt on whether the letter was written strictly to Christians there. It may be that the letter was intended for several churches in the region, of which Ephesus was the most important. The church in Ephesus is also one of seven who received letters in the book of Revelation, in which they are praised for being discerning, working for the name of Christ, and standing against the heretical Nicolaitans. But they are reprimanded for abandoning their first love for Christ (Rev. 2:1). It is possible that in their works and zeal for doctrine they had reduced Christianity to mere intellectual pursuit. Jericho (Ericha) Wealthy Canaanite city also known as “the city of palm trees” (2 Chron. 28:15). Jericho sat by the west bank of the Jordan River on open plains near the mountainous terrain of the Judean Wilderness and along the major route through the Jordan River Valley (connecting Galilee and Judea). Scripture first mentions it when the Israelite’s set up camp across from the city before entering Canaan on the east side of the Jordan (Num. 22:1). Moses climbed a mountain across from Jericho to see Canaan before his death (Deut. 34:1). Several Jewish spies sent to scout out the land were housed in the city by a local prostitute named Rahab, who is likely the mother of Boaz, the future kinsman redeemer husband of Ruth mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus (Josh. 2:1; Matt. 1:5). After following God’s instructions to march around the perimeter of the city seven consecutive days, the city walls crumbled (Josh. 6:15). The Israelite army attacked and plundered the city, sparing the lives of Rahab and her family as promised (Josh. 6:24-5). Both incidents are mentioned in the New Testament letter to the Hebrews as hallmarks of faith (Heb. 11:30-31). Joshua pronounced a curse on anyone who would attempt to rebuild Jericho’s walls (Josh. 6:26) which was later fulfilled by the attempts of a man named Hiel during King Ahab’s reign (1 Kings 16:34). Israel’s capture of Jericho set a precedence for their victory over other Canaanite peoples (Josh. 8:2; 10:28,30). The city was allotted to the tribe of Benjamin (Josh. 18:21).” Sent from Bible Study