"It's all Greek to Me"

"And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, 'This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. ...'"


“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth,does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. ..." 

"After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. ..."


(Acts 17&18)


Can you guess who I'm talking about and where we went? Yup, that's right. Greece! Now first off, I realize that my title is rather lame and cliche, but how often do you get to use the phrase literally. (With the exception, of course, of New Testament Greek students at Emmaus.) 
Paul, the apostle, was just that. One who bore the Name of Jesus, and preached salvation everywhere. His year and a half in Greece was no exception. His first stop, was Thessaloniki, but that was our last stop. From there he went on to Athens and his last stop was in Corinth. We, however, took that rout backwards. Actually, we stayed in a small town about 30-45 minutes out side of Corinth with a Greek missionary called John Kramides (sp?). From his town he took us to Corinth where my dad spoke, then he took us to see the ruins from Paul's time. Yep, it's true, I've walked the streets of old... the ones Paul would have walked preaching the gospel, or drawing a crowd. The fun thing about seeing these ruins with John was that he got really excited about the important details and was able to tie them in with scripture. 

Common Corinthian ruins. A regular town about 2000 years old. Cool thing: Paul would have been here.

Wee little me climbing a sycamore tree.

From Corinth we went to Athens via train. There we got a hostel that had a restaurant on the roof and from it you could see the Parthenon! Never thought I would eat such a luxurious dinner (although the food it self wasn't as impressive)! The next day we made our way up to the Parthenon, which, we learned, was a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. Legend has it that she and another god had a competition as to who would be the protector of the city. The two were to give a gift to the people of the city, and which ever one was more useful to the people the giver would become protector. The other god, whose name or gift I cannot remember, gave a gift that was simple and unimpressive. Athena, on the other hand, gave an olive tree. This proved to be more useful, because from it would come olives, olive oil, and other olive trees. Thus Athena became the protector of the city, and that is how the city was named Athens... or so goes the myth. Anyway there is also a temple dedicated to the other god, but it is much less impressive. 

A theater on the way up to the Parthenon.

The Parthenon. 

Once we saw the Parthenon, we hiked down the hill a little ways and saw Mars Hill. Ring a bell? Yup you guessed it - or maybe you didn't. Mars Hill is the very place Paul gave his famous speech to the Athenians. There he not only challenged their religion, but also introduced them to the Creator and Savior. It was fun to imagine Paul standing somewhere on that hill in order to be heard. Slowly a crowd could be pictured gathering around him, holding on to each word wondering if it was truth. 

Me on Mars Hill looking over the city of Athens.

From there we continued down the hill looking at other ruins and so on. The next day we saw a temple dedicated to Zeus. This, had it been more in tact, would have been much more impressive than the Parthenon, however, only a fraction of the building stood.

Me next to the temple for Zeus with the Parthenon in the background. 

Continuing our journey through Greece, we traveled to Thessaloniki. The ruins there weren't as impressive... since there was only a wall... but the city itself was a lot prettier than Athens. We spent one day there, and left for Burgas, Bulgaria at 2 AM. But that's for a later blog. 

One of the pillars with the sun behind it. 

On the way up to Thessaloniki 

All in all, Greece turned out to be a beautiful country, with loving people, fascinating history, and lots of feta cheese and olive oil.