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Laodicea was situated along the banks of a river and stood at the junction of three great roads traversing Asia Minor. The location of the city was conducive to commercial enterprise, hence it prospered as a large industrial administrative center specializing in banking, textile manufacturing and medicine. Many wealthy people attended the Laodicean church which, of course, caused the church to prosper.
Laodicea
Evidence of this prosperity is found in the present day ruins of three large church buildings dating back to the early days of Christianity. Laodicea's economy was fueled by a textile industry that manufactured from the wool of black sheep, soft, sleek, black garments and carpets that were popular both locally and in the surrounding region.
Laodicea
The medical school was likewise famous for successfully mixing chemicals to cure diseases. Its physicians, whose allegiance was to the serpent god Asklepios, produced an ointment for the ears and eyes. Especially famous was the Laodicean eye salve for healing certain forms of blindness. The banking industry likewise flourished in Laodicea because of the city's prosperous economy.
To Church in Laodicea
NIV Revelation 3:14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
To Church in Laodicea
16 So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-- I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
To Church in Laodicea
17 You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
To Church in Laodicea
18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
To Church in Laodicea
20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. 21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Laodicea
The place often suffered from earthquakes, especially from the great shock in the reign of Nero (60 AD), in which it was completely destroyed. But the inhabitants declined imperial assistance to rebuild the city and restored it from their own means. (Tacitus, Annals. xiv. 27.) The wealth of its inhabitants created among them a taste for the arts of the Greeks, as is manifest from its ruins; and that it did not remain behind in science and literature is attested by the names of the sceptics and , the successors of Aenesidemus (Diog. Lart. ix. 11. 106, 12. 116), and by the existence of a great medical school. (Strab. xii. p. 580.)
Laodicea
Antiochus the Great transported 2000 Jewish families to Phrygia from Babylonia (Joseph., Ant. Jud., xii.3.4). Many of Laodicea's inhabitants were Jews. They sent a sum of 20 pounds of gold annually to Jerusalem for the Temple.