Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

LAODICEA, LAODICEANS*

Largest of three cities and its residents in the broad valley area on the borders of Phrygia, Laodicea stood where the Lycus Valley joined the Meander. Significantly, the western entrance to the city was called the Ephesian Gate. The traveler left the city on the east by the Syrian Gate, for the great road ran to Antioch, where other roads branched to the Euphrates Valley, to Damascus, and to the northeast, where the desert trade routes ran toward the mountains, the Gobi, and the remote lands of the East.

Laodicea was not a natural fortress. The low eminence, on which its Seleucid fortifications stood, might have presented a challenge to invaders, but Laodicea had a serious weakness. The water supply came principally via a vulnerable aqueduct from springs six miles (9.7 kilometers) to the north in the direction of Hierapolis. Fragments of the aqueduct can be seen today, the conduit badly narrowed by thick deposits of calcium carbonate. A place with its water so exposed could scarcely stand a determined siege. The double conduit was buried, but it was not a secret that could be kept.

With the Roman peace, Laodicea lost all of its frontier character. Under Rome, the city grew in commercial importance. Cicero traveled that way in 51 BC on his way to the provincial governorship of Cilicia, and the fact that he cashed drafts in Laodicea shows that the city had outgrown neighboring Colosse and was already a place of financial importance and wealth. One product was a glossy black wool, and the strain of long-haired black sheep bred for the trade were common until the 19th century. The wool was the basis of a textile industry centered in both Colosse and Laodicea. Various types of Laodicean garments are listed in Diocletian’s price-fixing edict of AD 300, a copy of which recently came to light from neighboring Aphrodisias.

Laodicea had a medical school. The names of its physicians appear on coins as early as the principate of Augustus. It was probably the medical school of Laodicea that developed the Phrygian eye powder, famous in the ancient world. It is a fair guess that this was the dried mud of the Hierapolis thermal springs, which could be mixed with water to form a kaolin poultice, an effective remedy for inflammation.

It can be readily seen how these features of the city provided the pattern for the scornful imagery of Revelation 3:17-18: “You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. And also buy white garments so you will not be shamed by your nakedness. And buy ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see” (NLT). The black garments exported all over the Mediterranean world, the famous eye ointment, and the city’s wealth form a basis for the writer’s stinging reproaches.