02.32. The great divide

The great divide

Turkey’s west coast has many ports that provide access to the Aegean islands and the European mainland. Paul sailed to or from many of these, among them Miletus and Ephesus in the south, Assos and Troas in the north. The sea route from Troas to Macedonia seems to have been his preferred crossing-place into Europe.¹ For overland travel, however, the preferred route for most people was across the Bosphorus. This is a narrow passage of water at thetop of the Aegean Sea through which all shipping from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea must pass. To its west is Europe and to its east is Asia.

Some years after Constantine declared the Roman Empire Christian,² he built a new capital beside the Bosphorus so that he could better control his eastern territories. This city, built on the site of old Byzantium, was his ‘New Rome’, but it was better known as Constantinople. Today it is called Istanbul, and is part of the small but strategic part of Europe that belongs to Turkey.

Until the time of Constantine, the bishop of Rome had been the most powerful church figure, but now he had to compete with the bishop of Constantinople. In time a clear division emerged, one church known as Roman Catholic and based in the west, the other known as Eastern Orthodox and based in Constantinople. Their differences were reinforced by the division of the empire into Roman and Byzantine.³ The Byzantine rulers survived the Islamic aggression of the seventh century, but conflict continued for many centuries. Then, in 1453, the Muslims conquered Constantinople and made it the capital of a new Turkish Empire. Among the notable church buildings turned into mosques was the magnificent Saint Sophia. It is now a non-religious national monument. Turkey today is still Islamic, though officially it is a secular state that tolerates minority religions.

1. Acts 16:11; Acts 20:6; Acts 20:13-15

2. In AD 313 3. The Roman Empire fell in AD 476, but the Roman Church survived.

Istanbul on the Bosphorus