Last week, my team and I had the opportunity to visit two ancient biblical archeological sites: Troas and Assos. The cities are parts of the Apostle Paul’s second and third missionary journey’s.
The city of Troas is mentioned first in Acts 16:8 shortly after Paul and Barnabas parted ways and Timothy first joined Paul and Silas on their journey. In Acts 16:8 they traveled to Troas where Paul received a vision of a man in Macedonia (parts of modern day Greece, Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria) asking Paul to come and help them, which Paul and his friends concluded was God calling them to preach the gospel there (Acts 16:9-10). Then they immediately got ready to set sail from Troas for Macedonia (Acts 16:11-12).
Troas is mentioned next in Acts 20:5-6 on Paul’s 3rd missionary journey. Seven of Paul’s friends sailed to Troas to wait for Luke and Paul to arrive there. Luke and Paul celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread (one of God’s appointed times) then sailed to meet their friends in Troas, where they stayed for a week. These are the ruins of the ancient harbor (it was very well traveled and elaborate back in the day):
Then, on the first day of the week they came together and Paul preached a really long message… long enough for one of the men in the room to fall asleep and fall out of a third-story window! It is debated whether the man died and was raised to life again (just as what had been done before by Jesus) or if he was hurt but still alive. Either way, in the end he was okay and the people were greatly comforted before Paul left them the next day (Acts 20:7-12). A church was built over the location archeologists believe that event is to have occurred. A large stone with a cross carved in the middle is located in the center of the largest room, but has been covered up with dirt by the directive of Turkish leaders. These are the ruins of the church:
Troas is also mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:13 and 2 Corinthians 2:12.
When Paul left Troas, he walked about 50km (~30 miles) to Assos. His friends sailed to Assos and intended to meet Paul there to pick him up (Acts 20:13-14). This is the harbor there, the west gate, the ruins of the old church and some of the city:
