Athens Bible Tours, Athens (2026)

13/11/2024

Olive Oil - The Liquid Gold

Historian Erla Zwingle explains that olive oil has been “valued through the ages for food, fuel, salve, and sacrament.” Today “the olive’s liquid gold remains unsurpassed among oils,” she adds. For thousands of years, the simple process of obtaining olive oil has remained the same. First, the harvesters beat the trees’ branches with rods to make the olives fall to the ground, where they are gathered. Then, the whole olives, including the pits, are crushed in a mill. Next, the solids are removed. Finally, the oil is separated from the water in a settling tank and is ready for consumption.

Unlike gold, however, olive oil is almost as varied as wine. Worldwide, there are a billion olive trees under cultivation. And horticulturists have classified more than 680 different varieties of olives. Apart from the difference in variety, such factors as the type of soil, the weather, the harvest date (ranging from November to February), and the extraction process influence the oil’s unique flavor, color, and aroma. Independent teams of professional tasters define the flavor of different oils as sweet, pungent, fruity, or harmonious. The tasters ensure that the quality of the final product is maintained.

The Mediterranean climate favors the cultivation of olive trees, and thus about 95 percent of all olive oil produced in the world comes from the Mediterranean basin. Travelers will notice groves of olive trees covering hillsides in Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey. Truly, the rich bounty of the olive can be described as the “liquid gold of the Mediterranean.”

In Bible times olive oil was used extensively as a food, a cosmetic, a fuel, and a medicine, as well as for other purposes. The Bible refers to olive oil more than 250 times, either as the oil itself or as the basic ingredient of perfumed oils.

The Scriptures clearly portray the important role that olive oil played in the life of a typical Israelite family. It was a key part of their diet, and its abundance was a sign of prosperity. (Joel 2:24) Both men and women used olive oil as a skin lotion. Before meeting Boaz, Ruth ‘rubbed herself with oil.’ (Ruth 3:3) After seven days of fasting, King David “got up from the earth and washed and rubbed himself with oil and changed his mantles and came to the house of Jehovah.”—2 Samuel 12:20.

Ancient lamps required a reliable supply of olive oil. (Matthew 25:1-12) “Pure, beaten olive oil” was used to illuminate the tabernacle in the wilderness. (Leviticus 24:2) By the time of King Solomon, olive oil had become an important commodity of international trade. (1 Kings 5:10, 11) Prophets anointed kings with oil. (1 Samuel 10:1) Kindly hosts showed hospitality to guests by greasing their heads with oil. (Luke 7:44-46) The neighborly Samaritan of Jesus’ illustration treated the wounds of an injured man with oil and wine.—Luke 10:33, 34.

In the Scriptures, soothing counsel and comfort are compared to oil because of its widespread medicinal use. The Christian disciple James wrote: “Is there anyone sick among you? Let him call the older men of the congregation to him, and let them pray over him, greasing him with oil in the name of Jehovah. And the prayer of faith will make the indisposed one well, and Jehovah will raise him up.”—James 5:14, 15.

20/06/2024

World Refugee Day

“The Little Refugee Boy” is a statuette of a little boy wearing a shepherd’s cape and holding a puppy in his arms. It’s the only find of a the great excavation in ancient Nissa that an archaeologist brought with him to Athens, as he was escaping from the Asia Minor Catastrophe.

The marble child, dating back to the 1st century BCE, was probably created on demand of wealthy parents as a votive offering to a sanctuary or as a work of art, placed in either a private or public space, according to the custom of the day.

From the moment of its exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the marble boy from Asia Minor was identified with the innumerable children of the Catastrophe - the orphans of the war who were announced for many decades in search of the Red Cross. It’s origin from the lost ancestral cradle of hundreds of thousands of refugees, and the image of its childhood innocence attributed to it a historical reading, and an emotional dimension that remains undiminished to this day.

31/05/2024

Quirks of Athens

Every city has its own set of features that reflects the daily lives of its residents.

Athens’ all-year-round sunny weather means that drying clothes outside is a common practice, and this in turn adds a touch of charm to the city’s streets.

The picks above capture the laundry scenes that dot Athens.

25/12/2023

Syracusia - The World’s First Cruise Liner

From sources such as Athenaeus, Moschion of Phaselis and Plutarch, we know that a magnificent ship, known as the Syracusia, was built in the Greek city of Syracuse in 240 BCE by order of the tyrant Hiero II, by the naval engineer Archias of Corinth and under Archimedes’ supervision. She was one of the largest ships ever built in antiquity, adaptable to three uses - luxury passenger cruiser (just under 2000 passengers), merchant ship (over 1000 tons of cargo), and warship.

On the lower deck were the storerooms for supplies and commodities, a water tank, a fish farm, stables for horses, ovens, mills, labs, a pumping station, etc. On the second deck were posh berths for the passengers and the officers of the crew, a kitchen, a gym, a leisure room, a library, steam baths, gardens, promenades, as well as the temple dedicated to Aphrodite. As an added touch of aesthetics, the ship was covered in sculptures, paintings, and mosaics. On the third deck, the top one, there were peripheral walls with bastions and dozens of defensive machines, such as 8 towers, turtles, stone throwing cranes, iron hands, catapults, etc. On the perimeter of the ship, iron railings prevented access to pirate or enemy vessels. She carried along a large barge, many boats and fishing boats. For propulsion, she relied on three sails and 20 rows of oars on each side.

The Syracusia served as a diplomatic tool. The ship’s grandeur and impressive presence undoubtedly commanded respect and awe, further enhancing Syracuse’s influence and prestige in the ancient world.

The Syracusia only made one known voyage, bringing grain from Syracuse to Alexandria in the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, whereupon she was given as a present to Ptolemy III Euergetes.

13/02/2023

The “birth” of cinema

On February 13th, 1895 in France, the Lumière Brothers, Louis and Auguste, based on the kinetoscope of Dixon and Edison, invented a portable device which they called “cinématographe” and used to work as camera, printer and projector at the same time.

The Lumière brothers held the world’s first public movie screening on December 28th, 1895, at the Grand Café in Paris. After the public premiere of their film, Louis was said to have remarked: “Le cinéma est une invention sans avenir—Cinema is an invention without a future.”

In 1896 the Lumières opened Cinématographe theaters in London, England; Brussels, Belgium; and New York City, showing the more than 40 films that they had shot of everyday French life: a child looking at a goldfish bowl, a baby being fed, a blacksmith at work, and soldiers marching. French Photographic Society Conference is the first newsreel, and the Lyon Fire Department became the world’s first documentary.

The devices that have evolved from the “cinématographe” have been used for the spreading of the good news worldwide.

05/06/2022

The Torment of Marsyas illustrates the meaning of the Greek words stauros is stake and xylon is wood or tree, not a cross. - Matthew 27:40; Acts 5:30

Marsyas was a silenus, or companion of Dionysos; a celebrated pipe-player. After learning to play a flute discarded by the goddess Athena, Marysas arrogantly challenged god Apollo to a musical contest.

In the contest between Apollo and Marsyas, which was judged by the Muses or the Nysean nymphs the terms stated that the winner could treat the defeated party any way he wanted. Marsyas played his flute, putting everyone there into a frenzy, and they started dancing wildly. When it was Apollo's turn, he played his lyre so beautifully that everyone was still and had tears in their eyes. The Muses declared Apollo the victor, and the god punished Marysas for his pride (or hubris) by condemning him to be flayed alive by a Scythian slave.

A number of copies and reliefs attest to the existence and popularity of the original statuary group depicting the legend. Thanks to these, the original composition may be reconstructed as follows: Marsyas, hanging from the tree, would have been flanked on the left by a crouching slave, sharpening his knife and raising his head towards the silenus, who returns his gaze. The figure of Apollo was probably standing to the right.

The work is a Roman copy of a Hellenistic original created at Pergamon in Asia Minor, in the second half of the third century BC, in exhibition at Le Músee du Louvre. The legend of Marsyas was a favorite subject among artists as early as the fifth century BC.

Stauros (σταυρός) is a Greek word for a stake or an implement of capital punishment.

The word stauros comes from the verb ἵστημι (histēmi: "straighten up", "stand"), which in turn comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *steh2-u- "pole", related to the root *steh2- "to stand, to set".

In ancient Greek stauros meant either an "upright pale or stake", a "cross, as the instrument of crucifixion", or a "pale for impaling a co**se".

Bibliography
Borbein (A. H.), "Die Statue des hängenden Marsyas", in Verlag des Kunstgeschichtlichen seminars, Hans Herter zum 75. Geburtstag, 1974, p. 37-52, fig. 9-12
Weis (A.), The Hanging Marsyas and its copies, Rome, 1992, p. 185-187, n 32, fig. 17, 19 et 32
Sismondo-Ridgway (B.), Hellenistic Sculpture, t. II, The University of Wisconsin
Press, 2000, pp. 283-285

13/04/2022

It's that time of the year again, when... "The Jacarandas - playing castanets and dancing - shedded around their feet a purple snow". - Giorgos Seferis (Noble Price in Literature - 1963)

If it happens that you are in Athens during their blossom, the best place to admire the Jacarandas is at Zappeion”.

17/03/2022

Brothers and sisters from Poland patiently waiting, day and night, at the Poland-Ukraine border to welcome brothers and sisters escaping from the war in Ukraine!

Captured by CCTV.

This wonderful and emotionally moving video was created by Peaked Perfection.

07/03/2022

Looking forward to meeting you all, dear sisters and brothers!

Hope to see you soon in Athens!

17/01/2022

The magic of winter in Greece! Florina Regional Unit

24/10/2021

Burying Treasure During WWII

On Sunday April 27, 1941 the N**i German army entered the Greek capital of Athens.

The following morning, N**i officers entered the National Archaeological Museum to survey its treasures and determine what would be confiscated and moved to Germany. But the building was empty. Curators and archaeologists at the museum had seen the writing on the wall. On October 1940, six months before the first N**i soldier would set foot in Athens, they hatched a plan to protect and preserve thousands of treasures from Greece’s glorious ancient past.

“Really early in the morning, even before the moon had set, the people who had undertaken this job would gather at the museum and they would leave for home really late at night,” Semni Karouzou, a curator at the time, wrote in museum archives. Massive trenches were dug in the basement of the museum, often extending under streets and avenues that surrounded the vicinity of the building. Above, meanwhile, city life went on in the bustling capital. She added that museum technicians used improvised wooden cranes to lower the statues into ditches “reminiscent of mass graves.” Museum technicians and staff painstakingly filled the underground trenches one by one with extreme care. Once the antiquities were placed in the concrete-fortified trenches, they were topped with sand and eventually filled with dirt for further concealment and protection.

The N**i officers faced a surreal image. The entire museum had been stripped of all its content. There were naked walls and empty showcases and not a single trace of an antiquity in sight.The German officer sent to occupy the building asked persistently where the treasures were but the staff sat motionless and speechless, preserving the secret operation to hide the treasures. Not a single treasure was ever found from the massive collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens and the secret location of the antiquities was never revealed. These antiquities were eventually dug up and put back on display after the end of the war.

Athens Bible Tours

13/11/2024

20/06/2024

31/05/2024

25/12/2023

13/02/2023

05/06/2022

13/04/2022

17/03/2022

07/03/2022

17/01/2022

24/10/2021

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share