Emiliast

This is our guide, Emilia, who keeps us organised and gives us lots of information about Greek customs and history. Today started with a visit to the bema, the steps where St Paul would have addressed the wealthy burghers of Berea. Apparently bema means step in Greek! There were many who believed the news about Jesus and became Christians causing a backlash from the Thessalonians who came to stir up trouble. The steps are those that Paul would have stood on and the rest of the structure is to commemorate the events!

The second visit of the day was to see the synagogue which was the oldest in Greece but has currently no congregation as they were all removed in 1942 and taken off to concentration camps. The first extra is the ark for the Torah scrolls which is empty as they were removed and hidden before they went to the camp and nobody was told where they were. The second extra is the ceiling painting! Paul’s first action when he went to Berea was to preach in the synagogue to the Jews,


I will finish this tomorrow! Apologies to all that I have not been looking at your entries but there will be a big effort to catch up when i get back