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Bible Dictionaries
Miletus
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or MILETUS. The southernmost of the twelve colonies forming the Ionian confederacy of Asia Minor. It lay on the S. coast of the Latonian Gulf, which penetrated Caria S. of the peninsula of Mycale, and received the waters of the Mæander. The silt of this river filled up the gulf, and Miletus is now 5 miles from the sea, while the former island of Lade, which helped to make its harbour, is now a hill rising in the alluvial plain.
Two visits of St. Paul to Miletus are mentioned. The first (Acts 20:15 ) took place when he was returning to Jerusalem at the end of the Third Missionary Journey. He stayed long enough to send for the elders of Ephesus, and give them the farewell charge recorded in Acts 20:1-38 . This probably needed two days. The second visit is mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:20 ‘Trophimus I left at Miletus sick.’ This must have been between St. Paul’s first and second imprisonment at Rome. In neither case are we told of any attempt to found a church at Miletus. Miletus was already unimportant by comparison with Ephesus, which now received the trade of the Mæander valley, and shared with Smyrna the trade that came along the great road through the centre of Asia Minor. Ephesus was recognized by the Romans as the southern capital of the province of Asia. Formerly Miletus had led Ionia. Its trade was mainly in wool, and it had founded numerous colonies on the Black Sea and Propontis (Sinope, Trapezus, Abydos, Cyzicus), besides Naucratis in Egypt. It had led the Ionian revolt, the fate of which was determined by the battle of Lade and the capture of Miletus, b.c. 494. It had defended itself on behalf of the Persian power against Alexander in b.c. 334. Its ruins are now called Palalia . They seem to include few Christian remains, but Miletus was a bishopric, and from the 5th cent. an archbishopric.
A. E. Hillard.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Miletus'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/m/miletus.html. 1909.
