The Archeology of the New Testament by Finegan Jack

Author:Finegan, Jack
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317605041
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Shortly after the middle of the fourteenth century the Ottoman Turks pressed on from Asia Minor into Europe, and they soon surrounded the chief centers of the Byzantine Empire. They took Thessalonica in 1387, a second time in 1391, and finally in 1430. In 1453 they attacked Constantinople. On Tuesday May 29 of that year, Constantine XI (1449–1453) died fighting on the ramparts, the Turkish sultan Muhammad II was the victor, and the Byzantine Empire ceased to exist.

In the Byzantine Empire Macedonia remained an important province, and under favorable circumstances, the chief cities were filled with fine church buildings. In the first period of Turkish rule there was an economic, intellectual, and artistic decline, and most of the churches were made into mosques. Yet the older monasteries of Mt. Athos and the newer ones of Meteora provided refuge, the Orthodox clergy continued to function, and the majority of the population remained Christian. In the second period of Turkish rule, from the eighteenth century on, there was a Greek renaissance. The Greek War of Independence from the Turks took place in 1821, and in 1912 Bulgarian, Serbian, and Greek armies combined to drive the Turks out of Macedonia. Then the onetime mosques were restored as churches. Afterward the allies quarreled among themselves, and in 1913 Macedonia was divided among Bulgaria, Serbia (now Yugoslavia), and Greece–the distribution of territory that, in spite of many more struggles, still obtains.

FIGURE 27. The Church of St. Paul at Kavalla (Ancient Neapolis), Marking the Spot Where Paul Supposedly Stepped Ashore.

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