PHILADELPHIA, a City of Mysia, in Asia Minor. At the Time that St. John the Evangelist wrote his Revelations, the Angel or Bishop of the Church of Mysia was a very holy Man, to whom the Son of God directed these Words, Rev. iii. 7, 8, 9, &c. And to the Angel of the Church of Philadelphia write, These Things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the Key of David, he that openeth, and no Man shutteth, and shutteth and no Man openeth: I know thy Works, behold, I have set before thee an open Door, and no Man can shut it; for thou hast a little Strength, and hast kept my Word, and hast not denied my Name. Behold, I will make them of the Synagogue of Satan, (which say they are Jews and are not, but do lye). Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy Feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the Word of my Patience, I also will keep thee from the Hour of Temptation, which shall come upon all the World, to try them that dwell upon the Earth. Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no Man take thy Crown. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the Name of my God, and the Name of the City of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of Heaven from my God; and I will write upon him my Vide Hal. lox. vit. Quad.new Name.
‘Tis unknown who this Bishop of Philadelphia was: Aureolus and De Lyra think it was St. Quadratus, a Disciple of the Apostles, and an Apologist for the Christian Religion, who presented an Apology to the Emperor Adrian. The Greeks in Euseb. Hist. Eccl. l. 3. c. 37.their Office give him the Name of an Apostle; and Eusebius calls him an Evangelist, in giving his Character, because he had devoted himself to go from Province to Province preaching the Gospel. But none of the Antients say, that Quadratus was Bishop of Philadelphia. There was a Quadratus also Bishop of Athens, and Martyr, about the Year of Christ 175; but he was different from the Apologist, and it could not be he to whom St. John addresses himself in the Revelations.
Philadelphia, otherwise Rabbath, or Rabbath Ammon, Rabbath of the Children of Ammon, or Rabat-amana, the Capital of the Ammonites, was situated in the Mountains of Gilead, towards the Source of the River Arnon. It is sometimes mention’d as belonging to Arabia, sometimes to Celesyria. Eusebius places it ten Miles from Jazer to the East. ‘Tis very probable that this Deut. iii. 11.City was the Residence of King Og, since in the Time of Moses they still shew’d his Iron Bed, nine Cubits long, and four Cubits Plin. l. 5. c. 18.broad. Philadelphia was of the Number of the ten Cities of Decapolis beyond Jordan. Josephus extends Perea, or the Region beyond Joseph. de Bello, l. 3. c. 2. p. 533. c.Jordan, from this River as far as Philadelphia. See RABBATH AMMON hereafter. ‘Tis said this City received its Name of Philadelphia from Ptolemy Philadelphus King of Egypt. St. Ignatius the Martyr, very probably, preached the Gospel here; and ‘tis to the Church of this Place that he wrote his Epistle, directed to the Philadelphians.