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Antioch

• Today Ruins of Antioch in Pisidia, by Yalvaç

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History

Antioch of Pisidia stood on a hill on the border of Phrygia and Pisidia, about a kilometre north-east of modern Yalvaç in Turkey. It was founded by one of the Seleucid kings, probably in the third century BC, and Strabo says it was settled by colonists from Magnesia on the Maeander. Near it stood a sanctuary of the moon god Men, whose priesthood held temple slaves and sacred places. When Rome, after defeating Antiochus III, handed Asia Minor this side of the Taurus to Eumenes of Pergamum, it declared Antioch free.

Mark Antony gave Galatia and Lycaonia to the Galatian king Amyntas, who also held Antioch. When Amyntas was killed in 25 BC, Augustus made his kingdom the Roman province of Galatia, and Antioch became a Roman colony, Colonia Caesarea, settled with veterans; the priesthood of Men was dissolved. In 1914 William Ramsay found here fragments of a Latin copy of Augustus' own record of his deeds, the Res Gestae.

Paul and Barnabas came here from Perga on their first journey. On the sabbath Paul spoke in the synagogue, the first of his sermons that Acts gives at length, and on the next sabbath almost the whole city came to hear. When the Jews opposed them, they said: "lo, we turn to the Gentiles." The Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women and the chief men of the city, raised persecution against the apostles and expelled them, and they went on to Iconium; Jews from Antioch later followed Paul to Lystra. The Second Letter to Timothy remembers the persecutions he endured at Antioch. On the way back the apostles strengthened the disciples and ordained elders in every church. Many scholars think Paul's Letter to the Galatians was written to these churches in the south of the province; others hold that it went to the Galatians of the north.

Antioch remained the chief Roman city of the region, and in the later empire it became the capital of the province of Pisidia. Its bishop Optimus attended the Council of Constantinople in 381, and his name appears in a mosaic inscription in the city's great basilica.

Scripture: Acts 13:13–16; Acts 13:44–46; Acts 13:50–51; Acts 14:19; Acts 14:21–23; Gal 1:2; 2 Tim 3:11

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (4)

Acts 13:14

But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.

Acts 14:19

And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.

Acts 14:21

And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,

2 Tim 3:11

Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

King James Version

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