island

Cyprus

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Events

1. AD 1191Richard I of England takes Cyprus on his way to the Holy Land

History

Cyprus, the third largest island of the Mediterranean after Sicily and Sardinia, lies about 75 km south of Asia Minor and about 100 km west of the Syrian coast. Its wealth was copper, mined in the foothills of the Troodos mountains; Pliny the Elder writes that copper was first discovered on Cyprus. In the Late Bronze Age the island is usually identified with Alashiya: in the Amarna letters of the fourteenth century BC its king writes to the pharaoh as a brother, mostly about copper, and analysis of the clay of these tablets points to southern Cyprus.

In Genesis, Kittim is one of the sons of Javan. Josephus explains that Kittim held the island now called Cyprus, where the city of Citium, the Phoenician Kition at modern Larnaca, still kept the name, and that the Hebrews came to call all islands and most sea coasts Kittim. In Isaiah the fall of Tyre is made known "from the land of Chittim", and in Ezekiel the ship of Tyre has benches of ivory "brought out of the isles of Chittim". A stele of the Assyrian king Sargon II found at Kition records gifts from seven kings of Ya', a district of Yadnana, as the Assyrians called Cyprus, and about 673 BC Esarhaddon listed ten kings of the island.

Philo counts Cyprus among the islands full of Jewish settlements. Barnabas was "a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus". After the persecution that followed the death of Stephen, believers were scattered as far as Cyprus, and at Antioch men of Cyprus and Cyrene preached the Lord Jesus to Greeks as well as to Jews. Barnabas and Saul sailed from Seleucia to Cyprus and crossed it from Salamis to Paphos, where the proconsul Sergius Paulus believed. Later Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus again; Paul lodged with Mnason of Cyprus, "an old disciple", and on the voyage to Rome his ship "sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary".

Rome annexed Cyprus in 58 BC, when Cato was sent to take over the kingdom of its Ptolemaic king and his treasure. In 22 BC Augustus handed the island to the senate, and from then on it was governed by proconsuls. In the Jewish revolt of 116–117 the Jews of Cyprus rose under Artemion, and Cassius Dio writes that afterwards no Jew might set foot on the island. In the fourth century, after earthquakes, Salamis was rebuilt as Constantia and became the capital. In 431 the Council of Ephesus upheld the right of the bishops of Cyprus to ordain their own bishops against the claims of the bishop of Antioch.

Scripture: Gen 10:4; Isa 23:1; Ezek 27:6; Acts 4:36–37; Acts 11:19–20; Acts 13:4–12; Acts 15:39; Acts 21:16; Acts 27:4

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

Verses (12)

Isa 23:1

The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.

Isa 23:12

And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.

Jer 2:10

For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.

Ezek 27:6

Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.

Acts 4:36

And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,

Acts 11:19

Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.

Acts 11:20

And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus.

Acts 13:4

So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.

Acts 15:39

And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;

Acts 21:3

Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed into Syria, and landed at Tyre: for there the ship was to unlade her burden.

Acts 21:16

There went with us also certain of the disciples of Cæsarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge.

Acts 27:4

And when we had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary.

King James Version