Antioch
An'tioch. (from Antiochus)
1. In Syria. The capital of the Greek kings of Syria, and
afterwards the residence of the Roman governors of the province which bore the
same name.
Situation. This metropolis was situated where the chain of Lebanon, running
northward, and the chain of Taurus, running eastward, are brought to an abrupt
meeting. Here the Orontes breaks through the mountains; and Antioch was placed
at a bend of the river, 16 1/2 miles from the Mediterranean, partly on an
island, partly on the levee which forms the left bank, and partly on the steep
and craggy ascent of Mount Silpius, which, rose abruptly on the south.
It is about 300 miles north of Jerusalem. In the immediate neighborhood
was Daphne, the celebrated sanctuary of Apollo 2Ma_4:33;
whence the city was sometimes called Antioch by Daphne, to distinguish
it from other cities of the same name.
Destruction. The city was founded in the year 300 B.C., by Seleucus Nicator. It grew
under the successive Seleucid kings till it became a city of great extent and
of remarkable beauty. One feature, which seems to have been characteristic of
the great Syrian cities, a vast street with colonnades, intersecting the whole
from end to end, was added by Antiochus Epiphanes.
By Pompey, it was made a free city, and such it continued till the time
of Antoninus Pius. The early emperors raised there some large and important
structures, such as aqueducts, amphitheatres and baths. (Antioch, in Paul's
time, was the third city of the Roman empire, and contained over 200,000
inhabitants. Now it is a small, mean place of about 6000. -- Editor).
Bible History. No city, after Jerusalem, is so intimately connected with the history
of the apostolic church. Jews were settled there from the first in large
numbers, were governed by their own ethnarch, and allowed to have the same
political privileges with the Greeks.
The chief interest of Antioch, however, is connected with the progress
of Christianity among the heathen, Here the first Gentile church was founded, Act_11:20-21, here the disciples of Jesus
Christ were first called Christians. Act_11:26.
It was from Antioch that St. Paul started on his three missionary journeys.
2. In Pisidia, Act_13:14;
Act_14:19; Act_14:21;
2Ti_3:11, on the borders of Phrygia,
corresponds to Yalobatch, which is distant from Aksher six hours
over the mountains. This city, like the Syrian Antioch, was founded by Seleucus
Nicator. Under the Romans, it became a colonia, and was also called
Caesarea.
Source:
Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Antioch of Pisidia
an´ti-ok, pi-sid´i-a (Ἀντιόχεια
πρὸς Πισιδία,
Antiócheia prós Pisidía, or Ἀντιόχεια
ἡ Πισιδία, Antiócheīa
hē Pisidía = “Pisidian”).
1. History
(1) Antioch of Pisidia was so called to distinguish it from the many
other cities of the same name founded by Seleucus Nicator (301-280 bc) and
called after his father Antiochus. It was situated in a strong position, on a
plateau close to the western bank of the river Anthios, which flows down from
the Sultan Dagh to the double lake called Limnai (Egerdir Göl). It was planted
on the territory of a great estate belonging to the priests of the native
religion; the remaining portions of this estate belonged later to the Roman
emperors, and many inscriptions connected with the cult of the emperors, who
succeeded to the Divine as well as to the temporal rights of the god, have
survived. (See Sir W. M. Ramsay's paper on “The Tekmoreian Guest-Friends” in Studies
in the History and Art of the Eastern Roman Provinces, 1906.) The plateau
on which Antioch stood commands one of the roads leading from the East to the
Meander and Ephesus; the Seleucid kings regularly founded their cities in Asia
Minor at important strategical points, to strengthen their hold on the native
tribes. There is no evidence that a Greek city existed on the site of Antioch
before the foundation of Seleucus. Ramsay must be right in connecting Strabo's
statement that Antioch was colonized by Greeks from Magnesia on the Meander
with the foundation by Seleucus; for it is extremely unlikely that Greeks could
have built and held a city in such a dangerous position so far inland before
the conquest of Alexander. Pre-Alexandrian Greek cities are seldom to be found
in the interior of Asia Minor, and then only in the open river valleys of the
west. But there must have been a Phrygian fortress at or near Antioch when the
Phrygian kings were at the height of their power. The natural boundary of
Phrygian territory in this district is the Pisidian Mts., and the Phrygians
could only have held the rich valley between the Sultan Dagh and Egerdir Lake
against the warlike tribes of the Pisidian mountains on condition that they had
a strong settlement in the neighborhood. We shall see below that the Phrygians
did occupy this side of the Sultan Dagh, controlling the road at a critical
point.
The Seleucid colonists were Greeks, Jews and Phrygians, if we may judge
by the analogy of similar Seleucid foundations. That there were Jews in Antioch
is proved by Act_13:14, Act_13:50, and by an inscription of Apollonia, a
neighboring city, mentioning a Jewess Deborah, whose ancestors had held office
in Antioch (if Ramsay's interpretation of the inscription, The Cities of
Paul, 256, is correct). In 189 bc, after the peace with Antiochus the
Great, the Romans made Antioch a “free city”; this does not mean that any
change was made in its constitution but only that it ceased to pay tribute to
the Seleucid kings. Antony gave Antioch to Amyntas of Galatia in 39 bc, and
hence it was included in the province Galatia (see GALATIA) formed in 25 bc out
of Amyntas' kingdom. Not much before 6 bc, Antioch was made a Roman colony,
with the title Caesareia Antiocheia; it was now the capital of southern
Galatia and the chief of a series of military colonies founded by Augustus, and
connected by a system of roads as yet insufficiently explored, to hold down the
wild tribes of Pisidia, Isauria and Pamphylia.
2. Pisidian Antioch
Much controversy has raged round the question whether Antioch was in
Phrygia or in Pisidia at the time of Paul. Strabo defines Antioch as a city of
Phrygia toward Pisidia, and the same description is implied in Act_16:6, and Act_18:23.
Other authorities assign Antioch to Pisidia, and it admittedly belonged to
Pisidia after the province of that name was formed in 295 ad. In the Pauline
period it was a city of Galatia, in the district of Galatia called Phrygia (to
distinguish it from other ethnical divisions of Galatia, e.g. Lycaonia). This
view is certain on a study of the historical conditions (see Ramsay, The
Church in the Roman Empire, 25 f); and is supported by the fact that
Phrygian inscriptions (the surest sign of the presence of a Phrygian
population, for only Phrygians used the Phrygian language) have been found
around Antioch. See PISIDIA. This corner of Phrygia owed its incorporation in
the province Galatia to the military situation in 39 bc, when Amyntas was
entrusted with the task of quelling the disorderly Pisidian tribes. No scheme
of military conquest in the Pisidian mountains could omit this important
strategical point on the Northwest. This fact was recognized by Seleucus when
he rounded Antioch, by Antony when he gave Antioch to Amyntas, and by Augustus
when he made Antioch the chief of his military colonies in Pisidia. A military
road, built by Augustus, and called the Royal Road, led from Antioch to the
sister colony of Lystra. According to the story preserved in the legend of
“Paul and Thekla,” it was along this road that Paul and Barnabas passed on
their way from Antioch to Iconium (Act_13:51;
compare 2Ti_3:11; see Ramsay, The
Church in the Roman Empire, 27-36).
3. Language and Religion
Latin continued to be the official language of Antioch, from its
foundation as a Roman colony until the later part of the 2nd century ad. It was
more thoroughly Romanized than any other city in the district; but the Greek
spirit revived in the 3rd century, and the inscriptions from that date are in
Greek. The principal pagan deities were Men and Cybele. Strabo mentions a great
temple with large estates and many hieródouloi devoted to the
service of the god.
4. Paul at Antioch
Antioch, as has been shown above, was the military and administrative
center for that part of Galatia which comprised the Isaurian, Pisidian and
Pamphylian mountains, and the southern part of Lycaonia. It was hence that
Roman soldiers, officials, and couriers were dispatched over the whole area,
and it was hence, according to Act_13:49,
that Paul's mission radiated over the whole region. (On the technical meaning
of “region” here, see PISIDIA.) The “devout and honorable women” (the King
James Version) and the “chief men” of the city, to whom the Jews addressed
their complaint, were perhaps the Roman colonists. The publicity here given to
the action of the women is in accord with all that is known of their social
position in Asia Minor, where they were often priestesses and magistrates. The
Jews of Antioch continued their persecution of Paul when he was in Lystra (Act_14:19). Paul passed through Antioch a second
time on his way to Perga and Attalia (Act_14:21).
He must have visited Antioch on his second journey (Act_16:6;
Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, 74ff), and on his third (Act_18:23; ibid., 96).
Literature
Antioch was identified by Arundel, Discoveries in Asia Minor, I,
281 f, with the ruins north of Yalovadj. A full account of the city in the
Greek and Roman periods is given in Ramsay,. The Cities of Paul,
247-314. The inscriptions are published in CIG, 3979-81; LeBas, III,
1189ff, 1815-25; CIL, III, 289ff; Sterrett, Epigraphical Journey in
Asia Minor, 121ff; Wolfe Expedition in Asia Minor, 218ff; Ephem.
Epigr., V, 575; Athen. Mitth., XIV, 114. Add to this list (borrowed
from Pauly-Wissowa) the inscriptions published in Ramsay's article on “The
Tekmoreian Guest-Friends,” referred to above. For the Phrygian inscriptions of
the Antioch district, see Ramsay's paper in Jahresh. Oest. Arch. Inst.,
VIII, 85.
Source:
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Antioch
(1.) In Syria,
on the river Orontes, about 16 miles from the Mediterranean, and some 300 miles
north of Jerusalem. It was the metropolis of Syria, and afterwards became the
capital of the Roman province in Asia. It ranked third, after Rome and Alexandria,
in point of importance, of the cities of the Roman empire. It was called the
“first city of the East.” Christianity was early introduced into it (Act_11:19, Act_11:21,
Act_11:24), and the name “Christian”
was first applied here to its professors (Act_11:26).
It is intimately connected with the early history of the gospel (Act_6:5; Act_11:19,
Act_11:27, Act_11:28,
Act_11:30; Act_12:25;
Act_15:22-35; Gal_2:11, Gal_2:12).
It was the great central point whence missionaries to the Gentiles were sent
forth. It was the birth-place of the famous Christian father Chrysostom, who
died A.D. 407. It bears the modern name of Antakia, and is now a miserable,
decaying Turkish town. Like Philippi, it was raised to the rank of a Roman
colony. Such colonies were ruled by “praetors” (R.V. marg., Act_16:20, Act_16:21).
(2.) In the extreme north of Pisidia; was
visited by Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey (Act_13:14). Here they found a synagogue and many
proselytes. They met with great success in preaching the gospel, but the Jews
stirred up a violent opposition against them, and they were obliged to leave
the place. On his return, Paul again visited Antioch for the purpose of
confirming the disciples (Act_14:21).
It has been identified with the modern Yalobatch, lying to the east of Ephesus.
See map, Showing Position
of Syrian Antioch
Source:
Easton’s Bible Dictionary