Pisid'ia. (pitchy). Pisidia was a district in Asia Minor north of
Pamphylia, and reached to and was partly included in Phrygia. Thus Antioch in
Pisidia was sometimes called a Phrygian town.
St. Paul passed through Pisidia twice, with Barnabas, on the first
missionary journey, that is, both in going from Perga to Iconium, Act_13:13-14; Act_13:51,
and in returning. Act_14:21; Act_14:24-25. Compare 2Ti_3:11. It is probable, also, that he traversed the
northern part of the district, with Silas and Timotheus, on the second
missionary journey, Act_18:8, but the
word Pisidia does not occur, except in reference to the former journey.
Source:
Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Pisidia
pi-sid´i-a (τὴν Πισιδίαν,
tḗn Pisidían (Act_14:24);
in Act_13:14, Codices Sinaitica,
Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, Ephraemi give Ἀντιόχειαν
τὴν Πισιδίαν,
Antiócheian tḗn Pisidían, “the
Pisidian Antioch,” the other manuscripts, Ἀντιόχειαν
τὴν Πισιδίας,
Antiócheian tḗn Pisidías, “Antioch
of Pisidia.” The former, but not the latter, reading correctly describes the
condition of affairs at the time when Paul traveled in the country; see below):
1. Situation and History:
Pisidia, as a strict geographical term, was the name given to the huge
block of mountain country stretching northward from the Taurus range where the
latter overlooked the Pamphylian coast land, to the valleys which connected
Apamea with Antioch, and Antioch with Iconium. It was bounded by Lycia on the
West, by the Phrygian country on the North, and by Isauria on the East; but
there is no natural boundary between Pisidia and Isauria, and the frontier was
never strictly drawn. The name is used in its geographical sense in the Anabasis
of Xenophon, who informs us that the Pisidians were independent of the king of
Persia at the end of the 5th century BC. Alexander the Great had difficulty in
reducing the Pisidian cities, and throughout ancient history we find the
Pisidian mountains described as the home of a turbulent and warlike people,
given to robbery and pillage. The task of subjugating them was entrusted by the
Romans to the Galatian king Amyntas, and, at his death in 25 BC, Pisidia passed
with the rest of his possessions into the Roman province Galatia. Augustus now
took seriously in hand the pacification of Pisidia and the Isaurian mountains
on the East Five military colonies were founded in Pisidia and the eastern
mountains - Cremna, Comama, Olbasa, Parlais and Lystra - and all were connected
by military roads with the main garrison city Antioch, which lay in Galatian
Phrygia, near the northern border of Pisidia. An inscription discovered in 1912
shows that Quirinius, who is mentioned in Luk_2:2
as governor of Syria in the year of Christ's birth, was an honorary magistrate
of the colony of Antioch; his connection with Antioch dates from his campaign
against the Homonades - who had resisted and killed Amyntas - about 8 BC (see
Ramsay in The Expositor, November, 1912, 385 ff, 406). The military
system set up in Pisidia was based on that of Antioch, and from this fact, and
from its proximity to Pisidia, Antioch derived its title “the Pisidian,” which
served to distinguish it from the other cities called Antioch. It is by a mistake
arising from confusion with a later political arrangement that Antioch is
designated “of Pisidia” in the majority of the manuscripts.
Pisidia remained part of the province Galatia till 74 AD, when the
greater (southern) part of it was assigned to the new double province
Lycia-Pamphylia, and the cities in this portion of Pisidia now ranked as
Pamphylian. The northern part of Pisidia continued to belong to Galatia, until,
in the time of Diocletian, the southern part of the province Galatia (including
the cities of Antioch and Iconium), with parts of Lycaonia and Asia, were
formed Into a province called Pisidia, with Antioch as capital. Antioch was now
for the first time correctly described as a city “of Pisidia,” although there
is reason to believe that the term “Pisidia” had already been extended
northward in popular usage to include part at least of the Phrygian region of
Galatia. This perhaps explains the reading “Antioch of Pisidia” in the Codex
Bezae, whose readings usually reflect the conditions of the 2nd century of our
era in Asia Minor. This use of the term was of course political and
administrative; Antioch continued to be a city of Phrygia in the ethnical sense
and a recently discovered inscription proves that the Phrygian language was
spoken in the neighborhood of Antioch as late as the 3rd century of our era
(see also Calder in Journal of Roman Studies, 1912, 84).
2. Paul in Pisidia:
Paul crossed Pisidia on the journey from Perga to Antioch referred to in
Act_13:14, and again on the return journey,
Act_14:24. Of those journeys no details
are recorded in Acts, but it has been suggested by Conybeare and Howson that
the “perils of rivers” and “perils of robbers” mentioned by Paul in 2Co_11:26 refer to his journeys across Pisidia,
and Ramsay has pointed out in confirmation of this view that a considerable
number of Pisidian inscriptions refer to the armed policemen and soldiers who
kept the peace in this region, while others refer to a conflict with robbers,
or to an escape from drowning in a river (The Church in the Roman Empire,
23 f; compare Journal of Roman Studies, 1912, 82 f). Adada, a city off
Paul's route from Perga to Antioch, is called by the Turks Kara Baulo;
“Baulo” is the Turkish pronunciation of “Paulos,” and the name is doubtless
reminiscent of an early tradition connecting the city with Paul. Pisidia had
remained unaffected by Hellenic civilization, and the Roman occupation at the
time of Paul was purely military. It is therefore unlikely that Paul preached
in Pisidia. Except on the extreme Northwest, none of the Christian inscriptions
of Pisidia - in glaring contrast with those of Phrygia - date before the legal
recognition of Christianity under Constantine.
Literature.
Murray, Handbook of Asia Minor, 150 ff; Ramsay, The Church in
the Roman Empire, 18 ff; Lanckoronski, Stadte Pamphyliens und Pisidiens;
Sterrett, Epigraphical Journey and Wolfe Expedition. A few inscriptions
containing Pisidian names with native inflections have been published by Ramsay
in Revue des universites du midi, 1895, 353 ff.
Source:
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Pisidia
A district in Asia Minor, to the north of Pamphylia. The Taurus range of
mountains extends through it. Antioch, one of its chief cities, was twice
visited by Paul (Act_13:14; Act_14:21-24).
Source:
Easton’s Bible Dictionary