Acts 13:13-52 Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.… Seleucus Nicanor is said to have built nine cities to which he gave his own name, Seleucia, and sixteen which he called after his father Antiochus. Amongst these are the Syrian and the Pisidian Antioch. Six others were called Laodicea, after his mother, and at least one after Apamea, his wife. This recurrence of the same name is a cause of some confusion when considering either the geography or history of this part of Asia. Antioch in Pisidia is situated on a table land of a ridge of hills on the confines of Pisidia and Phrygia, to which latter province it is sometimes, but inaccurately, reckoned to belong. It lies north of Perga, and east of Apollonia, and the roads which radiated from it in every direction made it a port of considerable importance, commercial as well as military. The city was originally founded by Magnetes, and subsequently re. founded by Seleucus. It was, however, of little importance until Augustus made it a Colonia, and a free city with the Jus Italicum, from which circumstance it is sometimes called Antiochea Caesarea. Until that time it was distinguished for the worship of the moon, as a male deity, and large numbers of priests were supported by the rich endowments belonging to the temple at this place. The population was a very mixed one, with a larger amount of the Latin element than was usual in the cities of Asia Minor. The Jews were probably not numerous, as we only read of the synagogue, not, as at Salamis and other places, in the plural. It is referred to in the New Testament, in Acts 13:14; Acts 14:19-21; 2 Timothy 3:11. Many of the inscriptions and coins belonging to the Pisidian Antioch are for this reason in Latin. This city is now entirely deserted, and its site, having been long unknown, has only been rediscovered in modern times. (W. Denton, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem. |
    |