Province

1. In the Old Testament this word appears in connection with the wars between Ahab and Ben-hadad. (1 Kings 20:14,15,19) The victory of the former is gained chiefly "by the young" probably men of the princes of the provinces the chiefs: of tribes in the Gilead country.
2. More commonly the word is used of the divisions of the Chaldean kingdom. (Daniel 2:49; 3:1,30) and the Persian kingdom. (Ezra 2:1; Nehemiah 7:6; Esther 1:1,22; 2:3) etc. In the New Testament we are brought into contact with the administration of the provinces of the Roman empire. The classification of provinces supposed to need military control and therefore placed under the immediate government of the Caesar, and those still belonging theoretically to the republic and administered by the senate, and of the latter again into proconsular and praetorian, is recognized, more or less distinctly, in the Gospels and the Acts. [PROCONSUL; PROCURATOR] The strategoi of (Acts 16:22) ("magistrates," Authorized Version), on the other hand were the duumviri or praetors of a Roman colony. The right of any Roman citizen to appeal from a provincial governor to the emperor meets us as asserted by St. Paul. (Acts 25:11) In the council of (Acts 25:12) we recognize the assessors who were appointed to take part in the judicial functions of the governor.

1. (n.) A country or region, more or less remote from the city of Rome, brought under the Roman government; a conquered country beyond the limits of Italy.

2. (n.) A country or region dependent on a distant authority; a portion of an empire or state, esp. one remote from the capital.

3. (n.) A region of country; a tract; a district.

4. (n.) A region under the supervision or direction of any special person; the district or division of a country, especially an ecclesiastical division, over which one has jurisdiction; as, the province of Canterbury, or that in which the archbishop of Canterbury exercises ecclesiastical authority.

5. (n.) The proper or appropriate business or duty of a person or body; office; charge; jurisdiction; sphere.

6. (n.) Specif.: Any political division of the Dominion of Canada, having a governor, a local legislature, and representation in the Dominion parliament. Hence, colloquially, The Provinces, the Dominion of Canada.

PROVINCE

prov'-ins (medhinah, "jurisdiction"; eparchia (English Versions of the Bible, province) (Acts 23:34; Acts 25:1)):

1. Meaning of the Term

2. Roman Provincial Administration

(1) First Period

(2) Second Period

(3) Third Period

3. Division of Provinces

4. Province of Judea

5. Revenue

LITERATURE

1. Meaning of the Term:

Province (provincia) did not originally denote a territorial circumscription in Roman usage, since the employment of the word was much more ancient than any of the conquests of the Romans outside of Italy. In the most comprehensive official sense it signified a magistrate's sphere of administrative action, which in one instance might be the direction of jurisdiction at Rome, in another the management of military operations against a particular hostile community. When the imperium was conferred upon two consuls at the beginning of the Republic, and upon a praetor in 367 B.C., and finally upon a second praetor in 241 B.C., it became necessary in practice to define their individual competence which was unlimited in theory. When the Romans extended their control over lands situated outside of Italy, it became expedient to fix territorial limits to the exercise of authority by the magistrates who were regularly sent abroad, so that provincia signified henceforth in an abstract sense the rule of the governor, and in a concrete sense the specified region entrusted to his care; and with the development and consolidation of the Roman system of administration, the geographical meaning of the word became more and more significant.

2. Roman Provincial Administration:

The history of Roman provincial administration in the more definite sense commences in 227 B.C., when four praetors were elected for the first time, of whom two were assigned to the government of the provinces. Three periods may be distinguished in the history of the system of provincial administration:

(1) from 227 B.C. to Sulla,

(2) from Sulla to Augustus, and

(3) the Empire.

(1) First Period.

During the first period, provision was made for the government of the provinces by means of special praetors, or, in exceptional circumstances, by consuls, during their term of office. Accordingly, the number of praetors was increased from four in 227 B.C. to eight at the time of Sulla.

(2) Second Period.

In accordance with the reforms of Sulla all the consuls and praetors remained at Rome during their year of office, and were entrusted with the administration of provinces a subsequent year with the title proconsul (pro consule) or propraetor (pro praetore). The proconsuls were sent to the more important provinces. The senate determined the distinction between consular and praetorian provinces and generally controlled the assignment of the provinces to the ex-magistrates. Julius Caesar increased the praetors to sixteen, but Augustus reduced them to twelve.

(3) Third Period.

In 27 B.C., Augustus as commander-in-chief of the Roman army definitely assumed the administration of all provinces which required the presence of military forces and left the other provinces to the control of the senate. There were then twelve imperial and ten senatorial provinces, but all provinces added after 27 B.C. came under imperial administration. The emperor administered his provinces through the agency of personal delegates, legati Augusti of senatorial, and praefecti or procuratores of equestrian, rank. The term of their service was not uniform, but continued usually for more than a single year. The senatorial administration was essentially a continuation of the post-Sullan, republican regime. The senatorial governors were called proconsuls generally, whether they were of consular or praetorian rank; but Africa and Asia alone were reserved for exconsuls, the eight remaining senatorial provinces being attributed to ex-praetors. The financial administration of each imperial province was entrusted to a procurator, that of each senatorial province to a quaestor.

3. Division of Provinces:

The provinces were divided into smaller circumscriptions (civitates) for the purposes of local government. In the older provinces these districts corresponded generally with the urban communities which had been the units of sovereignty before the advent of the Romans. Under Roman rule they were divided into different classes on the basis of their dignity and prerogatives, as follows:

(1) Coloniae:

Roman or Latin colonies established after the model of the Italian commonwealths.

(2) Civitates Foederatae:

Communities whose independence had been guaranteed by a formal treaty with Rome.

(3) Civitates Liberae:

Communities whose independence the Romans respected, although not bound to do so by a formal obligation.

(4) Civitates Stipendiariae:

Communities which had surrendered to the discretion of the Romans and to which limited powers of local government were granted by the conquerors as a matter of convenience.

The civitates stipendiariae, and in some cases the colonies, paid taxes to the Roman government, the greater part of which was in the form either of a certain proportion of the annual products of the soil, such as a fifth or tenth, or a fixed annual payment in money or kind.

4. Province of Judea:

Judaea became a part of the province of Syria in 63 B.C., but was assigned in 40 B.C. as a kingdom to Herod the Great, whose sovereignty became effective three years later. The provincial regime was reestablished in 6 A.D., and was broken only during the years 41-44 A.D., when Herod Agrippa was granted royal authority over the land (Josephus, Josephus, Antiquities XIX, viii, 2). The Roman administration was in the hands of the procurators (see PROCURATOR) who resided at Caesarea (Josephus, BJ, II, xv, 6; Acts 23:23, 33; Acts 25:1) in the palace of Herod the Great (Acts 23:1-35). The procurators of Judea were subject to the authority of the imperial governors of Syria, as is evident from the deposition of Pontius Pilate by Vitellius (Josephus, Ant, XVIII, iv, 2; Tacitus, Annals vi.32). The procurator was competent to exercise criminal jurisdiction over the provincials in cases involving a capital sentence (Josephus, BJ, II, viii, 1), but he was bound to grant an appeal by Roman citizens for trial at Rome (Acts 25:11). A death sentence by the Sanhedrin required the sanction of the procurator, as appears in the process against the Saviour. Under Roman rule cities like Caesarea, Sebaste, and Jerusalem became organs for local government, like the urban communities in other parts of the Empire.

5. Revenue:

The revenue of Palestine under Claudius is said to have been 12,000,000 denarii (about USD2, 400,000, or 500,000 British pounds (in 1915); compare Josephus, Ant XIX, viii, 2). In addition to the ground tax, the amount of which is not known, a variety of indirect contributions were collected on auctions, salt, highways, bridges, etc., which constituted, no doubt, the field of activity in which the publicans gained their unenviable reputation.

LITERATURE.

The reader may be directed to Marquardt, Romische Staatsverwaltung, I, 497-502, 517-57, for a general discussion of the Roman system of provincial administration, and to the same volume, pp. 405-12, for the provincial government of Palestine.

George H. Allen

1885. eparchia -- a province
... a province. Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration: eparchia Phonetic Spelling:
(ep-ar-khee'-ah) Short Definition: sphere of duty, province Definition ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/1885.htm - 6k

1885a. eparcheia -- a province
... a province. Transliteration: eparcheia Short Definition: province. Word Origin from
epi and archo Definition a province NASB Word Usage province (2). ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/1885a.htm - 5k

2791. Kilikia -- Cilicia, a province of Asia Minor
... Cilicia, a province of Asia Minor. Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration:
Kilikia Phonetic Spelling: (kil-ik-ee'-ah) Short Definition: Cilicia ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/2791.htm - 6k

1053. Galatia -- Galatia, a district in Asia Minor or a larger ...
... 1052, 1053. Galatia. 1054 . Galatia, a district in Asia Minor or a larger
Roman province including this district as well as others. ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/1053.htm - 6k

3828. Pamphulia -- Pamphylia, a province of Asia Minor
... Pamphylia, a province of Asia Minor. Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration:
Pamphulia Phonetic Spelling: (pam-fool-ee'-ah) Short Definition: Pamphylia ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/3828.htm - 6k

773. Asia -- Asia, a Roman province
... Asia, a Roman province. Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration: Asia Phonetic
Spelling: (as-ee'-ah) Short Definition: roughly the western third of Asia ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/773.htm - 6k

978. Bithunia -- Bithynia, a province in Asia Minor
... Bithynia, a province in Asia Minor. Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration:
Bithunia Phonetic Spelling: (bee-thoo-nee'-ah) Short Definition: Bithynia ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/978.htm - 6k

2587. Kappadokia -- Cappadocia, a province of Asia Minor
... Cappadocia, a province of Asia Minor. Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration:
Kappadokia Phonetic Spelling: (kap-pad-ok-ee'-ah) Short Definition ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/2587.htm - 6k

882. Achaia -- Achaia, a Roman province incl. most of Greece
... 881, 882. Achaia. 883 . Achaia, a Roman province incl. ... Word Origin of
uncertain origin Definition Achaia, a Roman province incl. ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/882.htm - 6k

3465. Musia -- Mysia, a province of Asia Minor
... Mysia, a province of Asia Minor. Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration:
Musia Phonetic Spelling: (moo-see'-ah) Short Definition: Mysia Definition: Mysia ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/3465.htm - 6k

4082. medinah -- a province
... 4081, 4082. medinah. 4083 . a province. Transliteration: medinah Phonetic
Spelling: (med-ee-naw') Short Definition: provinces. Word ...
/hebrew/4082.htm - 6k

4083. medinah -- a district, province
... 4082, 4083. medinah. 4084 . a district, province. Transliteration: medinah
Phonetic Spelling: (med-ee-naw') Short Definition: province. ...
/hebrew/4083.htm - 6k

5461. sagan -- a prefect, ruler
... prince, ruler. From an unused root meaning to superintend; a prefect of a province --
prince, ruler. 5460, 5461. sagan. 5462 . Strong's Numbers.
/hebrew/5461.htm - 6k

1784. Diynay -- judges
... Dinaite (Aramaic) partial from uncertain primitive; a Dinaite or inhabitant of some
unknown Assyria province -- Dinaite. 1783, 1784. Diynay. 1784a . ...
/hebrew/1784.htm - 5k

4508. Minni -- a region of Armenia
... Usage Minni (1). Minni. Of foreign derivation; Minni, an Armenian province --
Minni. 4507, 4508. Minni. 4509 . Strong's Numbers.
/hebrew/4508.htm - 5k

323. achashdarpan -- satraps
... lieutenant. Of Persian derivation; a satrap or governor of a main province (of Persia)
-- lieutenant. 322, 323. achashdarpan. 324 . Strong's Numbers.
/hebrew/323.htm - 5k

3575. Kuth -- a city of Assyr.
... NASB Word Usage Cuth (1), Cuthah (1). Cuth. Or (feminine) Kuwthah {koo-thaw'}; of
foreign origin; Cuth or Cuthah, a province of Assyria -- Cuth. 3574, 3575. ...
/hebrew/3575.htm - 6k

1470. Gozan -- a city and area in Mesopotamia
... Gozan. Probably from guwz; a quarry (as a place of cutting stones); Gozan, a province
of Assyria -- Gozan. see HEBREW guwz. 1469, 1470. Gozan. 1471 . ...
/hebrew/1470.htm - 6k

Letter x. To the Bishops of the Province of vienne. In the Matter ...
... Letter X. To the Bishops of the Province of Vienne. In the matter of Hilary,
Bishop of Arles . To the Bishops of the Province of Vienne. ...
/.../leo/writings of leo the great/letter x to the bishops.htm

How the Province of the Midland Angles Became Christian under King ...
... BOOK III CHAP. XXI. How the province of the Midland Angles became Christian
under King Peada. [653 AD]. AT this time, the Middle ...
/.../bede/bedes ecclesiastical history of england/chap xxi how the province.htm

Letter Xl. To the Bishops of the Province of Arles in Gaul.
... Letter XL. To the Bishops of the Province of Arles in Gaul. To the Bishops
of the Province of Arles in Gaul. To his well-beloved ...
/.../leo/writings of leo the great/letter xl to the bishops.htm

Letter Lxv. From the Bishops of the Province of Arles.
... the Faith.) Letter LXV. From the Bishops of the Province of Arles. From the
Bishops of the Province of Arles. (Asking Leo to confirm ...
/.../leo/writings of leo the great/letter lxv from the bishops.htm

How one in the Province of the Northumbrians, Rose from the Dead ...
... How one in the province of the Northumbrians, rose from the dead, and related many
things which he had seen, some to be greatly dreaded and some to be desired. ...
/.../bede/bedes ecclesiastical history of england/chap xii how one in.htm

How Bishop Wilfrid Converted the Province of the South Saxons to ...
... BOOK IV CHAP. XIII. How Bishop Wilfrid converted the province of the South
Saxons to Christ. [681 AD]. BUT Wilfrid was expelled from ...
/.../bede/bedes ecclesiastical history of england/chap xiii how bishop wilfrid.htm

That any Province on Account of Its Distance, May have Its Own ...
... Canon XVII. That any province on account of its distance, may have its own Primate.?
That any province on account of its distance, may have its own Primate. ...
/.../schaff/the seven ecumenical councils/canon xvii that any province.htm

Letter Xciv. To Elias, Governor of the Province.
... TOU AGIOU BAChILEIOU PERI TOU PNEUMATOCh BIBLION. Letter XCIV. To Elias,
Governor of the Province. I too have been very anxious ...
/.../basil/basil letters and select works/letter xciv to elias governor.htm

The Domain or Province of Science.
... THE DOMAIN OR PROVINCE OF SCIENCE. The Greeks used the word "epistasin"
to express the idea that we express by the word science. ...
/.../the domain or province of.htm

Bishop Hosius Said: if it Happen that in a Province in which There ...
... The Sixth Ecumenical Council. Canon VI. Bishop Hosius said: If it happen
that in a province in which there are very? (Greek.) ...
/.../schaff/the seven ecumenical councils/canon vi bishop hosius said .htm

Province (66 Occurrences)
... special person; the district or division of a country, especially an ecclesiastical
division, over which one has jurisdiction; as, the province of Canterbury ...
/p/province.htm - 38k

Provincial (7 Occurrences)
... Noah Webster's Dictionary 1. (a.) Characteristic of the inhabitants of a province;
not cosmopolitan; not polished; uncultured; rude; hence, narrow; illiberal. ...
/p/provincial.htm - 9k

Illyricum (1 Occurrence)
... Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia. ILLYRICUM. i-lir'-i-kum (Illurikon): A province
of the Roman Empire, lying East and Northeast of the Adriatic Sea. ...
/i/illyricum.htm - 13k

Cilicia (8 Occurrences)
... Easton's Bible Dictionary A maritime province in the south-east of Asia Minor.
Tarsus ... empire. It was formed into a Roman province, BC 67. ...
/c/cilicia.htm - 13k

Lycaonia (2 Occurrences)
... Easton's Bible Dictionary An inland province of Asia Minor, on the west of
Cappadocia and the south of Galatia. It was a Roman province...
/l/lycaonia.htm - 10k

Derbe (4 Occurrences)
... When the kingdom of Amyntas passed, at his death in 25 BC, to the Romans, it
was made into a province and called Galatia (see GALATIA). ...
/d/derbe.htm - 15k

Edict (22 Occurrences)
... on the thirteenth day of the month; and all that Haman commanded was written to
the king's satraps, and to the governors who were over every province, and to ...
/e/edict.htm - 14k

Galatia (6 Occurrences)
... They were at length brought under the power of Rome in BC 189, and Galatia
became a Roman province BC 25. This province of Galatia ...
/g/galatia.htm - 23k

Pontus (3 Occurrences)
... A province of Asia Minor, stretching along the southern coast of the Euxine
Sea, corresponding nearly to the modern province of Trebizond. ...
/p/pontus.htm - 16k

Lycia (1 Occurrence)
... Easton's Bible Dictionary A wolf, a province in the south-west of Asia Minor, opposite
the island of Rhodes. It forms part of the region now called Tekeh. ...
/l/lycia.htm - 9k

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