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Bible Dictionaries
Cyprus
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary
or The island of Cyprus was located in the Mediterranean Sea. In former days it was called Kittim and its people were well known as sea traders (Numbers 24:24; Isaiah 23:1; Isaiah 23:12; Jeremiah 2:10; Ezekiel 27:6; Daniel 11:30).
Barnabas, a leading man in the early church, came from Cyprus (Acts 4:36). When the Jews killed Stephen and drove the Christians from Jerusalem, some of those Christians took the gospel to Cyprus (Acts 11:19). Barnabas and Paul further helped the growth of the church in Cyprus by conducting a preaching tour that stretched from one end of the island to the other. A few years later Barnabas and Mark did further work there (Acts 13:2-6; Acts 15:39). Paul sailed past the island on later journeys, but there is no record that he visited the island again (Acts 21:3; Acts 27:4).
Under the Roman administration, the capital of Cyprus was Paphos (Acts 13:6-7). The island had a large Jewish population and many synagogues (Acts 13:5-6). The Jews of Cyprus who became Christians had a much broader outlook than the Jews of Jerusalem, and were sympathetic to the expansion of the gospel among the Gentiles (Acts 11:20; Acts 13:46; Acts 21:16).
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