the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Cappadocia
Holman Bible Dictionary
or Although the extent of Cappadocia varied through the centuries depending on the currently dominant empire, it lay south of Pontus and stretched about 300 miles from Galatia eastward toward Armenia, with Cilicia and the Taurus Mountains to the south. Although mountainous country, its mostly rural population raised good crops, cattle, and horses. While in New Testament times its mines were still producing some minerals, a large number of tablets written in cuneiform script discovered in 1907 at Tanish, now known as Kultepe, revealed that Assyrians were mining and exporting silver ore from Cappadocia about 1900 B.C.
From Acts 2:9 we know that Jews from Cappadocia were in Jerusalem when Peter preached at Pentecost. Those converted to Christianity that day must have given a good witness when they returned home because in 1 Peter 1:1 believers there are mentioned along with others in Pontus. The Christian message was probably carried to Pontus by way of the highway that went northward across Cappadocia from Tarsus through the narrow mountain pass known as the Cilician Gates. In the second century A.D. the famous historian Eusebius reported that the church at Rome sent financial aid to churches in the Near East, including Cappadocia. Two centuries later two sons of a prominent and wealthy Cappadocian family, Basil and Gregory, along with a close friend also named Gregory, took their Christian commitment quite seriously and became influential defenders and interpreters of the faith.
Today the region of Cappadocia is in central Turkey, which is ninety-eight percent Muslim.
These dictionary topics are from the Holman Bible Dictionary, published by Broadman & Holman, 1991. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Broadman & Holman.
Butler, Trent C. Editor. Entry for 'Cappadocia'. Holman Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hbd/c/cappadocia.html. 1991.
