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Bible Dictionaries
Cos
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or COS . An island off the coast of Caria, S.W. of Asia Minor, famous for its fertility and beauty. It was a Dorian colony, and a great seat of the worship of Æsculapius and of the study of medicine. Its position made it also an important place from a trade point of view, as it lay on the cross lines of traffic between Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. It is uncertain whether Cos, which had been a faithful ally of the Romans, was incorporated in the province of Asia in b.c. 139 (see Caria), but it certainly was a part of it in the time of Augustus. Its trade connexion made it one of the Jewish centres of the Ægæan. The Jews there were favoured by the Romans in b.c. 139 138 ( 1Ma 15:23 ). It was a place on the route of the Jewish pilgrims to Jerusalem (cf. Acts 21:1 ). Herod the Great was a benefactor of the people of Cos.
A. Souter.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Cos'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/c/cos.html. 1909.
