1st Missionary Trip - Lorin

Because of the large Jewish population on the island numerous synagogues
were located in the towns and cities. 71 It should be remembered that Barnabas was a
Jew from the tribe of Levi whose home was on the island. 72 This background helped
open doors of witness in the synagogues for these missionaries.
The first city on Cyprus mentioned by Luke is Salamis (v. 5): καὶ γενόμενοι ἐν
Σαλαμῖνι κατήγγελλον τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς τῶν Ἰουδαίων. εἶχον δὲ
καὶ Ἰωάννην ὑπηρέτην. “When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in
the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also to assist them.” 73 Earlier this port city
had been the capital city of the island, but by this point in time Paphos was the capital. 74
historical accuracy of his account. Instead, Luke concentrates on the one episode that happened on the island at Paphos in which Paul’s
ministry reflects some basic similarities to Peter’s ministry earlier in Acts: 1) they both converted to Christ a Roman government official,
and 2) they both performed a ‘punative’ miracle against a Jewish magician.
71In Hasmonean Times.
The large island in the easternmost basin of the Mediterranean, probably deriving its name from the Cyprus flower (Κύπρος), the
Hebrew appellation of which is . Josephus states (“Ant.” i. 6, § 1) that the island, called in Hebrew, was named after the city “Ketion” or
“Kition.” Nevertheless the term “isles of Kittim” (Jer. ii. 10; Ezek. xxvii. 6) indicates that “Kittim” signified all the islands and coastlands
of the West, and, according to I Macc. i. 1 (XΧεττείμ) and viii. 5 (Kappaιτέων βασιλέα), included Macedonia, and, according to Dan.
xi. 30, even Italy. The inhabitants of Cyprus were at first, perhaps, Carians; in historical times, Phenicians; and later, Greeks. During the
last period, as the Judean Agrippa writes to the emperor Caius, the Jews were numerous there (Philo, “Legatio ad Caium,” 36; ii. 587,
ed. Mangey). They stood in intimate relationship with the inhabitants of the island, and the favorable decree of the Romans regarding
Jewish subjects was sent also to Cyprus (I Macc. xv. 23). During the war over the city of Ptolemais between Alexander Jannæus and
Ptolemy Lathyrus, King of Cyprus, the Jews suffered severe losses, and Cleopatra III. of Egypt, mother of the Cyprian king, despatched
her Hebrew commanders Chelkias and Ananias to the aid of Alexander Jannæus, who thereupon defeated the Cyprians. Referring to this
event, Josephus (“Ant.” xiii. 10, § 4) quotes the statement of Strabo that the Jews of Cyprus remained steadfast in their allegiance to the
party of Lathyrus, notwithstanding the high favor shown them by Queen Cleopatra.
In Roman Times.
In Cyprus as in Egypt, the Jews fared well at this time; and a distinguished Cyprian Hebrew, Timius by name, married Alexandra,
daughter of Phasaelus and Salampsio, the latter a granddaughter of Herod the Great. This union, however, was without issue (“Ant.”
xviii. 5, § 4). Christianity was preached here among the Jews at an early date, Paul being the first, and Barnabas, a native of Cyprus, the
second, to disseminate the new doctrine (Acts iv. 36, xi. 19, xiii. 5, xv. 39); and according to a legend Barnabas was killed here by the
Jews (“Acta Barnabæ,” § 23). There is also an account, agreeing well with what is known from classical authors concerning the fertility
of Cyprus, that Queen Helen of Adiabene had fruit brought from the island to Jerusalem. Under the leadership of one Artemion, the
Cyprian Jews participated in the great uprising against the Romans under Trajan (117), and they are reported to have massacred 240,000
Greeks (Dio Cassius, lxviii. 32). This insurrection was finally quelled after considerable bloodshed (perhaps by Q. Marcius Turbo, who
suppressed the uprising in Cyrene and Egypt), with the result that the Jews of Cyprus were almost entirely extirpated. The blood of the
Jews slaughtered in Palestine is said to have streamed is far as Cyprus (Lam. R. i. 16, iv. 19); that is, the insurrection and the consequent
slaughter of the Jews extended to Cyprus. In further punishment a severe law was enacted, according to which no Jew was thereafter to
be permitted to land on Cyprian soil, not even in case of shipwreck; nevertheless Jewish residents were still to be found upon the island
at a later period; and the products of the soil, to which Talmudists frequently refer (for instance, the “cumin” of Cyprus, Yer. Dem. ii. 1),
were probably brought into the market by them. So rapidly did the Jews multiply that in 610 they were sufficiently numerous to participate
in the insurrection against the Greeks under Heraclius.
A scholar, Moses of Cyprus by name, is said to have been arbitrator (in the eleventh century) between the Armenians and the Greeks
(“Zeit. für Hebr. Bibl.” vi. 116). Benjamin of Tudela found in Cyprus a number of Jewish communities, one of which was guilty of the
heresy of observing the Sabbath from Saturday morning to Sunday morning, instead of from Friday evening to Saturday evening. Judah
Mosconi also visited the island, as did Menahem ben Perez (Zunz, “Gesam. Schriften,” i. 168). In 646, and again in 1154, Cyprus was
devastated by the Arabs; in 1571 it was annexed by Turkey, having been wrested from the Venetians on the advice of Don Joseph NASI,
who came near attaining to the dignity of the Cyprian crown (Hammer, “Gesch. der Osmanen,” iii. 564). In 1878 Cyprus came under
English rule.
[“Cyprus,” Jewish Encyclopedia online]
72Acts 4:36. There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of
encouragement”).
Ἰωσὴφ δὲ ὁ ἐπικληθεὶς Βαρναβᾶς ἀπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων, ὅ ἐστιν μεθερμηνευόμενον υἱὸς παρακλήσεως, Λευίτης, Κύπριος τῷ γένει,
73 “Σαλαμίς, ῖνος, ἡ (on the v.l. Σαλαμίνῃ s. B-D-F §57; Mlt-H. 128) Salamis, a large city on the east coast of the island of Cyprus
(Aeschyl., Hdt. et al.; ins; SibOr 4, 128; 5, 452 πόλις μεγάλη) visited by Paul on his ‘first’ missionary journey Ac 13:5.—S. the lit. on
Κύπρος.—Pauly-W. II 1832–44; Kl. Pauly IV 1505f; BHHW III 1645f; PECS 794–96.—M-M.” [William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker
and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2000), 911.]
74 “A large port city on the east coast of Cyprus, important for trade with Syria. Salamis was the first mission stop for Paul and
his companions Barnabas and John Mark on the ‘first missionary journey’ coming from Antioch to Cyprus by way of Seleucia: καὶ
γενόμενοι ἐν Σαλαμῖνι κατήγγελον … ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς τῶν Ἱουδαίων (Acts 13:5). During the time of the Ptolemies Salamis was the
seat of the governor of Cyprus, though it then lost this function in the Roman period to the city of Paphos (cf. 13:6ff.). P. Bratsiotis, BHH
1645f.; E. Meyer, KP IV, 1505f.” [Horst Robert Balz and Gerhard Schneider, vol. 3, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand
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