1st Missionary Trip - Lorin

the Jewish community in Antioch that was expressing that they would have no more responsibility for the divine
punishment of the Jewish residents for having rejected the Gospel message.
But as these two missionaries leave the city, something wonderful is taking place: οἵ τε μαθηταὶ ἐπληροῦντο
χαρᾶς καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου, And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. These missionaries leave
behind a community of believers in Christ who are excited about their faith and are completely submissive to
the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Paul and Barnabas have planted their first church! And it is mostly made up of
Gentiles.
5.0.1.5 Work in Iconium, Acts 14:1-7
Acts 14:1 The same thing occurred in Iconium, where Paul and Barnabas went into the Jewish synagogue and
spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. 2 But the unbelieving Jews
stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 So they remained for a long time, speaking
boldly for the Lord, who testified to the word of his grace by granting signs and wonders to be done through them.
4 But the residents of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles. 5 And when an
attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, 6 the apostles
learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country; 7 and there they continued
proclaiming the good news.
14.1 Ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν Ἰκονίῳ κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ εἰσελθεῖν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν συναγωγὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων καὶ λαλῆσαι οὕτως
ὥστε πιστεῦσαι Ἰουδαίων τε καὶ Ἑλλήνων πολὺ πλῆθος. 2 οἱ δὲ ἀπειθήσαντες Ἰουδαῖοι ἐπήγειραν καὶ ἐκάκωσαν
τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ἐθνῶν κατὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν. 3 ἱκανὸν μὲν οὖν χρόνον διέτριψαν παρρησιαζόμενοι ἐπὶ τῷ κυρίῳ τῷ
μαρτυροῦντι τῷ λόγῳ τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ, διδόντι σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα γίνεσθαι διὰ τῶν χειρῶν αὐτῶν. 4 ἐσχίσθη δὲ τὸ
πλῆθος τῆς πόλεως, καὶ οἱ μὲν ἦσαν σὺν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις οἱ δὲ σὺν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις. 5 ὡς δὲ ἐγένετο ὁρμὴ τῶν ἐθνῶν
τε καὶ Ἰουδαίων σὺν τοῖς ἄρχουσιν αὐτῶν ὑβρίσαι καὶ λιθοβολῆσαι αὐτούς, 6 συνιδόντες κατέφυγον εἰς τὰς πόλεις
τῆς Λυκαονίας Λύστραν καὶ Δέρβην καὶ τὴν περίχωρον, 7 κἀκεῖ εὐαγγελιζόμενοι ἦσαν.
The next place for these two missionaries was Ἰκόνιον, Iconium, 128 located
about a hundred miles (165 km) south southeast of Pisidian Antioch,
about a five day journey along one of the Via Sebaste roads. Located
on the western edge of the Anatolian plateau roads coming from
the east, especially from Tarsus, converge there and, traveling through
a mountain pass on the west, head toward Pisidian Antioch. This very
prosperous Roman colony in the first century world was the eastern
most city of Phrygia 129 during this period, but governmentally was a part
of the Roman province of Galatia. 130 The fictitious writing from the late
second century, The Acts of Paul and Thecla, is set in Iconium, and
focuses mainly on the actions of a young Christian girl named Thecla,
University Press, 2008), 522.]
128 “Konya, also spelled in some historic English texts as Konia or Koniah, was known in classical antiquity and during the medieval
period as Iconium in Latin, and Ἰκόνιον (Ikónion) in Greek. The name Konya is a cognate of icon, as an ancient Greek legend ascribed
its name to the ‘eikon’ (image), or the ‘gorgon’s (Medusa’s) head’, with which Perseus vanquished the native population before founding
the city.” [“Konya,” Wikipedia.org]
129Phrygia, Φρυγία, was an ancient kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia centered around the Sakarya River. The kingdom
was conquered in 695 BC and the territory successively was ruled by the Lydians, Persians, Greeks, and the Romans beginning in 133
BC. An ethnic culture with the distinctive Phrygian language, similar to Greek but very different from the other regional languages,
continued to give the people distinctive identity until the middle ages. Iconium on the far eastern side shifted back and forth from being
linked to Phrygia, a part of Asia, and to being a part of Lycaonia, a part of Galatia. During Paul’s stay there it was linked to the Roman
province of Galatia administratively.
130 “Located approximately 170 mi (280 km) S of Ankara (ancient Ancyra) on the border between mountainous Phrygia to the W and
the broad plain of Lycaonia to the S and E, it lies on a high, fertile plateau (3,770 feet or 1,150 m). One of the oldest continually occupied
cities in the world, it dates back at least to the 3d millennium B.C. According to local legend, it was the first city to be built following the
great Flood. Its location caused it to be linked at various times with both Phrygia and Lycaonia. Founded as a Phrygian settlement and
linked with Phrygia both geographically and culturally, the native people would have considered themselves Phrygians. As a part of the
empire of the Seleucid successors to Alexander the Great, and later as a part of the Roman empire, it was linked with the cities of Lystra
and Derbe (in Lycaonia). Those who were strongly attached to the Gk language and culture would have considered themselves Greeks,
while a few would have identified with the vision of the Roman empire. For millennia, Iconium has been—and, as Konya, continues to
be today— ‘a prosperous city of peace and commerce as well as a center of agriculture’ (Hagner ISBE 2: 792). Located on an important
crossroads linking Rome and the Greek cities of the Roman provinces of Asia, Macedonia, and Achaia with the luxuries of the Levant,
Iconium was a large and wealthy city in NT times.” [W. Ward Gasque, “Iconium (Place)” In vol. 3, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary,
ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1996), 357.]
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