Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: turkey

Asia – Let’s Not Go There – Acts 16
The importance of this juncture in Paul’s journey, now with Silas and Timothy, cannot be overemphasized as these apostles are sent out beyond Asia into all the world of Euro-Asia.
Asia – the BIG picture
Go into all the world GEOGRAPHY (remedial)
Asia Minor, Roman Remnant of a former Empire
The Empires Before Christ
356 BC – Macedonia
Alexander the Great
323 BC – 30BC – a Greek-ish Eurasia
AD 50 – Eurasia
Acts of the Apostles 16:
Asia – the BIG picture

Growing up geographically-challenged (as my 5th grade teacher surely would have confirmed) in a small village far distant from Paul’s missionary journeys I was CLUELESS when I read Luke’s lists of places in Acts.

Where were these cities? (Or were they states? Perhaps a province of some kind?)

And ASIA? (That’s confusing.)

Continents as I remembered (5? or 7?):
- North America (That’s US.)
- South America (Go toward Texas & keep going.)
- Europe (Cross the Atlantic like Europeans did & founded 13 colonies in America)
- Africa (everything south of the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt and all those jungle places south where Europeans brought slaves to America.)
- Antarctica (it’s all ice and nobody lives there.. Is it the one on the South Pole or north?)
- Asia (Russia, from where Europe ends west to the Pacific & India, China, Japan along the Pacific
- Australia (How can an English island below Asia be called a continent?)
```
C -
```
Go into all the world GEOGRAPHY (remedial)

ASIA ~30% of land area of earth, part of Eurasia, ~17 million sq. miles
```
Join me as I refresh some of my quite limited knowledge of geography - especially of Asia.
```
Asia facts from WorldGeography.com
- Asia is the largest and most populated continent
- It shares land borders with Europe, which is not defined and hence share a landmass called Eurasia.
- Afro-Eurasia is the name given to the landmass between Asia, Europe, and Africa.
- Asia shares a lot of its extreme points with Europe, especially Russia.
Cape Dezhnev, 66°4′45″N 169°39′7″W, located on the Chukchi Peninsular, between the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Strait [W. of Alaska] , is the easternmost point of mainland Asia.

Pamana Island, 11°00′36″S 122°52′37″E, is the southernmost point of Asia, located in the Lesser Sunda Islands, East Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia.

The northernmost point on the Asian mainland is Cape Chelyuskin, 77°44′0″N 104°15′0″E. At 1370km from the North Pole, ..located at the Taymyr Peninsula,

Westernmost Point In Asia
- Cape Baba, 39°28′47″N 26°03′50″E, located on the Anatolian part of Turkey, is the westernmost part of Asia. Located in Babakale village also known as Father’s Castle in historical Troad. Apostles Luke’s journey around the cape, and Apostle Paul’s journey on land are recorded in the biblical book Acts of the Apostles.
Troas on Cape Baba in Babakale, Turkey [Turkiye] is the westernmost point in Asia.

Asia Minor, Roman Remnant of a former Empire

Zoom in with Roman military eyes toward a vast empire to the east situated on the westernmost shores of Asia, fixing your eyes on adjacent Aegean shores of 21st c. Turkiye.
```
This geographical-historical view of the Asia minor region is provided only for its context of culture as it intersects with Paul's missionary journeys 'into all the world' of Eurasia.
```
Asia Minor

Follow the southern coastline from nearest to Rome toward the east and riches of former empires.

Rome’s region of ASIA MINOR
- conquered via the vast Mediterranean and inland to the Taurus mountains includes [W. to E.]:
- Pisidia [N. of Perga],
- Pamphylia [along a coast N. of Cypress],
- Cilicia [with its port city of Tarsus] and finally
- Syria (at times including Judea).
- Further Roman conquests inland to the north included:
a large Roman province of GALATIA
- N from Iconium and on its Western edge Antioch Pisidia, all of the central plain to the borders of
- a more remote Cappadocia in the mountains to the north of Cilicia and Tarsus and Antioch Syria,
- N to Bithynia and Pontus on the Black Sea and again toward
- Phrygia along the mountainous borders with Asia Minor toward Mysia and the strategically situated Sea of Marmara between the narrow isthmus connecting the Black and Aegean Seas.
In Roman times, however, when Paul journeyed there, the country was divided into two parts, one of which was known as Galatian Phrygia, and

the other as Asian Phrygia, because it was a part of the Roman province of Asia, but the line between them was never sharply drawn.
Source: BibleAtlas.org

And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
– ACTS 16:6

The Empires Before Christ

6th century Before Christ

6th-5th centuries B,C. the Persian Empire (to the East) adds the Babylonian Empire to its captive provinces

Paul, Silas and Timothy will know these events well from Scripture, but those are no longer the Empires of concern to either the Jews or Rome. In a more recent history of Judea and Eurasia one vast Empire rivals all others.

356 BC – Macedonia
Alexander the Great

Tutored by Aristotle

trained for battle by his father, Philip II

source: History.com

Roman bust, 2nd century AD / Creative Commons license
[Alexander’s] undermanned defeat of the Persian King Darius III at the Battle of Gaugamela is seen as one of the decisive turning points of human history, unseating the Persians as the greatest power in the ancient world and spreading Hellenistic culture across a vast new empire.
https://www.history.com/news/alexander-the-great-defeat-persian-empire

332 BC – Tyre: a siege of Hellenism close to home

The siege of Tyre was orchestrated by Alexander the Great in 332 BC during his campaigns against the Persians.
source: Wikipedia

The reign of Alexander the Great was short-lived. After subduing all of the Persian Empire, his army marched east and got as far as India before turning back home to Macedon. But he never made it home.

At just 32 years old, Alexander died in Persia in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon.

323 BC – 30BC – a Greek-ish Eurasia
```
Click the link below to see a map of the Hellenized 'Greek-ish' world after Alexander the Great where the Apostle Paul now witnesses Christ. READ a detailed lecture on 
```
https://brewminate.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Alexander53-768×452.gif

There were no more city-states. Monarchies prevailed, modeling themselves after Alexander’s empire. He had achieved a divine status in his lifetime, and his successors wanted to as well. They established “ruler cults” in which they were obeyed as kings and worshipped as gods.

A sense of cosmopolis developed in the Hellenistic Age (“polis” plus “cosmos”). Worldly, experienced, and highly-cultured people used to live in small city-states and not worry about the world beyond, but now they had seen and even ruled this world and began to say they were no longer citizens of Athens, Corinth, and so on, but instead citizens of the cosmic polis (cosmopolis), the world.
Highly Recommended Source – From a lecture by Dr. Frank Holt, Professor of Ancient History, University of Houston (10.15.2013)

Paul and the Apostles sent out into all the world live in the crossroads between a culture of Alexander established just a few centuries earlier AND ambitious Roman Caesars reconquering lands and cultures to be absorbed into a new Pax Romana — IF you will surrender your land and its people into one international Empire of their Roman peace.

AD 50 – Eurasia

The year in the middle of Paul’s 2nd Missionary Journey.

Rome had conquered the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt near Judea some time ago, but the Empire’s military defense of the Eastern front in Syria kept close eye on the Parthian Empire and frequently engaged in battle losing and retaking various land.

A Greek-ish in culture of the Eurasian world remained reticent of Roman Legions suppressing unwilling rulers in uncooperative localities.

Politically astute men like a Herod or Saul of Tarsus understood this ever-shifting landscape of living as part of the political leadership and military power of the Roman Empire.

Paul would have been attuned to recent changes in both Asia and Europe as the Apostle now travels toward a new destination with Silas and Timothy. They seem to be travelling intentionally and slowly (which we might easily miss in these few brief verses of Acts.

AD 43 – During those years after Paul had witnessed Jesus on the road to Damascus, just four years prior to his first missionary journey here and to Cypress, Rome had invaded Britannia in the West. Legions had also conquered Lycia on the SW coast near Asia Minor where previously they had sailed to and from Perga.

Lycia Source: Wikipedia

AD 46 – Just a year prior to Paul’s first missionary journey

After the death of the Thracian king Rhoemetalces III in 46 AD and an unsuccessful anti-Roman revolt, the kingdom was annexed as the Roman province of Thracia. The new province encompassed .. the north-eastern portion of the province of Macedonia as well as the islands of Thasos, Samothrace and Imbros in the Aegean Sea.

Source: Wikipedia

Acts of the Apostles 16:
```
Previously:
```
Circumcision < Saul's Extreme Cultural Cut of Timothy

⁴As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. ⁵So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.

6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

These apostles sent out from Antioch Syria have traveled about half-way on this 2800 mile [4500 km] journey into a Greek-ish Roman-ruled world. Their remaining journey in Euro-Asia will include many more important cities where they will preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the upcoming year.

⁷And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. ⁸So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.

Paul’s 2nd Missionary Journey – first half through Asia

Acts for a 21st c. Church

To be continued…
February 23, 2023
Acts 14 Pursued through Lycaonia
Fleeing Persecution

After having fled Pisidian Antioch, Roman capital of the Galatian district of Lycaonia, Barnabas and Paul must again go into hiding as they escape persecution in Iconium.

Luke’s detailed account of Paul’s first missionary journey in Acts 14 shows us what will frequently take place in many cities throughout the world. His historic account of the Apostles provides background for understanding of the intense hatred of Jesus Christ by many unbelievers.

Iconium – A Pattern of Persecution

Iconium lies to east of Lake Egirdir on a plain bordered by the Taurus Mountains

Acts 14: Fleeing Iconium

5 And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and to stone them, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the surrounding region; and there they continued to proclaim the gospel.

Lycaonia and the surrounding region

A 21st c. satellite view of the plain east of the Taurus mountains.
(A large man-made lake later provided irrigation to this arid region but would have been a river in earlier centuries.)

Λυκαονία – Lycaonia

Luke mentions that they fled to the cities of Lycaonia.. and the surrounding region. Although Lycaonia was also a city in the southern region of this district set on a plain near the Taurus Mountains, he names the next two cities where they will preach the gospel in addition to other more remote towns of Lycaonia.
```
Lycaonia = "wolf land"

a region in Asia Minor, situated between Pisidia, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Galatia and Phrygia, whose chief towns were Derbe, Lystra and Iconium
metaph. of cruel, greedy, rapacious, destructive men 
- Source: BlueLetterBible.org.
```
Barnabas and Paul will eventually enter Lystra where Luke records yet another miracle among the gentiles.

περίχωρος – períchōros –
- signifies “country round about,” Luk 8:37; “country about,” Luk 3:3, AV (RV, “region round about”)
NOTE Luke’s Gospel mention of the Lord Jesus using this same reference also points to rejection of the Gospel.

And all the people of the country^G4066 of the Gerasenes

and^G4066 the^G4066 surrounding^G4066 district^G4066 asked Him [Jesus] to leave them, for they were gripped with great fear. And He got into a boat and returned.
Gospel of Luke 8:37 LSB – Strong’s G4066 – perichōros

Rejection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME,

BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.

HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES,

AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,

TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,

TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”
```
Gospel of Luke 4:18-19a - Jesus Christ quoting the prophet Isaiah 61
“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your [ears].” - The words of Jesus from Luke 4:21
```
Acts of the Apostles

And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.

But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.

– ACTS of the Apostles in Pisidian Antioch 13:49-50 KJV
- Strong’s G5561 – chōra
  - ..the idea of empty expanse; a space of territory (more or less extensive; often including its inhabitants):—coast, county, fields, ground, land, region.
- Strong’s G3725 – horion
  - boundaries for a region, district, land, territory
But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.
Acts of the Apostles 13:51 King James Version

And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off G1621 the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. – Gospel of Mark 6:11 KJV

And it came to pass in Iconium..

ACTS 14:3-7 KJV

Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

But the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles. And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them,

They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about:
- Strong’s G4066 – perichōros
  - signifies “country round about,” “country about,” (RV, “region round about”)
And there they preached the gospel.
Acts 14:7 KJV

“The one who listens to you listens to Me,

and the one who rejects you rejects Me.

And he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ – Luke 10:16 LSB

To be continued…

NEXT: Lystra
November 14, 2022
That you may have Certainty -3- Transitions
That you may have Certainty in these Uncertain Times
The Messiah of God: humiliated, tortured and executed as a spectacle on a Roman cross!
The LORD’s promise is a promise of certainty.
Joshua 8:
Are you a King?
That you may have Certainty in these Uncertain Times

Can you think of any transitions of our years more difficult than dealing with death? Any death of a loved one brings uncertainty for times ahead.

Luke and the other Gospel writers must have had second thoughts after the Cross, transitions of faith challenging the teachings of Jesus. “Did you know Him,” those who had witnessed His triumphant entrance into Jerusalem for the Passover festival would have asked?

The Messiah of God: humiliated, tortured and executed as a spectacle on a Roman cross!

How those leaving Jerusalem must have hung their heads during the transitions of these three days until certainty of the Resurrection. But then a risen Christ appears.

I have always wondered what stories from scripture Jesus must have told his disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Luke 24: 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

יָדַע Certainty

In Hebrew,-יָדַע yâdaʻ, yaw-dah’; a primitive root; to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing); used in a great variety of senses, figuratively, literally, euphemistically and inferentially (including observation, care, recognition; and causatively, instruction, designation, punishment..

This is the certainty of which Luke, the gentile, speaks of in detailing the record of Jesus’ life. For a Hebrew people conquered by Rome and accustomed to a Greek culture, Jesus assures them of God’s unrelenting faithfulness.

So what might Jesus have told these defeated Jews after His death and resurrection about Joshua? We might conjecture the inclusion of certainty [yâdaʻ], used roughly 900 times in Hebrew scripture

The Certainty of the Jews

The impact of the resurrection of Jesus surpasses all transitions of history. Yet Jesus speaks first to followers of a past of promise, rather than this new transition for believers. Jesus had spoken often of Moses, but among transitions between Hebrew leaders few surpass the journey of Joshua.

Moses, David and the Prophets had predicted a Messiah King. The LORD affirms the certainty of His covenant with Abraham through Moses. Yet Moses dies before crossing into the promised land. Transitions from a forty year leadership of the 120 year Moses to following his assistant, Joshua. He would command this untested Hebrew army crossing the Jordan into enemy lands.

If ever a people journeyed into uncertain times, transitions from the wilderness into lands beyond the Jordan lay before the Hebrew people. Yet here rests faith in the certainty of God’s promise.

נָגַד More Certainty

Another Hebrew root word translated as certainty is nagad. Without getting into Hebrew and English parts of speech we find an additional 370 uses of this word for certainty.

נָגַד – nagad – to be conspicuous, tell, make known, to tell, declare, announce, report, expound, to inform of, to publish, proclaim, to avow, acknowledge, confess, to be told, be announced, be reported.. plus a few additional definitions and ‘to bring to the light.’

Luke 24:27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Just a reminder that Moses is synonymous with the Law, Torah and five Books of Moses, from which we will begin.

From Moses to Joshua

Deuteronomy 31:

7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. 8 It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

Do you know the meaning of Joshua’s name? יְהוֹשׁוּעַ The transliteration is: Yĕhowshuwa` from: יְהֹוָה Yĕhovah – The Existing One and יָשַׁע yasha` – savior.

The LORD told Moses I AM THAT I AM! He IS The Existing One from whom the Savior is sent.

14 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may commission him.” And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. 15 And the Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud. And the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance of the tent.

16 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.

Joshua Like Jesus

Joshua 1:

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.

The LORD’s promise is a promise of certainty.

… Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success[a] wherever you go.

Yet as with Moses and later, Jesus, the followers of God fail in their faith. We love to sing of our victories in the Lord [Joshua 6 video], but in these transitions of faith watch what happens next.

Joshua 7:

But the people of Israel broke faith… 2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai…

5 and the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of their men and chased them before the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted and became as water.

6 Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads. 7 And Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us?

Uncertain times, then Certainty from the Lord

And so it goes in difficult transitions. Men (and women) will sin. The Lord must draw us back to faith.
- Jesus, Savior of sinners, tells His faithful why the Messiah must die. He is resurrected and becomes our resurrection and our life!
- Joshua, Jehovah is Salvation, appeals to Jehovah God for mercy and the Lord speaks certainty of deliverance.
Joshua 8:

And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed…

Following the defeat of Ai, hear this explanation of the certainty of the power of Almighty God.

Joshua 9:

3 But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, 4 they on their part acted with cunning… 8 They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” And Joshua said to them, “Who are you? … because of the name of the Lord your God. For we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt, 10 and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan…

They go on with their deception of Joshua, but they praise the Lord.

¹⁵And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.

¹⁶At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they lived among them.

Now comes the assurance of certainty from the Lord. נָגַד

24 They answered Joshua,

“Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you—

so we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing. 25 And now, behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight to do to us, do it.”

Are you a King?

What did these kings, destined to fail before the Lord think of Joshua? Surely they feared the anointed of the Lord (though at that time they were not named king).

Pilate, Governor of Judea had asked the accused Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” For the Jews had accused Jesus of blasphemy, for He had said: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Then they crucified Jesus on a Cross and buried our Lord in a grave. Now, in the greatest of transitions ever, the risen Christ tells His followers why He had to be crucified for our sins. He IS and was and is to be, the Lord! He is the redeemer of those facing certain death and inevitable judgement.

For fifty days a risen Jesus will once again lead disciples into the uncertainty of a new and everlasting covenant. Like followers of Joshua, these disciples must have had times of uncertainty turn into a certain faith in the Lord.

Whether forty years, fifty days, two millennia or a few moments of transitions of this life, certainty remains in Christ the Lord.

To be continued…
April 21, 2018