The areas of Turkey that have been hit by the 7.8 earthquake are along the East Anatolian Fault. It has been my pleasure to visit many of these cities: Gaziantep, Karaman, and Antakya. Also Aleppo in northern Syria. The areas around Antakya might include the other historical sites of Tel Tayinat and Tel Alalak.
Did you knowthat Antakya was part of Syria until about 1935 when it was annexed as part of Turkey? Antaka is the location of the New Testament site of Antioch of Syria. This was a city where Paul, Peter, and Barnabas worked, and where the disciples of Jesus were first call Christians.
So Barnabas went to aTarsus to look for Saul,
26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called aChristians.
(Acts 11:25-26 ESV)
Our photo below shows the city of Antakya built on Mount Silpius along the Orontes River.
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Thanks for your post. Antakya was the first city where Christianity spread outside of Jerusalem. The first city where followers of Jesus took the name “Christian”, not where Paul and Barnabas visited. Seventeen ancient cities in Turkey were named Antioch, but only two are remembered by any but scholars today. One is Antakya (the ancient Antioch in Syria) and the other is Antioch in Pisidia, Asia Minor.
Antioch of Pisidia – Wikipedia
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Antioch in Pisidia – alternatively Antiochia in Pisidia or Pisidian Antioch (Greek: Ἀντιόχεια τῆς Πισιδίας) and … |
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Early Christian-Byzantine period
Paul the Apostle and Barnabas, as recounted in the Acts of the Apostles, visited Antioch of Pisidia in the course of Paul’s first missionary journey, and Paul’s sermon in the Jewish synagogue there caused a great stir among the citizens, but the ensuing conflict with the Jews led to the expulsion of the two Christian missionaries from the city. They returned later and appointed elders for the Christian community there.
Paul also visited the region in both his second and his third journeys. Paul’s “persecutions and sufferings” at Antioch are spoken of in 2 Timothy 3:11.
In the 6th century the city of Antioch, which had been ranked as a Roman colonia an outpost established in conquered territory to secure it, lost its strategic importance and, as it was off the main trade route, it started to lose importance more generally.
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