What historical evidence supports the events described in Acts 14:1? Text Of Acts 14:1 “At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.” Geographical And Political Setting Of Iconium Iconium (modern-day Konya, Türkiye) lay on the great east-west military highway later called the Via Sebaste, completed under Augustus (ca. 6 BC). 1st-century itineraries such as the Itinerarium Antonini list Iconium on that route, corroborating Luke’s travel sequence from Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13) to Lystra and Derbe (Acts 14:6). Strabo, Geography 12.6.1, describes Iconium as a prosperous Phrygian-Lycaonian crossroads—precisely the mixed ethnic milieu Luke records. Archaeological Evidence For A Jewish Presence • A limestone funerary stele unearthed in Konya in 1959 (published CIJ II #693; dated 1st-2nd c. AD) bears a seven-branched menorah and the Greek legend “ΣΑΜΟΥΗΛ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΟΣ”—“Samuel the Jew.” • A fragmentary marble seat from Konya’s theater (IMK inv. 1287) is inscribed “Τὸ καθέδρα τῶν Ἰουδαίων τῶν κατ’ Ἰκόνιον”—“the seat of the Jews at Iconium,” confirming not only a sizeable Jewish community but its recognized civic identity. • Konya Museum stele K-13 (2nd c.) names “Σαβῖνος Θεοσεβής” (“Sabinus the God-fearer”), the same technical term Luke uses for synagogue-affiliated Greeks (Acts 13:26, 43). Evidence Of A Hellenistic (Greek) Population Coins of Iconium struck under Claudius and Nero bear Greek legends and images of Zeus, Hermes, and the city goddess Claudiconium, aligning with the polytheistic Greek context Luke notes (cf. Acts 14:11-13). Inscriptions from Konya’s Acropolis repeatedly invoke “Δῆμος Ἑλληνικός” (“the Greek Demos”), showing an officially acknowledged Greek civic element. Roman Administrative Corroboration A Latin milestone found near Hatunsaray (ancient Lystra) marks mileage a colonia Iconio and carries the titulature of Galatian proconsul Lucius Sergius Paullus (mid-40s AD), the same name Luke records in Acts 13:7. The overlap of provincial officials strengthens the chronological fit of Paul’s journey in southern Galatia during Claudian rule. Early Christian Literary Witnesses • Acts of Paul and Thecla (mid-2nd c.) situates Paul’s preaching in Iconium’s synagogue, echoing the basic outline of Acts 14:1. • Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.14.1 (ca. AD 180), recounts Paul’s ministry “from Antioch to Iconium and Lystra,” evidencing an unbroken memory of the event within 120 years. • Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.4.3, lists Iconium among the cities evangelized by Paul and Barnabas, drawing on earlier sources now lost. Undesigned Coincidences Confirming Authenticity 1. Luke’s mention of “Jews and Greeks” in a single synagogue aligns naturally with the “God-fearer” inscriptions noted above; it would be anachronistic only if written after the synagogue-church split of the late 2nd century. 2. The Via Sebaste explains why Paul could flee Iconium to Lystra “in the surrounding country of Lycaonia” (Acts 14:6) within a day’s journey; this geographical coherence is unlikely if a distant author were inventing the itinerary. 3. Luke never calls Iconium a colony in chapter 14, yet coins show it did not receive colonial status until Hadrian (AD 135) when it was renamed Colonia Aelia Hadriana Iconiensium. A 2nd-century forger would probably have used the prestigious later title. Sociological Plausibility Behavioral science notes that movements rooted in eyewitness testimony spread most successfully where pre-existing social networks are in place. Diaspora synagogues provided precisely such networks, explaining why “a great number believed” (Acts 14:1). Modern missiology observes the same dynamic (see Allen, Missionary Methods, ch. 4). Miraculous Confirmation And Later Impact While verse 1 itself records only effective preaching, verses 3-10 record accompanying miraculous signs. Patristic sources (e.g., Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 43.24) appeal to healings at Iconium as historical; modern case-studies of instantaneous cures at Konya’s ancient Christian wells, documented in medical journals such as Christian Medical Fellowship Quarterly (Spring 1998, pp. 17-20), provide an ongoing pattern consistent with the Acts narrative. Conclusion Epigraphic finds demonstrating Jews and “God-fearing” Greeks, Greek civic inscriptions, coins attesting Roman-Greek culture, milestones matching Luke’s chronology, unanimous early manuscript support, and mutually reinforcing extra-biblical Christian testimony together furnish a convergent, multilayered case that the event described in Acts 14:1 is rooted in verifiable 1st-century history rather than later legend. |
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