Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

LYDIA

(Gk. Lydía)

(PLACE)

A prosperous commercial center in western Asia Minor on the Aegean Sea, a producer of textiles and purple dye (Strabo Geog. 13.4.14). According to Herodotus, the Lydian king Croesus, whose wealth and power were legendary (Hist. 1.28), allied himself with the Egyptians and Babylonians against the Persians, but was defeated and captured by Cyrus the Great in 546 b.c.e. (1.86). Under Cyrus, the Lydian capital, Sardis, became the seat of the Persian satrap (governor). Alexander the Great conquered Lydia in 334 (Diodorus Siculus Hist. 17.21.7). During the reign of the Seleucid king Antiochus III, Jewish soldiers (the katoikoi) settled in Phrygia and Lydia and became the basis of the Diaspora in Asia Minor (Josephus Ant. 12.147-53; CIJ 2.775). The Seleucids ruled until 189, when the Romans defeated Antiochus III at Magnesia (Livy Urb. cond. 37.44-45; 1 Macc. 8:8). Lydia was then given by the Romans to Eumenes II, king of Pergamum. In 133 the Pergamene king Attalus III bequeathed his kingdom back to the Romans in his will. Subsequently, Lydia became part of the proconsular province of Asia. According to Josephus, Hellenistic Jewish communities, including those in Lydia, obtained jurisdiction in civil matters, even before Julius Caesar (Ant. 14.225-64). The consigning of money for common meals and sacred festivals, and the sending of money to Jerusalem were permitted (Ant. 14.213-16; 16.171). A large synagogue dating from the Roman period was discovered in Sardis in 1962 and excavated.

Paul and Silas visited Lydia (Acts 16:40). A wealthy business woman known as Lydia, who came from Thyatira in Lydia, was a dealer in purple (Acts 16:14). The seven churches of Asia named in the book of Revelation were located in the area of Lydia.

Bibliography. J. M. G. Barclay, Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora: From Alexander to Trajan (323 b.c.e.–117 c.e.) (Edinburgh, 1996); M. Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1974); E. Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 b.c.–a.d. 135), rev. ed., 1 (Edinburgh, 1973); V. Tcherikover, Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews (1959, repr. New York, 1970).

Lynne Alcott Kogel