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ASIA

(Gk. Asía)

Designation of both the continent and the Roman province of Asia. The ancient Greeks used the term for lands bordering the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. The region extended in the north to the Tanais River and the Sea of Azov above the Black Sea, in the west to the Aegean Sea, in the south to parts of Africa, and in the east to the Indian Ocean. The Greeks considered Asia Minor to be a peninsula of Asia jutting out into the Mediterranean. With the death in 133 b.c.e. of Attalus III, the last king of Pergamum, much of Asia Minor was bequeathed to the Romans, who made it into a province in 129. The province suffered under unscrupulous and greedy leaders and finally joined with Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus, in revolt against Rome (88-84), which ended in their defeat by Sulla and the reorganization of the province.

In the NT, the province of Asia is mentioned mainly as a region of Paul’s missionary activity (Acts 13:1–16:10; 19:1-41). Paul wrote letters to Colossae and Ephesus (the capital city where he ministered for two years, Acts 19:10). Believers in Asia are mentioned in the letters (1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Cor. 1:8; 2 Tim. 1:15; 1 Pet. 1:1). The most notable mention of Asia in the NT is John’s letters to the seven churches of Asia (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, listed in the order one would come to them during a visit), which symbolically represent all the churches in Asia Minor (Rev. 1:4–3:22).

Richard A. Spencer

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ASIA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)