Cilicia

Cilicia was a maritime province in the southeast of Asia Minor, bordered by the Taurus Mountains to the north and the Mediterranean to the south. Its chief city was Tarsus, the birthplace of the apostle Paul (Acts 21:39; Galatians 1:21). The region is first mentioned in the New Testament in connection with a synagogue of Cilicians in Jerusalem who disputed with Stephen (Acts 6:9), and Paul traveled through Cilicia on his second and subsequent missionary journeys to strengthen the churches there.

The province was incorporated into the Roman provincial system and linked the eastern Mediterranean world to the interior of Asia Minor through the Cilician Gates, a strategic mountain pass. Paul's identification with Cilicia shaped his early formation, and the churches he established there were among the first recipients of the Jerusalem council's decree (Acts 15:23). The region's Hellenistic cultural environment contributed to Paul's ability to engage both Jewish and Greek audiences throughout his ministry.

Cilicia’s enduring significance is bound up with its greatest son. Saul of Tarsus, “a citizen of no obscure city” (Acts 21:39), was born and reared in this meeting-place of Greek learning and Roman order, yet brought up in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). After his conversion the brethren sent him home to Tarsus for safety (Acts 9:30), and there Barnabas later sought him out to share the work at Antioch (Acts 11:25). Returning through “Syria and Cilicia,” Paul strengthened the churches and carried to them the decree of the Jerusalem council (Acts 15:41). So the providence that set the apostle to the Gentiles in a Greek-speaking Roman province prepared the very instrument by which the gospel would run to the nations — a reminder that God forms his servants long before he sends them.