Leon's Message Board

It was an exciting time in the early church as Luke narrates his inspired history in Acts 13:

Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away. 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant.

Ferrell Jenkins and I had opportunity to visit Salamis today. Fant and Reddish observe that “more than 4 miles of walking are required to cover the entire site” (A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey, p. 542). It is a large site, and does not have the features of your typical tel.

The apostle Paul’s pattern upon entering a city, as seen here in our text of Acts 13, was to begin his preaching in the synagogue. Though Luke almost always describes the results of the preaching, whether favorable or not, he does not do so here.

Roman cities of significance typically had a theater. Our photo shows the theater at Salamis.

Salamis Theater. Photo by Leon Mauldin.

This theater would have once seated 15,000 spectators (ibid), making it the largest on the island of Cyprus.

Click image for larger view.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2012 at 4:02 PM and is filed under Bible History and Geography, New Testament, photography, Theater, Travel, Turkey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.