Iconium

Known in modern day Turkey as Konya and about 250 km south of Ankara, ancient Iconium was a celebrated Greek city in Asia Minor and among one of the first cities visited by Paul and Barnabas during their first and second missionary journeys .

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Situated at an altitude of more than a kilometer on the southwest edge of the well-watered and productive Anatolian Plateau, Iconium was one of the oldest continually occupied cites in the world, with a history reaching back at least five millennium. Phrygian legends have it that it was the first city to rise after their version of the Flood. At one time part of the Hittite empire, it became prominent only after it became a self-governing Greek city sometime in the 3rd Cent BC. By 25 BC it had become incorporated into the Roman province of Galatia. In the late 4th Cent AD, it became capital of the province of Lyconia.

Paul and Barnabas's first visit to the (at that time a largely Hellenistic) city is reported in Acts 14:1-7. Their mission met with considerable success among the Gentiles but Jewish opposition (possibly a spill-over from Antioch, the previous city they visited; see v19) caused such a civil stir they were forced to flee the city for Lystra and Derbe (v6). Paul returned to the city on his return through the region (v21). Though not mentioned specifically, it is likely that Paul at least passed through the city again on his second missionary journey on his way towards Troas.

CONCORDANCE (NIV):

Iconium is mentioned 6x in as many verses in the NT:

Acts 13:51 — [But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.] So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.

Acts 14:1 — At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.

Acts 14:19 — Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.

Acts 14:21 — They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, . . .

Acts 16:2 — [He (Paul) came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek.] The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.

2 Tim 3:11 — [You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,] persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.