[Alumni-chat] Two cities named Antioch in the Mid-East, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, FYI!

Thu Nov 8 20:12:34 EST 2007

Nov. 8, 07

  Hi from Yazz (David) Allen (YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com)!

  There are two cities named "Antioch" in the middle east, and I came across information today on Google.Com  the two.

  The most famous city named "Antioch" is  now located in Turkey, and formerly was located in Syria (the British changed the Turkish/ Syrian border so Antioch City would be newly located in Turkey, instead of part of Syria with which the ancient city was identified).

  It's right on the Turkish/ Syrian border, on the Turkish side after millenia of association with Syria.  The British moved the city into Turkey after WWI by gerrynamdering the borders of the two countries to Antioch would be in Turkey, and not Syria.

  It's located on the Mediterranean Sea, about 16 miles up the Orontes River.

  The "two Antiochs" in the mid-East are known, respectively as "Antioch of Syria" (event though it is presently, though only recently, located in Turkey), and "Antioch of Pisidia."

  Antiochians would do well, from time to time, to reflect on the history of the famous ancient city after which the embattled Ohio college of fame and frequent desperation was named.

  Big hunks of that city were relocated in the early 1920's to Baltimore MD USA (to the Baltimore Museum Of Art) and are still there.  What Lord Elgin did relocating important parts of ancient Greece to the British Museum for the display now know as the "Elgin Marbles," Americans did for Antioch, removing important art treasures during the time when Syria was the captive of Great Britain in the 1920's, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire follwing WWI.

  Both the mid-East, of which ancient Antioch was once the shining star, and Antioch College in Ohio face grave crisis presently, and this is notable.

  Here's the text, FYI,  of the Catholic Encylclopedia profile of the "other" city named Antioch: 

  " ANTIOCH OF SYRIA
     "It is difficult to realize that in the modern Antakieh (28,000 inhab.), we have the once famous "Queen of the East", which, with its population of more than half a million, its beautiful site, its trade and culture, and its important military position, was a not unworthy rival of Alexandria, the second city of the Roman empire (cf. Josephus, Bel. Jud., III, 2, 4). Founded in 300 B. C. by Seleucus I (Nicator), King of Syria, Antioch stood on the Orontes (Nahr el Asi), at the point or junction of the Lebanon and of the Taurus ranges. Its harbour, fifteen miles distant, was Seleucia (cf. Acts 13:4).      "The name by which it was distinguished [’Antiochía ‘e pròs (or ’epi) dáphne, now, Bet el ma, five miles west from Antioch] came from the ill-famed sacred grove, which, endowed with the right of asylum, and so once, by "a rare chance", the refuge of innocence (cf. 2 Maccabees 4:33 sq.), had become the haunt of every foulness, whence the expression Daphnici mores.
 However, the vivid description of Antioch's immorality, largely the result of the greater mingling of races and civilizations, may be exaggerated; as said in another connexion [cf. Lepin, Jesus Messie, etc. (2d ed., Paris, 1905), 54, note], les braves gens n'ont pas d'histoire, and of that class there must have been a goodly number (Josephus, Bel. Jud., VII, 33; Acts 11:21).      "The Jews had been among the original settlers, and, as such, had been granted by the founder here, as in other cities built by him, equal rights, with the Macedonians and the Greeks (Jos. Ant., XII, iii, 1; Contra Ap., II, iv). The influence of the Antiochene Jews, living, as in Alexandria, under a governor of their own, and forming a large percentage of the population, was very great (Josephus, Ant. Rom., XII, iii, 1; Bel. Jud., VII, iii, 3, VII, v, 2; Harnack, Mission u. Ausbreitung d. Christenthums, p. 5, note 2). Unknown disciples, dispersed by the persecution in which Stephen was put to
 death, brought Christianity to Antioch (Acts 11:19). Cf. Acts, vi, 5, where the author characteristically mentions the place of origin of Nicholas, one of the seven deacons. In Antioch the new Faith was preached to, and accepted by the Greeks with such success that Christianity received here its name, perhaps originally intended as a nickname by the witty Antiochenes (Acts 11:26).      "The new community, once acknowledged by the mother-church of Jerusalem (Acts 11:22 sq.), soon manifested its vitality and its intelligence of the faith by its spontaneous act of generosity toward the brethren of Jerusalem (Acts 11:27-30). The place of apprenticeship of the Apostle of the Gentiles (Acts 11:26), Antioch, became the headquarters of the great missionaries Paul and Barnabas, first together, later Paul alone. Starting thence on their Apostolic journeys they brought back thither the report of their work (Acts 13:2 sq.; 14:25-27; 15:35 sq.; 18:22-23). Acts, xv (cf. Galatians
 2:1-10) clearly evidences the importance of the Antiochene Church. There arose the great dispute concerning the circumcision, and her resolute action occasioned the recognition of the "catholicity" of Christianity.   "II. ANTIOCH OF PISIDIA  "Like its Syrian namesake, it was founded by Seleucus Nicator situated on the Sebaste road. This road left the high-road from Ephesus to the East at Apamea, went to Iconium and then southeast through the Cilician Gates to Syria (cf. Acts 18:23). 

  "The city lay south of the Sultan Dagh, on the confines of Pisidia, whence its name of "Antioch-towards-Pisidia" (Strabo, XII, 8). Definitively a Roman possession since Amytas's death (25 B. C.), Augustus had made it (6 B. C.) a colony, with a view to checking the brigands of the Taurus mountains (2 Corinthians 11:26). 

  "Beside its Roman inhabitants and older Greek and Phrygian population, Antioch had a prosperous Jewish colony whose origin probably went back to Antiochus the Great (223-178 B. C.) (cf. Josephus, Ant., XII, iii, 3 sq.), and whose influence seems to have been considerable (cf. Acts 13:45, 50; 14:20 sq.; Harnack, "Die Mission", etc., p. 2, note 2 and ref.). Acts, xiii, 14-52 describes at length the sojourn of St. Paul at Antioch. The episode, clearly important to the writer, has been justly compared to Luke, iv, 16-30; it is a kind of programme-scene where Paul's Gospel is outlined. A longer stay of the missionaries is implied in Acts, xiii, 49. On his return from Derbe, St. Paul revisited Antioch (Acts 14:20). Two other visits seem implied in Acts, xvi, 4, 6; xviii, 23. "
  --------------------------

  Best,
  Yazz (David) Allen '66 
  (YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com)

  ----
    Contact "Yazz" (David) Allen directly via email at YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com, mail to 644 Shrewsbury Commons Ave., #239, Shrewsbury PA USA 17361...phone (717) 235 - 1982!

  See my movie actor photos and recent credits at WWW.IMDb.Com (world's largest movie info database, owned by Amazon.Com)  IMDb RESUME.  Also WWW.SAG.Org "IActor, "WWW.CastingNetworks.Com.

 __________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 