Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

ASIA

In NT times, the Roman province immediately east of the Aegean Sea. The province was established in 133 BC out of the kingdom left to the Romans in the will of Attalus III, king of Pergamum. Greek geographers generally employed the name Asia to denote the whole eastern continent, but from the second century on, the Romans generally referred to the kings of Pergamum as “kings of Asia.” Hence the custom of using “Asia” for the peninsula alone (i.e., Asia Minor) gradually crept into popular usage.

The extent of the province of Asia differed at each stage of its history. Before Roman occupation the word was used to refer to the kingdom of the Seleucid dynasty (founded by Seleucus I; 305–281 BC). The Apocrypha referred thus to Asia (1 Macc 8:6; 11:13; 12:39; 13:32; 2 Macc 3:3), as did the early Jewish historian Josephus in his Antiquities. When the territory was wrested from Seleucid control by the Romans in their war against Antiochus the Great, the Romans gave it to their allies, the Attalids; Attalus III willed it to the Romans. The limits of Roman control were not firmly established until an extensive revolt had been put down. The borders then included Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and Phrygia, and (nearer the Aegean) Aeolis, Ionia, and Troas. The islands off the coast (Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes, Patmos, etc.) were also included. The mainland now forms part of modern Turkey.

In 116 BC the province was enlarged to include Greater Phrygia. Its geographic limits were then Bithynia to the north, Galatia to the east, Lycia to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west. Even then, the boundaries were not solidly fixed, for in 25 BC Augustus Caesar augmented Rome’s dominion by combining other parts of Phrygia, Lyconia, Pisidia, and possibly Pamphylia into a province called Galatia. Those geographical limits remained until AD 285, when the province was greatly reduced in size and the term Asia became restricted to the coastal areas and lower valleys of the Maeander, Cayster, Hermus, and Caicus Rivers.

During Roman occupation the capital of the province was Pergamum. By the time of Augustus, however, the residence of the Roman proconsul was at Ephesus.

In the NT, Asia generally meant the Roman province of that name. Sometimes the concept was primarily geographical; at other times primarily political. For example, at the Feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem there were Jews who had come from “Asia.” These included other provinces governed by Rome, such as Cappadocia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia (Acts 2:9-10). This seems to indicate that Luke, the writer of Acts, used the term to describe the province originally bequeathed to the Romans by Attalus III. Luke used the word again in Acts 6:9, providing tacit evidence of the strength of Jewish communities in Asia Minor as a whole and confirming the use of “Asia” in the restricted sense of the Roman province.

On Paul’s second missionary journey, he and Timothy were prevented by the Holy Spirit from preaching in Asia (Acts 16:6-8). Evidently, from the context, Luke again had the old boundaries of the province in mind. On Paul’s return from Greece he stopped briefly at Ephesus (Acts 18:19-21). On his third missionary journey, he remained in Ephesus for more than two years, so that from this capital city “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10, rsv).

Luke further referred to Asia in Acts 19:26-27; 20:4, 16, 18; and 27:2. Paul also made several references to it (Rom 16:5; 1 Cor 16:19; 2 Cor 1:8; 2 Tm 1:15). The apostle Peter likewise used the term (1 Pt 1:1). In the NT the risen Christ was the last to refer to Asia. He instructed the apostle John, then living in exile on the island of Patmos, to write letters to seven specific churches on the mainland of Asia (Rv 1:1-4).

Other cities in this Roman province mentioned in the NT include Laodicea and Hierapolis (Col 4:13), and lesser-known Adramyttium (Acts 27:2), and Assos (Acts 20:13-14).