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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Bithynia
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BITHYNIA.—A district in the N.W. of Asia Minor, which had been a Roman province since b.c. 74. For administrative purposes it was generally united with the province of Pontus, which bounds it on the E., under one governor. The province was senatorial till about a.d. 165, and governed by a proconsul. The younger Pliny governed it from a.d. 111–113 by a special commission from the emperor Trajan. Paul and Silas were prevented by the Spirit from preaching in Bithynia (Act_16:7), and the beginnings of Christianity there are unknown. It is probable that it came by the Black Sea. That there were churches there after St. Paul’s time is certain from the address of the First Epistle of Peter, which was probably written a.d. 75–80.
A. Souter.