Acts 14:1

ἐν Ἰκονίῳ (Konia), sometimes regarded as a Roman colony towards the end of the reign of Claudius, thus dignified on account of the title conferred upon the frontier town, Claudio Derbe. But Hadrian, not Claudius, constituted it a colony. In Acts 14:6 the Apostles flee from Iconium to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the inference from this statement is that Iconium was not itself Lycaonian. But this inference justifies the local accuracy of the historian, as it would appear that the people of Iconium regarded themselves as Phrygian even after Iconium had been united with Lycaonia in one district of Roman administration: cf. Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 37 ff., and the testimony of the Christian Hierax, 163 A.D., before his Roman judge: “I have come hither (i.e., as a slave), torn away from Iconium of Phrygia ”: on the road travelled by the Apostles see also Ramsay, u. s., p. 27 ff. Strictly speaking, Lystra and Derbe were cities of Lycaonia-Galatica, while Iconium reckoned itself as a city of Phrygia-Galatica, all three being comprised within the Roman province of Galatia. See also Rendall, Acts, p. 262. On the place and its importance, situated with a busy trade on the principal lines of communication through Asia Minor, see C. and H., smaller edition, p. 145, B.D. 2. Iconium is the scene of the famous Acts of Paul and Thekla, forming a part of the Acts of Paul, C. Schmidt's translation of which we must await with interest. See Harnack, Chronol., i., p. 493, Wendt (1899), p. 42, Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 375, and “Iconium,” Hastings' B.D. κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ, “together,” so R. and A.V., cf. LXX, 1 Samuel 11:11, or it may mean “at the same time”. Blass however (so Ramsay, Weiss, Rendall) renders “after the same fashion,” i.e., as at Antioch. But for this meaning cf. Acts 17:2, where a different phrase is used. Ἑλλήνων : on the whole best taken as referring to the σεβ. or φοβ. τὸν Θεόν, because in Acts 14:2 we have ἔθνη, which would signify the Gentiles generally, as opposed to those devout persons who as proselytes had joined the Jewish synagogue.