Bithynia
Summary
A Roman province in northwestern Asia Minor on the Black Sea, which Paul was prevented from entering but where Christianity subsequently flourished, as attested by Peter's epistle and Pliny's famous correspondence.
☩Location and Character
Bithynia was a fertile and highly civilized province in the northwest of Asia Minor, bounded by the Propontis (Sea of Marmara) and Bosphorus on the west, the Euxine (Black Sea) on the north, the range of Mysian Olympus on the south, and Paphlagonia on the east. The region was hilly, well-wooded, and productive. Its chief cities were Nicomedia (the capital), Nicaea, Chalcedon, and Prusa (modern Bursa). Originally settled by Thracian immigrants, Bithynia was bequeathed to Rome by its last king Nicomedes III in 74 BC.
☩Paul Prevented from Entering
During his second missionary journey, Paul and Silas, having been forbidden to preach in Asia, attempted to go into Bithynia, but 'the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them.' This divine redirection led them westward to Troas and eventually into Europe through Macedonia. While Paul never personally evangelized Bithynia, God's delay was not denial—the province soon received the gospel through other means, as Peter's epistle demonstrates.
☩Early Christianity
Peter addressed his first epistle to the elect scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, indicating established Christian communities by the time of his writing. Though details of the gospel's arrival are lacking, Bithynia could hardly remain unaffected by Christian communities to the south, west, and east. The presence of Jews in Bithynia, noted by Philo, likely provided an initial point of contact for the gospel message.
☩Pliny's Testimony
In AD 112, Pliny the Younger, governing the disorganized province, wrote to Emperor Trajan describing the remarkable spread of Christianity. So many had embraced the faith that pagan temples were almost deserted, sacrificial rituals interrupted, and purchasers of victims rarely found—not only in cities but in rural villages. His correspondence reveals Christians meeting before dawn to sing hymns to Christ as God and binding themselves by oath against wickedness, and describes their faith as a 'depraved, excessive superstition.'
☩Later Significance
Bithynia became central to church history through its councils. The first ecumenical council of the church convened at Nicaea in AD 325 to address the Arian heresy, producing the Nicene Creed. Later councils met at Chalcedon, a suburb of Constantinople opposite Bithynia. Emperor Diocletian had earlier fixed his residence at Nicomedia, making it the eastern imperial capital. The province remained part of the Byzantine Empire for a thousand years before falling to the Ottoman Turks.
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Bithynia," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. I (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Bithynia," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. I (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.James Hastings (ed.), "Bithynia," in Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, vol. I (T. & T. Clark, 1915–1918).