What is the significance of Cappadocia in the Bible?

District in the east of Asia Minor. Visitors from thence were at Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost, and Peter includes this district when he addresses his first Epistle to the dispersed Jews. Acts 2:9; 1 Peter 1:1. The district extended as far eastward as the Euphrates.

It definitely addresses the "strangers scattered" in the provinces of Asia Minor, yet "elect" — i.e., Peter writes to converted people of his own nation scattered throughout the regions to the north of Palestine. Peter was the apostle to the circumcision (see Gal. 2:7-8), yet it was Paul who traversed these lands and evangelized the Jews while carrying the Gospel to the Gentiles; so Peter exercised his ministry towards them by pen and ink.

My present object is to draw attention to Peter's preface to his first epistle, in which we shall find an assemblage of important truths for our souls. He wrote "to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia." These were scattered Jews, as we read in John 7:35, "The dispersed among the Gentiles." James wrote in a similar direction, but addressed the whole twelve tribes. Peter, on the other hand, addresses only the believers among them. These were his allotted charge, as we know. The risen Lord bade him feed His sheep (John 21), meaning, I suppose, those of the circumcision. Other sheep were to be called in, who had never known the Jewish fold (John 10:16); but they in due time were committed more to the care of the apostle Paul. He that wrought mightily in the one to the apostleship of the circumcision, wrought in the other to the apostleship of the uncircumcision (Gal. 2:8). Consequently, Jewish believers are addressed in Peter's Epistles, though all that is written, one need hardly say, is for Gentile believers also.

They are described as "elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father." This is a far higher thing than Israel's national election by Jehovah. As a people they were chosen of God, in time, to inherit the promises concerning the land. They were to be His people, walking in separation from the nations around, maintaining His truth in the midst of universal idolatry. How deeply they have failed, we know; but God will yet make His intentions good, for His gifts and calling are without repentance (Rom. 11:29). But during their rejection, God is speaking of another election. Believers in Jesus were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). This, in contrast with Israel's election, is individual. It would not be correct to speak of the church, as such, as "elect," though it be true of all the members who compose it. Here some fail in their apprehension of the mind of God. They like to think of the church as a whole as elect, leaving it an open question as to individual believers, who may, in their judgment, be finally disowned after all. But scripture is decisive and clear. Election is a truth of God, but it concerns individual believers, and not the church as such. These Jewish brethren, if one may so say, were an election out of an election. They had stood in the old Jewish circle of outward privilege; they had now been called out of it to enjoy God's eternal counsel — relationship with the Father as His children through grace.

The Epistle is addressed to the sojourners in the dispersion, that is, to Jewish believers who were scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, provinces in the northeastern part of Asia Minor. Many assemblies had been founded there and there were many believing Jews. They probably had their own gatherings, keeping aloof from the assemblies formed by believing Gentiles. They were the remnant and yet in having believed they were members of the body of Christ.

The first epistle is addressed to “the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia" (chap. 1:1). All these areas were to be found in Northern and Central Minor Asia which corresponds to the actual Turkey. One cannot exactly locate the geographical location as we do not know whether these areas were the old tribal territories or the Roman provinces. Also one does not know if Peter ever had seen these believers. The NT does not record any journeys (of Peter) in these areas.

The First Epistle of Peter is not directed to all believers in one place as for example the epistle to the Romans. Nor is it directed to all churches of one area as the epistle to the Galatians. The believing “strangers scattered” (chap. 1:1.17; 2:11) were former Jews who had come to believe in the Lord Jesus and who now were strangers in a twofold manner: firstly strangers scattered from their own country Palestine and secondly as Christians who by faith now had received a living, heavenly hope. As apostle of the circumcision Peter had the special duty to bring the Jews the tidings of God's grace and salvation in Christ. This he does in this epistle as Origines remarked already. And yet many scientists today think the epistle is directed to Gentile Christians or to a mixed audience of Gentile and Jewish Christians.

Accordingly we are told in the beginning of the First Epistle that the apostle Peter addresses "sojourners of dispersion," which can mean Jews only, of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. But they were Christian Jews, and so described as "elect according to foreknowledge of God the Father by (or, in) sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and blood-sprinkling of Jesus Christ." The Gentiles of this large region of Asia Minor were settled at home in it; Jews there were sojourners dispersed from the land of Israel. But the description appended, like the Epistle generally, shows that they were pilgrims in a higher sense as God's children and confessors of Jesus Christ. The Second Epistle (2 Peter 3:1) declares that it was written to the same persons. There is no ground therefore to claim for it a more catholic character than for the First. But "catholic" is a word greatly abused.

This last is made plain and certain by the second term, "sojourners," when combined with the word "dispersion" which it qualifies. They were not the primitive possessors of these countries, nor simply "elect" from among its settled inhabitants. They were not only Jews scattered in those parts, but elect "pilgrims" or "sojourners." This was a title of grace, as "dispersion" was of judgment. Their election in this case was bound up with the journey to the better country, that is, a heavenly. Originally Jews, they were now Christians. This entirely accords with the writer of the Epistle. Peter was an "apostle of Jesus Christ" as he here introduces himself; and as the gospel of the uncircumcision had been confided to Paul, so was that of the circumcision to Peter (Gal. 2:7). Hence it is to such that these two Epistles were addressed. Compare 2 Peter 3:1 with the verse before us. As this is certain, it is unbelieving to allow that any other statements can countervail. Even a man would not write so incoherently: why should men of faith think so unworthily of scripture? Can such persons hold divine inspiration?

You will notice who they are, to whom Peter is writing. "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia" (1 Peter 1:1). They were believing Jews, who had been scattered abroad, through the persecution that arose after the death of Stephen. Peter takes up here, the charge committed to him by the Lord at his public restoration, in John 21, "Feed my sheep." I say his public restoration, for there had been a private meeting between the Lord and Peter before this, as we have seen in Luke 24:34, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon." At that private meeting between the Lord and Peter, when no one else was near, no doubt everything as to his fall, and what led to it, had come out, though the details of what passed between them then we know not, but at the public restoration the Lord put into Peter's hands that which He loves best, thus showing the confidence of His heart. How could I most prove my confidence in a friend if I were going away? Surely it would not be by going to that one, and telling him I had confidence in him, but — by committing to his charge the person, or the thing I loved most.

It is quite true that all believers are strangers in this world (for they are not of it), and that they are "scattered." But Peter, it must be remembered, was the apostle of the circumcision; and as such he wrote his epistles to the believers among the Jews, and to those who were found in the various places named in the first verse. A more exact translation is "to the sojourners of the dispersion"; that is, he addressed those who were outside the limits of Palestine, and who were living in these several provinces of Asia Minor. The term "dispersion" (scattered abroad) is a technical word for their description. (See John 7:35; James 1:1.) The meaning of "strangers" or sojourners is simply living in a strange place. In chapter 2:11 the same word is employed with the addition of another, signifying "aliens" or "foreigners." It is rendered in our version "strangers and pilgrims"; and these terms exactly describe what these believers were, and what indeed all Christians are. We are not at home, and we are therefore strangers; we are passing through this world, and thus, as on a journey, we are pilgrims. In verse 2 we have a very striking setting forth (a contrast, we doubt not, with Israel as the earthly people) of the peculiar blessedness of these chosen ones from among the Jewish nation. They were elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father (compare Ephesians 1:4-5), and thus the object of His eternal counsels, and to know God, not now as Jehovah, but as their God and Father in the intimate relationship of children, doubtless in association with Christ, as in John 20:17. The accomplishment of God's counsels was to be "through sanctification of the Spirit," for it was by His mighty power they were set apart for the glory of God. The end of their election of God the Father was - for we do not in this epistle go beyond the earth, precisely because it is addressed to sojourners - "unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Formerly they had been set apart to obey the old covenant, the ten commandments; now Christ was to be their pattern, and they were to obey as He obeyed. (See 1 John 2:6.) They were moreover separated unto God, to be brought under all the efficacy of the precious blood of Christ, to be perfected for ever, as to the conscience, by the value of His one sacrifice, that they might be free both in heart and conscience before God to run in the way of His commandments, and live by every word which proceeded out of His mouth. Happy people they surely were as placed in such a blessed position, and begotten as they were to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead unto an incorruptible and heavenly inheritance.

Tongues therefore played a very inferior part in the assembly. That they were conferred for the dissemination of the gospel is the supposition of many in ancient and modern times. They were certainly used to arrest the Jews from foreign countries, who flocked to Jerusalem for this feast, or were otherwise staying there. What confounded these strangers from so many lands was, that they each one heard the disciples speaking in their own language, and whatever may have been the prevalency of Aramaic, or of Greek and Latin over the then known world, it is idle to tell one who believes this careful and varied enumeration from the N.E. to the W. and S. (which seems to be the reason why Judea comes between Mesopotamia and Cappadocia), that the inspired writer does not mean to convey more than a few distinct tongues. Not so judged the residents and sojourners in Jerusalem, whose piety gave them weight, yet who least of all were disposed to religious innovation. To them the evidence was irresistible, an impossibility if the variety of languages had not been a plain and sure reality of which they are competent judges. 'Behold, are not all these that speak Galileans? And how hear we each in our own dialect in which we were born? Parthians, and Medes and Elamites … we hear them speaking in our tongues the mighty things of God.'