What is the significance of Cyprus in the Bible?

Large island in the east end of the Mediterranean. It is the same as the CHITTIM of the O.T. where its commerce and its relation to Tyre are spoken of. Isa. 23:1, 12; Ezek. 27:6; Dan. 11:30. It was visited by Paul and Barnabas, the latter of whom, with Mnason, came from thence. Acts 4:36; Acts 11:19-20; Acts 13:4; Acts 15:39; Acts 21:3, 16; Acts 27:4. It has always been a place of importance and has been owned by the Syrians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Persians, the Romans, and latterly is divided between Greece and Turkey.

Without delay they went forth, embarking at Seleucia, the port of Antioch, then a flourishing place with good harbour accommodation, now a ruin and its two basins choked with sand. Of the importance and accommodation of the harbour an idea may be gained, as we learn that the inner basin "covered an area of about forty-seven acres, as large as the export and import basins of our East and West India docks put together." [50] Cyprus. - To Cyprus they first went, the native country of Barnabas, and an island much inhabited by Jews; for at Salamis, the city at which they landed, there were several synagogues, Luke informing us that "they preached in the synagogues of the Jews" (13:5). What results there were of their labours, or the length of time that they devoted to that city and neighbourhood, we have no means of correctly ascertaining. Their mission was chiefly to the heathen, though "to the Jew first" was their practice when presenting the Gospel in a new town or district. Through the whole island, as we should rend, they went from east to west, a journey by land, between Salamis and Paphos, of about the same distance that they had traversed by sea from Seleucia to Salamis - one hundred miles. Doubtless they visited towns and places on the route, and evangelised as they went.

The journey through Cyprus has but one point in it upon which the historian dwells. Salamis is only mentioned to state that they announced the word of God there in the synagogues of the Jews. The rule, "to the Jew first," was observed in this case; nor have we any record of work among the Gentiles. Among the Jews also the fact of the preaching is not accompanied by any statement as to the effect; there may have been such; it would be natural, under such preachers, and on a mission directed by the Spirit of God, to reason that there must have been; but it is certain that it is only the fact that is given us here; and not its consequences. The Jew is still sought by divine grace, and sought in an especial manner also. The giving up of the nation as such does not mean any turning away of the offer of salvation from them. The first step upon the road here makes plain that the love that has been with them seeks them still. The breach is upon their side; not on His.

But it was at its capital, Nea Paphos (not exactly the spot so celebrated as the dissolute seat of Aphrodite's worship), that the gospel came into collision, not with Jewish prejudice only, but with this intensified and embittered by religious imposture and sorcery. 'And when they had gone through the whole island unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer (or magician), a Jewish false prophet, whose name [was] Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. He having called to [him] Barnabas and Saul sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is interpreted his name) withstood them, seeking to turn aside the proconsul from the faith.' Salamis being on the east, as Paphos on the west, they had to cross the island as a whole; as the best copies say, though this is omitted in the common text. The interest of the Roman governor aroused the jealous opposition of the corrupt Jew who had had influence over a mind shocked with demoralizing idolatry but open to displays of power, not without some show of revelation. What could be more overwhelming to the Jewish impostor's influence than the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ? But the pro-consul1 (not 'deputy' or legate, as in the Authorized Version) had a conscience in exercise and by grace an ear for the truth, which soon turned toward that which was of God, when the testimony reached his soul. Bar-Jesus (= son of Jesus, or Joshua) called himself 'Elymas', the wise man, or magician which was a title apparently akin to the Oriental 'Ulemah'. This wickedness drew out the solemn rebuke of Saul (henceforward called Paul)2 accompanied by a sentence from God which the Holy Ghost gave him not only to utter but to execute. The rareness of such judicial inflictions under the gospel makes their occurrence all the more impressive. {1 Wiclif and the Rhemish, guided by the Vulgate, say 'pro-consul'; Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Geneva Version give the vague 'ruler of the country'. It is of the more moment to be exact, as Cyprus under the Romans had been imperial and hence governed by a pro-praetor; but not long before it had been handed over by Augustus to the people, which involved government by a pro-consul, ἀνθύπατος instead of the former ἀντιστράτηλος. 2 We need not speculate on the question whether the apostle had always two names, a Jewish one and a Gentile or Roman; or whether the latter may have been now given at this epoch, if not incident, when he entered publicly on his work among the Gentiles.}

Even so, it was really the Holy Ghost who sent them forth, as verse 4 says; and to Cyprus, the old home of Barnabas, they went first of all, Mark his nephew accompanying them. Arrived at Paphos, they had the encouragement of finding the chief ruler of the island ready for the Word of God; but at the same time they ran into Satanic opposition. Opposition from the powers of darkness is an encouraging sign, rather than the reverse.

'And there went with us also [certain] disciples from Caesarea, bringing one Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we should lodge' (ver. 16). An 'old' disciple is certainly not exact, and may not even be true, ἀρχαίῳ expressing not his age as a man, but his discipleship from the beginning. It is interesting thus to find incidentally that Cyprus had been blessed of God, not only through the visits of Paul and Barnabas, but even before.

City in the east of Cyprus, visited by Paul and Barnabas Acts 13:5. Its ruins are a little south of Hagios Sergis.

City at the west end of the Isle of Cyprus, visited by Paul. Acts 13:6, 13. It is now called Bafo.

Of many who contributed to it we know nothing. But of two different parties we are now to read: that of Barnabas, who gave up all the proceeds of the sale of his land; and that of Ananias and Sapphira his wife, who surreptitiously kept back part of theirs. Barnabas was a Levite. His own name was Joseph; [18] but he received the surname, or appellation, of Barnabas in consequence of the character of his ministry, as an exhorter. Evidently that was his special gift ( 11:23 ). And his surname, which means son of exhortation, rather than consolation, distinctly implies it. Here for the first time he appears on the scene, destined afterwards to play for a time no unimportant part in the great work of evangelising the heathen. A Levite, of the island of Cyprus , and therefore a Hellenistic Jew, he, in common with Paul, also one of that class by birth, was called out by name to commence the great missionary work in Asia Minor (13:2). At present all that we learn of him is that he sold his field - for Levites could possess land of their own - and of his own free will he laid the price of it at the Apostles' feet.

Particular attention is drawn to Joses, surnamed Barnabas, a Levite of the country of Cyprus. Levites in Israel received tithes of the people (Heb.7:5), but grace so wrought in the heart of Barnabas that he sold land in his possession and gave the proceeds to the apostles for the common fund.