DERBE. - A small town in Lycaonia, visited several times by St. Paul.

Stephanus of Byzantium wrongly calls it a fortress and port of Isauria. It stood north of the Isaurian region of the Taurus, about 40 km southeast of Lystra, west of Larranda. The identification of D., given the many but faint traces of a city that the area presents, is not certain, nor is it excluded that it may have arisen subsequently in different localities. After J. R. S. Sterrett, opinion has tended toward Losta (or Zosta). W. M. Ramsay pronounced himself, more precisely, in favor of Gudelissin, about 4 km northwest of Losta.

Amyntas of Galatia, having killed Antipater, tyrant of D. and friend of Cicero (Epistolae ad familiares, XIII, 73), took possession of the city, incorporating it into his kingdom, already a vassal of Rome. On his death (25 B.C.), it was united, along with other territories, to the Roman province of Galatia, from which it seems to have been detached again in 38 A.D., when Caligula ceded it to Antiochus IV of Commagene (Cassius Dio, LIX, 8, 8), but for a short time. In honor of Claudius it took the name Claudioderbe. Its position on the great imperial road that joined Ephesus to Antioch in Syria gave it a certain commercial importance.

On the first apostolic journey, Paul and Barnabas, persecuted by the Jews of Iconium and Lystra, took refuge in D. (Acts 14:6, 20), which they evangelized, it seems, without disturbance and with abundant fruit (Acts 14:21). On the second journey Paul and Silas, coming from Syria and Cilicia, visited D. and Lystra first (Acts 16:1), Timothy joining them there, having probably already been known at Lystra on the previous journey. In the account of the third missionary journey a visit to the community of D. is not explicitly mentioned. A native or inhabitant of D. was that Gaius who accompanied Paul on the return from the third apostolic journey (Acts 20:4).

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: W. M. Ramsay, The Historical Geography of Asia Minor, London 1890, p. 336; id., The Cities of St. Paul, ibid. 1907, pp. 385-404; W. Ruge, s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa, V, col. 237; E. Beurlier, s. v. in DB, II, coll. 1386 f.; H. Leclercq, s. v. in DACL, IV, coll. 673 f.; J. Laroche, s. v. in Dict. Encycl. de la Bible, I, p. 280; K. Lake, in The Beginnings of Christianity, V, London 1933, p. 227.

Teodorico da Castel San Pietro

@incollection{ec4_derbe, author = {Teodorico da Castel S. Pietro}, title = {Derbe}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1449}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/derbe} }

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