Derbe #79

Derbe was a city in Lycaonia, in the interior of what is now Turkey, and it marks the farthest point of Paul and Barnabas’s first missionary journey. It is mentioned only a handful of times in the New Testament, but it tells a quieter story than its neighbors Lystra and Iconium. Here there is no riot and no stoning, simply the steady work of preaching and making disciples.

Biblical Significance

When a plot to stone them arose in Iconium, Paul and Barnabas fled to “Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about” (Acts 14:6). After Paul was stoned and left for dead in Lystra, he got up and went the next day with Barnabas to Derbe (Acts 14:19-20). Luke reports simply that “when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many,” they went back to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples and appointing elders in every church (Acts 14:21-23). The sentence is brief, but it stands out because Derbe is the only city on the journey where Luke records no opposition.

From Derbe the missionaries probably could have continued east toward Tarsus and Syria, but instead they retraced their steps to visit the young churches. That decision says much about the priorities of the mission, which was not only to preach but also to build up communities of believers.

Derbe appears again on Paul’s second journey, when he traveled through Syria and Cilicia, then “came to Derbe and Lystra,” where he met Timothy (Acts 15:41; 16:1). Finally, Luke lists Gaius of Derbe among the companions who traveled with Paul from Greece as he headed toward Jerusalem with the collection for the church there (Acts 20:4). This Gaius is likely to be distinguished from other men named Gaius in the New Testament, since Gaius was a very common Roman name.

Today

For a long time, the location of Derbe was disputed, and several sites in central Turkey were proposed. In 1956 the British archaeologist Michael Ballance found an inscription at a large mound called Kerti Huyuk, northeast of the modern town of Karaman in central Turkey, that names the city of Derbe, and this identification is now widely accepted. The mound has been only lightly investigated, and the ancient city has produced far fewer finds than better-known sites such as Ephesus or Philippi.

The region around Derbe is a flat, dry plain on the edge of the Anatolian plateau, and the place gives modern visitors a picture of the more remote towns that the earliest Christian missionaries visited. It reminds readers that the spread of the gospel did not take place only in famous cities, but in small provincial towns as well.