Pontus

1 Peter, the first chapter.

Peter, an apostle of Yahshua the Messiah, to the sojourners of the dispersion scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect, according to the foreknowledge of Yahweh the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Yahshua the Messiah, grace unto you and peace be multiplied.

Blessed be Yahweh the Father of our Savior, Yahshua the Messiah, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Yahshua the Messiah from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of Yahweh through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold trials.

But why don't we start with the scripture and see what comes out.

First Peter, first chapter.

Peter, an apostle of Yahshua the Messiah to the sojourners scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

elect according to the foreknowledge of Yahweh the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Yahshua the Messiah, grace unto you, and peace be multiplied.

It's the second century BCE and Manius Aquilius is a very prominent Roman consul, general, and notoriously greedy and power-hungry individual.

in 89 BCE, he is sent to quell a rebellion in Pontus, which is modern-day Turkey, led by Mithridates VI, who raised a rebellion against Roman rule.

Manius marches into Pontus with 6,000 men.

As a Roman general, he's thinking, I've got this.

No problem whatsoever.

I'm going to crush this rebellion.

However, when he gets to Pontus, he finds that Mithridates has 100,000 men.

And so Manius is seriously outnumbered.

Peter is writing to Jewish Christians, but he's writing to Jewish Christians in a region that is very multicultural.

1 Peter 1.1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

All those regions, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, all those are regions in modern-day Turkey egg.

At the time, Turkey egg, or what we now call Turkey or Turkey egg, was majority Greek, it is highly unlikely that Peter was writing only to the Jews in those areas, even though that is what he says.

He's writing to the elect exiles of the dispersion.

I said that these are regions in Turkey.

Here we go.

Pontus, Cappadocia, Galatia.

We'll read 1 Peter.

Okay, Kepha, an emissary of Yeshua Messiah to the chosen, strangers of the dispersion, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadonia, Asia, and Bethunia.

Chosen according to the foreknowledge of Elohim the Father, set apart by the Spirit unto obedience.

Okay? What obedience to what? And sprinkling of the blood of Yeshua Messiah, favor and peace be unto you.

really cool.

He makes a couple of larger, more calculated strikes, one around Uketa, which is an inland Pontus, middle of nowhere Pontus.

He hit the Persian camp hard out of nowhere.

It didn't break Shaheen.

Do I wanna go up to, uh, Athens, to the Acropolis, or do I wanna go to Corinth? Well, of course, I wanna go to Corinth.

So it says, "They departed from Athens and went to Corinth and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla." So this is the famous, uh, couple, married couple, Aquila and Priscilla.

"Because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome, and he came to them.

So, because he was of the same trade," in other words, Paul and, and, uh, Aquila were of the same trade, they were both tent makers.