History of Tarsus

The city of Tarsus was founded around 1400 when Hittites settled the area and it is thought that Cilicia was the capital of the area they designated Kuzziwatna. Cilicia became a Roman province in 64 B.C. after it was conquered by Pompey. Tarsus became the capital city. Tarsus was located on the southern coast of Asia Minor. Cilicia had two main regions: the western half distinguished by its mountainous terrain, and the eastern plain which contained fertile land. Tarsus was located in the eastern region. The city is 79 feet above sea level and 10 miles from the Mediterranean sea. The city is built around the Cydnus river.

Tarsus was a prosperous city and intellectualism and education were a major distinction among its citizens. Strabo wrote of Tarsus in the first century A. D., "'The people at Tarsus have devoted themselves so eagerly, not only to philosophy, but also to the whole round of education in general, that they have surpassed Athens, Alexandria, or any other place that can be named where there have been schools and lectures of philosophers.'" (Finegan, 53) The city also contained a number of schools of rhetoric, a method of speaking that Paul used in many of his epistles. Tarsus was also known as a center of Stoic philosophy.

Paul was born in Tarsus in the province of Cilicia (Acts 22:3). The Hellenistic influence, evident in much of Paul's writing, has lead scholars to believe that Paul spent a significant amount of time in Tarsus before he went to Jerusalem to be educated by Gamaliel. For instance, even though Paul spoke to the people in Jerusalem in Hebrew or Aramaic (Acts 22:2; 26:14), he wrote in Greek and quoted the Septuagint, the Greek form of the Scriptures, not the Hebrew used in Jerusalem at the time.