Pontus

Biblical Text

Pontus is mentioned three times in the New Testament.

• Acts 2:9: At the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Pontus is listed among the home regions of those gathered in Jerusalem who heard the apostles speaking in their own languages. In this list Pontus appears alongside Cappadocia and Asia.
• Acts 18:2: Aquila, whom Paul met in Corinth, is introduced as a Jew "born in Pontus." Aquila had come from Rome with his wife Priscilla (see Priscilla and Aquila).
• 1 Peter 1:1: First Peter addresses its recipients as "the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." Pontus is the first of the five regions named.

Background

The name Pontus derives from the Greek pontos, meaning "sea," and the region took its name from the Greek designation for the Black Sea. The Latinized form Pontus is the one commonly used today. The region stretched along the Black Sea coast of northern Asia Minor, bordered by Cappadocia to the south and Bithynia to the west.

An independent Kingdom of Pontus once existed here. In the first century BC, Mithridates VI fought against Rome but was defeated; afterward, the western part of Pontus was joined with Bithynia to form the Roman province of Bithynia et Pontus. The rest of the territory came under various rulers at different times. In the New Testament period, Jewish communities appear to have lived scattered throughout the region, as the accounts in Acts 2 and 18 also suggest.

Biblical Significance

Pontus appears in the context of the gospel's spread outward from Jerusalem into Gentile lands. The Pentecost account shows that people from this region were present when Jews and proselytes of the Diaspora first heard the gospel. First Peter presupposes that Christian communities were already established in the region.

Acts contains no record of Paul preaching in Pontus, and the Bible does not directly state how the churches in this region began. According to extrabiblical sources, Pliny the Younger, governor of the province of Bithynia et Pontus in the early second century, wrote to the Emperor Trajan asking how Christians should be dealt with. This letter is frequently cited as evidence that Christians were fairly numerous in the area by that time. The second-century figure Marcion is also said to have come from Pontus (see Marcionism).

Interpretive Questions

• The order of regions in 1 Peter: Some scholars regard the sequence, which begins with Pontus and ends with Bithynia, as the route taken by the courier who delivered the letter. Others see it simply as a list of regions.
• The identity of the recipients: Some interpreters read "the strangers scattered" as Jewish Christians living in the Diaspora. Others take the phrase to refer to Christians as a whole, including those of Gentile background, who live as sojourners in the world.
• The tradition of Peter's mission in Pontus: Ancient church writings such as Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History preserve a tradition that Peter preached to the dispersed Jews of this region. The biblical text, however, does not say that Peter visited Pontus. Because 1 Peter 1:1 names only the regions addressed, it should be read as distinct from this tradition.