Derbe, a city in Lycaonia, was visited by Paul during his missionary journeys.
Derbe was a city in the region of Lycaonia, located in modern-day Turkey. It was one of the cities visited by Paul and Barnabas during their first missionary journey after they were forced to flee from Iconium (Act.14.6). In Derbe, they preached the gospel and made many disciples (Act.14.20-21). On Paul's second missionary journey, he revisited Derbe, where he met Timothy, who became his faithful companion and co-worker (Act.16.1). Gaius, one of Paul's travel companions, was also from Derbe (Act.20.4). The city was located on the eastern edge of the Roman province of Galatia and was known for its fertile soil and agricultural production.
Approximate location: 37.351, 33.271 · view on a map · on the Bible atlas
A small town on the eastern part of the upland plain of Lycaonia, about 20 miles from Lystra. Paul passed through Derbe on his route from Cilicia to Iconium, on his second missionary journey (Acts 16:1), and probably also on his third journey (18:23; 19:1). On his first journey (14:20, 21) he came to Derbe from the other side; i.e., from Iconium. It was the native place of Gaius, one of Paul’s companions (20:4). He did not here suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:11).
(Acts 14:20,21; 16:1; 20:4) The exact position of this town has not yet been ascertained, but its general situation is undoubted. It was in the eastern part of the great upland plain of Lycaonia, which stretched from Iconium eastward along the north side of the chain of Taurus. (Rev. L. H. Adams, a missionary, identifies it with the modern Divle, a town of about 4500 inhabitants, on the ancient road between Tarsus and Lystra.—ED.)
DER'BE, a city of Lyeaonia, Acts 14:16, Ruth 4:20; Mark 16:1, about 20 miles from Lystra. Kiepert places it near Lake Ak-Ghieul, but Hamilton at Diele, several miles farther south.
DER'BE, a city of Lyeaonia, Acts 14:16, Ruth 4:20; Mark 16:1, about 20 miles from Lystra. Kiepert places it near Lake Ak-Ghieul, but Hamilton at Diele, several miles farther south.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
4 verses in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s G1190
they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding region,
But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. And the next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where he found a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father.
Paul was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.