Bible Strands
Acts 2:9
Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrative records a list of regions and peoples present in Jerusalem at Pentecost, directly responding to the crowd’s preceding question about hearing the apostles in their native languages.
The words — The Greek term κατοικοῦντες (katoikountes) literally means "inhabiting" or "residing," identifying the listed groups as settled populations rather than transient travelers.
The thread — The same provincial names—Pontus, Cappadocia, and Asia—recur in 1 Peter 1:1 and Acts 16:6, 18:2, mapping the early church’s geographic expansion across the eastern Mediterranean and Anatolia.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that the proclamation crosses established ethnic and linguistic boundaries, requiring the reader to account for the concrete reality of a dispersed audience receiving a unified message.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Cross-references
- 1 Peter 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the elect who are exiles of the Dispersion throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen
- Acts 16:6 After the Holy Spirit had prevented them from speaking the word in the province of Asia, they traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia.
- Acts 18:2 There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to visit them,
- 2 Timothy 1:15 You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.
- Revelation 1:4 John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven spirits before His throne,
- Genesis 14:1 In those days Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim
- Genesis 24:10 Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed with all manner of good things from his master in hand. And he set out for Nahor’s hometown in Aram-naharaim.
- 2 Kings 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.
- Isaiah 11:11 On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
- Daniel 8:2 And in the vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa, in the province of Elam. I saw in the vision that I was beside the Ulai Canal.