If Paul preached in Pisidia, the brevity of the reference rather suggests that the work was un- important and unsuccessful. He found there no ‘door opened unto him’ (2 Co 2"). A rude, little- educated, rustic pop ulaion was not favourable to his teaching; and there is no reason to think that Pisidia was early Christianized. The only vart where there are any pre-Constavinian Christian inscriptions, is that which lies closest to Apamea ;T and the new religion is likely to have spread f here from that great seat of early Christianity (see PHRYGIA).
Yet a Pauline tradition seems either to have re- mained alive from the first or to have grown up later in Pisidia. The modern name of the impos- ing but wholly desolate and unpopulated ruins of Adada is Kara Bavlo. The word Kara (literally ‘black,’ metaphorically in common usage ‘terrible’ or ‘ strong’) is often applied to ancient sites. The name Bavlo is now applied to the modern town 5 or 6 miles south of Kara Bavlo, which has re- placed it as the seat of government. Plainly the name was carried with the population from the old site to the new; and the old city was henceforward distinguished as Kara Bavlo. Now it is evident and certain that Bavlo is merely the modern pro- nunciation of the apostle’s name Ilad\o’; and clearly this name was the popular local designation of Adada, derived from the patron saint. And it is highly probable that this local identification of Addie with the apostle’s name is to be con- nected with the fact that Adada is the one im- porbans city in Pisidia on the direct road from
erga to Antioch; and that the name attests a local legend that St. Paul passed that way and taught in the city. A remarkable and very early ruined chureh stands near the road leading to the south about a mile or two from the city.
One other trace of Pisidia has leen .eft on the NT. When St. Paul speaks of the ‘perils of rivers’ and ‘ perils of robbers’ which he had been exposed to, no locality is likely to have been so prominent in his mind as Pisidia. It was still barely conquered when he traversed it. Augustus had found it necessary to plant in it several colonies, Cremna, Comama, Olbasa, Parlais, to keep down
*"Avriéxuay τὴν Πισιδίαν͵ RABC, Tisch., Westcott and Hort etc. + Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, pt. ii. p. 498.
PISPAH
its unruly tribes. Its mountain fastnesses were the natural haunt and refuge of robbers ; and the inscriptions bear testimony to this. Some examples are quoted in the Church in the Roman Empire before 170, p. 23£.; see also Conybeare and How- son’s scholarly work on St. Paul (though it indi- cates a different route across Pisidia).
Lireraturs.—As to Pisidian ethnology and lan; hardly anything is known; Ramsay, ‘Inscriptions en gue Pisi- dienne,’ in Revue des Universités du Midi, 1895, p. 358, has
ublished the only known monuments of the language; but
ey contain hardly anything more than proper names, reveal- ing a few grammatical forms. The proper names, Grecized in form, which occur in Greek inscriptions, are of remarkable and peculiar character: many Greek inscriptions of Pisidian cities are given by Sterrett in his Wolfe Expedition and his Epigra- phic Lease tn Asia Minor; by Lanckoronski, Stadte Pam- phyliens und Pisidiens (containing also splendid accounts and photographs of sites and monuments).
W. M. Ramsay.
PISPAH (npps, B Φασφαί, A Pacpd).—An Ashe-
rite, 1 Ch 7%.
PIT in OT represents twelve Heb., and in NT two Gr. words. 1, 2, From the root 7.3, only in Piel, ‘make distinct or plain’ :—(a) 1x2 (possibly from idea of coming to light or appearing), com- monly rendered ‘well,’ indicating a deep shaft containing water. It corresponds with Arab. δῦ τ. It is once used of the pits whence bitumen was taken, 155 my (Gn 14°), The dark, cold depths, from which, if one fell in, escape would be so diffi- cult, doubtless suggested the figures ‘pit of destruc- tion’ (Ps 55%), a a (Ps 69"), ‘narrow pit ΡΥ 2357). (δ) %2 the usual word for ‘cistern,’ which should take the place of ‘pit’ (RVm) in Lv 11%, 1 S 13°, 2K 10%. When empty, the Jor was frequently used as a place of confinement (Gn 37", Zec 94), It is rendered ‘dungeon’ in Gn 40%", Ts 24 RVm, La 3%-*; so also Jer 385(RVm ‘ pit’), which may explain the figure in Ps 403, 729 m3 (Ex 12”, Jer 87") is a prison cell. Thus it comes to be used for the universal prison of the tomb (Pr 113, Ps 281 30°, Is 14% 3818, Ezk 26” etc.). The pit in which Benaiah slew the lion (2 S 23”, 1 Ch 113) and the pit, prepared against the necessities of a dreaded siege, into which Ishmael cast his slaughtered victims (Jer 417°), were probably large empty reservoirs. The hole out of which stones ave been quarried (Is 51’) is often used as a cistern.
8. 23 (from 23 ‘to dig’) corresponds with the Arab. jubb, a deep well or cistern or ditch. The word occurs in 2 Καὶ 815, where the most likely sense is ‘trenches’ (RV), and in Jer 14%, where ‘pits’ should surely be ‘cisterns’ (possibly also in same sense [so Klost.] in Jer 3910 5216} K 2513),