As the first missionary journey was mainly in Asia Minor, a brief description of that peninsula is necessary. It embraces about 156,000 square miles, or about two-thirds the size of Texas, and was located between the Black, Ægean, and Mediterranean Seas on the north, west and south, and bounded on the east by the provinces of Armenia, Mesopotamia and Syria. The provinces which it contained at the New Testament epoch may be variously stated, since in their political, racial and geographical relations they were different. The map of the Roman Empire, on page 98, gives them according to their political arrangement, which united two or more under one government, and gave to some new names. Thus there were four districts united under the name ASIA, which in the New Testament never denotes the whole continent, nor yet the whole peninsula, but the seaboard provinces of Caria, Lydia, Mysia, and the interior land of Phrygia. So, too, Bithynia and Pontus formed one government, Lycaonia was included in Galatia, and Lycia and Pisidia in Pamphylia. We can best arrange these provinces of Asia Minor, according to territorial relations, in four groups. 1. The three northern provinces, on the Black Sea: Pontus, Paphlagonia, Bithynia. 2. The three western provinces, on the Ægean Sea: Mysia, Lydia, Caria. 3. The three southern provinces, on the Mediterranean Sea: Lycia, Pamphylia, Cilicia. 4. The five interior provinces: on the north, Galatia; on the east, Cappadocia; on the south, Lycaonia and Pisidia; and on the west, Phrygia. All of these fourteen provinces, except four, are named in the New Testament. 1. =The Provinces on the Black Sea.= (1.) _Pontus_ (Acts 2:9; 18:2; 1 Pet. 1:1) was the northeastern province, between Paphlagonia and Armenia, and having Cappadocia on the south; now represented by _Trebizond_ in the Turkish empire. Some of its Jewish inhabitants were present in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost; Aquila, a helper of Paul, was a native of this region; and its Christian Jews were among those addressed in Peter's first Epistle. (2.) _Paphlagonia_, not mentioned in the New Testament, lay between Pontus and Bithynia, and north of Galatia. (3.) _Bithynia_ (Acts 16:7; 1 Pet. 1:1) was the northwestern province, having the Propontis (now called the _Sea of Marmora_) on the west, and Mysia and Phrygia on the south, from which it was separated by Mount Olympus. Though the region is only incidentally named in the New Testament, two of its cities, Nicæa and Nicomedia, were prominent in the history of the Greek church. [Illustration: ANTIOCH IN SYRIA.]