Cappadocia (Kap-uh-doh’shee’-uh), located in modern-day Turkey, is an isolated and unique fertile plateau region intersected by mountain ranges in Eastern Asia Minor; it is east of Lake Tatta, west of the Euphrates River, south of Pontus, and north of the Taurus Mountains. Though the word itself “Cappadocia” is not recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, Deuteronomy 2:23 and Amos 9:7 mention “Caphtor” or “Caphtorium” which has been rendered “Cappadocia” in the Septuagint, that is, the Greek translation of the Old Testament (LXX). Unfortunately, this rendering is a mistranslation. In the New Testament, we have a total of two references to this location. First, in Acts 2:5-13 we discover that some citizens of Cappadocia were amazed at hearing their own languages spoken on the day of Pentecost while visiting Jerusalem. Quite possibly, a Jewish community might have settled in Cappadocia as early as the second-century b.c. Second, Cappadocia was listed as among the regions the Apostle Peter addressed in his first letter in 1 Peter 1:1. Throughout its fascinating history, Cappadocia was mostly known to be rural with the notable urban centers being Mazaca/Caesarea and Tyana. Some scholars claim Cappadocia was the original homeland of the Philistines. As early as Hittite times, Cappadocia was divided into royal and temple estates. After 585 b.c., Cappadocia was brought under Assyrian, Persian, and Greek rule in succession. Then after this region came under the control of the Seleucids, Cappadocia was ruled by its own kings sometime after 255 b.c. This is evidenced, for example, by a letter to Ariarathes, a Cappadocian king in 1 Maccabees 15:22. But their independence was short-lived. Roman influence and power had already started to develop in the late second and first centuries b.c. Under Emperor Tiberius, Cappadocia became a Roman province in a.d. 17. Following the road from Tarsus, Christianity spread northward into Cappadocia. As a result, Christianity developed a strong presence by the 4th-century a.d.