Si´pruhs
An island lying in the eastern Mediterranean about sixty miles west of the Syrian coast and about the same distance from the coast of Turkey. Approximately 140 miles long and 60 miles wide (about the same size as ancient Israel), the island was known as Elishah in the OT (Ezek 27:7; Gen 10:4; 1Chr 1:7). A Jew named Barnabas, an early convert to Christianity, was a native of Cyprus (Acts 4:36), as were some of the other early disciples (Acts 11:19-20; Acts 21:16). Acts reports that Paul and Barnabas traveled across the island, from Salamis to Paphos, on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:4-13). At Paphos they encountered the sorcerer Bar-Jesus and the proconsul Sergius Paulus. Barnabas and Mark later returned to Cyprus during Paul’s second missionary journey (Acts 15:39).
