DERBE dûr’ bĭ (Δέρβη, G1292). The name of this city, situated in the southeastern part of the Lycaonian region of Rom. Galatia, may derive from a dialectical word for the juniper tree. It was the most easterly locality visited by Paul and Barnabas on the journey in which they established the churches of southern Galatia. The reason for pausing at this point is plain to see if Paul’s Rom. strategy is taken into account. To proceed further E would have taken them beyond the confines of the Rom. province, and into the territory of a client kingdom (Acts 14:6, 7). Paul and Silas visited the place as they moved westward on the next journey through Asia Minor (Acts 15:40-16:1). Coming from Cilicia, Paul reached Derbe first, in passing on to Lystra.

The site of Derbe has been a matter of considerable debate. The last chapter of Ramsay’s study of the cities of St. Paul (pp. 385ff.) discusses the matter at great length, but the precise locality seems to have been established in 1956 by M. Ballance, at Kerti Hüyük, some thirteen m. NNE of Karaman, or Laranda, and sixty m. from Lystra. Therefore, as F. F. Bruce remarks, the closing words of Acts 14:20 must necessarily be tr.: “and on the morrow he set out with Barnabas for Derbe.” Derbe must also have been on the route of Paul’s third journey, but wins no mention.

Derbe has left no great mark on history. Amyntas, ruler of Galatia from 39 to 25 b.c., held the area as part of his domain, and Derbe must have passed with the rest of his territory into Rom. hands in the year of his death (25 b.c.). From a.d. 41 to 72, it was dignified with the prefix Claudia, in recognition of its position as a frontier town of the province. This covered the period of the visits of Paul and the establishment of the Christian community in the area. Of that community, one Gaius is known. He traveled with Paul (Acts 20:4), no doubt as one of the representatives of the Galatian churches in the deputation that carried monetary contributions for the poor of the Jerusalem church.

Bibliography W. M. Ramsay, Cities of St. Paul (1908), 385ff.; M. Ballance, The Site of Derbe: A New Inscription (Anatolian Studies, VII) (1957), 147ff.