Fun Fact #338 The City of Joppa

 Fun Fact #338

The City of Joppa

If you were to visit Jaffa today, you’d find a small suburb of Tel-Aviv called Old Jaffa with an even smaller port used primarily by old fishing vessels. Yet it is in fact one of the oldest ports still in use today, at one point being known as Joppa (The city of Beauty). For most of Israel's history Joppa was the Chief port, if you wanted to ship something from the mediterranean to the East it had to go through this port, and even overland the Via Maris trade route went through the city. Thanks to this it was a natural hub of communication being used by the Corhotes Urbane (roman secret police (#305) and very profitable. Eventually however better ports were established such as Tel-Aviv which grew to absorb Joppa.

One of the coolest facts about Joppa however is it was within that City that Peter first learned that the message of Christ wasn’t just for the Jews but for everyone (see Acts 10). You also had the Centurion, Cornelius, who began to preach among the Romans in that city, and Tabitha (Acts 9:36-43), a textile merchant whose goods were sold all across the Roman empire. Thus the word went out with the military and merchants of Joppa, sowing seeds along the way. 

I do hope you have enjoyed this Sunday fun fact, please follow for more, and I hope you have a wonderful day. 

The subjects of the Via Maris, and Cohortes Urbane were previously covered in Fun Facts numbers 305, and 328. Cornelius was recorded by the Romans in The Cohors Italica, and Tabitha was recorded in records from Greece, and Syria known for her robes and other garments which she gave to the needy such as Widows, and the poor.