And when we had finished our course from Tyre,.... Or sailed from thence,
we came to Ptolemais: the Syriac version calls it "Aco" or "Acu": and the Arabic version, "Aco"; and Ptolemais, according to Pliny x and Harpocratian y, was called Ace. Frequent mention is made of Aco in the Jewish writings, and which according to them was a sea port, for they speak of נמלה דעכו, "the port of Aco" z, and of כיפי דעכו, "the banks of Aco" a, or its rocks: it was upon the borders of the land of Israel, and in the tribe of Asher to the north of it; part of it they say was without the land, and part of it within b: according to R. Benjamin, it was one day's sail from Tyre, and who also says, it was upon the borders of Asher, and had a very spacious port c; it is said to be about two and thirty miles from Tyre; between that and Tyre, the shore was full of heaps of sand, from whence the sand that glass is made of was fetched; it is mentioned with Tyre, Sidon, and Galilee, in:
"And said, They of Ptolemais, and of Tyrus, and Sidon, and all Galilee of the Gentiles, are assembled together against us to consume us.'' (1 Maccabees 5:15)
it had the mountainous part of Galilee on the east, the ladder of Tyre on the north, and Mount Carmel on the south, and thus it is described by Josephus d:
"Ptolemais is a city of Galilee on the sea coast, built in a large champaign country, but is surrounded with mountains, on the east with the mountains of Galilee, sixty furlongs off; on the south with Carmel, distant a hundred and twenty furlongs; on the north with a very high mountain called the Climax, or ladder of the Tyrians, which is a hundred furlongs from it; two miles from the city runs a very small river called Beleus, near which is the sepulchre of Memnon, taking up the space of an hundred cubits, and is worthy of admiration; it is round and hollow (i.e. the river), casting up glassy sand, which ships in great numbers come and take up, and the place is filled up again.''
The account Jerom e gives of it is,
"Ptolemais, a maritime city in Judea, near Mount Carmel, which was formerly called so from one Ptolomy;''
from Ptolomy king of Egypt: it was called Ace or Aco, from its being a city of merchandise; though some say it was so called from Hercules being healed of the bite of a serpent, by an herb which grew near the river Beleus. It is now called St. John de Acra or Acri:
and saluted the brethren; that were at Ptolemais or Aco; for the Gospel had been preached here with success; some had believed and professed it, and very likely were in a church state: for there was a church here in the "second" century, and Clarus was bishop of it; and in the beginning of the "fourth" century, there was a bishop present in the synod at Nice; and in the "fifth" century there was a church here; in the time of Arcadius, the Emperor Antiochus was bishop of Ptolemais, a very eloquent man, called therefore by some Chrysostom; in the "sixth" century there was a bishop of this church, who assisted at the synod held both at Rome and Constantinople f. The bishops of this church are reckoned up, as Reland g says, as he found them thus; Clarus, who was in the council at Caesarea, held in the year 198; Aeneas, who was in the council at Nice, in the year 325, and in another at Antioch, in the year 341; Nectabus, who subscribed in the first council at Constantinople, held in the year 381; Paulus, who was present in the Chalcedon council in the year 451: and Joannes, who was in the council at Jerusalem, in the year 536: and perhaps these brethren might be Jews, since those who first preached the Gospel in Phoenicia preached only to Jews; and certain it is that there were many in this place; we often read of Jewish doctors here, as R. Tanchum the son of R. Chaja a man of Caphar Aco h, and R. Simeon ben Judah a man of Caphar Aco i, and R. Aba of Aco k, and R. Judah ben Gamdah l; and in R. Benjamin's time, there were about two hundred Jews in this place m: these brethren Paul and his company visited, and saluted them;
and abode with them one day; conferring together about spiritual things, and employing their time, no doubt, in religious exercises.
x Ad nationes, l. 5. c. 19. y Lexic. Decem Orator. p. 12. z T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 38. 1. a T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 112. 1. b T. Hieros. Gittin, fol. 43. 3. Sheviith, fol. 35. 3. & Challa, fol. 60. 2. & Juchasin, fol. 71. 1. Misna Gittin, c. 1. sect. 2. c Itinerar. p. 36. d De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 10. sect. 2. e De locis Hebraicis, fol. 96. 6. f Magdeburg. Hist. Eccles. cent. 4. c. 2. p. 2. cent. 5. c. 2. p. 2. c. 10. p. 550. cent. 6. c. 2. p. 3. g Palestina Illustrata, l. 3. p. 542. h T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 7. 2. & Moed. Katon, fol. 16. 2. Yebamot, fol. 45. 1. i Juchasin, fol. 68. 2. & T. Bab. Sota, fol. 37. 2. k T. Bab. Sota, fol. 40. 1. Juchasin, fol. 71. 1. l T. Bab. Sota, fol. 43. 2. m Itinerar. p. 36.