Bithynia was a region of Asia Minor, in what is now northwest Turkey, between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. It bordered Mysia, Phrygia, and Galatia, and in the first century it was a prosperous province of the Roman Empire.
The Bible mentions Bithynia only twice, but in a striking way. On Paul’s second missionary journey, he and his companions tried to enter the region to preach, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow it.
Years later, the apostle Peter wrote his first letter to Christians living scattered across several provinces of Asia Minor, Bithynia among them. Even though Paul never preached there, the gospel reached the region and formed a church that Peter knew and shepherded by letter.
Decades later, the Roman governor Pliny the Younger would write to Emperor Trajan asking for guidance on how to deal with the Christians of Bithynia and Pontus, a sign that the faith grew there even without an apostolic visit recorded in the New Testament.
