CYPRIANS

sip'-ri-ans (Kuprioi): Occurs in 2 Macc 4:29. Menelaus who was high priest at Jerusalem, and Sostratus who was governor of the citadel, were summoned by King Antiochus to appear before him. "Menelaus left his own brother Lysimachus for his deputy in the high-priesthood; and Sostratus left Crates, who was over the Cyprians." The Cyprians were the inhabitants of the island of Cyprus. Barnabas, who was Paul's associate on his first missionary journey, was a Cyprian (Kuprios; see Acts 4:36). the Revised Version (British and American) designates him as a man of Cyprus. The governor of the island was called a Cypriarch (see 2 Macc 12:2, and compare ASIARCH ).

A. W. Fortune

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.