The name, in its largest sense, was used by the Greeks to denote
the whole of Africa. But Libya Proper, or the Libya of the New
Testament, the country of the Lubims of the Old, was a large country
lying along the Mediterranean, on the west of Egypt. It was called
Pentapolitana Regio by Pliny, from its five chief cities, Berenice,
Arsinoe, Ptolemais, Apollonia, and Cyrene; and Libya Cyrenaica by
Ptolemy, from Cyrene its capital. Libya is supposed to have been first
peopled by, and to have derived its name from, the Lehabim, or Lubim.
These, its earlier inhabitants, appear in the times of the Old
Testament, to have consisted of wandering tribes, who were sometimes in
alliance with Egypt, and at others with the Ethiopians of Arabia; as
they are said to have assisted both Shishak and Zerah in their
expeditions into Judea, 2 Chron. xii, xiv, xvi. They were for a time
sufficiently powerful to maintain a war with the Carthaginians, by whom
they were in the end entirely overcome. Since that period, Libya, in
common with the rest of the east, has successively passed into the hands
of the Greeks, Romans, Saracens, and Turks. The city Cyrene, built by a
Grecian colony, was the capital of this country, in which, and other
parts, dwelt many Jews, who came up to Jerusalem at the feast of
pentecost, together with those dispersed among other nations, and are
called by St. Luke dwellers in the parts of Libya about Cyrene,” Acts
ii, 10.
the whole of Africa. But Libya Proper, or the Libya of the New
Testament, the country of the Lubims of the Old, was a large country
lying along the Mediterranean, on the west of Egypt. It was called
Pentapolitana Regio by Pliny, from its five chief cities, Berenice,
Arsinoe, Ptolemais, Apollonia, and Cyrene; and Libya Cyrenaica by
Ptolemy, from Cyrene its capital. Libya is supposed to have been first
peopled by, and to have derived its name from, the Lehabim, or Lubim.
These, its earlier inhabitants, appear in the times of the Old
Testament, to have consisted of wandering tribes, who were sometimes in
alliance with Egypt, and at others with the Ethiopians of Arabia; as
they are said to have assisted both Shishak and Zerah in their
expeditions into Judea, 2 Chron. xii, xiv, xvi. They were for a time
sufficiently powerful to maintain a war with the Carthaginians, by whom
they were in the end entirely overcome. Since that period, Libya, in
common with the rest of the east, has successively passed into the hands
of the Greeks, Romans, Saracens, and Turks. The city Cyrene, built by a
Grecian colony, was the capital of this country, in which, and other
parts, dwelt many Jews, who came up to Jerusalem at the feast of
pentecost, together with those dispersed among other nations, and are
called by St. Luke dwellers in the parts of Libya about Cyrene,” Acts
ii, 10.