Reference: Libya
American
A country in the north of Africa, stretching along on the Mediterranean between Egypt and Carthage, and running back somewhat into the interior. The part adjoining Egypt was sometimes called Libya Marmarica; and that around Cyrene, Cyrenaica, from its chief city; or Pentapolitana, from its chief city; or Pentapolitana, from its five cities, Cyrene, Apollonia, Berenice, Arsinoe, and Ptolemais. In these cities great numbers of Jews dwelt in the time of Christ; and they, with their Libyan proselytes, resorted to Jerusalem to worship, Ac 2:10. Libya received its name from the Lehabim of Lubim, Ge 10:13; a warlike people, who assisted Shishak king of Egypt, and Zerah the Ethiopian, in their wars against Judea, 2Ch 12:3; 14:9; 16:8; Da 11:43. They were also allies of ancient Thebes, Na 3:9. Compare Jer 46:9; Eze 30:5. Libya fell at length under the power of Carthage; and subsequently, of the Greeks, Romans, Saracens, and Turks.
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Easton
the country of the Ludim (Ge 10:13), Northern Africa, a large tract lying along the Mediterranean, to the west of Egypt (Ac 2:10). Cyrene was one of its five cities.
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Fausets
Ac 2:10, "the parts of Libya about Cyrene;" not here the whole of Africa, but the province W. of Egypt, opposite Crete, including Cyrene, the Cyrenaica pentepolitana, containing the five cities Berenice, Arsinoe, Ptolemais, Apollonia, and Cyrene.
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Morish
Lib'ya Libyans. Lib'yans
The part of Africa west of Egypt, and the inhabitants of the same. Jer 46:9; Eze 38:5; Da 11:43; Ac 2:10. The Hebrew is Phut. The same district is called LUBIM in Na 3:9, and its inhabitants LUBIMS in 2-Chronicles/12/3/type/mstc'>2Ch 12:3; 2 Chr.16:8. They are supposed to be descendants of Phut, the son of Ham. They are classed with the Ethiopians, and were allies of Egypt.
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Smith
Lib'ya.
This name occurs only in
It is applied by the Greek and Roman writers to the African continent, generally, however, excluding Egypt.
Watsons
LIBYA. 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 Lybia 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 their are said to have assisted both Shishak and Zerah in their expeditions into Judea, 2Ch 12; 14; 16. 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," Ac 2:10.