History of the Jews in Turkey modest Jewish population. According to Jewish scripture, Noah's Ark landed on the top of Mount Ararat, a mountain in the Taurus range in Eastern Anatolia, near the present-day borders of Turkey, Armenia, and Iran. Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian of the first century, notes Jewish origins for many of the cities in Asia Minor, though much of his sourcing for these passages is traditional. New Testament mention of Jewish populations in Anatolia is widespread: Iconium (now: Konya) is said to have a synagogue in Acts 14:1, and Ephesus is mentioned as having a synagogue in Acts 19:1 and in Paul's Epistle
Mountains of Ararat read: ""requievitque arca . . . super montes Armeniae"" ("and the ark rested . . . on the mountains of Armenia"); though in the "Nova Vulgata" as promulgated after the Second Vatican Council, the toponym is amended to ""montes Ararat"" ("mountains of Ararat"). By contrast, early Syrian and Eastern tradition placed the ark on Mount Judi in what is today Şırnak Province, Southeastern Anatolia Region, an association that had faded by the Middle Ages and is now mostly confined to Quranic tradition. The Book of Jubilees specifies that the ark came to rest on the peak of Lubar, a mountain