Showing posts with label Paul's missionary journeys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul's missionary journeys. Show all posts
Saturday, September 08, 2018
For Patrons: Who were the Galatians?
Every week I do a special podcast/video on Patreon for those who contribute $5 a month to my ongoing podcast commentary on Acts and daily videos on the Greek. This week's post asks who the Galatians to whom Paul wrote Galatians were. Were they the "south Galatians" we meet in Acts or some "north Galatians" Paul visited on his second missionary journey. All the secrets of the universe are here. :-)
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Paul the Apostle 2
Finishing up this intro to Paul, finishing up this section from yesterday.
... It is conventional to speak of Paul's three missionary journeys, although Acts does not actually number them. At some point while Paul was part of the ministry at Antioch, he and another apostle named Barnabas embarked on a missionary journey west to the island of Cyprus and then north to the south central part of Asia Minor--modern day Turkey. These cities in Asia Minor seem to be the places to which Paul would later send his letter to the Galatians.
But in between this "first" missionary journey and his second, several key things would happen. First, the question of whether Gentile believers needed to be circumcised to be saved came to a head. Both Paul and the leaders of Jerusalem--James and Peter--agree that they do not. Acts 15 portrays this decision as a fairly public one, while we get more the of a somewhat private agreement from Galatians 2.
However, this question was only one among many. Even if Gentiles could be saved without fully converting to Judaism, how could Jewish and Gentile believers fellowship together if Gentiles did not follow at least some purity rules? I believe that conflicts along these lines were also part of the reason why Paul and Barnabas did not embark on their second journey together, in addition to disagreement over whether Mark should accompany them. The Jerusalem church also seems to have disagreed with Paul as well.
So Paul embarked on his "second" journey with another co-worker, Silas, along with a young man called Timothy. The journey started with villages that they had visited before but before long they found themselves in Macedonia and Greece, where they founded churches in Thessalonica and Corinth. It was probably at Corinth that Paul wrote what would be the first of the letters we now find in the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians. [1] Paul would spend a year and a half in Corinth.
Paul did not likely write letters because he preferred to communicate in that way. Rather, his letters were a substitute for his presence and he sent them in the hands of individuals he knew would represent him well as they read them. The vast majority of people at the time could not read, so they would be dependent on others reading the letters out loud publicly, probably in worship. Paul's letters were thus "oral documents," written but meant to be read aloud.
On Paul's so called "third" journey focused on the city of Ephesus, on the west coast of Asia Minor. Paul would spend almost three years there. From there he certainly wrote 1 Corinthians, but I have argued that Paul also wrote Galatians and perhaps Philippians from Ephesus as well. I side with those who think Paul was actually imprisoned at Ephesus at least once and perhaps even twice, even though Acts does not mention it.
After leaving Ephesus, Paul would write both 2 Corinthians and Romans. He wrote 2 Corinthians on his way to Corinth and then Romans once he was there. He was on his way ultimately to Jerusalem with an offering he had been collecting for the church there. We do not fully know what happened, except that in Jerusalem he was arrested and that he used his Roman citizenship to get to Rome. This is the point of Paul's story where the previous volume ended and where this one begins.
[1] Many of course consider Galatians to be Paul's first letter, thinking he wrote it not long before the "Jerusalem Council" of Acts 15.
... It is conventional to speak of Paul's three missionary journeys, although Acts does not actually number them. At some point while Paul was part of the ministry at Antioch, he and another apostle named Barnabas embarked on a missionary journey west to the island of Cyprus and then north to the south central part of Asia Minor--modern day Turkey. These cities in Asia Minor seem to be the places to which Paul would later send his letter to the Galatians.
But in between this "first" missionary journey and his second, several key things would happen. First, the question of whether Gentile believers needed to be circumcised to be saved came to a head. Both Paul and the leaders of Jerusalem--James and Peter--agree that they do not. Acts 15 portrays this decision as a fairly public one, while we get more the of a somewhat private agreement from Galatians 2.
However, this question was only one among many. Even if Gentiles could be saved without fully converting to Judaism, how could Jewish and Gentile believers fellowship together if Gentiles did not follow at least some purity rules? I believe that conflicts along these lines were also part of the reason why Paul and Barnabas did not embark on their second journey together, in addition to disagreement over whether Mark should accompany them. The Jerusalem church also seems to have disagreed with Paul as well.
So Paul embarked on his "second" journey with another co-worker, Silas, along with a young man called Timothy. The journey started with villages that they had visited before but before long they found themselves in Macedonia and Greece, where they founded churches in Thessalonica and Corinth. It was probably at Corinth that Paul wrote what would be the first of the letters we now find in the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians. [1] Paul would spend a year and a half in Corinth.
Paul did not likely write letters because he preferred to communicate in that way. Rather, his letters were a substitute for his presence and he sent them in the hands of individuals he knew would represent him well as they read them. The vast majority of people at the time could not read, so they would be dependent on others reading the letters out loud publicly, probably in worship. Paul's letters were thus "oral documents," written but meant to be read aloud.
On Paul's so called "third" journey focused on the city of Ephesus, on the west coast of Asia Minor. Paul would spend almost three years there. From there he certainly wrote 1 Corinthians, but I have argued that Paul also wrote Galatians and perhaps Philippians from Ephesus as well. I side with those who think Paul was actually imprisoned at Ephesus at least once and perhaps even twice, even though Acts does not mention it.
After leaving Ephesus, Paul would write both 2 Corinthians and Romans. He wrote 2 Corinthians on his way to Corinth and then Romans once he was there. He was on his way ultimately to Jerusalem with an offering he had been collecting for the church there. We do not fully know what happened, except that in Jerusalem he was arrested and that he used his Roman citizenship to get to Rome. This is the point of Paul's story where the previous volume ended and where this one begins.
[1] Many of course consider Galatians to be Paul's first letter, thinking he wrote it not long before the "Jerusalem Council" of Acts 15.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Paul the Apostle 1
Paul may have described himself as a "Hebrew of Hebrews" and a Pharisee before he believed (e.g., Phil. 3:5; 2 Cor. 11:22), probably meaning that he spoke Aramaic as a first language. But we learn from Acts that he was born in Tarsus (Acts 22:3), in the Diaspora, among those Jews scattered throughout the world. Accordingly, Greek was also a first language for him.
We also learn from Acts that he was a Roman citizen (e.g., Acts 16:37), which probably meant that he came from a family of some wealth. He speaks of working with his hands as a step down for the sake of the gospel (e.g., 1 Cor. 4:12). He might have worked with leather and tent making in the mission field, but back home in Tarsus he more likely was the boss.
These elements in his background no doubt helped equip him to be the formidable apostle that he turned out to be. Paul was not one of the twelve apostles. For example, he did not fit the list of qualifications for Judas Iscariot's replacement in Acts 1:21-22. He had not followed Jesus from the time of John the Baptist.
However, he considered himself an apostle of equal status to the other apostles (cf. 2 Cor. 12:11). "Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?" he told the Corinthians (1 Cor. 9:1). An apostle is someone sent on an official mission representing a greater authority. Paul received this commission, this role as ambassador, from Jesus himself. Jesus appeared to him and sent him to be a witness of the good news that Jesus is king (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-8).
Paul would eventually understand his specific mission as apostle to the Gentiles, to non-Jews (e.g., Gal. 2:7). Acts regularly shows Paul going first to the Jewish synagogue when he entered a new city, but we know from Paul's own writings that the Jews in these synagogues were never his primary target (Rom. 15:16). He also felt led to places where the good news about Jesus' kingdom had not yet taken hold. For this reason, he never planned to spend long in Rome, because faith in Jesus was already well established there (Rom. 15:20).
It is hard to know exactly when Paul fully understood the nature of his calling, even though in hindsight Paul clearly understood this to be God's purpose for him from the start (cf. Acts 22:21; 26:17). It is possible it was very early indeed. He says that after Christ revealed himself to him, he went to the Nabatean kingdom of Arabia even before he returned to Jerusalem (cf. Gal. 1:17). Since he apparently stirred up controversy while he was there (cf. 2 Cor. 11:32-33), it seems likely that he was preaching to Gentiles from the very beginning.
Paul tells us it was about three years after he believed that he finally went back to Jerusalem (Gal. 1:18). Both Paul and Acts tell us he then spent about ten years thereafter back around his home city of Tarsus (Gal. 1:21; Acts 9:30). We can presume that he was preaching the good news during these years, even though we know very little about them. At some point, he became part of the exciting developments at the church of Antioch in Syria (cf. Acts 11:19-30)...
We also learn from Acts that he was a Roman citizen (e.g., Acts 16:37), which probably meant that he came from a family of some wealth. He speaks of working with his hands as a step down for the sake of the gospel (e.g., 1 Cor. 4:12). He might have worked with leather and tent making in the mission field, but back home in Tarsus he more likely was the boss.
These elements in his background no doubt helped equip him to be the formidable apostle that he turned out to be. Paul was not one of the twelve apostles. For example, he did not fit the list of qualifications for Judas Iscariot's replacement in Acts 1:21-22. He had not followed Jesus from the time of John the Baptist.
However, he considered himself an apostle of equal status to the other apostles (cf. 2 Cor. 12:11). "Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?" he told the Corinthians (1 Cor. 9:1). An apostle is someone sent on an official mission representing a greater authority. Paul received this commission, this role as ambassador, from Jesus himself. Jesus appeared to him and sent him to be a witness of the good news that Jesus is king (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-8).
Paul would eventually understand his specific mission as apostle to the Gentiles, to non-Jews (e.g., Gal. 2:7). Acts regularly shows Paul going first to the Jewish synagogue when he entered a new city, but we know from Paul's own writings that the Jews in these synagogues were never his primary target (Rom. 15:16). He also felt led to places where the good news about Jesus' kingdom had not yet taken hold. For this reason, he never planned to spend long in Rome, because faith in Jesus was already well established there (Rom. 15:20).
It is hard to know exactly when Paul fully understood the nature of his calling, even though in hindsight Paul clearly understood this to be God's purpose for him from the start (cf. Acts 22:21; 26:17). It is possible it was very early indeed. He says that after Christ revealed himself to him, he went to the Nabatean kingdom of Arabia even before he returned to Jerusalem (cf. Gal. 1:17). Since he apparently stirred up controversy while he was there (cf. 2 Cor. 11:32-33), it seems likely that he was preaching to Gentiles from the very beginning.
Paul tells us it was about three years after he believed that he finally went back to Jerusalem (Gal. 1:18). Both Paul and Acts tell us he then spent about ten years thereafter back around his home city of Tarsus (Gal. 1:21; Acts 9:30). We can presume that he was preaching the good news during these years, even though we know very little about them. At some point, he became part of the exciting developments at the church of Antioch in Syria (cf. Acts 11:19-30)...
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