03 — The Missionary Journeys
The mission that carried the gospel from Antioch to the cities of Asia Minor, Greece, and finally Rome: the three journeys and the voyage to the capital as the Acts of the Apostles narrates them, and the harder critical problem of fitting that narrative to the autobiographical data scattered through Paul’s own letters. This section gives both the story and the scholarly questions it raises.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)
Acts organizes Paul’s career into a clear itinerary — a first journey from Antioch through Cyprus and southern Asia Minor (Acts 13–14), a second through Asia Minor into Macedonia and Greece (Acts 15:36–18:22), a third based at Ephesus (Acts 18:23–21:16), and a final voyage as a prisoner to Rome (Acts 21:17–28:31). This framework has shaped the Church’s memory of Paul for two millennia. But the letters, which are Paul’s own first-person witness, do not always fit the Acts itinerary neatly: the number of Jerusalem visits, the place of the Jerusalem council, the sequence of events after the conversion, and the dating of it all are genuinely contested. This section presents the journeys as Acts tells them and then sets the chronological problem out honestly, with the disputes named and sourced rather than harmonized away.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Journeys | The narrative of the three missionary journeys and the voyage to Rome as Acts presents them (Acts 13–28): the cities, the churches founded, the synagogue-then-Gentile pattern, the Jerusalem council, the riots and arrests, and the shipwreck and arrival at Rome. |
| Acts and Pauline Chronology | The critical relation between Acts and the letters: the Gallio inscription as the one fixed point, the Jerusalem-visit problem (Gal. 1–2 vs Acts), competing chronological reconstructions (Lüdemann, Riesner, Jewett), and how securely Paul’s career can be dated. |
See Also
- The World of Paul — the roads, cities, and synagogues through which the mission moved
- The Undisputed Letters — the letters written in the course of these journeys
- The Antioch Incident — the confrontation that falls within this chronology
- The Roman Martyrdom — the end of the road at Rome
References
- The Holy Bible, King James Version. The Acts of the Apostles 13–28; the Epistle to the Galatians.
- Riesner, Rainer. Paul’s Early Period: Chronology, Mission Strategy, Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
- Jewett, Robert. A Chronology of Paul’s Life. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979.
- Murphy-O’Connor, Jerome. Paul: A Critical Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.