Missionary journeys of Paul
In more than ten years of travel from Antioch through Cyprus, Asia Minor, Macedonia and Greece, the apostle Paul turned the Christian mission to the Gentiles: he founded communities at Philippi, Thessalonica and Corinth and made Ephesus the centre of his mission; his letters to the churches became part of the New Testament.
- Date
- c. 46 – between 57 and 58start: year known, approximate; end: exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: ≈ 12 years
- Place
- Ephesustoday: near Selçuk, İzmir Province, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Route
- Antioch → Salamis (Cyprus) → Paphos → Perga → Antioch of Pisidia → Iconium → Lystra → Alexandria Troas → Philippi → Thessalonica → Athens → Corinth → Ephesus
- Participants
- Paul the Apostle
- Threads
- Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)
- Also known as
- Journeys of Saint Paul; Pauline missionary journeys; Апостольские путешествия Павла
The Acts of the Apostles, the main source, arranges Paul’s travels into three journeys. On the first, traditionally dated 46–49, he and Barnabas set out from Antioch, where the mission to the Gentiles had begun, crossed Cyprus and preached in the cities of southern Asia Minor — Perga, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra. After the Council of Jerusalem (traditionally 49) accepted his mission to Gentiles who were not circumcised, Paul travelled with Silas, and later Timothy, across Asia Minor to Troas and crossed to Macedonia: he founded churches at Philippi and Thessalonica, preached before the Areopagus in Athens and spent eighteen months in Corinth — a stay dated to about 50–52 by the proconsulship of Gallio, known from an inscription at Delphi.
On the third journey Paul made Ephesus his base for almost three years, until a riot stirred up by a silversmith in defence of the cult of Artemis drove him out. He then revisited Macedonia and Greece, where he wrote the Epistle to the Romans, and in 57 or 58 brought a collection of money to the church in Jerusalem, where he was arrested. Of the thirteen letters that bear his name, seven — among them Romans, the two letters to the Corinthians, Galatians and 1 Thessalonians, the earliest, written in Corinth — are accepted as his own; in them he bore witness to the faith of the early Church and interpreted it, laying the foundations of Christian theology.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Crucifixion of Jesusbetween 30 and 33 · Middle East and EgyptPaul carried the preaching of Jesus’ followers to the gentiles
Related events
- Martyrdom of Peter and Paul in Romebetween 64 and 68 · Western and Central Europearrested in Jerusalem, Paul appealed to Caesar and was taken to Rome, where by tradition he was executed
Adjacent events in the thread
- Thrace becomes a Roman province46 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Dioscorides’ De materia medicabetween 50 and 70 · Balkans and Anatolia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Boudica’s revoltbetween 60 and 61
- Roman conquest of Britain43 – between 83 and 84
Eastern Europe
- Roman–Bosporan War45–49
- The Alans appear on the Don and in the North Caucasusbetween 50 and 72
- Zarubintsy culturec. 200 BC – c. 200
Middle East and Egypt
- Periplus of the Erythraean Sea40s … 70s
- Roman–Parthian War of 58–6358–63
- Reign of Vologases I51–78
- Hero of Alexandria’s aeolipilebetween 50 and 100
Africa
- Adulis and Aksum in the Periplus40s … 70s
- Roman annexation of Mauretania40 – between 42 and 44
- Temple of Apedemak at Naqabetween 1 BC and AD 70
Central and Northern Asia
- The Xiongnu split into Northern and Southern48
- The burials of Tillya Tepe (the Bactrian Gold)between 16 and 100
- Kujula Kadphises founds the Kushan Empirebetween 20 and 50
South Asia
- Apostle Thomas in India (tradition)52 (?)
- Kushans conquer Gandhara and Taxilabetween 50 and 70
- Gandharan art: the first images of the Buddhabetween 30 BC and AD 100
- Reign of Gondophares, founder of the Indo-Parthian kingdombetween 19 and 20 – c. 46
- Heyday of Indo-Roman trade: Muziris and Arikameduc. 30 BC – c. 250
East Asia
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Founding of Funan: Kaundinya and Queen Liuyebetween 1 and 100
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
- Sa Huỳnh culturec. 1000 BC – c. 200
North America
- Hopewell traditionbetween 200 and 100 BC – c. 500
- Late Basketmaker II erac. 50 – c. 500
Latin America
- Monte Albán II: the Zapotec state expandsc. 100 BC – c. 200
- Rise of Teotihuacanc. 1 – c. 250
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Paul the Apostle
- Wikipedia (English): Delphi Inscription
- Wikipedia (Russian): Апостол Павел
- Brown R. E. An Introduction to the New Testament. — New York: Doubleday, 1997.
- Bruce F. F. Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free. — Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977.
- Wikidata: Q4010915