Paul’s Second Missionary Journey Phrygia to Syrian Antioch

1. Paul’s Second Missionary Journey Phrygia to Syrian Antioch "Come over to Macedonia and help us!"

2. They made their way through Phyrgia [6] and Galatia [7], but the Holy Spirit prevented them from speaking God's message in Asia. When they came to Mysia [8] they tried to enter Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them.

3. So they passed by Mysia and came down to Troas, where one night Paul had a vision of a Macedonian man standing and appealing to him in the words: "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" "And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel unto them." (Acts 16:10)

4. It is interesting that right after Paul had seen the vision it says that immediately "we" endeavored to go to Macedonia. Now notice here we have a plural pronoun "we." This is the first time the personal pronoun is used. So it is probably here at Troas where Luke met up with Paul. Luke now turns to the personal plural pronouns because at this point Luke became a companion with Paul, notice the "we" and the "us" in the rest of the verse.

5. So we set sail from Troas and ran a straight course to (the island of) Samothrace [10], The island owes its great fame during antiquity to the fact that it was a panhellenic religious centre similar to the Temple of Demeter and Persephone in Eleusis. Here there was the Temple of the Great Gods and of mystic ceremonies.

6. They arrived in port at Neapolis, today called Kavala (from Latin for "horse" due to its horse trading history), a Greek city of about 60,000 people. The visible walls date to the time of the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent (early sixteenth century).  Note the aqueduct, just left of center, built by Suleiman the Magnificent, that brought water to the citadel.

7. Journeyed overland along the Egnatian Way to Philippi The Via Egnatia is the name of a Roman Road that connected ports on the Adriatic Sea with Byzantium.  From east to west, a traveler from Rome would head west overland to Brundisium (a port on the east coast of Italy).  There they would sail across the Adriatic Sea landing at either Apollonia or Dyrrhachium.  From there they would head east on the “Via Egnatia” toward Byzantium some 535 miles away via Thessalonica, Amphipolis, Philipi, and Kypsela. (Acts 16:11-40)

8. Philippi was an important city in history. The town was named after Philip II of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great, and later it became the scene of the decisive battle between the forces of Brutus and Cassius on one side, and of Octavian and Antony on the other. A Roman garrison-town and the chief city in that part of Macedonia, Paul and his companions spent some days in Philippi.

9. Here Paul and Silas, Timothy and sometimes Luke bring the Gospel. First to Lydia from Thyatira making her the First Christian Convert in Europe Her native place was Thyatira on the borders of Lydia in Asia Minor. Her city was celebrated in ancient times for its purple dyes and fabrics.      Among the ruins of the city has been found an inscription relating to the “Guild of Dyers”, showing the accuracy in details of this Scripture narrative.    She was a business woman, dealing in colored material, or more likely goods already dyed. The color purple was highly prized among the ancients and given the circumstances it’s safe to assume she was a very successful entrepreneur.

10. Paul then casts a demon out of a slave girl who brought her masters much profit by telling fortunes. When the masters found out they dragged Paul and Silas into the marketplace and got the crowd to tear off their clothes and beat them with rods

11. They were thrown into a Roman prison with stocks and chains. But at midnight when they were praying and singing an earthquake freed them and when the jailer saw, he accepted Jesus Christ. When the officials heard, they begged them to leave the city.

12. Paul and his party journeyed westward, traveling around 30 miles per day along the Egnatian Way through Amphipolis[13] and Apollonia[14] (Acts 17:1-9) Amphipolis Apollonia

13. They finally arrived at Thessalonica (the modern Salonika) and Paul entered the synagogue and preached Jesus and many devout Greeks and leading women believed, but the Jewish leaders did not and gathered a mob and looked for them at the house of Jason:But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” (Acts 17:6)

14. The city authorities compelled his friends to provide bail to guarantee his good behavior, and Paul, rather than endanger his supporters, withdrew from the city. Mount Olympus

15. Thessalonica – Modern Salonika or Thessalonika. A free city, capital of the Roman province of Macedonia in northern Greece. Thessalonica was a major port, and like Philippi, located on the east-west Egnatian highway, and thus an important centre of trade by land and by sea.

16. Paul and Silas escaped by night and came to Berea, a small town off the main road, about fifty miles from Thessalonica. They entered the synagogue and preached so that many of them believed. (Acts 17:10-15)These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11) Commemorative To Paul

17. Angry Jews from Thessalonica pursued him, however, and forced him to withdraw. Leaving Silas and Timothy in Macedonia, he proceeded to the seacoast with the help of some of the Berean believers. Leaving instructions for his companions to rejoin him as soon as possible, he departed to Achaia. (Acts 17:10-15)

18. Paul continued his escape to Athens, the intellectual center of Greece.

19. While he was waiting for Silas and Timothy to arrive, he noticed that the city was full of idols. He preached in the synagogue and the marketplace and some Greek philosophers came and desired to hear him at the forum (Areopagus). (Acts 17:16-34)

20. Paul stood in their midst and preached a magnificent message about. "The Unknown God". This was the major “sermon” recorded by the writer of Acts on Paul’s second journey he concluded by saying, "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:22-31)

21. Many believed Paul's message and he journeyed on to Corinth, an ancient Greek city, and chief town of the Roman province of Achaia, it was at this time governed by proconsul Gallio. Corinth was the capital of Greece and had nearly a half-million people living there. It was the richest and most important commercial province in the Roman Empire.

22. Corinth • Is located near the narrow strip of land separating the Adriatic from the Aegean Seas, and through which ran the north-south highway linking the rest of Greece with the southern Peloponnesus, • Corinth was a vital centre of commerce. • A cosmopolitan city with the temple of Aphrodite • goddess of love and fertility – • and with two nearby ports including Cenchrea, • Corinth was well known for its sexual immorality

23. There he preached every Sabbath in the synagogue and stayed with a Jew named Aquila a native of Pontus. This man had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because (the emperor) Claudius had issued a decree that all Jews should leave Rome. They all worked together, for their trade was tent-making. The tents made by Paul and Aquila would have been used by merchants and others who needed shelter when traveling (Acts 18:1-17)

24. The Edict of Claudius: Roman Emperor Claudius expels the Jews from the city of Rome (probably ca. 49 AD): This decree is mentioned in Acts 18:2 as the reason why "a Jew named Aquila... and his wife Priscilla" had recently come to Corinth from Italy. The expulsion probably happened shortly before Paul first came to Corinth; it is also mentioned briefly by the Roman historian Suetonius.

25. Suetonius says that the expulsion happened as a result of some disturbances "at the instigation of Chrestos," Most scholars agree that this statement does not refer directly to "Christ" or to an individual named "Chrestos," but most likely refers to early "Christian" preachers who caused a disturbance from other Jews in Rome by proclaiming that "Jesus is the Christ." Suetonius a Roman historian, lived during the end of the 1st and the first half of the 2nd century AD.

26. The bema, a tribunal building in which Paul may have faced the Jews who accused him of blasphemous teaching By the time Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia Paul was completely absorbed in preaching the message, showing the Jews as clearly as he could that Jesus is Christ. But the Jews opposed him again: But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, "Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."

27. Then he left them and went to the house of a man called Titius Justus, a man who reverenced God and whose house was next door to the synagogue. Paul settled down there (in Corinth) for eighteen months (his second longest recorded stay in a city during his three Missionary Journeys) and taught them God's message.

28. Paul Writes his Two Letters to the Thessalonians

29. Then, while Gallio was governor of Achaia the Jews banded together to attack Paul (but Gallio) flatly refuse(s) to be judge in these matters. The events surrounding Paul's appearance before Gallio very well illustrates how early Christianity was a not a struggle of Jews against Christians, or Romans against Christians, but of Jews against Jews, a "controversy" that Gallio refused to become involved in.

30. Paul stayed for some time (in Corinth) after this incident and then took leave of the brothers and sailed for Syria, taking Priscilla and Aquila with him. At Cenchrea [19] he had his hair cut short, for he had taken a solemn vow.

31. They all arrived at Ephesus and there Paul left Aquila and Priscilla, but he himself went into the synagogue and debated with the Jews.

32. When they asked him to stay longer he refused, bidding them farewell with the words, "If if is God's will I will come back to you again" (which he does on his Third Missionary Journey).

33. Ephesus was the capital of the Roman province of Asia. It was a very large and populated city and only Rome was more important. It became the third most important city in the history of early Christianity. (Acts 18:18-21)

34. Then he set sail from Ephesus and went down to Caesarea [21]. Here he disembarked and after paying his respects to the Church in Jerusalem [22], he went down to Antioch [23]. He spent some time there before he left (on his Third Journey)