(4) The second stage of St. Paul’s ministry begins with his removal to Antioch under the auspices of Barnabas, who had been now for some years superintending the Church of the Syrian capital, to which he was despatched from Jerusalem under the circumstances related in Ac 11!**4, Shortly before the summons to Antioch, Paul experienced the extraordinary vision referred to in 2 Co 124, By the side of Barnabas, Saul took a commanding position in this metropolitan Church, next in im- portance to that of Jerusalem, planted in the third city of the Empire, the place where ‘the disciples were first ealled Christians.’ Along with Barnabas he was sent, a year after his arrival, to convey the alms of the Antiochene Christians to their needy brethren in Judwa, who were threatened by famine (Ac 11”-”), When this ‘ ministry was fulfilled,’ which strengthened the ties binding the Gentile to their Jewish brethren, the Holy Spirit singled out ‘Barnabas and Saul’ from amongst the ‘prophets and teachers’ of Antioch to an adventurous ‘ work,’ which was, in fact, the setting on foot of organized Gentile evangelism. With this step the Church commences the second stage of her history, that of her expansion through the Roman Empire; and at ch. 13% begins the * With these and other dates given in this article the reader
May compare art. CHRoNoLoay or NT, in which in some in- stances the figures adopted are slightly different.
PAUL THE APOSTLE
second half of the Acts of the Apostles, with St. Paul for its hero, as St. Peter was the hero of chs. 1-12. The pointed repetition of the definite expression ‘the work’ at the beginning and at the end (1455) of the story of this mission, and again in 15" relating to its middle and turning point,— when one considers St. Luke’s careful choice of lan- guage, and the absence in 13'*- of any explanation such as he is accustomed to give of critica. changes in St. Paul’s line of movement (see 935. 89 168-10 } 718. 16 20*),—leads one to think that the plan of campaign, at least in its general outline (through Cyprus, across to Pamphylia, and round by South Galatia home again), was settled under the direction of the Spirit before leaving Antioch. Mark deserted, while his two leaders ‘ fulfilled, the work’ to which they were ‘delivered by the grace of God.’
On the Frrst MIssIONARY JOURNEY Barnabas and Saul, with John Mark, Barnabas’ cousin (Col 4:0), for their assistant, set sail from Seleucia, landed at Salamis, and traversed the island of Cyprus from east to west, preaching wherever Jewish synagogues gave opportunity. At Paphos the missionaries were invited to speak before Sergius Paulus the proconsul, a Roman governor of unusual intelligence and interest in religious matters. The conversion of this Roman nobleman was a triumph for the new faith, and a happy augury for the enterprise of the missionaries But it has importance in two further respects: as the first collision of Christianity upon such an arena (comp., however, the case of SIMON MAGus [wh. see] at Samaria, Ac 8) with the great religious force of Magianism and Oriental theosophy repre- sented by Elymas (or Etoimas),—the type of many such encounters; and secondly, as the occasion when, before all eyes and in the field of the Gentile mission, St. Paul’s ascendency of char- acter and inspiration asserted itself and a signal crisis called into exercise his hidden powers. The judgment upon Bar-Jesus was one of those em- phatic ‘signs of the apostle’ by which God desig- nated His chosen instrument. It is at this point, ‘when Saul stands forth by himself and becomes the principal actor’ (Lewin), that Luke makes the change in his name (v.*); when the missionary band set sail from Paphos to Perga of Pamphylia, the vevaeer are described as ‘those about Paul’ (‘ Paul and his company,’ v.)—a phrase suggesting that Paul took the initiative in the measures for departure from Cyprus. This fact, together with the hazard and uncertain duration of the tour now extended to the mainland, may explain the with- drawal of Barnabas’ kinsman and his return to Jerusalem. When the matter was discussed at Perga, it appeared that in South Galatia lay ‘ the work’ on which the apostles had been ‘sent out by the Holy Spirit.’ It was not Paul’s ‘infirmity of the flesh’ (Gal 418) that forced him and Barnabas out of their way to visit South Galatia; they were prosecuting the main object of their journey ; and Mark was deserting not a sick companion, but ‘the work’ he was pledged to pursue. See, fur- ther, for the reasons that may have prompted this desertion, the art. MARK (JOHN).
Hence the travellers made no stay at Perga, but pushed on rapidly to Pisidian Antioch—‘ the centre of military and civil administration in the southern parts of the vast province called by the Romans Galatia’ (Ramsay). If it was St. Barnabas’ predi- lection that drew the missionaries first to Cyprus (455: §7 158°), in the occupation of Antioch we may trace St. Paul’s strategic skill; it was his habit to strike at the centres of provincial life, wherever in such cities a Jewish agogue offered a foothold. This city sunitasilerts he great highroad from Syria to Ephesus and the west, and was centra) for southern Asia Minor. On the journey of a