Meantime the great truth, already learnt by St. Paul, was being revealed to others. Its official revelation to the Church was made through St. Peter, in the aiJair of Cornelius ; and it is easy to perceive how appropriate it was that St. Peter, and not St. Paul, should have been the organ of revelation in this case. Other incidents involving the principle took place here and there, but it was at Antioch that the conversion of Gentiles on a large scale first occurred (in Ac 11^" 'Greeks,' meaning lieathens, is correctly substituted in the KV for ' Grecians ' in the AV, who are Greek- speaking Jews). From the headquarters in Jeru- salem Barnabas was sent down to Antioch, to take cognizance of this new development ; and he not only approved of it but, in co-operation with others, extended the movement Avith such success that tbe work increased beyond their powers. Then it was that the happy inspiration occurred to him that St. Paul was the man required for the emergency. Away, therefore, he went to Tarsus in search of him — not a long journey — and, when he had found him and brought him to Antioch, the work at once resjjonded to the energy of the new- comer to such a degree that ' the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch ' (v.'''). Thus for the second time did Barnabas intervene, with the liappiest effect, in the course of St. Paul's fortunes, and all that the great Apostle subse- quently contributed to the spread of Christianity may, in a sense, be attributed to this 'good man.'
(c) First missionary journey. — In Ac 13^ the inception of St. Paul's missionary journeys is ascribed to a conmiunication from the Holy Spirit, made through certain men of prophetic gifts in the Church at Antioch ; but it is not inconsistent with this to believe that it was also due to the genius
of St. Paul, or that it sprang out of the work which Barnabas and he had been doing in that citj' ; and, if the cour.se of the first missionary journey be glanced at on the map, it will be seen that it passed, nearl}' in a circle, round the region of which he had already taken possession as the evangelist of Cilicia. Us primary direction, towards Cyprus, was doubtless due to his com- panion, Barnabas, who was a native of this island. At the outset this gracious Kgure was the head of the enterprise, the combination being indicated iiy the phrase, ' Barnal)as and Saul.' But, when lliey quit the island, the phrase is ' Paul and Barnabas,' this change indicating that the inferior had become the superior. The change of name, which took place at the same point, must have been con- nected somehow with this alteration in the leader- ship ; and it is difficult to believe that it w;is not also connected in some way with the name of the governor, Sergius Paulus, with whom they had been brought into remarkable contact on the island.
There is no reason to think that Barnabas, the generous, in any way resented his own displace- ment, but the same magnanimity may not have been vouchsafed to his nephew, John Mark ; and this may have been one of the reasons wliy the latter, who had been 'useful . . . for ministering' (2 Ti 4"), broke away when they reached the mainland, and returned to Jerusalem. Another of his reasons may have been fear of the perils attending a journey into the interior ; for it was a wild and inliospitable region through which the travellers had to pass in order to reach the next halting-place, Antioch-in-Pisidia.' Ramsay (S<.Pa«Z the Traveller, p. 94 ff, ) is of opinion that St. Paul was driven into the interior, which was highland, by a severe attack of malaria fever experienced on the coast ; but, if the course of this journey was intended to go in a circle round Cilicia, the upper regions must have been included in the original design. Besides, in the interior there were Roman roads and cities of importance, such as always exercised an attraction on the mind of St. Paul.
On this virgin journey we observe the character- istics of all St. Paul's missionary tours — e.g., at Paphos the conflict with magic, in the person of Simon Magus, as well as the favourable relations with the Roman governor ; at Antioch-in-Pisidia, the commencement of the work in the synagogue of the Jews with an address exactly suited to Jewish predilections, but the subsequent turning to the Gentiles, when it had been made manifest tliat the Jews had not known the day of their visitation ; at Lystra, a thoroughly pagan spectacle, wlien the cure of an impotent man caused the two evangelists to be taken for a couple of Greek deities, and to be offered divine honours — though thetemper of the fickle populace quickly changed when the missionaries did not fall in with their fancies, so tliat St. I'aul was stoned and left for dead.
From Derbe, the last point in their itinerary, it would have been easy, by descending through the Cilician Gates, to reach Tarsus and thence sail to Antioch, from which they had set out ; but the pastor's passion for his converts had been aroused by the successful labours in the various cities, and, in spite of all they had suffered and the danger of facing again the excited mobs, the evan- gelists went back the way they had come, in order to encourage those who had embraced the new faith ; and it is specially worthy of note that, as they went, they ' appomted for them elders in every church ' (Ac 14^). To scholars wlio have had no personal acquaintance with the practical working of Christianity this may seem an nn- imjiortant trait or even a throwing back into a too early period of an arrangement which prevailed at