The first missionary journey of Paul seemed to get off to an amazing start.
Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and recounted to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. – Acts 9:27
.. the brothers learned of [an assassination attempt and] brought him [from Jerusalem] down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus. – Acts 9:30
.. the church at Jerusalem.. sent Barnabas off to Antioch – Acts 11:22
And he [Barnabas] left for Tarsus to search for Saul; and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it happened that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a considerable crowd.
The Christians of the Church in Antioch sent a contribution to the brothers of the Church in Judeafor famine relief by the hand of Barnabas and Saul of Tarsus [Paul]. – Acts 11:28-30
They return to Antioch.
And Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem, fulfilling their ministry, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark.
And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
What happened between Syrian Antioch and Pisidian Antioch?
Cypress – Mixed Results
So on a second sailing from Paphos Cypress to Perga, as on most journeys the missionaries must have talked about their most recent results from the towns on Cypress
AND what these three will do next in Pisidia.
I must share an astute observation of Tony Merida from his commentary: Exalting Jesus in Acts.
He titles his chapter on missions covering Acts 13:The Holy Spirit, a Bible, a Passport, and a First-Aid Kit, Part 1.
He points out about ‘Stop 1’ in Cypress:
Some people will be open to God’s Word
Some people will oppose God’s Word
Some people will embrace God’s Word
We have already observed this in Luke’s introduction and the examples of Bar-Jesus and the proconsul, Sergius Paulus.
Paul and Barnabas are the ‘commissioned‘ missionaries sent out by the Holy Spirit from the Church in Antioch. BUT they encounter a problem with ‘the help.’
As you might guess Merida’s ‘Part 2’ description will also be applied to Acts 14 after the events which will take place NEXT in Perga and Pisidian Antioch–thus, our mission need for ‘a first-aid kit.’
Not So Smooth Sailing – a Problem in Perga
Now after Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia, but John left them and returned to Jerusalem.
As I pointed out earlier, this young man is the Gospel-writer Mark whose Gospel would have already been published and known to some of the church when Luke published this second volume, Acts of the Apostles.
So why would they have told Mark to go back home to Jerusalem rather than continuing on mission in Pamphylia?
He was the son of a well-to-do Christian woman in Jerusalem
The Church in Jerusalem met in their large home
He is a younger cousin of Joseph (Barnabas)
so he was naturally selected to be the attendant and secular factotum of Paul and Barnabas
Mark was NOT the anointed missionary sent, but a helpful servant to them.
For more: follow the link aboveto the source to the commentary of Alexander MacLaren.
Luke does not tell us why they sent him back home before they began their hike to the cities before them, but later he records that Barnabas sought to enlist John Mark once more for a second missionary journey.
(More about that after a few years and many miles later.)
.. John left them and returned to Jerusalem. But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch.
– Acts of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas 13:13b-14a
Luke chronicles THIS history of the first mission of the Church at Antioch published sometime around A.D. 60-62.
Many Christians may already have read John Mark’s Gospel written during the A.D. 50’s just a few years after this first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas.
Cyprus was allowed a large amount of autonomy remaining mainly Greek in culture while adopting and adapting Roman customs. No Roman colonies were settled on the island.
The island is prone to earthquakes, several in the centuries prior to this missionary journey
including one as recently as A.D. 16.
Cypress had been an Egyptian (King Ptolemy) part of Roman Cilicia
a gift of Julius Caesar to Cleopatra
After Caesar Augustus defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra, Rome made it a senatorial province
separate from Cilicia with Nea Paphos as its capitol
5. And when they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they also had John as their helper.
NOTE TWO POINTS HERE:
.. they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews
Luke introduces John Mark as a helper to Barnabas and Saul.
As you can see from the map of cities on Cypress at the time, this mission team would have traveled on land several times to preach the Gospel in synagogues of these Greco-Roman cities on Cypress. Not only was distance a factor in their travel but also mountains which rose to steep heights above the island. This took some time and not just a few days.
In addition to noting last time that Cypress was mostly Greek and Phoenician with a few Jews, previously I pointed out that their ‘additional passenger,’John, is the same John with earlier connections to Peter’s preaching and miracles.
Luke notes that his fellow Gospel writer [John Mark] also begins this mission trip in A.D. 47.
Paphos consisted of the Roman cites of Nea Pafos and Palaipafos on the southwestern coast of the island of Cypress
6 And when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus…
We'll introduce ourselves to this new character Bar-Jesus who they encounter on this mission shortly, but first let's take a quick look at Paphos.
Paphos
Traveling roads across the whole island would have been a journey of 110 miles along the coast OR perhaps further if they traveled additional routes familiar to Joseph [Barnabas] and others through the mountains to other cities.
New Paphos (Nea Paphos), NW of old Paphos by 7.5 miles has a natural harbor and was built by Augustus of Rome for commerce and governing its Provence of Cypress.
Old Paphos was a centre for Aphrodite’s cult. Aphrodite’s mythical birthplace was on the island.
.. the grove and altar of Aphrodite at Paphos are mentioned in the Odyssey (700 BC).
Archaeology established that Cypriots venerated a fertility goddess in a cult that combined Aegean and eastern mainland aspects before the arrival of the mainland Greeks.
Every spring a festival was held here in honor of the goddess Aphrodite – source
Phoenician merchants from Kition [Cyprus] who gained permission to found at Athens [Greece] a shrine of Aphrodite, whom they presumably looked upon as their ancestral deity Astarte – Aphrodite. READ MORE BELOW:
