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Opposed to the Gospel at the Gate: Bar-Jesus
Bar-Jesus is another name for a Jewish influencer on Cypress: Elymas the magician.
Acts 13:
When they arrived at Cypress
Cypress is Greek, NOT Roman
Paphos
Aphrodite of Cyprus
Bar-Jesus
Bar-Jesus tries to turn the Missionaries away
A Contemporary Caution
Idolatry, Charlatans & Faith
ACTS of the Apostles 13:
True visions and True Power
Acts 13:
- 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.
- Luke’s account records events of A.D. 47.
When they arrived at Cypress

Cypress is Greek, NOT Roman

(And certainly not Jewish)
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What the tourist visiting Cypress should know:
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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:
1. .. they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews
2. 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…
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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.
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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.
  - Source: Wikipedia
Aphrodite of Cyprus
- 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:
(more…)
September 29, 2022
Acts 13.4 Sailing to Salamis Cypress
Sailing from Antioch to Cypress
Acts of the Apostles 13:
How did the ancient Romans travel?
Sailing the Roman Sea
Salamis, Cypress
One additional passenger
Sailing from Antioch to Cypress

Acts of the Apostles 13:

4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
A.D. 47

A Roman merchant ship sails from Seleucia

Photo source
Sailing Journeys in the Roman Empire

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t really know very much about sailing around in the Mediterranean in the first century A.D. And when I read later in Acts about wintering in some ort or about ship wrecks I had no idea what that was all about.

So here is a little I’ve learned about Paul’s journeys by ship in the first century Mediterranean Sea.

How did the ancient Romans travel?

[Like Paul and Barnabas]
- There were no passenger ships per say in first century Rome. No luxury cruise lines or anything similar.
- People willing to travel by ship had to board a merchant ship.
- They would first have to find a ship, it could be almost any kind of ship and then they would have to get the captain’s approval. The price would also be negotiated with the captain.
- Most of the times passengers would bring their own food supplies, covers, mattresses, even a tent and sleep on deck!
- Sometimes there would be hundreds of people on the deck.
- There were no restaurants or any of the luxuries of today’s ships but passengers could use the ship’s facilities to cook their meals. People would often play games, gamble, read or just drink wine.
OR perhaps a fellow passenger might ask two men like Paul and Barnabas,

“What brings you to Cypress?”

VITA ROMAE

.. Romans were not traditionally seafaring people. They were mostly land-based people who learned to build military and merchant ships from the people that they conquered. Sailing the seas was often considered un-Roman.

Romans had very few warships [BUT]

Rome managed to defeat the world’s most powerful navy to become the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean or as the Romans called it Mare Nostrum (“our sea”).

Sailing the Roman Sea

Another function of Roman military ships was to patrol the Mediterranean sea and to sometimes escort merchant ships.
- Most ships had a cargo capacity of 100 to 150 tons
- The largest ships, with a capacity of 600 tons, were 150 ft (46m) long.
- Merchant ships mainly used mainly wind power. They had from one to three masts with large square sails and a small triangular sail called the supparum at the bow.
- They also had oarsmen (usually slaves). [Roman military ships used free Roman soldiers on the oars.]
The time of travel along the many shipping lanes could vary widely. Roman ships would usually ply the waters of the Mediterranean at average speeds of 4 or 5 knots.
VITAE ROME

Salamis, Cypress

IF we do the math, allowing for the additional time in Seleucia while the cargo is loaded on their ship.. waiting in the boarding line where the captain’s representative makes certain all passengers have paid their fare.. boarding time… casting off WHEN the tide and winds seem right…

once weighing anchor, navigating the ship with new weight in the hold carefully out of the harbor…

AT 4-5 knots per hour (eventually) & depending on prevailing winds..

for perhaps 20-25 hours.. at least overnight (for this short voyage_) and timing of the tides and navigating Salamis…
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[Don't you just love all that waiting before departure and docking even on a short journey?]
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IF you would like to catch up to the LATEST post from our SERIES from ACTS of the Apostles CLICK HERE

So Joseph, you say you were born here?
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See Acts 4:36
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A Levite.

And you brought Saul here from Tarsus? (I’ve been there.)

What’s this ‘Good News’ you are bringing here?

One additional passenger

DO YOU RECALL:

Five years earlier in Jerusalem [~AD 42}: Peter amazingly appears at the gate of John Mark’s home after being freed from Herod’s prison by an angel.

His Angel at the gate

Peter goes to the home of Mary mother of Mark

AFTER Herod Agrippa died [A.D. 44]:

Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem, fulfilling their ministry, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark. – Acts of the Apostles 12:25

NOW, nearly three years later [~A.D.47]:

FIRST PORT of the FIRST Missionary Journey – Salamis
- It possessed a good harbor and was the most populous and flourishing town of Cyprus
- in the Hellenic and Roman periods, carrying on a vigorous trade with the ports of Cilicia and Syria.
- Its population was mixed, consisting of Greek and Phoenician elements.
  - The former, however, gave its tone and color to the city, and the chief cult and temple were those of Salaminian Zeus.
- There they preached the gospel in the “synagogues of the Jews” (Acts 13:5);
  - the phrase is worth noting as pointing to the existence of several synagogues and thus of a large Jewish community in Salamis.
  - Of work among the Gentiles we hear nothing,
  - nor is any indication given either of the duration of the apostles’ visit or of the success of their mission;
  - but it would seem that after a short stay they proceeded “through the whole island”
    
    Source: BibleHub.org
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.
Acts of the Apostles Paul & Barnabas 13:5 on Cypress

WE see here just a brief first stop of Apostles sent out by the Holy Spirit with the Gospel, which Paul and Joseph of Cypress proclaim in the synagogue of Salamis to fellow Jews who have not yet heard the Good News of Jesus, the Christ promised by the Lord God.

With them, a servant helper, John Mark, who observingly will record his first Gospel published about ten years later [in the A.D. 50’s].
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ACTS of the Apostles 13 on Cypress

TO BE CONTINUED...
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Talk of JESUS . com

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
September 22, 2022
Acts 13.2 – Sailing from Antioch
ON OUR JOURNEY AHEAD from Antioch I’ll show you a 21st century view of Paul’s missionary journey from GOOGLE EARTH guided by brief scripture for each part of Paul’s first missionary journey.

What do you know about Antioch?

https://talkofjesus.com/an-antioch-blueprint-of-church-evangelism/
Did any of you cartographers catch my wrong label for Antioch on this map?

In my introduction to the first missionary journey of Paul we introduced you to some representative faces of the culture in Antioch, the most notable church outside of Jerusalem.

Who shall we send? Barnabas and Saul

In the year of our Lord [A.D.] 47 + about 14 years after the Crucifixion, Resurrection & Ascension of JESUS.

About Antioch

Rather than taking a traditional approach to Paul’s missions from a first-century view culturally rooted in Jerusalem, it may help us to think about Antioch and Paul’s departure from this IMPORTANT ROMAN CITY more like a Roman Citizen.

After all, Saul of Tarsus (Paul), is not only a Jew, but a Roman Citizen who becomes somewhat of an ambassador between cultures, a man of learning and understanding of Romans, Jews and Greeks or Hellenists.

Antioch on the Orontes – source
- What you see above is a painting of ruins of the ancient wall of Antioch.
  - (I’ll show you an aerial view of this same area of the city [below]).
About Antioch: a little before Paul, but NOT before ROME:

The Great Commission – from Antioch

Three hundred miles (480 km) north of Jerusalem, the Seleucids urged Jews to move to Antioch, their western capital, and granted them full rights as citizens upon doing so. In 64 BC, Pompey made the city capital over the Roman province of Syria. By AD 165, it was the third largest city of the empire.
source
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21st c. comparison: FROM CINCINNATI OH to CHICAGO or Ashtabula OH 
WE might FLY to Chicago or DRIVE 400-500 km across Ohio, the same as from Jerusalem to Antioch {Syria, not Ohio}.
Jerusalem is a long walk from MOST of the Roman World!  
So Jerusalem in many ways is NOT such a great place to "go into all the world.'

TRAVEL: FLYING or even DRIVING 50+ mph for a day is NOT a first century option (obviously).
OUR DEPARTURE is for MOSTLY ROMAN destinations. 
And in fact, ANTIOCH is mostly Roman; therefore the Holy Spirit brings Paul, Barnabas and many others to establish the CHURCH in Antioch and from there, to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord JESUS." 
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Orontes River flows north along modern-day Lebanon and Syria toward Antakya, Turkey then SW to the Mediterranean.

Antioch on the Orontes, an ancient Greek city on the eastern side of the Orontes River, was one of the most glorious of all the Greek cities in the world.
Home to hundreds of thousands of people in its golden age, it was known as “The Second Rome” and subsequently “the Cradle of Christianity” before it experienced so many cataclysmic earthquakes and military conquests that it was reduced to a backwater.
source

~A.D. 47

ACTS of the Apostles 13:

Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 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.

So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia…

Acts of the Apostles 13:4a
The Roman city is not unlike a more familiar Caesarea [a model pictured here], Jerusalem's Roman port also built by Herod the Great AND built even better for Rome by Herod Agrippa.
..and from there they sailed to Cyprus. – Acts 13:4b LSB

ACTS 13 of the Apostles on Mission TO BE CONTINUED…
September 20, 2022