x

Leh
eum ebeyseat tah tH ee petrs Sess
oe ieee)
 he late Professor F. F. Bruce
‘Tvs the Rylands Professor
of Biblical Criticism and
Exegesis at the University of
Manchester until his retirement
in 1978, when he was made
Emeritus Professor.

He was the author of

commentaries on the Acts of
the Apostles, Romans,
Corinthians, Ephesians,
Colossians and Hebrews. He
also wrote books on the history
of Israel, church history, the
Dead Sea Scrolls and the English
Bible.
A frequent visitor to Bible
lands, Professor Bruce brings to
this book the insights of a
Biblical scholar, the personal
knowledge of an experienced
traveller, and his habitual
incisive style.

he world the Apostle Paul

TT ive was part of the
Roman Empire. Many of
the places which he knew and
visited are still thriving towns,
such as Jerusalem, Thessalonica,
Athens and Rome. Some sites,
however, may be explained only
by archaeological evidence and
well-researched
reconstruction—for example
Ephesus and Corinth.
e
 Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2023 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/instepsofapostleQ000bruc
IN THE STEPS OF THE
APOSTLE PAUL
F. F Bruce

kfegel
PUBLICATIONS
Grand Rapids, MI 49501
 The Forum,
Rome.

power of God for the sion ofever jone W

3

1:16)=
believes.’ (Romans

ceeniaaitans tach Ee
 IN THE STEPS OF
ME APOSTLE PAUL
F. FL BRUCE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MAURICE S. THOMPSON
Paul’s Missionary Journeys

Paul’s Third
Journey

asf
.
ids

Paul’s Second
Journey

Paul’s Journey
to Rome
 Contents
Introduction 6
Paul’s Life
AD 5 Born in Tarsus Tarsus i
35 Converted on the road to
Damascus
35-38 Ministers in Arabia and
Damascus 10
Damascus (Galatians 1:17)
38 Visits Jerusalem Jerusalem 15
(Galatians 1:18)
38-43 Ministers in Syria and Tarsus
(Galatians 1:21)
Antioch 12
43-46 Serves in Antioch with Barnabas
47-49 First Missionary Journey Galatia 24
(Acts 13-14)
49 Apostles’ Council in Jerusalem
(Acts 15)
Macedonia 31
50 Writes Letter to Galatians
50-52 Second Missionary Journey Athens 36
(Acts 15:36-18:22)
52-55 Third Missionary Journey
(Acts 18:23-21:16) Corinth 41
55-58 Writes Letter to Romans
56 Journey to Jerusalem: Arrested
Ephesus 45
(Acts 27)
57-59 Imprisoned in Caesarea
59 Journey to Rome (Acts 27) Caesarea D|
60-61 Imprisoned in Rome
61 Released from prison
Rome 5/
61-65 Ministers in Asia Minor
and Greece
65 Arrested, tried and executed Index 64
in Rome

All dates are approximate.

Left: The
ancient agora,
Athens.

we a *

Pan TTT Ge
 Introduction
Within a few years of Jesus’ ascension. Within fifteen years
resurrection, the young church he had gone to help Barnabas
in Jerusalem, led by Peter and in Antioch, and from there
the apostles, was being Paul and Barnabas began their
persecuted by the Jewish travels to Cyprus and Asia
religious leaders. Stephen's Minor. The gospel reached
death, witnessed by a young Macedonia within twenty
Pharisee named Saul, is years of the ascension, and
recorded by Luke in the Acts Paul was in Greece by about
of the Apostles. This is the first AD 50. On his return to
time we meet the man who Jerusalem, Paul was taken by
was to evangelise the Roman the Roman army to Caesarea,
Empire. where he was imprisoned AD
57-9. His trial was transferred
aul’s conversion on the to Rome, which he reached
way to Damascus early in AD 60, and where he
happened within a few stayed under house arrest. His
years of Pentecost. After his death was probably in Nero's
encounter with the risen persecution of the Christians
Christ, Paul visited Damascus in AD 64 or shortly afterwards.
briefly, spent some time in Paul's story begins in Tarsus,
Arabia, modern Jordan, and where he was born; but we
visited Jerusalem two or three first meet him in Jerusalem,
years later. He embarked at which had not changed
Caesarea for the sea-crossing greatly since the years Jesus
to Tarsus, where he stayed for visited it.
about ten years, preaching We take up Paul’s story
the gospel. again in Damascus, and follow
Paul started preaching and his travels through present-
teaching in Tarsus not more day Syria, Turkey, Greece and
than five years after Jesus’ Italy.

Right: The Above: A water-

Damascus Gate, carrier in modern
Jerusalem, still Tarsus, Paul's
today a busy birthplace.
entrance to the
Old City.
Tarsus
‘Lam a Jew,’ said Paul to the but in that year Eastern
officer commanding the Cilicia (in which Tarsus was
Roman garrison in the situated) was detached from _ River Cydnus
Cilician Gates
Antonia fortress in Jerusalem, Western Cilicia and united
‘from Tarsus in Cilicia, a with the province of Syria. It Tarsus. :
citizen of no mean city’ was Tarsus that witnessed the
(Acts 21: 39). romantic first meeting of
Antony and Cleopatra,
arsus, Paul’s birthplace, described by Plutarch and
was the principal city of embellished by Shakespeare.
Cilicia, the most south- In the later part of
easterly part of Asia Minor. It Antony's control of the Near
stood in a fertile plain, on East, Tarsus suffered under
both banks of the river the maladministration of a MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
Cydnus, about ten miles from nominee of his named
its mouth. The river was Boethus. When Augustus
navigable as far upstream as overthrew Antony and
Tarsus. Some thirty miles became sole master of the
north of Tarsus were the Roman world, he entrusted
Cilician Gates — the pass the administration of Tarsus
through the Taurus range to one of its most illustrious
which carried the main road sons, Athenodorus the Stoic,
from Syria into central Asia who had been Augustus’s
Minor. It is still a well- own tutor. Athenodorus
populated city, with about
40,000 inhabitants. Left: The Apostle
Tarsus was a city of great Paul as depicited
in a twelfth- or
antiquity: it was a fortified thirteenth-
trading centre before 2000 Bc century mosaic at
and is mentioned in Hittite Monreale
records of the second Cathedral, Sicily.
Paul is by
millennium Bc. It was
tradition shown
destroyed in the invasions of as a short, bald-
the sea-peoples about 1200 headed man.
Bc, but some time later it was
refounded by Greek settlers.
For short periods in the ninth
and seventh centuries 8c it
fell under Assyrian control. It
enjoyed considerable
autonomy under the Persian
Empire, as capital of the
satrapy of Cilicia; it was even
permitted to issue its own
coinage. In due course it
passed into the hands of
Alexander the Great. After
his death in 323 Bc it
belonged to the dynasty of
Seleucus | and his
descendants, who succeeded
to the eastern part of
Alexander's empire. Under
this dynasty it was called
Antioch-on-Cydnus, but the
name did not stick.
When Pompey established
Roman dominance in that
part of the world (67 Bc),
Tarsus became part of the
Roman Empire, but retained
its privileges as a free city. It
was capital of the Roman
province of Cilicia until 25 Bc,
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

‘..a citizen of no mean city ...’

(Acts 21:39)

reformed the city’s make tents. Perhaps he came Left: A coin of

constitution; it was probably of a tent-making family. His Antiochus IV
from Antioch-on-
he who fixed a property family appears to have been Cydnus, the name
qualification of 500 drachmae well-to-do, and over and given to Tarsus
for admission to the burgess above its economic prosperity under the
roll too. it had received the rare dynasty of
honour of Roman citizenship. Seleucus I.
Tarsus was a well-known
centre of culture. Its schools When Paul claimed to have
taught the whole round of been born a Roman citizen, his formative years than the
learning — philosophy and the this implied that his father pagan city of Tarsus.
liberal arts. In modern terms had been a Roman citizen At a later date, however,
we might speak of the before him (Acts 22:28). How after his conversion, Paul
University of Tarsus though it Roman citizenship came into spent some years in and
Was a Civic university catering the family we do not know. around Tarsus. After he had
for Tarsians, whereas both One archaeological scholar paid a short visit to Jerusalem
Athens and Alexandria suggested that a firm of tent- in the third year after his
attracted many students from makers could have proved conversion he was taken from
distant lands. very useful to the Roman there to Caesarea by some
It was a prosperous city, army in those parts and friends and put on board a
renowned for some of its received the citizenship as a ship bound for Tarsus (Acts
material products. Several reward ‘for services 9:30). There, perhaps nine or
authors refer to the linen rendered’. ten years later, Barnabas
which was manufactured Although Paul was born in found him and persuaded
there from the flax which Tarsus, he may not have him to join him in Antioch
grew in the fertile plain spent long there as a child. and share the oversight of
around the city. We also hear We may gather from Acts the Christian mission there
of a cloth called cilicium, 22:3 that he grew up in (Acts 11:25, 26). We have no
woven from goat's hair, Jerusalem. His parents were details of the years that Paul
which gave welcome devout Jews, and probably spent in and around Tarsus,
protection against cold and judged that Jerusalem would but he was actively engaged
wet. It may have been from be a more suitable in his apostolic ministry. It
this cloth that Paul learned to environment for their son in was during those years that

Right:
Cleopatra's
Arch’, Tarsus; it
was in this
ancient city that
Antony and
Cleopatra first
met.
 Tarsus

Left: The Cilician

Gates, the pass
through the
Taurus
Mountains
carrying the main
route from Syria
into central Asia
Minor. The pass
lies about 30
miles north of
Tarsus.

A Man of Tarsus belonging to the tribe of

Benjamin (Romans 11:1;
On the first occasion when Philippians 3:5), his parents
Tarsus is mentioned in the gave him a Jewish name —
New Testament, it is one of the name of the most
the indications given to illustrious member of the
Ananias of Damascus, who is tribe of Benjamin in the
being sent to speak to Paul, history of Israel, King Saul.
to help in identifying him. This was the name by which
Ananias is told to go to he was known in Jewish
such-and-such a street and circles. Ananias would
knock at the door of a recognise him by three
certain person’s house, and distinguishing features. The
ask for ‘a man of Tarsus first two — his name and the
named Saul; for behold, he name of his birthplace - are
is praying’ (Acts 9:11). Paul those which we should
Above: A diptych news kept coming to the was part of the apostle’s expect to be mentioned. The
such as this could churches in Judea: ‘Our name as a Roman citizen, third - ‘he is praying’ -
have contained a but as he was born into an makes one think.
former persecutor is now
certificate of
Paul's birth preaching the faith which he observant Jewish family,
registration, once tried to destroy’
establishing his (Galatians 1:23).
claim to Roman Considerable excavation only a few survive, and that
citizenship.
has been carried out in the in fragmentary form. These
Tarsus area, mainly on the include the immense
mound called G6ozlU Kule, foundations of a temple, and
where there was a western a building decorated with
outpost of the Hellenistic and mosaics which was discovered
Roman city. (The adjective when foundations were
‘Hellenistic’ refers to the being dug for a new
Greek period from the courthouse in 1947. On the
conquests of Alexander the occasions when
Great onwards.) The city’s reconstruction is undertaken
Roman theatre has been in the modern city, it is
uncovered on GozlU Kule, but usually Byzantine remains
the main buildings of the that come to light.
Roman period lie buried
beneath modern Tarsus.
Many buildings of Roman
Tarsus are mentioned by
contemporary writers, but
 Damascus
amascus was a very live with a new and more
ancient city by the time durable master. It was
Paul journeyed there to included in the Roman
arrest Christian refugees from province of Syria, but was
Jerusalem. It occupied the linked in a loose federation
same site as the Damascus of with a number of cities
Old Testament times, but had farther south - the Decapolis
changed beyond recognition. or ‘league of ten cities’.
Since the eighth century Bc it Not much of Roman
had been dominated in turn Damascus is to be seen now.
Amana Rive
by the Assyrians, Babylonians The east gate (Bab esh-
: -¢ Damas
and Persians, and then by Shargi) may be of Roman
Alexander the Great. After date; it originally had three
Alexander's death (323 Bc) it arches, but two of them have
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
was controlled first by the been walled up. In Hellenistic
dynasty of the Ptolemies in times Damascus was Jerusalem «
Egypt and then (after 200 Bc) completely re-planned on the
by the rival dynasty of the Hippodamian grid-system (so
Seleucids, whose capital city called after Hippodamus of
was Antioch. Miletus, a town-planner of
When the Seleucid power the fifth century Bc). It had all
collapsed, Damascus fell for a the public installations which
few years under the control were regarded as essential to
of the kingdom of the a Hellenistic city. When Herod
Nabataean Arabs, which the Great presented it with a heard in Damascus, but
stretched from the vicinity of gymnasium and a theatre, Aramaic would have been
Below: A view Damascus south to the Gulf these were presumably spoken there too, as it had
over the modern designed to supersede earlier been in the days of Ben-
of Aqaba, with its capital at
city of Damascus
from the
Petra. But with the arrival of ones. hadad and other Aramaean
mountains to the the Romans under Pompey in In Roman times Greek was kings of whom we read in the
west of the city. 64 sc, Damascus learned to the language most commonly Old Testament. Aramaic was

10
 Damascus

Left: The ‘Street

called Straight’,
Damascus, Paul's
first refuge when
blinded on the
road. Here he
was visited by
Ananias.

Right: The river the language of the

Barada enters the Nabataean Arabs, who had a
oasis of Damascus.
This is the river
colony in Damascus
known as ‘Abana’ administered by an ethnarch
in 2 Kings 5:12. (mentioned in 2 Corinthians
11:32), and it would have
been spoken by some
members of the large Jewish
community in the city.
Damascus figures in Muslim
traditional belief as the place
to which Jesus will descend at
his second advent to destroy
Antichrist (compare 2
Thessalonians 2:8). This belief
may well go back beyond the
Muslim conquest (Ap 635),
although it is not precisely
documented before that.
In pre-Christian times there
appears to have been a
branch of the Qumran
community in Damascus. This
is inferred from a work called
The Book of the Covenant of
Damascus, discovered at the
end of the nineteenth
century in two incomplete
manuscripts from the ancient
synagogue of Old Cairo. This
work tells of a body of pious
Jews who ‘went out from the
land of Judah and sojourned
in the land of Damascus’,
where they entered into a
‘new covenant’. Not until the
Qumran texts (the so-called
Dead Sea Scrolls) came to

11
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

‘In Damascus he had preached fearlessly ... ’

(Acts 9:27)

Right: An elderly light in 1947 and the time of the end, and one may
man walks following years was it wonder if they were the
through an alley
in the old
realised that this body of originators of the belief that
quarter of pious Jews must have been Antichrist would meet his
Damascus. associated with the Qumran doom at Damascus.
community (the people of the One may wonder, too, if
Scrolls). It is not agreed by all Paul had any contact with
that the ‘Damascus’ where these ‘covenanters’ in
they entered into a new Damascus after his
covenant is to be understood conversion. His conversion
literally and not figuratively, took place as he was
but most probably it is the approaching Damascus with
literal Damascus that is letters of extradition from
meant. Those who made a the high priest in Jerusalem,
covenant there believed that authorising him to arrest and
they were fulfilling Amos bring back in chains to
5:27, which speaks of Jews Jerusalem followers of Jesus
going into exile beyond who had escaped from
Damascus. These people’s Jerusalem during the
exile was largely voluntary, persecution that broke out
because they disapproved so after the stoning of Stephen.
utterly of the regime which In one revolutionary flash he
at that time held power in was confronted by the risen
Judea. They had a clear idea Christ. Against all his
in their own minds of how prejudice, he had no option
events would unfold at the now but to acknowledge the

Right: A narrow,
arched street in
the Old City
quarter of
Damascus.

12
 Damascus

‘Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.’

(Acts 9:19)

Right The Chapel

of Ananias,
Damascus.

Far right: Columns

and arches of the
Roman temple of
Jupiter in the Al-
Hamidiyeh Souk,
Damascus.

crucified Jesus as the risen 22:12), who confessed Jesus Damascus. He visited those
Lord, who was there and then as Lord. Ananias greeted Paul synagogues to which he had
calling him into his service. as a brother and welcomed been accredited as the high
The law of Israel, which had him into the company of priest’s ambassador, but he
hitherto occupied the central Christ's followers. Ananias visited them now as the
place in Paul’s life, was seems not to have been one ambassador of another
instantaneously displaced by of the refugees from master. In those synagogues
Christ. From that moment on, Jerusalem whom Paul had he proclaimed Jesus, saying,
for him ‘to live was Christ’ been sent to apprehend, ‘He is the Son of God’ (Acts
(Philippians 1:21). although he knew all about 9:20). But the risen Christ had
Temporarily blinded by the purpose of Paul’s visit. called him specifically to be
‘the glory of that light’ which There were apparently two his messenger to the Gentiles
he had seen (Acts 22:11), Paul groups of disciples of Jesus in (Galatians 1:16), so he left
had to be led by the hand Damascus — members of the Damascus and spent some
into Damascus, and there he Jewish community there and time among the Nabataean
lodged for some days in the others who had fled from the Arabs (Galatians 1:17). His
house of a man named Judas, persecution in Judea. These activity among them was
in the ‘street called Straight’ were the people with whom sufficiently provocative to
(Acts 9:11). The present Darb Paul first found Christian attract the hostile attention
al-Mustagim (‘Straight fellowship. It would be of the Nabataean king,
Street’), otherwise known as interesting to know if Aretas IV (9 Bc—Ap 40), for on
Sug et-Tawileh (‘Long Ananias, or some of his his return to Damascus the
Bazaar’), probably follows the fellow-disciples, had any local representative of Aretas
line of that ancient street. connection with the guarded the city gate in the
There he was visited by ‘covenanters of Damascus’; hope of arresting him. Paul
Ananias, a Jewish resident of but we have no means of was forced to make his
Damascus, ‘a devout man knowing. escape in a basket let down
according to the law’ (Acts Paul did not stay long in through a window in the city

ts
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

Right: Damascus,
Syria from the
nearby hills.

wall (2 Corinthians 11:32, 33).

It is believed by some The Sublime and the 4:6). The other was quite
historians that at this time ridiculous: it was being let
Ridiculous
Damascus formed part of the down in a basket through a
Nabataean kingdom, and it Is window in the city wall to
pointed out that no Roman There were two outstanding escape his enemies. But
coins have been found at experiences associated with both taught him humility —-
Damascus for the period Ap Damascus which Paul never the latter because, in his
37-62. But this is by no means forgot. One was mind's eye, he must have
certain. Paul's escape from unspeakably glorious: it was cut such an absurd figure;
Damascus, at any rate, is the the revelation of Jesus the former because it
last occasion on which Christ which he received or, brought home to him his
Damascus figures in the New as he puts it elsewhere, the total unworthiness to be
Testament record. occasion when he saw ‘the granted such a revelation
light of the knowledge of and to be called to serve the
the glory of God in the face one who was revealed to
of Christ’ (2 Corinthians him.

14
 Jerusalem
eee aad erusalem as Paul knew it
oy carries the ‘
scroll of the Law Bees small pinerion ou
Reich armiteiah impressive in appearance.
at the Western Its status as a holy city had
Wall, Jerusalem. been confirmed to it by
successive Gentile overlords —
Persian, Greek and Roman. In
Jewish belief, Jerusalem was
the city which the God of
Israel had chosen ‘to put his
name and make his
habitation there’
(Deuteronomy 12:5). By Paul’s
day it had changed almost
beyond recognition from the
city that was hurriedly rebuilt
by the impoverished Jews
who returned from the
Babylonian exile in 539 Bc
and the following years.
The main quarters of the
city, however, remained much
as they had been before: they
were determined largely by
natural features. The city was
divided into two parts by the
north-south line of the
Tyropoeon Valley (the Valley
of the Cheesemakers). East of
that valley stood the Temple
Bee rceal enh and associated buildings;
Jiewed from the south of the Temple stood
Haas Promenade. the lower city, the eastern
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

Above: Part of section of which (Ophel) was

the Old City of the original Jerusalem which
Jerusalem viewed
from the
David captured from the
ramparts of the Jebusites and chose as his
Damascus Gate. own capital (2 Samuel 5:6-9).
West of the Tyropoeon Valley
Right: The was the upper city, which
Damascus Gate
has been
does not appear to have been
splendidly settled so early as the lower
restored in city. The south-west quarter
recent times, and was evidently first occupied
is often thronged during the Judean monarchy.
with visitors.
Perhaps eighty years after
the return from exile, an
abortive attempt was made
to surround the city with a
wall (Ezra 4:12). The building
of a wall was actually carried
through by Nehemiah, in
accordance with the decree
of Artaxerxes |, king of Persia
(445 Bc). Nehemiah’s wall
probably enclosed the lower but they were broken down buildings, he rebuilt the
city and the south-western in 167 Bc by Antiochus fortress of Baris, north-west
quarter. The Temple was Epiphanes, who built a strong of the Temple area, and
separately enclosed. On the citadel in the city of David, renamed it Antonia, after his
north, the wall probably south of the Temple. The city patron Mark Antony; he built
followed the west-east line was refortified by the a palace for himself on the
of the present King David Hasmonaeans, and especially west wall of the city (‘Herod's
Street running north of the by John Hyrcanus (1 praetorium’ of Acts 23:35)
south-western quarter and Maccabees 16:23). and three strong towers in its
Opposite: The crossing the Tyropoeon Valley Jerusalem was greatly neighbourhood, one of which
Church of the to meet the western wall of beautified by Herod the is incorporated in the present
Holy Sepulchre, the Temple. Great, who erected or Citadel. He also built such
Jerusalem, built The walls of Jerusalem restored many fine buildings. public installations as an
over the
were repaired by the high Apart from the Temple, the amphitheatre and a
traditional site of
je sus’ burial. priest Simon II about 200 Bc most magnificent of all his hippodrome.

16
 ae,
Fe
ie Pooeel
Apa CREB >
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

Right: Remains of
steps to Herod's ; oo
=|] 2 AT
Temple,
Jerusalem, a a}
building which
would have been
well known to
the Apostle Paul.

Right: St. It was under Herod, if not

Stephen's Gate, earlier, that a second north
Jerusalem. By
wall was built to enclose the
tradition, it was
outside this gate north-western quarter of the
that Stephen, the city: it began at an
first Christian unidentified point called the
martyr, was
Gate Gennath and ranina
stoned to death.
Paul was a
northerly and then easterly
witness of his direction, passing south of
death. the present Church of the
Holy Sepulchre, until it
reached the Antonia fortress.
The area of the walled city
that Paul knew was about
half a square mile (320 acres);
its population may have been
as high as 50,000. But already
people were beginning to
build dwelling-houses beyond
the second north wall, in the
section called Bezetha, or
Newtown.

18
 Antioch
There were sixteen cities ntioch, being a new
called Antioch in the eastern city, was constructed
Mediterranean world on the most up-to-date
founded in the period after town-planning principles,
the death of Alexander the according to the
Great (323 Bc). They owed Hippodamian grid-system. It
their existence to rulers of was built about sixteen miles . Antioch
the Seleucid dynasty which upstream from the mouth of * Seleucia Pieria
succeeded to the eastern part the river Orontes. At the River Orontes
of Alexander's empire; many mouth of the river stood its
of the kings of that dynasty port, Seleucia Pieria
e Salamis
bore the name Antiochus, (mentioned in Acts 13:4). The CYPRUS
from which the place-name city walls of Antioch, the Paphos °
Antioch (Antiocheia in Greek) remains of which are still to
is derived. The greatest and be seen, ran along the hills
best known of these cities is overlooking the city and were
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Antioch in North Syria, extended seawards so as to
Antioch-on-the-Orontes, enclose the port. (Similarly,
founded by Seleucus |, first the long walls of Athens in
Below: A view king of the Seleucid dynasty, the fifth century Bc were
over the modern in 300 Bc and called after his designed to protect the port
city of Antakya, father Antiochus. The city of Piraeus and the approach
ancient Antioch. and the name survive to this to it.) Antioch originally
In Paul’s day it stood on the south bank of
day in Antakya, in the Hatay
was the third
largest city in the province of Turkey, which has the Orontes, but later kings
Roman Empire. a population of about 40,000. extended it in various

Orn
| }
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

‘The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch ... ’

(Acts 11:26)

legate, who from 25 Bc had

charge of the united province
of Syria and Cilicia. The city
continued to be embellished
with fine buildings: Herod
the Great, for example,
repaved its main east-west
street with polished stone
and adorned it with
colonnades on both sides.
The remains of this street and
of another one, also
colonnaded, can still be
recognised. So can the
remains of the circus (north
of the Orontes), palace (on
the Orontes island),
colonnaded forum, theatre,
amphitheatre and public
baths. An impressive wealth
of mosaics from the floors of
these and other buildings has
come to light. In New
Testament times Antioch
ranked as the third largest
city of the Roman Empire; it
was surpassed only by Rome
and Alexandria.
Antioch features in the
New Testament as the first
headquarters of Gentile
Christianity. Even before
Christianity reached the city,
one Nicolaus, called ‘a
proselyte of Antioch’, was
one of the seven men
appointed in the church of
Jerusalem to supervise the
daily distribution from the
common fund (Acts 6:5). From
its earliest days, there was a
very large Jewish community
in Antioch, and Nicolaus
presumably belonged to it,
though it would hardly have
Above: A cobbled directions. One of them built south. Here was a shrine been in his native city that he
street typical of a new ward of the city on an dedicated to Artemis and became a Christian at that
the older Apollo. These were scarcely
island in the river; in this early date. But only a few
quarters of
Antakya (ancient
island the royal palace was the Greek deities of those years later it was at Antioch
Antioch). situated. Another king names; they were the Syrian that the gospel was first
extended the city southwards goddess Astarte and her presented to Gentiles on any
to the foot of Mount Silpius, consort, newly equipped with significant scale.
which runs parallel with the Greek names. ‘Daphnic As a result of the
river. As a result of these morals’ were a by-word in the persecution of the church in
extensions the city came to Roman world for loose living. Judea that was launched
comprise four wards; each of Antioch itself was sometimes immediately after the death
these was separately fortified distinguished from other of Stephen, some Hellenistic
apart from the fortifications cities of the same name by disciples (i.e. those whose
surrounding the whole city. being called ‘Antioch near first language was Greek and
Antioch had a plentiful Daphne’. who had affinities with the
supply of better drinking When Syria became a provinces north-west and
water than the Orontes could Roman province in 64 Bc, south-west of Palestine)
supply, from the fresh springs Antioch became the seat of made their way north
at Daphne, five miles to the government of the imperial through Syria till they came

20
 Antioch

Above: One of the to Antioch. Here some

many pools at enterprising spirits among
Daphne, where in
the Apostle’s time
them - unnamed Jewish
there was an Christians from Cyprus and
important shrine Cyrene — began to speak
to Artemis and about Christ and his salvation
Apollo. to Gentiles whom they met.
Right: The This was an innovation, but
footpath on people were accustomed to
Mount Silpius innovations in Antioch. Here
leading to St. all sorts of nationality and
Paul’s Cave, the religion met; here the
refuge of
persecuted Mediterranean world met the
Christians Syrian desert. People had
particularly their rough corners rubbed
during the time of smooth, and traditional
the Emperor
attitudes which were taken
Diocletian.
so seriously in a place like
Jerusalem did not matter so
much. Many Gentiles in
Antioch, hearing the gospel
for the first time, greeted it
as the very message they
were waiting for, and soon
there was a flourishing
church in Antioch, consisting
mainly of Gentile believers. It
was at Antioch that the
followers of Jesus first came
to be known as Christians;
the name of Christ was so
continually on their lips that
they were recognised as his
people.
When news of the
innovation at Antioch came
to the leaders of the mother-
church in Jerusalem they did
not panic but sent a suitable
delegate to Antioch to see
what was happening there

21
In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul ...

(Aqtsale 2)

and give such guidance as he The Christian mission to long after this the church of
thought fit. The man they Gentiles was attended by Antioch sent a delegation to
chose was Barnabas, a Jewish some practical problems. It Jerusalem to have these
Christian from Cyprus and a took some time before Jewish matters discussed and settled
foundation member of the Christians, with their at the highest level. The
Jerusalem church. Barnabas ancestral food restrictions result was a social
was not the name his parents and other social customs, accommodation (Acts 15:28,
had given him; he received it learned to mix freely with 29) which continued to be
from his fellow-Christians Gentile Christians. There was observed by Gentile
because it expressed his one awkward occasion when Christians for a long time. As
encouraging character (it Peter, on a visit to Antioch, late as the closing part of the
means ‘the son of felt obliged to desist from ninth century Alfred the
encouragement’). Barnabas sharing meals with Gentile Great incorporated it in his
came to Antioch and was Christians because a message English lawcode.
delighted by what he found came to him telling of the Antioch continued to be an
there. He settled down embarrassment which his important Christian centre for
among the Christians of the free-and-easy ways were many centuries.
place and gave them all the causing to his fellow-disciples The ‘Chalice of Antioch’ is
encouragement they needed back home in Jerusalem. Not a silver cup set in a gilded
as they prosecuted their
forward movement of
evangelism among the
Gentiles of the city.
The work developed and
the church increased at such a
pace in Antioch that
Barnabas soon felt unable to
cope with it single-handed, so
he fetched his friend Paul
from Tarsus to come to
Antioch and share his
ministry. Under their joint
guidance the Christian cause
in the city continued to
flourish. Gentiles though the
majority of the Christians of
Antioch were, they did not
forget their link with the
mother-church. When they
learned of an impending
famine that was likely to hit
Jerusalem with special
Above: The river
severity, they sent Barnabas Orontes as it
and Paul there with a gift flows from the
which they had collected to city of Antioch
enable their brothers and towards the
Mediterranean
sisters to face the steep rise
Sea.
in the cost of food.
The Christians of Antioch Left: Inside the
recognised that the gospel, Crusader church
which had met the need of so which now
encloses St. Paul’s
many people in their own
Cave on Mount
city, was bound to meet the Silpius.
need of other Gentiles
farther afield. On one
occasion, when the will. of
God was made known
through a prophetic
utterance in their church,
they readily released
Barnabas and Paul to
undertake an extended
campaign of evangelism in
Cyprus and Asia Minor.

22
 Antioch

Left: The rich

green
countryside
betwen Antioch
(modern
Antakya) and
Seleucia Pieria

Above: The quiet open-work shell and

waters of Paphos mounted on a silver base, The Birthplace of have to look to Antioch, the
harbour, Cyprus,
found in or near Antioch Gentile Christianity real birthplace of Gentile
today. During Christianity. The unnamed
Paul's visit the about 1910. It is now in the
Roman proconsul, Metropolitan Museum of Art, men of Cyprus and Cyrene
Sergius Paulus, New York. Some people liked Christianity has for many who first thought of
was converted. to think at one time that the centuries been reckoned to communicating the gospel
silver cup was the holy grail, be a Gentile religion. Yet it to Gentiles in Antioch
Above right: originated as a movement started something, the
Assos, the seaport the chalice used at the Last
to which Paul Supper; however its within the Jewish nation. outcome of which they
walked from workmanship belongs to the The Founder of Christianity could never have foreseen.
Troas (Acts fourth century Ab. and all his apostles were
20:13,14). practising Jews. If we ask
how it became detached
from its Jewish matrix and
acquired its predominantly
non-Jewish character, we

23
 Galatia
alatia was a great those kings fell in battle
Roman province in the against raiders from the
heart of Asia Minor. It Taurus mountain range, the
took its name from the Emperor Augustus took over
Galatians, originally a group his kingdom as a Roman
of Celts or Gauls that parted province and incorporated in
company with the main body it a good deal of territory to
of their fellow-tribesmen in the south, which the Galatian
Europe and moved south-east kings had never ruled.
through the Balkan We do not know if Paul
Peninsula, crossing into Asia ever visited that northern
Minor in the third century Bc. part of the province which
There they settled in territory had been the kingdom of
that had formerly belonged Galatia. We do know of
to the Phrygians. One of their several cities in the southern
Below: The
harbour at
principal cities, Ancyra, part of the province which he
Antalya (ancient survives to the present day as visited. On the missionary
Attalia), the port the capital of Turkey, still tour, based in Antioch in
from which Paul bearing essentially the same Syria, which he undertook
sailed back to
name, Ankara. with Barnabas (Acts 13:4-
Antioch at the
end of his first The kings of Galatia 14:26), he and Barnabas
missionary became allies of the Romans, sailed from Paphos, the
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
journey. but when in 25 Bc the last of western capital of Cyprus, to

WA

24
 Galatia

‘Paul and his companions sailed to Perga ... ’

(Acts 13:13)

Left: Colourful
fishing boats
moored in the
harbour at
Antalya, ancient
Attalia, the port
for Perga.

Right: Remains of the south coast of Asia Minor,

the Roman
and made their way to Perga,
amphitheatre at
Perga, visited by an important city of the
Paul on his first Roman province of
missionary Pamphylia, lying six miles
journey. inland. From there they
struck up country until they
reached Pisidian Antioch.
After preaching there they
moved on in succession to
Iconium, Lystra and Derbe;
then they retraced their steps
through the same cities,
turning south again from
Pisidian Antioch until they
reached the port of Attalia
from which they sailed back
to the mouth of the Orontes
and so returned to the city of
Antioch in Syria.
Two or three years later
(perhaps in Ab 49) Paul and
Silas travelled from Antioch
in Syria by land through the
Cilician Gates into Central
Asia Minor and visited Derbe
and Lystra. From there they
went on through ‘the region
of Phrygia and Galatia’ (Acts
16:6) — that is, most probably,
the region in which Iconium

25
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

‘From Perga they went on to Pisidian Antioch... ’

(Acts 13:14)

Right: View from

the slopes of the
plateau on which
Pisidian Antioch
stood. The site
lies across the
valley from the
small Turkish
town of Yalvac.
In the distance
can be seen the
remains of the
ancient Roman
aqueduct.

ee UT ng ~

Right: Arches and Pisidian Antioch were

from the Roman situated. Just three years
aqueduct are
later Paul made a hasty
prominent
evidence for the journey through the same
ancient town of area when, making his way
Pisidian Antioch, west to Ephesus, he is said to
visited by Paul have passed through ‘the
during his first
missionary
region of Galatia and
journey. Phrygia’ (Acts 18:23).
There is good reason to
believe that ‘the churches of
Galatia’ addressed in
Galatians 1:2 were the
churches planted by Paul and
Barnabas in Pisidian Antioch,
Iconium, Lystra and Derbe.

isidian Antioch stood on

a plateau about 3,600
feet high, two miles west
of the modern Turkish town
of Yalvag. Sir William Ramsay
suggested that Paul caught
malaria in the low-lying area
around Perga and came to
this high ground to
recuperate: he thought that
malaria might be the ‘bodily
ailment’ from which, as Paul
says in Galatians 4:13, he was

NI (o>)
 Galatia

suffering when first he came Above: Lake

to Galatia. This can be Beysehir, eighty
kilometres (fifty
neither proved nor disproved.
miles) west of
Pisidian Antioch was Konya (ancient
founded as a border fortress Iconium). It was
soon after 300 Bc. Augustus through country
appreciated its strategic such as this that
the Apostle Paul
importance and made it a and his
Roman colony in 6 Bc. It companions
became the military centre travelled during
for the surrounding territory, their epic
and it was the starting-point mission.

for two roads built deep into

the region of Pisidia to the
south. Therefore, although it
was not actually in Pisidia, it
was known as Antioch near
Pisidia, or Pisidian Antioch.
The site is now ruined, but
the remains are still
impressive. An aqueduct is
particularly conspicuous; the
city walls are also plainly to
be seen. The main city square,
the Square of Augustus, has
been excavated; a
monumental staircase and an Left: The site of
Pisidian Antioch,
entrance gateway (the the hill on the
propylaea) with three arches, opposite side of
connected it with the lower the valley

27
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

Right: Alaettin ~~ Opposite: The

BN
Camii, the
Mosque of SS
.
sS
\ We headless statue
of a Classical
Alaeddin figure at the
Keykubat I, Roman theatre at
Seljuk Sultan of Hierapolis in
Rum, completed central Galatia.
in 1221, is one of By tradition the
the major Islamic apostle Philip was
monuments of martyred here.
Konya, ancient
Iconium.

Square of Tiberius. To the was an important junction: ignorance of this language

east of the Square of the main east-west road from meant that they did not
Augustus stood a richly Syria to Ephesus passed grasp what was afoot until
ornamented temple with through it. The Emperor preparations for sacrificing to
Corinthian columns. The Claudius bestowed his own them were well advanced.
theatre lies in the western name on it as an honorary Barnabas was identified with
part of the city. Outside the prefix: Claudiconium. Zeus, the ruler of the gods,
city, on rising ground to the and Paul with Hermes, their
east, is the temple of Men ystra, to which Paul and messenger. There is evidence
Askainos, an important | sarnabo moved from that these two divinities were
divinity in that part of Asia Iconium, was about worshipped conjointly in
Minor. eighteen miles south of that Lycaonia. In 1910 Sir William
The synagogue of Pisidian city. It was identified in 1885 Calder discovered an
Antioch where Paul preached with the mound of Zostera inscription at Sedasa, south
is not identified, but there (near the town of of Lystra, recording the
were large Jewish colonies in Hatunsaray), when J.R.S. dedication to Zeus of a statue
the cities of Phrygia, both in Sterrett found a Latin of Hermes by men with
Pisidian Antioch and in inscription there containing Lycaonian names; sixteen
Iconium, the next city to the name of Lystra. Like years later he and
which the two missionaries Pisidian Antioch, Lystra was W.H.Buckler discovered a
came. made a Roman colony by stone altar near Lystra
Augustus. dedicated to the ‘Hearer of
| conium lies nearly ninety In passing from Iconium to Prayer’ (presumably Zeus)
miles east-south-east of Lystra Paul and Barnabas and Hermes.
Pisidian Antioch. The city crossed the regional frontier When Barnabas and Paul
and its name survive in from Phrygia into Lycaonia. refused to accept worship
modern Konya, the capital of (A region was a subdivision of from the people of Lystra, the
the Turkish province of the a province. ) Over 400 years people of Lystra soon turned
same name. Then as now it previously the Greek historian against them: lending a ready
Xenophon referred to ear to enemies of the
Iconium as ‘the last city of missionaries who followed
Phrygia’. If Paul and Barnabas them from Iconium, they
A first-century AD had well-tuned ears, they attacked them. Paul in
coin of Iconium, would realise soon after particular was stoned,
showing the hero leaving Iconium that the knocked unconscious and left
Perseus,
celebrated for
indigenous population spoke for dead by the roadside
slaying Medusa, a language which they had (Acts 14:19). When, several
who had the not heard before - ‘the years later, he drew up a
power of turning speech of Lycaonia’ catalogue of the hardships he
to stone all who mentioned in Acts 14:11. had endured as an apostle,
looked at her. He
is depicted here
When the people of Lystra he says (referring to this
holding her planned to pay them divine occasion), ‘Once | was stoned’
severed head. honours, the missionaries’ (2 Corinthians i225):

28
KC
ees
7

WSS
c

=~
“a
is_ dy WH
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

Left: The stadium

at Perge (ancient
Perga) is one of
the best
preserved from
antiquity. It
would have
seated an
audience of
about 12,000.

Right: A bronze
coin of Lystra
minted in the
time of the
Emperor
Augustus, C 6 BC.
The coin depicts
the founder of
Colonia Lystra
tracing the limits
of the new city
with a plough
drawn by a bull
and cow.

Nevertheless, he had reason

to remember his visit to
Lystra with gratitude: one of
his converts there was
Timothy, his future travelling
companion and faithful
helper.

erbe has been Derbe lay some sixty miles frontier of the province of Above: The
Galatia. Across the frontier remains of the
identified as recently as south-east of Lystra, so that
ancient stadium
1957, when Michael the last words of Acts 14:20 lay the territory of Antiochus, at Perga.
Ballance found evidence should be translated, ‘he set king of Commagene (AD
pointing to Kerti HuyUk (a out with Barnabas for Derbe.’ 38-72), an ally of the Romans.
mound about fifteen miles (They should not be Indeed, at times Derbe seems
north-north-east of the city translated in such a way as to to have been governed by
of Karaman) as the site. The suggest that Paul, after being Antiochus; it was he who, in
evidence took the form of an knocked about so badly the honour of the Emperor
inscription discovered on the day before, walked the sixty Claudius, named it
mound, dedicated by the miles to Derbe in one day.) Claudioderbe.
council and- people of Derbe It has been suggested that
in AD 157 in honour of the Paul and Barnabas went no
Emperor Antoninus Pius. farther than Derbe because
there they reached the

30
 Macedonia
acedonia is a large
territory in the
Balkan Peninsula, by
far the greatest part of which
MACEDONIA
now forms the northern
province of Greece, while Philippi , | Neapolis
other parts lie in Yugoslavia Thessalonica “ Amphipolis
and Bulgaria. In antiquity it e

Beroea ° Apollonia
was a powerful kingdom. The
Greek city-states of the
classical period (fifth and
fourth centuries Bc) did not AEGEAN SEA
consider the Macedonians to
be proper Greeks, although
the Macedonian kings were
keen patrons of Greek
culture. One of the greatest
of these kings, Philip II
(356-336 Bc), conquered the
Greek city-states and founded
a Graeco-Macedonian empire.
Scarcely had he done so when
Below: Kavalla,
Greece (ancient
he was assassinated, but his _MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Neapolis); it was
twenty-year-old son
here that Paul Alexander took up his
first set foot in father’s heritage and in 334 Bc his vast dominion did not and Rome were hostile, and
Europe before Bc led a united Graeco- long survive him as a united after three wars Macedonia
making his way Macedonian army into Asia. empire. Macedonia soon became a Roman province
along the
Egnatian Way to
In a few years he had became a separate kingdom in 146 Bc.
Philippi and overthrown the Persian once more. From 221 Bc Christianity reached
Thessalonica. Empire. When he died in 323 relations between Macedonia Macedonia not more than

31
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

‘We travelled to Philippi, a Roman colony ... ’

(Acts 16:12)

Right: The
Roman market-
place, or agora,
at Philippi, built
after the victory
of Octavius at
Philippi in 42 Bc.

twenty years after the death Apart from Neapolis, Luke clashed in battle with his
of Christ. Acts 16:9 tells of mentions five Macedonian lieutenant, Antony, and his
Paul’s night-vision at Troas In cities which Paul and his adopted son, Octavian (later
which a man of Macedonia companions visited on this the Emperor Augustus). After
appeared to him, saying, occasion: Philippi, the battle the victors, Antony
‘Come over into Macedonia Amphipolis, Apollonia, and Octavian, re-constituted
and help us.’ Paul shared his Thessalonica and Beroea. The Philippi as a Roman colony
experience with his three first four of these stood on and settled many of their
companions, Silas, Timothy the Egnatian Way. veteran soldiers there (47 Bc).
and Luke - and they agreed As a Roman colony, Philippi
with him that this was a call hilippi lay about thirteen had a constitution modelled
from God. They took ship miles inland from on that of the city of Rome: it
from Troas, therefore, and in Neapolis, which served as was governed by two
two days they landed at its port. Philippi bore the annually appointed chief
Neapolis, the modern Kavalla. name of its founder, Philip of magistrates (called praetors),
Macedonia: he established it whose police attendants were
eapolis was the eastern in 356 Bc on the site of an called lictors. The magistrates
terminus of the earlier settlement. Luke and police figure in the story
Egnatian Way, the describes it in Acts 16:12 asa of Acts 16:19-39.
east-west Roman military ‘city of the first district of There was evidently no
road which ran across the Macedonia’ (the true reading Jewish community of any size
Balkan Peninsula, from the is preserved only by a small in Philippi. In most cities
Aegean Sea to the Adriatic. It minority of witnesses to the which they visited, Paul and
was the most direct route text). The ‘first district’ means his companions made for the
between Rome and the east. the first of four districts into local synagogue, but there
A well-preserved Roman which the Romans divided was none in Philippi: instead
aqueduct, with three tiers of Macedonia in 167 Bc. Those they found an informal place
arches, is still to be seen at familiar with Shakespeare's of prayer outside the city on
Neapolis; it carried water to Julius Caesar remember how the west, by the river
the acropolis which defended it was at Philippi that Caesar’s Gangites. Between the city
the old city. assassins and their followers and the river stand the

32
 Macedoinia

archaeologists between 1914 Above: The

and 1938; more recently the cobbled Egnatian
work has been continued by Way, the famous
Roman road
the Greek archaeological along which the
service. The city stood both Apostle Paul
north and south of the travelled. This
Egnatian Way. The acropolis, stretch is near
over 1,000 feet high, ona Kavalla, the
ancient port of
spur of Mount Orbelos,
Neapolis.
overlooked the city from the
north. At the foot of the hill Left: A view of
are the remains of the large the ancient
forum at Philippi,
theatre, dating from the time
looking towards
of Philip Il. On the south side Mount Pangaion.
of the Egnatian Way was the
forum, some 300 by 100 feet.
The forum buildings which
can be seen today belong
mostly to the age of Marcus
Aurelius (AD 161-180), but
they replaced others of an
remains of an arch, crossing her native city, Thyatira in earlier period. It would have
the Egnatian way, which may Asia Minor, was renowned. been in the forum that Paul
have been built to A Latin inscription in Philippi and Silas were dragged
commemorate the city’s mentions dealers in purple before the praetors. In the
receiving the status of a there. Two other women in centre of the north side of
colony. The place of prayer the Philippian church, Euodia the forum was a speaker's
probably lay to the west of and Syntyche, receive platform; at the north-west
this arch. Here a group of honourable mention from and north-east corners stood
women met every Sabbath Paul because of their co- two large temples. On the
day, and it was they who operation with him in his west side were grain-shops,
formed the nucleus of the ministry of the gospel on the east side a library and
church in Philippi. Their (Philippians 4:2,3). reading room; on the south
leader was Lydia, who traded The site of ancient Philippi side was a colonnade, with a
in the purple dye for which was excavated by French Roman agora to the south of

aes
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

‘They came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish

synagogue ...’ (Acts 17:1)

Right: The Arch

of Galerius, built
to straddle the
Egnatian Way as
it entered
ancient
Thessalonica
from the east.

Sata
; 8 a cae -*

ANY ny tieey

the magistrates of
Macedonian cities; it appears
on a number of inscriptions
from the Roman period. The
Egnatian Way ran through
the city from east to west;
part of the thoroughfare
which follows its line, bears
the same name today.
Since it is still a large and
populous city, Thessalonica
does not lend itself so well to
archaeological excavation.
Some of the monuments
which do survive from Roman
times, like the Arch of
Galerius which straddled the
Egnatian Way near the east
gate of the ancient city, and
the neighbouring Rotunda
Sede
(later St. George’s Church),
belong to a much later date
Above: Remains it, while farther south still missionaries stayed at least than Paul's lifetime - around
of the ancient were a palaestra or overnight on the Egnatian Ap 300. Until 1876 another
forum at
Thessalonica,
gymnasium and Roman baths. Way from Philippi to arch, called the Vardar Gate,
modern Salonika. There are also remains of Thessalonica. stood at the west end of the
Christian basilicas, but they Thessalonica was founded city: it bore an inscription
belong to the Byzantine about 315 Bc by the (now in the British Museum)
period; they present features Macedonian king Cassander, which mentioned the
similar to those of St. Sophia who named it after his wife, politarchs of Thessalonica.
in Istanbul. a half-sister of Alexander the Unlike Philippi,
Great. When Macedonia Thessalonica had a Jewish
hessalonica lies about 90 became a Roman province, community with its
miles west of Philippi. Thessalonica was the synagogue, where Paul
Paul and his friends did governor's headquarters, preached on the first three
not cover that whole journey while it retained its municipal Sabbath days after his arrival
in one day. Amphipolis and status as a free city, with its in the city. Here, among the
Apollonia are mentioned by own magistrates, called fringe of God-fearing
name in Acts 17:1 because ‘politarchs’ in Acts 17:6. This Gentiles who attended the
they were places where the designation was peculiar to services, Paul found the

34
 Macedonia

Above: Remains nucleus of his church, but the

of the ancient city majority of his converts were
of Assos. pagans who, as he said,
‘turned to God from idols, to
serve a living and true God’
(1 Thessalonians 1:9).
Paul had to leave
Thessalonica because he and
his companions were accused
before the magistrates of
disseminating subversive
propaganda. He had perhaps
intended to travel farther
west along the Egnatian Way,
but he was obliged to turn
south for some fifty miles
until he reached the city of
Beroea (now pronounced
Verria). Here he was given a
more open-minded reception
by the synagogue authorities
than he had found in
Thessalonica. We have few the Sosipater of Romans and trembling’ (1 Corinthians Above: A
details about his converts in 16:21, he was evidently a Jew 2:3). He possibly felt that his grotesque mask
from an ancient
Beroea, except that they by birth, since Paul calls him missionary work in Greek theatre.
included several Greek ‘my kinsman’. Macedonia had been a
women of high standing (Acts Paul’s first visit to failure. ln fact it was an
17:12), and that one of his Macedonia was punctuated illustrious success. The
male converts was Sopater, . by expulsions from one city Christianity which he planted
who a few years later was after another. No wonder in the cities of that province
one of a party accompanying that when, a few weeks later, remains firmly rooted in the
him on his last journey to he arrived in Corinth, he present day.
Jerusalem (Acts 20:4). If (as is could speak of coming ‘in
probable) he is identical with weakness and in much fear

35
 Athens
Opposite: The thens has a continuous conspicuously visible. Parts of
impressive fluted history of occupation a Mycenean defensive wall
columns of the
Propylaea, the
as a Greek city from can be seen on the Acropolis,
Acropolis, Mycenean times (before 1100 but most of the monuments
Athens. Bc) to the present day. There date from the fifth century Bc
was a short period during the and later. Many of those that
Persian invasion under Xerxes the visitor sees today were
in 480 sc when the Athenians
had to leave their city and
seen in a much better
condition by Paul when he ACHAIA
seek refuge on board their came to Athens in Ap 50. Of
ships, but the invaders were all the buildings that crown
soon defeated and the the Acropolis the greatest is
Athenians returned and the Parthenon, the temple of
Connth <=
rebuilt their ruined city. It Athene, the city’s patron
remained a Greek city goddess. It was founded in
throughout the long 447 bc and even today is one
centuries of Turkish rule. The of the most visually satisfying
Apostle Paul’s brief visit to buildings to be seen
Athens, on his way from anywhere in the world. In it
Macedonia to Corinth, is stood the statue of Athene, ‘MEDITERRANEAN SEA
mentioned briefly by him in 1 the noblest work of the
Thessalonians 3:1 and is sculptor Pheidias. Some idea
described at greater length of the detail of the
by Luke in Acts 17:15-34. Parthenon can be appreciated church, a mosque and an
Below: The Today it is the populous in the sculptures from its arsenal; this last use was
monumental capital of Greece, but the pediment now in the British nearly its total undoing when
gateway, or
heart of the city area is Museum, among the so-called it was hit by a Venetian shell
Propylaea,
leading to the sufficiently cleared for the Elgin Marbles. During the in 1687.
Parthenon, great monuments of its Christian era the Parthenon North of the Parthenon
Athens. classical past to be was used successively as a stands the temple of

36
 R : coe

» ‘ ot GSE
; . * > . °a 4
ae ahi
oy
A vi
Aen

ae
S auras
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

Erechtheus, with its six

sculptured maidens or
Caryatids fulfilling the
function of columns for its
southern portico; west of it
stands the temple of Wingless
Victory. The temple of
Wingless Victory is built
against the southern wing of
the great gateway or
Propylaea through which the
Panathenaic procession made
its way on to the Acropolis
once every four years to
present a new robe for the
primitive wooden image of
Athene housed in the temple
of Erechtheus. The procession ©
came along the Panathenaic
Way from the north-west,
through the Sacred Gate in
the city wall.
At the foot of the
Acropolis, built into its
southern slope, is the Theatre
of Dionysus, where the great
dramas of classical Athens
were staged. North-west of
the Acropolis lies the Agora,
the great Athenian
marketplace, adorned with
public buildings and
colonnades. One of the latter,
the Stoa of Attalus, has been
restored and serves today as
the Agora Museum. It was in
the Agora that Paul entered
into daily debate during his
Above: A distant
view of the
Parthenon, seen
from a point
overlooking the
ancient harbour.

Right: This head-

on view of the
Parthenon
emphasizes its
finely
dimensioned
structure.
 Athens

‘Paul stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus ... ’

(AGtSS1i/222)

Left: The restored

Stoa of Attalus,
seen from the
Acropolis. Recent
research suggests
that it may have
been here that
Paul addressed
the Court (or
meeting) of the
Areopagus.

the ‘anonymous altars’ —

altars to unknown gods —
which it contained.
Why the altar spotted by
Paul bore this particular
inscription we cannot know.
Perhaps, as has happened
elsewhere, it was an old altar
repaired by people who had
no means of discovering the
divinity to which it was
Originally dedicated, so they
dedicated it ‘to an unknown
god’. But Paul saw how he
could make use of this
strange wording.
There was a venerable
court in Athens which had
jurisdiction in matters of
religion and morals. Since
Paul, with his talk of Jesus
and the resurrection, seemed
to be recommending a new
Above: Inside the stay in Athens ‘with those active worship, false worship religion, he was brought
splendidly who chanced to be there’, at that. ‘His spirit was before it. It was called the
restored Stoa of
Attalus, Athens.
including philosophers of the provoked within him as he Court of the Areopagus,
Epicurean and Stoic schools, saw that the city was full of because it met originally on
both of which had their idols’ (Acts 17:16). One altar, the Areopagus, the hill of the
headquarters in Athens however, attracted his special war-god Ares, which rises on
(Acts+1 7217, 18). attention because of its the west side of the
Paul took everything in, unusual dedication: ‘To an Acropolis. By the first century
but in his day the temples, unknown god’. Other visitors AD, however, except on
altars and images were no to Athens about this time specially solemn occasions,
mere antiquities or works of mention as a mark of the the court is believed to have
art, but installations of an city’s exceptional religiosity met in the Royal Colonnade

39
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

Right: Statue of in the Agora, and it may have

Athene, from the been there that it examined
museum at
Paul. The statement that he
Antalya.
was brought ‘to the
Areopagus’ (Acts 17:19) may
simply mean that he was
brought before the court,
and when he Is described as
‘standing in the middle of the
Areopagus’ (Acts 17:22) this
probably means that he stood
in the midst of the court,
with its members sitting
around him, rather than that
he ‘stood in the midst of Mars
hill’, as the Authorised
Version says. (How does one
stand in the middle of a hill?)
No matter: when he was
invited to expound his
teaching, Paul referred to the
Athenians as ‘very religious’
and recalled the altar
inscription which had made
such an impression on him.
The ‘unknown God’
mentioned in the inscription
was the very God whom he
had come to make known, he
said - the God who created
all things and who, far from
requiring anything from men
and women, provided them
with all that they needed. He
supported his claims with
quotations from Greek poets
—'In him we live and move
and have our being’ and ‘we
are indeed his offspring’ (Acts
17:28). He then urged his
hearers to have worthy
thoughts of this God, who
would call them to give an
account one day to the man
whom he had raised from the
dead. Any who responded to
Right: Relief of Paul's preaching might well
an ancient Greek be said, like the pagans of
chariot from Thessalonica, to have ‘turned
Athens. to God from idols, to serve a
living and true God, and to
wait for his Son from heaven, reference to a church in towards the east, on the
whom he raised from the Athens in Paul's day. Yet south side of the Acropolis, is
dead, Jesus, who delivers us Athens was in due course to the ‘Street of Dionysius the
from the wrath to come’ (1 embrace wholeheartedly the Areopagite’ (Paul’s principal
Thessalonians 1:9, 10). message which he brought. Athenian convert). Paul
To most of Paul’s hearers, The text of his address to the would be surprised, but no
this talk of a man being Areopagus is engraved ona doubt gratified, could he
raised from the dead was bronze tablet at the foot of know that his visit and
absurd. He probably felt that the ascent to the hill. A preaching have been so well
he had achieved very little in thoroughfare west of the hill remembered.
Athens. A few converts are is called ‘Street of the Apostle
mentioned, but we find no Paul’, and running off it

40
 Corinth
orinth was an ancient rises to a height of 1,900 feet
city of Greece; its name, and served it as a citadel. The
at least, goes back to citadel had an inexhaustible
pre-Greek times. It was water supply in the upper
situated on the Isthmus of spring of Peirene; a lower
Corinth (which was called spring of the same name
after it) — the narrow neck of provided water for the city
land which joins Central itself. Modern Corinth does
Greece to the Peloponnese, not stand on the site of Old
the peninsula which forms
the southern part of
Corinth, but some three miles
to the north; the site of Old
ACHAIA AEGEAN SEA

mainland Greece. By its Corinth therefore is

position it dominated the completely accessible to
north-south land route, and archaeological exploration. Corinth. = Aiers
it was equipped with two In classical Greek times _ Cenchreae
harbours. The western Corinth attained great
harbour, Lechaeon, on the commercial prosperity; its
Gulf of Corinth, name also became proverbial
communicated with the for licentiousness. It was a
central and western centre of the worship of
Mediterranean; the eastern Aphrodite, the goddess of
harbour, Cenchreae love, whose temple stood on
(mentioned in Acts 18:18 and the summit of the
Romans 16:1), communicated Acrocorinthus. At the foot of
with the Aegean Sea and the hill stood the temple of these games the sea-god
through it with the Black Melicertes, the patron of Poseidon was specially
Sea and the eastern seafarers. The Isthmian honoured. Corinth paid
Mediterranean. Games, over which Corinth respect, as Paul put it, to
The ancient city was built presided, and in which all ‘many “gods” and many
on the north side of the hill Greek cities participated, “lords” ‘ (1 Corinthians 8:5).
called Acrocorinthus, which were held every two years. At Greek Corinth was utterly

Right: Cenchreae,
the port of
ancient Corinth.
The Acropolis of
Corinth can be
seen in the
distance (far
right). Paul
embarked at
Cenchreae when
he travelled on
from Corinth to
Ephesus.

41
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

Above: The destroyed by a Roman army

Acrocorinth, with in 146 Bc; this was its
the Lechaion punishment for the leading
Road in the
foreground. This part which it had played ina
road led from the revolt against Rome. The only
centre of the building of importance
ancient city to its surviving from the period
western port on
before that destruction is the
the Gulf of
Corinth. Doric temple of Apollo,
erected in the sixth century
Bc; seven great monolithic
columns of this building still
dominate the site. The city
lay derelict for a century;
then, in 44 sc, it was
refounded as a Roman colony
by Julius Caesar. Roman
Corinth quickly regained the
prosperity which Greek
Corinth had enjoyed. The
main roads and the two
harbours were still at its
Right: The
Fountain of disposal; in addition, a
Peirene, Corinth, railroad of wooden logs,
a natural spring three and a half miles in
of great antiquity length, was laid from west to
which has been
so heavily
east across the Isthmus so
remodelled that that ships might be dragged
it noW appears to on it from the one harbour to
be an artificial the other. This railroad was
fountain. The called the diolkos.
Nater
Since Corinth was a Roman
colony, all its citizens were
Romans. It had many other
residents, both Greeks and

42
 Corinth

‘Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time ... '

Acts 18:18)

Jews, who were not citizens. impossible), it belonged to a probability, to that Erastus
One of Paul’s earliest building which replaced the who is mentioned in Romans
converts in Corinth, Gaius synagogue of Paul’s day. 16:23 as ‘city treasurer’ of
(1 Corinthians 1:14; Romans Another inscription, found Corinth. If this is so, then we
16:23), was probably a Roman in Corinth by American should gather that Erastus
citizen; it is commonly archaeologists in 1929, was performed his duties as aedile
believed that he Is identical engraved on a marble slab; it so well that he was promoted
with the Titius Justus of Acts informs us in Latin that to a higher and more
18:7, and if so, then he bore ‘Erastus, in commemoration responsible of office.
an authentic threefold of his aedileship (curatorship When Paul in 1 Corinthians
Roman name: Gaius Titius of public buildings), laid this 10:25 refers to people in
Justus. pavement at his own Corinth buying meat in the
When Paul first came to expense’. The inscription ‘meat market’, he uses the
Corinth (in the autumn of seems to belong to the first Greek word makellon. This
AD 50), he visited the century AD and refers, in all word has been found in
synagogue and was
permitted, for a few weeks, Left: This
inscription, found
to preach the gospel there,
on a pavement at
expounding the Sabbath Corinth, includes
lessons from the Old the name of
Testament in such a way as to Erastus, the city
treasurer, and
show that they pointed
probably the
forward to Jesus. The official
museum of Old Corinth mentioned in
contains part of a stone lintel Romans 16:23.

Below: Remains of with a Greek inscription

the Doric Temple which, when entire, read
of Apollo, ‘Synagogue of the Hebrews’.
Corinth, the only
If it did not stand over the
major building to
survive the Roman doorway of the very
rebuilding of the synagogue where Paul
city. preached (which is not

43
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

Right: A Roman
relief of a
husband and
wife.

another Corinthian
inscription which indicates
that the meat market was
situated somewhere along
the paved Lechaeon Road.
Many shops and colonnades
have been uncovered by
archaeologists around the
fine square Roman agora
(market-place). In the centre
of the agora is an impressive
stone platform which figures
in the New Testament
narrative. This is the
‘tribunal’ from which Gallio
pronounced judgment when
Paul was accused before him
of propagating an illegal
religion (Acts 18:12-17).
Corinth, in addition to being
Right: A larger
a Roman colony, was the seat
than life-size
marble statue of of administration of the
a barbarian slave Roman province of Achaia.
from Corinth; it is When Gallio was sent from
one of a pair Rome to be proconsul of
which helped
Achaia in AD 51, it was in
support the roof
of a two-storey Corinth that he took up
stoa in the residence. He refused to take
Roman agora. up the case against Paul,
because he concluded that
the dispute was over rival A Turbulent Church arrival in Corinth. But he
interpretations of the Jewish stayed in Corinth for
law. But his judgement, Paul arrived at Corinth ina eighteen months (Acts
though negative, was in mood of dejection and 18:9,10), and when he
effect a favourable one so far apprehension. He had moved on at the end of that
as Paul was concerned; it practically been driven out period, he left behind him a
confirmed his liberty to carry of Macedonia, and his large and gifted, if volatile,
on with his apostolic work. reception in Athens had church. It is plain from his
An adverse judgement would been lukewarm. Corinth had two letters to the
have been a great handicap probably not figured on his Corinthians that the church
to him, for Gallio was an original itinerary, and the which he planted there
important and influential reputation of the city was caused him many a
person, whose verdict would such that he could scarcely headache: it was turbulent
be followed as a precedent expect the gospel ta make and unruly, but it was
by many Roman magistrates much of an impact there. He undoubtedly alive, and
throughout the empire. was greatly in need of the remains so to this day.
heavenly encouragement
which came to him ina
night vision shortly after his

Ad
 Ephesus
phesus stood at the born. The young man who set
mouth of the river fire to it said that he had
Cayster, which flows into done so in order that his
the Aegean Sea. In the days name might go down in
before the Greeks (more history. He achieved his aim,
precisely, the lonians) for if we know nothing else
colonised that part of about him, we know his
western Asia Minor, there name — it was Herostratus.
was a settlement of Carians The magnificent temple
Above: Coin of
the Emperor on the site. These Carians which replaced the one burnt
e Smyrna
Maximus, Abd 235- worshipped the great by Herostratus was one of the
238, depicting the mother-goddess of Asia seven wonders of the ancient - Ephesus
Temple of Artemis Minor and probably called world. It covered an area four
(Diana) at
her Artemis — the name is times as extensive as the
Ephesus.
non-Greek. When the lonian Parthenon in Athens; it was
colonists arrived, they supported by 127 columns,
intermarried with the Carians each of them sixty feet high,
and joined in the worship of and it was adorned by some
their goddess. Artemis first of the greatest sculptors of
appears in art and literature the age. But it disappeared
as the guardian of wild-life. completely; for centuries no
Her temple at Ephesus one knew where it had stood,
housed her image, which was until its site was identified
believed to have ‘fallen from beyond all doubt on the last of a later shrine — the basilica
the sky’ (Acts 19:35). An day of 1869 by J. T. Wood. Its of St. John the Divine,
earlier temple than that foundations were then erected by the Emperor
which stood there in New discovered in a marsh at the Justinian (Ab 527-565). Its
Testament times was burned foot of the hill of Ayasoluk, high altar covers the
down in 356 Bc —- on the very near the town known today traditional tomb of John. The
night, people said, when as Selcuk. On the hill of very name Ayasoluk preserves
Alexander the Great was Ayasoluk stand the remains the apostle’s memory: it is a

Right: The view

from the top tiers
of the great
theatre at
Ephesus, showing
the long, straight
Arcadian Way
leading in the
distance to the
ancient harbour,
long since silted
over.

45
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.’

(Acts 19:28)
Opposite: The
splendidly
restored Library
of Celsus in
Ephesus gives
some idea of the
wonder of the
city in ancient
times.

Right: The view

down the
Arcadian Way,
the magnificent
paved road
leading from the
centre of Ephesus
to the ancient
harbour.

Right: A corruption of the Greek

monumental phrase meaning the ‘holy
gateway near the
Library of Celsus,
divine’.
Ephesus. Roman Ephesus, the city
that Paul knew, stood about
one and a half miles south or
south-west of the temple of
Artemis. Its site is an
archaeologist’s paradise, for
it is unencumbered by any
modern settlement. The
whole area has for many
years been excavated
systematically by Austrian
archaeologists, and as
successive streets and
buildings are uncovered and
restored, they make a
magnificent impression.
In New Testament times
Ephesus was a seaport; the
harbour had to be dredged
continuously to clear it of the
silt washed down by the river
Cayster. As the city decayed,
the harbour was neglected,
and today Ephesus stands
seven miles inland. As one
looks out from the topmost
tiers of the theatre it is
possible to discern the

46
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

Above: It was on outline of the ancient Left: A statue of

this marshy site harbour, almost as in aerial Artemis, the
that the
photography; it is now a many-breasted
renowned goddess, from
Temple of marshy waste at the end of Ephesus.
Artemis (or the paved street called the
Diana) stood in Arcadian Way. To the right of
Paul’s day. One the Arcadian Way, as one
column has been
looks down from the theatre,
reconstructed to
give some stand the twin churches of St.
concept of the Mary, in which the Council of
size of the great Ephesus was held in Ab 431.
edifice. Behind The theatre itself, a vast
can be seen the
citadel, enclosing
open-air auditorium built
the site of the into the western slope of
Basilica of St. Mount Pion, could seat
John. 24,000 people. The civic
assembly regularly met in the
theatre on appointed dates.
The theatre was also the
venue for the very irregular
assembly which Luke
describes in Acts 19:29-41,
when the populace staged a
two-hour demonstration in
honour of ‘Great Artemis of
the Ephesians’ and in
opposition to Paul and his
associates.
There is no evidence that
Paul spoke disparagingly in
public about the great
goddess: in fact, the town
clerk of Ephesus, in the
speech which he made to
quieten the demonstrators in
the theatre, absolved him
and his associates of any such

48
 Ephesus

offence. But every one knew presented a silver image of diminishing of the worship of Above: The
that he did not believe in her, Artemis, together with other Artemis, until at last she was Fountain of
statues, to be set up in the Trajan, Ephesus.
and when he made converts ‘deposed from her
A huge statue of
among the pagans of theatre during a meeting of magnificence’ (Acts 19:27). the Emperor
Ephesus, they abandoned her the civic assembly. Then, centuries later, people originally stood
worship. This naturally caused Demetrius, president of the of yet another faith took in the middle
concern to those whose guild of silversmiths, had possession of the country, section of the
building.
livelihood depended on her reason to be concerned at the and the churches of St. Mary
worship, like the guild of threat to his trade. But his and St. John fell into ruins in
silversmiths, who concern was not purely their turn. But the record of
manufactured prodigious economic: he is described in Paul’s ministry in Ephesus,
souvenirs and amulets, and terms which suggest that he and the two letters to the
miniature replicas of the was one of the twelve Ephesians in the New
goddess in her shrine. Silver members of the ‘vestry’ of Testament — one by Paul, the
reproductions of her image the temple of Artemis. And other from the risen Lord
and terracotta models of her what he feared came to pass through his servant John
temple have been found. An — not immediately, but in the (Revelation 2:1-7) — remain as
inscription of Ap 104, half a course of a few centuries: the a powerful proclamation of
century after Paul’s visit, tells advance of the gospel the Christian gospel.
how a Roman official inevitably meant the We do not know where

49
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

‘Paul has convinced ... large numbers of people here in

Ephesus ... ’ (Acts 19:26)

Right: Statue of Paul lived in Ephesus. The

the god of the Jewish synagogue in which he
river Maeander
beside the
preached during the first few
remains of one of weeks of his stay has not
the huge pools at been located yet, nor is there
Baths of Faustina, any means of identifying the
Miletus, where
school of Tyrannus, where for
Paul said farewell
to the elders of two years he lectured around
the church of midday, when Tyrannus and
Ephesus (Acts his pupils were taking their
2ZOE17): siesta. We know that Paul
was exposed to repeated
dangers during his Ephesian
ministry. On an eminence to
the south of the former
harbour stands a ruin which ts
called ‘St. Paul’s Prison’. It has
no historical title to be so
called, but the tradition that
Paul was imprisoned for a
period while he was in
Ephesus may be well
founded.
Near the Magnesian Gate,
south-east of Mount Pion, an
early Christian shrine has
been identified in a cave,
with graffitiinvoking Paul.
But in Christian tradition the
great name associated with
Ephesus is that of John. Not
only so, but in view of the
statement in John 19:27 that
the beloved disciple took the
mother of Jesus to his own
home after the crucifixion, it
came to be believed that
when he migrated to Ephesus
Right: Ancient she accompanied him. One
sculpture of a
lion, from the
testimony to this belief is
Baths of presented by the twin
Faustina, Miletus. churches of St. Mary already
mentioned: another,
overlooking the site of
Ephesus, is a building From Opposition to and great opposition were
venerated since 1891 as the Opportunity to Paul familiar experiences
house of the Virgin Mary; it in his apostolic work, and
has received no official each was usually
recognition, but has twice in Towards the end of his long accompanied by the other.
recent years been honoured missionary stay in Ephesus, By this stage in his career
by a papal visit. Paul wrote to his friends in Paul had learned how to
Corinth, promising to pay turn opposition into
them a visit soon, but, he opportunity, and so
added, ‘I will stay in thoroughly did he prosecute
Ephesus until Pentecost, for his ministry in Ephesus that
a wide door for effective Christianity persisted in that
work has opened to me, part of Asia Minor for
and there are many centuries after the Turkish
adversaries’ (1 Corinthians conquest, and disappeared
16:8,9). He was writing only with the wholesale
probably about Easter (in AD exchange of Greek and
55), and he had been in Turkish populations which
Ephesus for two and a half followed the Graeco-Turkish
years. Great opportunities war of 1923.

50
 Caesarea
aesarea Maritima — the Zenon papyri, a collection
Caesarea-on-Sea, as we of documents from an
might say — was built by Egyptian finance officer (at
Herod the Great between 22 that time Palestine belonged
and 9 gc to serve as an to the kingdom of the
adequate seaport on the Egyptian Ptolemies).
Mediterranean coast of Excavations at Caesarea
Judea. There was an earlier completed since 1959 have
settlement there, with a revealed something of the
Below: View fortification called Straton’s magnificent scale of Herod’s
along the top of Tower, called after a Sidonian buildings, but most
the Roman
ruler who flourished about impressive of all was the
aqueduct, built to
convey water to 330 Bc. We know that a great artificial harbour,
the ancient port harbour of sorts had been enclosed by two massive
of Caesarea constructed there by 259 Bc, stone breakwaters. These
Maritima. for it is mentioned in one of were examined in 1960 by the - MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Link Mission for Underwater

Exploration, and it was
established that they
enclosed a semicircular area
of about three and a half
acres. Josephus describes the
huge blocks of stone which
were let down into twenty
fathoms of water to serve as
foundations for the
breakwaters. The entry to the
harbour was from the north-
west. The harbour
installations were on a scale
appropriate to such an
engineering masterpiece. An
earthquake in Ab 130 caused
considerable damage to the
structures.
Two parallel aqueducts
conveyed water to Caesarea —
one of Herod's period,
bringing water from springs
on the southern slope of
Carmel, and a later one
bringing a further supply
from the Crocodile River,
about six miles north of
Caesarea.
Herod called the city
Caesarea, after his patron
Caesar Augustus. A fine
temple in the emperor's
house, probably dedicated to
‘Rome and Augustus’, was
erected on an artificial
mound of stone, fifty feet
high, facing the harbour. The

51
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

‘King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to pay

their respects to Festus ... ’ (Acts 25:13)

Opposite: The
well-preserved
Roman aqueduct
at Caesarea
Maritima.

Right: A view of
the harbour at
Caesarea from
the Roman
theatre.

Right: Part of the royal palace also stood on

warehouse this mound. The vaulted
oul etea chambers which supported
oMmal Narpoge
at Caesarea.
the mound are still to be seen
today.
In the southern part of the
city Herod built a theatre
facing the sea. This was
excavated about 1960 by
Italian archaeologists. Its
acoustic properties can
readily be tested; they bear
witness to the skill with
which it was constructed. One
stone found there contains
part of a Latin inscription in
which Pontius Pilate, ‘prefect
of Judea’ (AD 26-36), is said to
have dedicated a public
building in honour of the
Emperor Tiberius (AD 14-37).
Balowe Cain OF During a later reconstruction
the Procurator of the theatre the stone was
Pontius Pilate. built into the steps; the
reconstructors did not realise
how important the
inscription would be for
future archaeologists.
Further east from the
theatre, Herod built a
hippodrome, while to the
north of the city there was an

ae
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

Right: The amphitheatre, used for

Roman theatre at athletic sports and for
Caesarea has
been restored,
gladiatorial and wild beast
and Is in use shows.
again today for The history of Caesarea
concerts. continues into Byzantine and
Crusader times. Among
Byzantine buildings are
successive synagogues of the
fourth and fifth century
(probably on the site where
the Herodian synagogue
stood) and a Christian
building (apparently not a
church) which contained a
statue of the good shepherd
and a mosaic showing a
quotation from Romans 13:3.
Caesarea in New Testament
times was a predominantly
Gentile city, though it had a
considerable Jewish
population. When Judea
became a Roman province in
AD 6 and was administered by
a succession of governors
appointed by the emperor,
the governors took up
residence in Caesarea. When
public order required their
presence in Jerusalem, as at
the great pilgrimage festivals,
they moved there; but
normally they felt more at
home in Caesarea. There the
royal palace that Herod had
Right: An built for himself served as possible, so some of them
inscription, their residence. In Acts 23:35 escorted him to Caesarea and
found at
it is called ‘Herod's put him on board a ship
Caesarea, which
mentions Pontius praetorium’ (praetorium bound for his native Tarsus.
Pilate, who tried being a technical term for the As they watched its sails
Jesusin commander-in-chief's disappear over the horizon,
Jerusalem. they probably breathed a
headquarters). The governors
of Judea who figure in the sigh of relief. ‘Then the
New Testament — Pilate, Felix, church had peace,’ writes
Festus — all resided here. As Luke (Acts 9:31).
the governors were supreme Paul was not the only
commanders of the Roman apostle to visit Caesarea;
military forces in the Peter went there on at least
province, detachments of one occasion, when he was
Roman troops were regularly sent to preach the gospel to
stationed in Caesarea. the Roman centurion
When Paul paid a brief visit Cornelius, a non-
to Jerusalem in the third year commissioned officer of the
after his conversion to make Augustan cohort (Acts 10:1-8).
the acquaintance of two It was in Caesarea that
leaders of the mother-church, Herod Agrippa the elder
Peter and James, his presence (grandson of the city’s
in the city became known to founder) was making a public
his enemies. His new friends oration at a festival in
therefore judged that it honour of the Emperor
would be best for his safety — Claudius when he was
and no doubt for theirs — if suddenly attacked by severe
he left Jerusalem as soon as internal pains which ended

54
 Caesarea

custody by the Roman army Above: Some of

in Jerusalem, to save him the columns from
from being beaten to death the ancient
harbour of
by a hostile mob in the Caesarea can be
temple precincts, and when seen here,
the commanding officer in embedded in the
the Antonia fortress harbour walls.
discovered that he was a
Roman citizen, he decided to
send him for safety to
Caesarea. To Caesarea, then,
he sent him under armed
guard to Felix (Roman
governor of Judea from Ap
52-59). There Paul was kept in
Top: The entrance only with his death five days each place to which he came, Herod's praetorium for two
to Myra harbour, later (AD 44). The incident is until he arrived in Caesarea years, until Felix was replaced
where Paul was recorded by Luke (Acts 12:21- (Acts 8:4-40). There he as governor by Festus. Then,
transferred to a
ship of 23) and, in rather greater appears to have settled down fearing that Festus’
Alexandria, detail, by Josephus. and raised a family; when inexperience might expose
poosibly an When Paul completed his Paul and his companions him to his enemies in
African grain ship last voyage from Greece to visited him they were Jerusalem all over again, Paul
(Acts 27:6).
Palestine, together with a impressed by Philip’s four exercised his privilege as a
Bottom: A view number of companions from daughters, each one a Roman citizen and appealed
towards the his Gentile mission-field (Luke prophetess. Many years later, to have his case transferred
harbour of Fair among them), he arrived at when these daughters were to the tribunal of the
Havens, Crete, Caesarea and there the party old ladies, they lived at emperor in Rome. It was at
where it was
spent several days in the Hierapolis in Phrygia and Caesarea, on the eve of his
suggested that
Paul's ship should house of Philip the were much sought after as being sent to Rome, that Paul
shelter from the evangelist. Twenty years informants about persons and had the opportunity of giving
worst of the previously Philip, after his events in the early church. an account of his conversion
winter storms. mission in Samaria and his Paul and his friends then and ministry before Herod
fruitful meeting on the Gaza left Caesarea for Jerusalem, Agrippa the younger (son of
road with the royal treasurer but in less than two weeks that Herod Agrippa who had
from Ethiopia, travelled north Paul was back in Caesarea, met a sudden death in
along the Mediterranean through no choice of his own. Caesarea fifteen years
coastal road, evangelising He was taken into protective before).

55
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

MALTA
Fair Havens

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Right: St. Paul’s

Bay, Malta, the
traditional site of
the Apostle’s
shipwreck.

Right: A Roman During Paul’s imprisonment administration and even by

ship leaving
in Caesarea (AD 57-59), the authorities in Rome
harbour,
depicted on an tension between the Gentile played its part in fostering
ancient lamp. and Jewish populations of the the anti-Roman feeling
city increased to the point among the Jews of Judea
where outbreaks of violence which came to a head in the
took place between the two revolt of AD 66.
communities. The ineptitude
with which this trouble was
handled by the provincial

56
 Rome
ome was in Paul's day Latium, then the greater part
the greatest city in the of Italy, then Sicily and
world, dominating the Sardinia, and so, after
whole Mediterranean area, conquering the rival city of
with all Europe west of the Carthage in modern Tunisia,
Rhine and south of the to the mastery of the
Danube, and all south- Mediterranean world. ITALY
western Asia west of the As this empire extended,
Euphrates. citizenship of Rome was not
It is difficult for us, in this confined to freeborn natives
day of great super-powers, to of the capital: it was e Rome
realise how a single city could conferred, judiciously, on
create for itself a power-base people in the provinces who
from which it could control a had served Roman interests in * Puteoli Brindisi «
great part of the known some outstanding way, and
world. Yet history knows of once a man received Roman
many such cities, and Rome is citizenship, all his
the best known of all. descendants inherited the
Below: A general honour. Paul, a native of the
Rome originated as a group
view looking
of pastoral hill-settlements in province of Cilicia, was born a
south-east from
the Capitoline Hill the plain of Latium in Italy, Roman citizen (Acts 22:28),
over the forum of on the left bank of the Tiber, which means that his father
ancient Rome. The about fifteen miles upstream must have been one before
great Colosseum,
from the mouth of the river. him. SICILY
built after Paul’s
time, can be seen These settlements combined It was only after many
in the to form a city, which by years of apostolic activity in
background. stages dominated the plain of the eastern provinces of the

57
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

‘And so we came to Rome... '

(Acts 28:14)

Right: The Roman Empire that Paul at

massive walls of last had the opportunity of
ne SSS SH
ome, built to
visiting ansthe city of : which he
house spectacular Wasa citizen by birth. He had
games and set out for it more than once
contests for the before, but had always been
Roman public. side-tracked. When he first
came to Philippi and
Thessalonica, he found
himself on the Egnatian Way,
which ran west to the Adriatic
coast, from which there was a
short sea-crossing to Brindisi
in Italy, and from there the
Appian Way led to Rome.
Perhaps even then he had
some idea of following this
route, but he was prevented
from doing so, and turned
south instead of proceeding
west. Nearly ten years later he
Beloombarr ar achieved his ambition of mt ke
ae

the Imperial seeing Rome, but in a way

Forum, Rome. which he could not have

:
s|

:I
3
=|
ze
&

58
 Rome

when Christianity was first

brought to Rome. Priscilla and
Aquila, who were among the
Jews expelled from Rome by
the Emperor Claudius in ap
49, met Paul in Corinth next
year and became his firm and
lifelong friends. Yet he never
speaks of them as though
they were converts of his, and
the probability is that they
were members of the
primitive Christian community
in Rome before they were
forced to leave the city.
Having arrived in Rome,
then, Paul spent the next two
years there, ‘in his own hired
house’, as the AV says — not
an exact translation, perhaps,
but one that spells out what
is really meant by the RSV ‘at
his own expense’. Where he
stayed in Rome we can only
guess — possibly on the third
floor of a tenement, where
the rent would be cheaper.
He was not free to come and
go as he chose, because he
was constantly handcuffed to
a soldier. The soldier was
relieved by a comrade every
few hours, but there was no

Above: The foreseen. He came to Rome as Left: The Roman

Mamertine Prison, a prisoner, under military forum, viewed
Rome, built some from the Palatine
guard, to stand his trial
2500 years ago, Hill. On the far
and probably before the emperor, to whose left is the Capitol
where the Apostle jurisdiction he had appealed Hill; three
was imprisoned. from the provincial court in remaining pillars
of the Temple of
Judea.
Castor and Pollux
By the time Paul reached can also be seen.
Rome (early in AbD 60) there Behind the Arch
were many Christians there. of Septimius
Three years previously Paul Severus may be
seen the entrance
had written a letter to the to the Mamertine
Christians in Rome (presented Prison.
in our New Testament as the
Letter to the Romans) to
prepare them for his
projected visit — which at that
time he hoped to pay as a
free agent. When at last he
was being taken to the city
along the final stages of the
Appian Way, some Roman
Christians walked out along
the road for thirty or forty
miles to greet him and escort
him for the remainder of his
journey. The sight of these
friends brought Paul much
encouragement.
It is impossible to be sure

5g
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

Above: The such relief for Paul.

Appian Way, the Visitors to Rome are shown
main route
followed by Paul
the Mamertine prison, north-
on his journey to west of the Roman forum, as
Rome. the place where both Paul
and Peter spent their last days
in the condemned cell. If
there is any truth in this
tradition, so far as Paul is
concerned, it must refer to a
later phase than the two
years of Acts 28:30. That Paul
was ultimately condemned to
death and led out for
execution by the third
milestone along the Ostian
Way is reasonably certain,
although there is no record of
this in the New Testament.
The traditional site of his
Opposite: The
Arch of Titus, execution by the sword may
built to be seen today in the monastic
commemorate enclosure of Tre Fontane; the
the Emperor's great basilica of St. Paul
victories in the
East.
Outside the Walls covers the
traditional site of his tomb.
Right: Within the The present basilica,
arch is a famous completed in 1854, replaces a
relief depicting magnificent fourth-century
Roman soldiers
aring Jewish structure, which was
phies from accidentally burned down in
salem 1823. In the first century the

60
 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul

‘Boldly he preached the kingdom of God

(Acts 28:31)

Right: Part of the area was a public burial-

garden of the ground; so, incidentally, was
Abbey of Three
Fountains, three
the area covered by St. Peter's
miles outside in Vatican City, where the
Rome on the apostle Peter is (with good
Ostian Way. By reason) believed to have been
tradition, this is buried.
the site of Paul’s
execution, during
As today we view the
Nero's monuments of imperial Rome,
persecution of we have to remind ourselves
Christians. that some of the most
familiar of them were not
there in the apostles’ time.
The Roman Forum was there,
and the Sacred Way ran
through it, but there was no
Arch of Titus at the east end
nor Arch of Septimus Severus
at the west end. The best
known of Roman monuments,
the Colosseum, was begun
ten or twelve years after
Paul's death.
On the other hand, Paul
saw much that cannot be seen
today. He saw the city as it four years after Paul’s arrival, victimisation of the Christians
had been restored by the the great fire of Rome broke of Rome. Tradition assures us
Emperor Augustus (27 Bc — AD out (in July, AD 64) and that Peter and Paul were the
4), who boasted that he had destroyed a good part of the most distinguished victims of
‘found a city of brick and left city. As is well known, the fire this persecution, but it
a city of marble’. Just over was followed by Nero's certainly claimed as martyrs a
Right: St. Paul
Outside the
Walls, the great
basilica built over
the traditional
site of the
Apostle’s burial.

ee a
i IN
.
 Rome

Left: A simple
inscription in one
of the catacombs
in Rome.

great number of ordinary deposited at a deeper level. Left: Sculpted

Christians who have left The soft tufa limestone of the head of the
behind no name. district around Rome was Emperor Nero.
As Paul first approached rather easily tunnelled, and
Rome by the Appian Way, he galleries were driven through
saw by the roadside some it lined with recesses in which
monuments which survive, if the dead were placed. None
only in a ruined condition, to of the Christian catacombs of
our own day - the tomb of Rome goes back to New
Cecilia Metella, for example, Testament times, but the
and, nearer the city, the tomb earliest go back to the second
of the Scipios. As he was led century. One of the earliest is
out of the city along the the Cemetery of Priscilla on
Ostian Way he would have the Via Salaria, but what
seen the pyramid of Gaius connection it has with Paul’s
Cestius (but the wall of friend of that name is
Aurelian, into which it is now uncertain.
built, is 200 years later than
Paul’s time).
There was a large Jewish
population in Rome in Paul’s
Babylon the Great impending destruction of
‘Babylon the great’ is
time; almost as many Jews
The book of the Revelation described. But what
lived in Rome as normally
was written against the happened? The empire
lived in Jerusalem. No
background of the ultimately capitulated to the
synagogue of the period has
persecution of Christians by church, and Rome became a
yet been identified in Rome
the Roman Empire. Rome is great Christian metropolis.
(a synagogue in Ostia, the
prominent in the book, but John’s Master taught that
port of ancient Rome, was the best way to destroy an
not by name. She is referred
excavated in 1963). But six enemy is to turn him into a
to as ‘Babylon the great’,
Jewish catacombs or friend, and John might have
situated on seven hills, ‘the
underground burial areas
great city which has been surprised, but not
have been discovered around displeased, could he have
dominion over the kings of
Rome, and from inscriptions foreseen that, 250 years
the earth’ (Revelation 14:8).
in these we know the names after his day, the
In language similar to that
of eleven Roman synagogues. persecuting city would
used by Old Testament
The ordinary Romans of this embrace the faith which
prophets to proclaim the
period cremated their dead, once it tried to exterminate.
downfall of oppressive
but Jews (and, in due course,
powers in their days, the
Christians) buried theirs, and
so the bodies had to be

63
 Index
St. Paul’s Cave (Mount Silpius)
22
St. Paul Outside the Walls
(Rome) 60, 62
St. Stephen’s Gate (Jerusalem)
18
Page numbers in italics Fountain of Peirene (Corinth) Stoa of Attalus (Athens) 38,
denote illustrations 42 39
Fountain of Trajan (Ephesus) ‘Street called Straight’
49 (Damascus) 11
Abbey of Three Fountains
(near Rome) 62 Galatia 24-30 Tarsus 7-9, 6, 8
Acrocorinth 41, 42 Gallio 44 Taurus Mountains 7, 9
Acropolis (Athens) 36, 38 Gozlu Ktle (near Tarsus) 9 Temple of Artemis (Ephesus)
Alaettin Camii (Islamic 45, 46, 45
monument, Iconium) 28 Herod Agrippa 54, 55 Thessalonica 34, 35, 34
Ananias 13 Herod the Great 51, 52, 54 Tyropoeon Valley (Jerusalem)
Antakya, see Antioch Hierapolis (statue from) 29 15716
Antalya, see Attalia
Antioch 19-23, 19, 20, 23 Iconium 28, 27, 28 Picture Acknowledgements
Antioch-on-Cydnus, see Imperial Forum (Rome) 58,
Tarsus 60 Jamie Simson: pp. 12, 13, 14, 31, 32,
44
Antioch-on-the-Orontes, see
Ancient Art & Architecture
Antioch Jerusalem 15-18, 6, 75-18
Collection: p. 7
Appian Way 58-60, 63 John 50
Maurice S. Thompson (Bible Scene):
Arcadian Way 45, 46 pp. 6 (top), 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 19, 20,
Arch of Galerius (Egnatian Kavalla, see Neapolis IX\, Pp), We}, PYAY Ney (toto), Pf, Sie}, BY, SYS.
Way) 34 Konya, see Iconium 36, 38 (top), 39 (bottom), 41, 42, 43,
Arch of Titus (Rome) 67 45 (bottom), 48 (top), 51, 52 (top), 54
Areopagus (Athens) 39, 40 Lake Beysehir 27 (bottom) 55 (top and bottom left),
Artemis (of Ephesus) 46, 48, Lechaion Road (Corinth) 44, 56, 58 (bottom), 59, 60 (top), 62, 63,
49, 48 42 front cover
NESOS PS 35 Library of Celsus (Ephesus) Tiger Design Ltd: All remaining
photographs
Athene (statue of) 40 46, 47
Athens 36-40, 5, 36-39 Lystra 28, 30
Attalia 24, 25 In the Steps of the Apostle Paul
by F.F. Bruce
Ayasoluk (Ephesus) 45 Macedonia 31-35 Copyright © 1995 by Angus Hudson
Malta 56 Ltd/Tim Dowley & Peter Wyart trading as
Three’s Company
Barada river 717 Mamertine Prison (Rome) 60,
Barnabas 6, 22, 26, 28, 30 59 All rights reserved. No part of this book
Mount Silpius 27 may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
Baths of Faustina (Miletus)
system, or transmitted in any form or by
50 any means—electronic, mechanical,
Nabataean Arabs 10, 11, 13 photocopy, recording, or otherwise,
without permission in writing from the
Caesarea 51-56, 51-55 Neapolis 32, 37 publisher, except for brief quotations in
Cenchreae 417 printed reviews.
Chapel of Ananias (Damascus) Orontes river 19, 20, 22 Published in 1995 by Kregel Publications, a
13 Ostian Way 60, 63, 62 division of Kregel Inc., P. O. Box 2607,
Grand Rapids, MI 49501. Kregel
Church of the Holy Sepulchre Publications provides trusted, biblical
(Jerusalem) 17 Parthenon (Athens) 36, 36, publications for Christian growth and
Ciltciaw/ 38 service. Your comments and suggestions
are valued.
Cilician Gates (Taurus Paul (mosaic of) 7
Mountains) 9 Perga 25, 30 This text originally appeared as part of
Places They Knew: Jesus and Paul (1981)
Cleopatra’s Arch (Tarsus) 8 Peter 54, 62 and is used here by kind permission of
Colosseum (Rome) 58 Philip 55 Scripture Union Publishing
Corinth 41-44, 42, 43 Philippi 32-34, 32, 33 Designed and created by
Crete 55 Pisidian Antioch 26, 27, 26 Three’s Company
Cyprus 23 Propylaea (Athens) 36, 37 5 Dryden Street,
London WC2E 9NW

Damascus 10-14, 10-14 Qumran community Library of Congress Cataloging-in-

Publication Data
Damascus Gate (Jerusalem) 6, (Damascus) 11, 12 Bruce, F.F. (Frederick Fyvie), 1910-1990
16 In the steps of the Apostle Paul/F.F. Bruce.
p. cm.
Daphne (near Antioch) 20, 27 Rome 57-63, 57-63 Includes index.
Derbe 30 1. Paul, the Apostle, Saint—Journeys—
Mediterranean Region. 2. Mediterranean
Doric Temple of Apollo Salonika, see Thessalonica
Region—Description and travel. |. Title.
(Corinth) 43 Seleucia Pieria 19, 23 BS2506.B746 1995
Silas 25 225.9'1—dc20 95-9694
CIP
Egnatian Way 32-34, 58, 33 ISBN 0-8254-2254-x (hardcover)
Ephesus 45-50, 45-49 St. Mary churches (Ephesus) 2345 Printing/Year 99 98 97
48-50 Printed in Singapore

64
 aurice $. Thompson
has built up an
extensive
photographic library,
drawing on the results of
numerous visits to the
Middle East to photograph
sites of interest to Bible
readers. In 1979 he set up
Bible Scene Slide Tours to
illustrate the history,
geography and customs of
Bible lands. He is pictured
here with his wife, Joan,
companion on his many
photographic trips.

he colour photographs
7: this book have been
specially selected to
illustrate Professor Bruce’s
text, which aims to present
a clear picture of the lands
and towns where the
Apostle taught and where
Christianity began.
 OA Sn

IN THE STEPS OF THE ®

APOSTLE PAUL
I
| A full-colour guide to
the towns and lands
y
'

that Paul knew — and

f)
|
|

where Christianity
came to birth.

A frequent visitor to
Bible lands, Professor
Bruce takes the reader
B to most of the different
= places that we know
i Paul visited during his
missionary journeys.

| Paul’s extensive travels

— took him through the
~~ Roman Empire around
" the Mediterranean Sea;
_ this book helps us
_ envisage the places he
visited, and so
| understand better the
is
| Bible story.
| >
eAa
1

mt
x )

ISBN 0-8254-ee254=xX w
90000> re)

9 '780825!422546 | :