Missionary Journey of the Apostle Paul

Missionary Journeys of the Apostle Paul and the epistles

During all the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul, he kept in touch which the churches he'd established along the way, by sending them letters, called "epistles". Many of these epistles have been preserved.

The letters from the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul date from a period between 50 and 60 A.D. and are the earliest books of the New Testament. In his letters, Apostle Paul rallied his followers on in times of discouragement and persecution, and instructed the communities he'd founded in ethical behavior, offering advice and correcting their failures.

The First missionary journey of the Apostle Paul

The first extended missionary journey of the Apostle Paul occurred when Paul was probably in his 40's. He sailed out on a ship with Barnabas and Barnabas' cousin Mark (the same Mark of the second book in the New Testament), but Mark returned home only part way through. Apostle Paul and Barnabas continued, first establishing churches on the island of Cyprus and then on the coast of Asia Minor. At the time of Apostle Paul 's first mission, Greek and Roman religions were beginning to lose their appeal and people were ready for a new faith. Paul the Apostle preached a sermon in a synagogue on this trip that was said to be an especially superb presentation of the Christian faith to a Jewish audience.

How many converts from this journey were Jews and how many were Gentiles is unknown, but the Apostle Paul had special appeal to Gentiles because he didn't require circumcision or observance of the Jewish law. Therefore Gentiles felt free to flock to the synagogues to hear him speak. In some places the new congregations may have been almost entirely Gentile.

At the end of the first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul, Paul returned to Antioch, where he found that an order had been sent from Jerusalem insisting that all Gentile converts be circumcised. This triggered the second missionary journey of the Apostle Paul to Jerusalem, which Paul said was inspired by a revelation. He took with him Barnabas Titus, and a Gentile Paul had added to his missionary team. The year was now about 50 A.D.

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