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During all three of the famous missionary journeys of 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, and are now chapters of the new testament.

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 then about 50 A.D.

The meeting of Apostle Paul, Apostle Peter, and Apostle John

First Paul and Barnabas had a private meeting with the apostles Peter, James and John, in which they compared their missions and what they were preaching, and concluded they were acting in accord with each other.

Paul felt supported in his belief that Gentile converts didn't require circumcision. While he was in Jerusalem, there was a determined effort on the part of Jewish Christians to have his new colleague Titus, circumcised, which Paul firmly resisted.

Next came a council of the apostles, the purpose of which was to settle disputes over how much of Jewish law Christians were required to uphold. At the meetings Apostle Paul opposed the circumcision of Jewish Christians, repeating his belief that the ritual would make Christianity a Jewish sect.

A strong point was made of the success of his missions, and how that success depended in part on the confidence of Gentiles that they wouldn't be required to follow Jewish traditions.

In the end, the council decided that the missionary should continue without pressure on Gentiles to adopt Jewish ways.

Apostle Paul would continue his missionary work, using Antioch as a base. Peter would continue his missionary work among Jews, using Jerusalem as a base.

The issue of Judaism would rise again and again, however - throughout his life, Paul had to persevere in his efforts to prevent Jewish tradition from altering the Christian religion along its own natural lines of development.

Rules for Gentile converts

He was asked to bear in mind, the sensitivity of Jewish converts in Jerusalem. Antioch also received a letter that included some minimal rules for Gentile converts:

• They could not eat meat obtained in pagan sacrifices;
• They could eat only kosher meat according to Jewish custom; and
• They were expected to observe restrictions on sexual relationships established by Jewish religious law.

It's believed that Paul the Apostle never saw the contents of this letter and that it arrived when he was out of the area on missionary work and had ceased to have close contact with Antioch.

Jewish Law and Gentile converts

Saint Peter supported Paul's view of not imposing Jewish law on Gentile converts. When Peter visited Antioch, Paul insisted on disregarding the law that forbade Jews to eat with Gentiles, and all the members of his community, Jew and Gentile alike, sat down to share a meal.

Peter had no difficulty joining in. But when hard-line members of the Jewish congregation from Jerusalem arrived, Peter backed off from the mixed meals, and so did Barnabas.

Both Paul and Peter had assumed the purity laws wouldn't be allowed to interfere with fellowship at the tables, but the Jerusalem visitors applied vigorous pressure, and they were forced to relent.

If they didn't, it seemed the Jerusalem contingent would demand a split into two groups, and that any return to unity would then depend on meeting their demands that Gentiles obey all Jewish law.

During this visit, Paul insisted on sticking to his own understanding of the agreements reached in Jerusalem, and eventually the visitors left.

As a point of interest, the problem was resolved when Peter had a vision in which he was told to eat foods that Jewish law said were unclean. Peter proclaimed as he understood the vision, "of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons."