Paul’s travels during his second journey to spread the news of the gospel of Jesus Christ covered much of the known ancient world. Over the course of his ministry, he traveled more than 10,000 miles, establishing at least 14 different churches. Paul’s journeys play a critical role in the formation and development of the early Christian church.
The Book of Acts records three separate missionary journeys of the man known as the “Apostle to the Gentiles.” Parts of the New Testament seem to hint at other events and places visited by Paul. Scholars debate that Paul may have taken a fourth, or even fifth, journey after the close of the book of Acts.
Acts follows Paul’s journeys through Syria, Turkey, Greece and several other regions that are no longer in existence. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between ancient cities, provinces and regions. Occasionally several names are used to describe the same area. In other instances, the same name may describe a city and a region.
Paul took trips, but they could hardly be called “vacations.” Each journey was rough and challenging. Listen to how Paul describes the experiences:
23-27 I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.
28-29 And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut (2 Corinthians 5:23-29 MESSAGE).
Paul’s second journey started with the thought to return to the cities of the first journey. “Let’s go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord as see how they are doing (Acts 15:36 NIV). Considering the troubles that Paul had endured on the first journey, Paul would have been concerned that Jewish influences came to stir trouble, that Roman officials may have stepped in and imprisoned some of the believers, or that their understanding of the Scriptures may have been confused or weak.
But before they could begin the journey, a disagreement arose between Paul and Barnabas. The Greek word that is used for “disagreement” has an interesting flavor. Most theologians see this as such a disagreement that Barnabas and Paul’s friendship was broken. Many see them as having a sharp and bitter conflict between them.
The verb form of the Greek word means “to sharpen,” and was used to describe the process of sharpening knives and other tools. The noun form – which is found here – came to mean “a sharp difference of opinion.” The sharpness did not refer to how they treated one another, as they “fought like cats and dogs.” Rather it referred to their opinions and the disagreement: they were “miles apart.”
Can you disagree with someone without being mad at them?
The culture today has difficulty understanding this concept. When we disagree strongly, it is assumed that we will no longer be friends. It is easy to read that into what happened with Paul and Barnabas because they went their separate ways. As far as we know, the two never traveled together again.
What we do know is that later in Paul’s life, he writes, “Only Luke has stayed with me. Mark can be very helpful to me, so please find him and bring him with you” (2 Timothy 4:11 CEV). Perhaps old age softened Paul’s heart, or maybe he was never as mad and upset with Mark as we read into the passage.
Mark had been with them on the first journey and something along the way caused him to return home (Acts 13:13). Most commentators assume that Mark got homesick and wanted to return home. It is difficult to imagine that Paul would be so unforgiving and petty that he would chose to part company with such a close companion as Barnabas – someone to whom Paul owes much of his Christian experience (Acts 9:27-30; Acts 11:22-26).
Could their disagreement have been something deeper, something physical or maybe even spiritual? Might Paul have been wanting to spare John Mark from enduring the pain again – since they were going back to the very same area?
Something happened before Mark left that changed things. Let’s look at the Acts 13:13 verse again where Mark leaves.
Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, (Acts 13:13 ESV)
Almost 75 English translations render the Greek “Paul and his companions” or “company” or “those with Paul.” A new sentence then describes John Mark leaving the group. The Greek gives just a little different flavor to the setting.
οἱ περὶ Παῦλον – οἱ (hoy, the ones) περὶ (peree, around, peri- is the word from which we get “perimeter”) Παῦλον (Paul). The ones around Paul.
The passage contrasts those around Paul – the circle – with John who is now outside the circle. It is an image that speaks to people not being on the same page in beliefs and thus in actions. Something happened before John Mark left. Let’s read the passage before.
So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord (Acts 13:4-12 ESV).
The team was on the island of Cyprus. Their plans may have been to preach the gospel on the island and then return home. In this passage we are introduced to two men who may have changed the circumstances and the mission in the eyes of John Mark.
Mention is made of Elymas a Jewish sorcerer who was also a false prophet. The terms “Jewish” and “sorcerer” are usually not found together, as Jews were prohibited from practicing magic and such behavior. The fact that he was also a false prophet and also named “Bar-Jesus” probably also speak to his strong Judaistic teachings, a problem that plagued Paul throughout his journeys.
Perhaps John Mark had particular problems with this individual. While Mark most likely would not have leaned toward Law-keeping, there may have been something that developed in this area that made John Mark’s position differ.
Sergius Paulus is the proconsul in the area. According to Strabo, a geographer and historian, Cyprus was a senatorial province of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. This meant that the entire Roman senate appointed a proconsul to rule the island each year. Other ancient records show that the capital of Cyprus was the city of Paphos, which was also its religious center.
Several inscriptions have been found connecting the name Sergius Paulus and the area. Many of the findings give the appearance that Sergius Paulus was a man of both prominence and wealth. One stone connects the man with Pisidian Antioch as his hometown.
The great Galatians scholar William Ramsay connects Perga, Mark’s hasty departure and the quick travel to Pisidian Antioch. Ramsay also connects the time with Paul’s infirmity of the flesh (Galatians 4:13-14). Ramsay concludes the infirmity was malaria. Paul had to leave the hot, mosquito infested low-lands to a higher area without delay. Nearby Antioch rests at about 3600 feet above sea level.
Did Mark also fall to the disease and have to be sent home? Was there another ailment which made him severely at risk? Could that have also been the reason Paul did not want to have Mark return to the same area on the second journey? While the answers are speculation, it opens up a wider range of possible explanations for the strong reaction by the Apostle.
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