Antioch's Jewish communities were as old as the city itself. Jews who had fought on behalf of the city's Hellenistic founder had been invited to the city as citizens, and given rights and privileges to accommodate their religion. Roman leaders extended these privileges, but it is unclear how secure the communities that welcomed Paul and Barnabas would have been. Even before Paul's arrival, Antioch seems to have received Jewish followers of Jesus. And according to the Book of Acts, these Jews were already spreading the message of Jesus as Messiah among the Gentiles of the city as well. A major crisis struck the Jewish communities throughout the Empire in the year 40, while Paul was in Antioch. Caligula, now emperor, had decreed that a statue of himself be erected in the Jerusalem Temple. Nothing could be more offensive. Over a year of resistance and diplomacy diffused the situation, and the plan died with Caligula in 41.
Modern Antakya is the capital of Hatay province, Turkey. Apart from some sections of ancient walls and aqueduct, the ancient city of Antioch has been superceded by the modern city. However, the Archeological museum has one of the best collections of late Roman mosaics in the world. South of Antakya is Daphne, where Romans built villas and gardens in a suburb of Antioch. The natural spring was a sanctuary to Apollo, and the site of many myths, including the Judgment of Paris and the nymph Daphne's escape from Apollo. In the port city of Seleucia Pieria, there is a tunnel built by Vespasian and Titus to divert the Orontes River and minimize flood damage.
After establishing their Antioch base, Paul and Barnabas reached out to other cities in the conviction that greater numbers of believers would hasten the Messiah's return. The account of these missions in the Book of Acts includes stories of miracles, successes and failures. In several cases, Acts finds the missionaries being chased out of town by angry crowds, or subject to attempted stonings. Their first mission took them to Cyprus, along the coast of Modern Turkey, and then inland as far as Galatia. Although travel was difficult, and he sometimes met hostility, Paul would devote the rest of his life to missionary work, establishing and guiding congregations according to his vision. He would log thousands of miles over land and sea, and face opposition from friends and foes alike. On this first mission, Paul and Barnabas concentrated on delivering their message to the synagogues, although they also welcomed gentiles to join their cause.
Leaving Antioch, Paul and Barnabas would have traveled down the Orontes and boarded a ship in Seleucia Pieria, the port city at the river's mouth on the Mediterranean. It is likely that they would have found passage on a cargo ship. Passenger ships were few, and it was common for cargo ships to take on passengers as their loads allowed. Travel was surprisingly common in the Roman period. Although subject to storms and seasons, travel by sea was often safer, faster, more comfortable and less expensive than travel by land. Piracy had been suppressed in the Mediterranean for over a century by the time Paul took his mission to sea, but banditry along the roads continued. Ships were crowded with cargo such as wine and oil in large clay jugs called amphorae, grain, spices and nuts, and bolts of cloth. Ships usually hugged the coast and made frequent stops at port cities along the way. The first stop for Paul and Barnabas was Cyprus.
Acts claims that Barnabas was a Cypriot by birth, but his heritage goes unremarked during the account of their visit. Starting in Salamis, they traveled from synagogue to synagogue across the length of the island. Cyprus had a small but well established Jewish community. Ties to mainland Palestine had been preserved since the time the island was a Phoenician territory. Like the Jews, the Phoenicians were a Semitic people. They had a long and noteworthy history as sea-traders who had controlled the Mediterranean until the conquests of Alexander. Cyprus was annexed to Rome in 58 BCE, not for strategic or commercial interests, but because the island's ruler had offered pirates too small a ransom for the release of a captive Roman. Movement between Cyprus and the coastal cities to the East was common, and Paul and Barnabas might have met fellow believers who had fled Jerusalem after the stoning of Stephen. Paphos was the main religious center of Cyprus. Said to be site where the Greek goddess Aphrodite rose to life from the sea, the city attracted visitors to Temple of Aphrodite. Paul and Barnabas sailed from Paphos back to the mainland, disembarking in Perge.
It seems the missionaries did not spend much time in the coastal cites of Attalia and Perge, but passed through them mainly as an artery to the interior. Flooding rivers and rogue bandits presented land travelers on foot or with pack animals with great dangers. The cities between the coast and the Taurus mountains had adapted to Roman rule, and were stable enough to abandon their fortifying walls. Paul and Barnabas now took to the roads, and likely averaged between fifteen and twenty miles a day. The impressive Roman roads heading inland rose steeply from the coastal plain to cross the mountain range to the upland plain. With peaks up to 11,000 feet, mountain passes were impassable in winter. They were used mainly for the transportation of troops and supplies to Roman military posts, as well as the transportation of commodities like wool and quarried rock from the interior to the ports down below. Although Rome had consolidated the territories into efficient provincial outposts, the region had a long history of nomad populations, local tyrants, foreign rulers, and invading tribes. The rugged mountains and many rivers provided natural boundaries, and isolation allowed preservation of ethnic identities, customs and sometimes languages. Contemporaneous descriptions of the region's ethnic variation included Parthians, Medes, Armenians, Cilicians, and Pisidians to name just a few.
Having passed through the mountains, Paul and Barnabas came to a city called Antioch near Pisidia, a city in Galatia. It was one of sixteen cities named Antioch which a Hellenistic king had founded and named after his father. Galatian was the Greek term for the Celts, and the region was named after the Celtic tribes who had migrated to central Turkey as mercenary soldiers or invaders in the third century BCE. Antioch near Pisida was the most important Roman colony in the interior. Heading East on another military road, Paul and Barnabas next visited Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. A later work called the Acts of Paul and Thecla relates how Paul converted a young woman named Thecla in Iconium. In Lystra, Paul and Barnabas were mistaken for Gentile gods after Paul miraculously healed a lame boy. This story is in the book of Acts, and, like much of Acts, it bears a certain resemblance to other classical literature in this case, a myth included in the epic poem Metamorphoses, written by the Roman poet Ovid during the reign of Augustus. The poem collected together hundreds of myths from many regions and combined them into a story to tell the history of the world from its beginning to the present day. In one story, the gods Jupiter and Hermes visit an elderly couple in the region around Lystra. The gods come disguised as mortals, and repay the couple's hospitality by granting one wish. It is a common enough folktale, but, according to Ovid, the local people still venerated the site of the miracle, and brought garlands and visitors to honor the couple. It could be that Ovid himself had visited the site while making a grand tour as a young man.
All four cities of the interior had relatively small Jewish populations, and it may be that it was in these cities that Paul first took his message directly to Gentiles, and initiated congregations separate from synagogues. It is not clear why Paul and Barnabas decided to retrace their steps on the return voyage; the road they were on would have taken them more directly to Tarsus. But retrace they did, and soon sailed back to Antioch in Syria. The congregations Paul had established on this first mission would continue to receive his guidance and support, in letters and visits, for years to come.
In the year following Paul's first missionary journey, the early Jesus movement was forced to face some difficult choices. Non-Jewish believers were now sharing in worship in larger numbers, many without first converting to Judaism. Conflicts over Mosaic law especially over circumcision and dietary restrictions grew more urgent, and more heated. Paul and Barnabas traveled to Jerusalem, where the matter of circumcision was resolved by compromise. Circumcision would not be required of Gentile converts, but certain dietary restrictions were to be maintained. Acts mentions the concession of circumcision, and reproduces a letter that is said to have listed the terms of compromise. Paul's account of the meeting in his Letter to the Galatians agrees that the requirement of circumcision was removed. It seems that in addition to concern over the proper observance of Mosaic law, debates over circumcision addressed questions of persecution. With the mark of circumcision, converts would fall under the protections Roman law granted Jews, and therefore be free from the persecution to which Gentiles were subject for practices such as observing the Sabbath, or refusing to participate in Roman religious rituals.
Paul's letter also addresses the conflict over dietary restrictions. Much of the meat at Gentile markets would have come from sacrifices to Gentile gods. As a result, some Jews stopped eating at Gentile tables. A rift had been exposed: Paul was on one side; on the other were Barnabas and the Jerusalem leaders. Paul maintained that fellowship between Jews and Gentiles over meals was desirable, and that this mandate could override the ancient laws. Paul's letter refuses any compromise on this issue, and dietary restrictions were probably negotiated on individual bases, in individual communities, for years to come. But for Paul, it marked the end of his partnership with Barnabas, and he would set off on his next round of travels on his own.
Roman remains in Salamis include an amphitheater, gymnasium, and baths. West of Salamis is a Monastery of St. Barnabas. The remains of a merchant ship from the fourth century BCE are preserved in Kyrenia, in northern Cyprus. A replica of the ship called the Kyrenia-Eletheria has been constructed, and will participate in the ceremonies of the 2004 Olymics in Athens, Greece. The entire city of Paphos is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Not much remains of the Temple of Aphrodite, but a museum holds artifacts recovered from the site. In the courtyard of the 13th century Church of the Chrysopolitissa is a column fragment to which Paul is said to have been chained and flogged. |