An Outline of Paul’s Missionary Career
An Outline of Paul’s Missionary Career
From Paul’s Conversion to the First Missionary Journey
The decisive data in establishing a relative chronology for this earlier period come from Galatians 1: 13-2:10. In this passage, Paul recounts his relationship with the Jerusalem apostles in order to demonstrate that his apostolic authority does not derive from them. He tells us that he first visited Jerusalem, as a Christian, three years after his conversion to "get acquainted with” Peter (1:18), and then visited Jerusalem again "fourteen years later” (2:1) to set before the Jerusalem apostles the gospel that he was preaching among the Gentiles. There are two key issues raised by this sequence: To which visits in Acts do the two visits Paul mentions here correspond? And how are we to understand the sequence of "after three years” and "fourteen years later”?
The first Jerusalem visit Paul mentions is clearly the same as the one Luke mentions in Acts 9:26-30. But is the visit of Galatians 2:1 to be identified with the famine-relief visit of Acts 11:27-30 or with the apostolic-council visit of Acts 15? Many scholars have argued for the latter equation. It is pointed out that Paul’s characterization of this visit as involving questions about his gospel to the Gentiles fits the circumstances of the council of Acts 15. But there are details in Paul’s description that do not correspond very well with the Acts 15 situation, and the circumstances of the letter to the Galatians suggest that it was written before the apostolic council (see chap. 10 below). This would require that Galatians 2:1 refer to the famine-relief visit of Acts 11:27-30.
Assuming these identifications, the specific temporal indicators Paul gives in this passage should be invaluable in constructing a relative chronology of Paul’s life. But these indicators are not as clear as might at first seem. It is generally agreed that the "three years” in Galatians 1:18 is the interval between Paul’s conversion (1:15-16) and his first Jerusalem visit. 38 But do the "fourteen years” in 2:1 also begin with Paul’s conversion, or do they begin with his first Jerusalem visit? 39 The former interpretation results in sequence A, the second in sequence B (see Figure 4. Pauline Chronology: Two Versions).
Figure 4
Pauline Chronology: Two Versions
For two reasons, sequence A should probably be preferred. First, the prominence of Paul’s conversion in Galatians 1 suggests that he is thinking of this event in his temporal indications. Second, this sequence fits better with other chronological indications that we will note below.
There is one more issue that must be decided: whether Paul is here counting years inclusively or exclusively. The exclusive method is the one with which we are familiar: the interval between event X and event Y is the interval between the years in which the events occur. If Paul’s conversion was in A.D. 33, then his first Jerusalem visit "after three years” (Gal. 1:18) would be in 36. The inclusive method of reckoning an interval between event X and event Y includes the years in which both these events took place, as well as the years between. This would mean that the interval between Paul’s conversion and his first Jerusalem visit could be as little as one and a third years (if, for instance, the conversion was late in 33 and the visit early in 35), and the interval between his conversion and his second Jerusalem visit as little as twelve and a third years. Although the point is debated, it is generally thought that the inclusive method was more typical in the ancient world, and so we may prefer it in interpreting Galatians 1-2.
Using the data from Galatians 1-2, supplemented by Acts 9-11, we can reconstruct the early years of Paul’s missionary work. After his conversion, he stayed in Damascus a short time (Acts 9:19b) before leaving for "Arabia” (Gal. 1:17). Paul here refers not to the Arabian Peninsula but to the Nabataean Kingdom, northeast of the Dead Sea. Some think that Paul spent his time in Arabia meditating and hammering out his theology, and it is likely, considering the drastic change in perspective occasioned by his Damascus-road experience, that some of his time was so spent. But it is unlikely that this was simply a period of retreat. Paul’s later difficulties with the king of the Nabataeans, Aretas, suggests strongly that he was engaged in active ministry during this time (2 Cor. 11:32). 40 After an indeterminate period, Paul returned again to Damascus (Gal. 1:17; Acts 9:20-22?), where his ministry was cut short by an attempt on the part of Jews and "the governor under King Aretas” to arrest or kill him (2 Cor. 11:32; Acts 9:23-24). Escaping in a basket lowered through a window in the city wall (2 Cor. 11:33; Acts 9:25), Paul then visited Jerusalem for the first time since his conversion, perhaps a litle more than two full years after that happy event. While at first suspicious of this famous persecutor of the church, the Jerusalem disciples were persuaded by Barnabas to receive Paul (Acts 9:26-27). Paul spent fifteen days getting acquainted with Peter, without meeting any of the other apostles except James, the brother of the Lord (Gal. 1:18-19). Accepted by his Christian brothers, Paul was rejected by his old associates: certain "Grecian Jews” tried to kill him, and he was forced to flee to Tarsus (Acts 9:28-30; see Gal. 1:21).
Some time after this, Barnabas, who had been sent from Jerusalem to investigate the reports of great numbers of Greeks becoming Christians in Antioch, called Paul from Tarsus to join in the work at Antioch (Acts 11:25-26a). Since Luke tells us that Barnabas and Paul spent a year with the church there (Acts 11:26b), and since during this year the famine-relief visit took place (Acts 11:27-30), Paul’s arrival in Antioch must have been about twelve or thirteen years after his conversion. This means that Paul spent almost a decade in Tarsus, and it was perhaps during these years that some of the things took place that Paul mentions but that are not narrated in Acts (see 2 Cor. 11:2227). 41