Paul’s Missionary Journey Essay Essay Example

Paul’s Missionary Journey Essay Essay The Apostle Paul was the great leader in the momentous passage which characterized the apostolic age. the passage from a prevailingly Judaic to a prevailingly gentile Christianity. Under his counsel Christianity was saved from atrophy’ and decease. which threatened it if it remained confined in Palestine. At the same clip. by ground of his penetration into the truth of the Gospel and fidelity to it. every bit good as by his devotedness to the Old Testament and trueness to the highest Judaic ideals in which he had been reared. he saved Christianity from the moral and spiritual degeneration to which it would certainly hold been brought if it had broken with its yesteryear. and had tried to stand entirely and incapacitated amid the commotion of Greek spiritual motions of the first and 2nd Christian centuries. In Paul a great force of onward motion and a profound and witting radicalism were combined with basically conservative rules. We will write a custom essay sample on Paul’s Missionary Journey Essay specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Paul’s Missionary Journey Essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Paul’s Missionary Journey Essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Paul appears to hold been born at non far from the same clip as Jesus Christ. Harmonizing to Acts. Paul was born in Tarsus ( Acts 9:11 ; etc. ) . received the dual name Saul/Paul ( 13:9 ) . and through his household possessed Tarsian and Roman citizenship ( 22:25-29 ( Murphy-O’Connor 32-33 ) . Overall. Paul can be described as an able and exhaustively trained Jew. who had gained from his abode in a Grecian metropolis that grade of Greek instruction which complete acquaintance with the Grecian linguistic communication and the accustomed usage of the Grecian interlingual rendition of the Scriptures could convey. At underside he of all time remained the Jew. in his feelings. his background of thoughts. and his manner of idea. but he knew how to do acceptably apprehensible to Greek readers the truths in which. as prevarication came to believe. put the satisfaction of their deepest demands. At Jerusalem Paul entered ardently into the chase of the Pharisaic ideal of complete conformance in every specific to the Law. He was. he tells us. â€Å"found blameless† ( to every oculus but that of his ain scruples ) . and. he says. â€Å"I advanced in the Jews’ faith beyond many of mine ain age among my countrymen. being more extremely avid for the traditions of my fathers† . With ardent passion he entered into the persecution of the Christian religious order. was present and took a sort of portion at the slaying of Stephen. and undertook to transport on the work of suppression outside of Palestine at Damascus. whither he journeyed for this intent with letters of debut from the governments at Jerusalem ( Murphy-O’Connor 52-57 ) . At this clip took topographic point his transition. That he was converted. and at or near Damascus. his ain words leave no uncertainty. â€Å"I persecuted. † he says in composing to the Galatians. â€Å"the Church of God. . . But when it was the good pleasance of God. who separated me. even from my mother’s uterus. and called me through his grace. to uncover his Son in me. that I might prophesy him among the heathens ; straightway I conferred non with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me: but I went off into Arabia ; and once more I returned unto Damascus† ( Gal I. 13-17 ) . The alteration obviously presented itself to Paul’s head as a direct Godhead interjection in his life. It came to him in a disclosure of Jesus Christ. whereby ( and through no human mediator ) he received the Gospel which he preached. and the committee to be an apostle. He refers to it as to a individual event and an absolute alteration of way. non a gradual procedure and development ; the two parts of his life stood aggressively contrasted. he did non gestate that he had slid by unperceivable phases from one to the other. â€Å"What things [ i. e. his advantages of birth and Judaic attainment ] were addition to me. these have I counted loss for Christ. . . or whom I suffered† — as if in a individual minute —†the loss of all things† ( Phil. three. 7. 8 ) . From Paul’s ain words. so. we know that he was converted from a tormentor to a Christian. at a definite clip and at or near Damascus. by what he considered to be the direct interjection of God ; and it seems to be this experience of which he thought as a vision of the risen Christ ( Hubbard 176-77 ) . After Paul’s transition. which took topographic point in the latter portion of the reign of Tiberius ( 14-37 a. d. ) . about 15 old ages passed before the missional calling began of which we have knowledge from Acts and from Paul’s ain epistles. During this clip Paul was foremost in Arabia. that is in some portion of the imperium of which Damascus was the most celebrated metropolis. so in Damascus. and subsequently. after a brief visit to Jerusalem. in Cilicia. doubtless at his old place Tarsus. In this period we may say that he was seting his whole system of idea to the new Centre which had established itself in his head. the Messiahship of Jesus. With the new footing in head every portion of his rational universe must hold been thought through. Particularly. we may believe. will he hold studied the relation of Christian religion to the old dispensation and to the thoughts of the Prophetss. The fruit of these old ages we have in the full-blown idea of the epistles. They show a steadiness of position and a preparedness of resource in the usage of the Old Testament. which testify to through work in the clip of readying. Epistles written old ages apart. like Galatians. Romans and Philippians. surprise us by their uniformity of idea and unstrained similarity of linguistic communication. in malice of the profusion and vivacity of Paul’s idea and manner. So. for the most portion. the characteristic thoughts even of Epliesians and Colossians are found suggested in source in Corinthians and the earlier epistles. Paul’s epistles represent the literary blossoming of a head prepared by old ages of survey and contemplation ( Murphy-O’Connor 90-95 ) . At Paul’s missional journey and the beginning so made of churches in Asia Minor we have already looked in a old chapter. After his return to Antioch followed that great and polar juncture of early Christian history. the alleged Council. or Conference. at Jerusalem. described in the 15th chapter of Acts and by Paul in the 2nd chapter of Galatians. At that clip Paul established his right to transport on the work of Christian missions in conformity with his ain rules and his ain apprehension of the Christian faith. His relation with the Twelve Apostles seems so and at all times to hold been affable. His troubles came from others in the Judaic Church. To this we know of merely one exclusion. seemingly slightly subsequently than the Conference. the juncture at Antioch when Peter under force per unit area from Jerusalem withdrew from family with the gentile brethren. and called out from Paul the terrible reproof of which we read in Galatians. There is ground to believe that the reproof accomplished its intent. At any rate. at a ulterior clip there is no grounds of a continued breach. The thought of missional travel had obviously taken ownership of Paul. for after returning from Jerusalem to Antioch he shortly started out once more. and was endlessly occupied with missional work from now until the minute of his apprehension at Jerusalem. Leaving Antioch on his 2nd journey he and his comrades hurried across Asia Minor. halting merely. it would look. to revisit and inspect churches antecedently established. They were led by the Holy Spirit. as the author of Acts believed. to direct their class westward every bit quickly as possible to Greece. which was to be the following phase in the way to the capital of the universe. In Macedonia and Achaia Paul and his comrades worked with changing success at Philippi. Thessalonica. Ber? a. Athens. Corinth. At Corinth. the main commercial metropolis of Greece. the Christians arrived in the late fall. The work opened good. and Paul remained at that of import Centre until a twelvemonth from the following spring. The day of the month of his reaching can non be precisely determined. but is likely one of the five old ages between 49 and 53 a. d. While at Corinth he wrote the First and ( if it is echt ) the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. Somewhere about this clip. possibly before go forthing Antioch for this journey. the Epistle to the Galatians was written. The churches of Galatia. to which it is addressed. were likely the churches known to us in Acts as Pisithan Antioch. Iconium. Lystra. and Derbe. After a winging trip to Syria and possibly to Jerusalem Paul returned to Ephesus in Asia Minor. where he settled down for a stay of three old ages. A few incidents of this period have been recorded in the Book of Acts. and are among the most dramatic and realistic that we have. They include a singular figure of points of contact with facts known to us from archaeological finds. and in no chapters of Acts is our assurance more to the full reassured in the modern-day cognition and the trustiness of the author of the book. While at Ephesus Paul had much communicating with Corinth. and wrote I Corinthians. which had clearly been preceded by another missive. There are indicants in II Corinthians that after this he found the troubles in the church at Corinth such that he wrote them at least one missive which has been lost. and made a short. and in its result extremely painful. trip to Corinth and back to Ephesus. Finally he was impelled by danger to his life to go forth Ephesus. and went through Macedonia to Corinth. On the manner he wrote. to fix for his ain presence. the epistle we call II Corinthians. Arriving at Corinth in the early winter he stayed until spring. His literary impulse continued active. and to this winter we owe the Epistle to the Romans. Earlier letters had been’ called out by particular demand in one or another church ; in Romans Paul comes nigher to a systematic expounding of his divinity than in any of his earlier Hagiographas. He knew the importance that would certainly belong to the Christian Church of Rome. He had made up his head to travel at that place. But first he must travel to Jerusalem. and there were dangers both from the hazards of travel and from hostile work forces. Of each hind his life had had many illustrations. Consequently he provided for the Roman Christians a clear statement of his chief place. together with a answer to several of the main expostulations brought against it. notably the allegations that his presentation of Christianity involves the repeal of God’s promises to his chosen people. and that it opened the manner to moral laxness. This missive Paul sent as an earnest of his ain visit to Rome. He had been for a twelvemonth or more oversing the aggregation by the churches of Asia Minor and Europe of a part for the hapless Christians at Jerusalem ; the heathen churches should therefore do a refund in animal things to those who had made them to be sharers of their religious things. This part was now ready. and Paul himself with a group of representatives of the main churches took ship at Philippi and Troas for Jerusalem. The ocean trip is narrated in item in Acts. obviously by one who was a member of the company. At last Paul reached Jerusalem. and was good received by the church ; but. followed as he was by the hate of Hebrews from the Dispersion who had recognized the threat to the Judaic faith continuing from the new religious order. he was set upon by a rabble. rescued merely by being taken in detention by the Roman governments. and after a series of exciting escapades which will be found laudably told in the Book of Acts. was brought to C`sarea. There he stayed a captive for two old ages and more until on the juncture of a alteration of Roman Governor his instance was brought up for test. when he exercised the right of a Roman citizen to appeal from the legal power of the Governor to that of the imperial tribunal at Rome. It was late fall. but he was dispatched with a comrade whom we may good believe to be Luke the darling doctor. and from whom our history surely comes. The narration of Paul’s ocean trip and shipwreck. of the winter on the island of Malta. and the concluding reaching at Rome early in one of the old ages between 58 and 62 a. d. is familiar. It is the most of import papers that antiquity has left us for an apprehension of the manner of working an ancient ship. while the image which it gives of Paul as a practical adult male is a delicious addendum to our other cognition of him ( Murphy-O’Connor 324 ) . In Rome. while under guard expecting test. Paul likely wrote Philippians. Colossians. Philemon. and the round missive. apparently intended for churches in Asia Minor. known to us as Ephesians. They show some new development of thoughts long present with him. and some new ideas to which his other Hagiographas give no analogue. and the manner of some of them has changed a spot from the freshness of Galatians and Romans ; but these are non sufficient grounds for denying that Paul wrote the letters. They are. so. as it seems to me. beyond sensible uncertainty genuine. The Book of Acts ends with the words. â€Å"And he [ Paul ] abode two whole old ages in his ain hired home. and received all that went in unto him. prophesying the Kingdom of God. and learning the things refering the Lord Jesus Christ with all daring. none prohibiting him. † This period of two old ages is sufficient to include the composing of the four epistles to which mention has merely been made. Philippians. Colossians. Philemon. and Epliesians. the alleged Epistles of the Captivity. What happened at the termination of the period? Apparently Paul’s instance. long postponed. so came to test. Make it ensue in his release or his executing? The grounds is meager and conflicting. and sentiments differ. It is possibly a little more likely that he was released. and entered on farther missional work. likely transporting out his original intent of forcing on with the announcement of his Gospel to the West. and set uping it in Spain ; but of this period there is no narrative. If after two old ages Paul’s imprisonment at Rome ended with his release. as the absence of tenable charges against him would take us to anticipate. he must hold been subsequently once more apprehended. likely in connexion with the persecution artfully turned against the Christians at the clip of Nero’s fire in July of the twelvemonth 64. It is likely that he was beheaded. to which favor his Roman citizenship entitled him. and that he was finally buried on the Ostian Way at the topographic point where now stands the glorious basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.