1st Missionary Trip - Lorin

of early Christianity that the formal action of appointment by the religious community simply acknowledged the
divine selection of the individual. Unquestionably this is Luke’s emphasis in 13:3. 56
Thus Paul and Barnabas are sent out by the church (ἀπέλυσαν) to begin a work that would forever
change the nature of the Christian religion.
5.0.1 Establishing Christian congregations, Acts 13:4-14:20; (Gal 3:1-5, 4:12-15)
In describing the activities of the first missionary
journey, Luke splits up his narrative into two segments.
First is the outward trip where initial contacts are made
and congregations are established (13:4-14:20) and second
comes the follow-up contacts in a revisiting of the
churches where the focus is on disciplining and organizing
the congregations (14:21-25).
As the map on the right indicates, their travels
were not too far away from the home base in Antioch.
Additionally, the regions they covered contained Jewish
populations, although Jews were not as numerous
in this area as they were to the west. 57 The towns and
cities where they went include Salamis, Paphos, Perga,
Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. These towns were
located either on the island of Cyprus or on the mainland
in the south central portion of what is modern Turkey.
Identification of the Roman political provinces where the mainland towns were located plays a role in the dating
of the letter to the Galatians. 58 At the proper point this issue will be explored in detail with resulting conclusions.
56 “The laying on of hands is duly accompanied by prayer and fasting as a ritual means of invoking God’s blessing on the commission
about to be given to Saul and Barnabas.” [Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., The Acts of the Apostles: A New Translation With Introduction and
Commentary (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 497.]
57 “Within the boundaries of the Roman province of Galatia there is little reliable evidence for Judaism or Christianity in the 1st and
2d centuries A.D. Except for the passages in Acts which refer to synagogues at Pisidian Antioch (13:14) and Iconium (14:1), Jews are
hardly attested in any of the cities before the 4th century. There were, however, important Jewish communities to the W, above all in
Phrygia at Apamea and Acmonia (HJP² 3/1: 27–32). Moreover, inscriptions of N Galatia from the 3d to the 6th centuries do indicate
small Jewish communities in rural districts (RECAM 2: 133, 141, 2096, 508–11). There is only one unambiguous reference to Christians
in a Galatian city before A.D. 200, to Montanists in Ancyra (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 5.16); the evangelization of the apostolic period,
therefore, left few traces. It is likely that Christian communities became larger and more influential in the second half of the 3d century,
at least in certain cities (Harnack 1915, 2: 184–226). By the mid-4th century, however, Christianity seems to have become the religion of
the majority of the inhabitants, as was more obviously the case in neighboring Cappadocia. The Galatian city of Laodice Catacecaumene
was then a noted heretical center (Calder 1923).” [Stephen Mitchell, “Galatia (Place)” In vol. 2, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed.
David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1996), 871.]
58Paul (1 Cor. 16:1, Gal. 1:2, 2 Tim. 4:10) and Peter (1 Pet. 1:1) use the Greek noun Γαλατία, Galatia. But Luke uses the adjective
Γαλατικός, ή, όν twice in Acts (16:6, τὴν Φρυγίαν καὶ Γαλατικὴν χώραν, & 18:23, τὴν Γαλατικὴν χώραν καὶ Φρυγίαν) to refer to Galatia.
Additionally in Gal. 3:1, Paul uses the personal noun Γαλάτης to refer to the Galatians. Much debate has arisen in the past century
over whether Paul and Luke mean the same territory with their different terms, and if so, are they talking about the Roman province of
Galatia, or about the ethnic Galatians who lived in a slightly different region:
Γαλατία, ας, ἡ (Diocles 125; Appian, Mithr. 17 §60; 65 §272 al.; Cass. Dio 53, 26; ins) Galatia, a district in Asia Minor, abode
of the Celtic Galatians, and a Roman province to which, in addition to the orig. Galatia, Isauria, Cilicia, and northern Lycaonia belonged.
The exact mng. of G. in the NT, esp. in Paul, is a much disputed question. Gal 1:2; 1 Cor 16:1; 2 Ti 4:10 (in this pass. some
mss. have Γαλλίαν, and even the better attested rdg. Γαλατίαν can be understood as referring to Gaul: Diod S 5, 22, 4 al.; Appian,
Celts 1, 5 al.; Polyaenus 8, 23, 2; Jos., Ant. 17, 344; other ref. in Zahn, Einl. I 418.—To avoid confusion, it was possible to say something
like Γαλατία τῆς ἑῴας=eastern [Appian, Bell. Civ. 2, 49 §202] or Γαλάται οἱ ἐν Ἀσίᾳ [Appian, Bell. Civ. 4, 88 §373]); 1 Pt 1:1.
For the NT there are only two possibilities, both of which involve the Galatia in Asia Minor. The view that G. means the district
orig. inhabited by the Galatians (North Gal. theory) found favor with Mommsen (ZNW 2, 1901, 86), ASteinmann (esp. detailed,
D. Leserkreis des Gal. 1908), vDobschütz, Jülicher, MDibelius, Feine, Ltzm., JMoffatt, Goguel, Sickenberger, Lagrange, Meinertz,
Oepke, EHaenchen (comm. on Ac 16:6), et al. Impressive support is given this point of view by Memnon of Asia Minor, a younger
contemporary of Paul. For him the Galatians, of whom he speaks again and again (no. 434 Fgm. 1, 11ff Jac.), are the people with a
well-defined individuality, who came to Asia Minor from Europe. Paul would never have addressed the Lycaonians as Γαλάται.—
The opp. view, that G. means the Rom. province (South Gal. theory), is adopted by Zahn, Ramsay, EMeyer, EBurton (Gal 1921),
GDuncan (Gal ’34), esp. VWeber (Des Pls Reiserouten 1920). S. also FStähelin, Gesch. d. kleinasiat. Galater2 1907; RSyme, Galatia
and Pamphylia under Aug.: Klio 27, ’34, 122–48; CWatkins, D. Kampf des Pls um Galatien 1913; JRopes, The Singular Prob. of the
Ep. to the Gal. 1929; LWeisgerber, Galat. Sprachreste: JGeffcken Festschr. ’31, 151–75; Hemer, Acts 277–307 (North-Gal. hypothesis
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