Part IV
The Aegean Mission
(16–20)
The next phase of Luke’s record of Christian beginnings is usually referred to as ‘the second and third missionary journeys of Paul’. This is based on a misperception and is a misnomer. What we actually have is the account of a sustained mission around the coasts of the Aegean sea. Luke presents it as a coherent and integrated unit. It has a clear beginning: the mission was entered upon with all the marks of divine prompting (16.6–9). And it has a clear end: that period of mission, as indeed Paul’s whole period of unrestrained missionary work, is climaxed and concluded with a speech which has all the appearance of Paul’s last will and testimony (20.18–35). In between, the initial circuit of the northern and western side of the Aegean (chs 16–17) is followed by a lengthy stay in Corinth, Paul’s effective headquarters for eighteen months and more (Ch. 18). Subsequently, Ephesus, on the other side of the Aegean, served similarly as Paul’s headquarters for a further two years (Ch. 19). The trip back to Antioch between these two halves is passed over in the briefest of terms (18.22–23) and was evidently not regarded by Luke as particularly significant.
This accords well in substance with what we know of and can deduce about Paul’s missionary work from his own letters. We have already noted the likelihood that the incident at Antioch occasioned a breach not only with Barnabas, but also with the church of Antioch, and a fortiori with the leadership of the church in Jerusalem (see Introduction to 15.30–41). In which case it is probable that Paul more or less cut his links with Antioch: he could no longer serve as a missionary (apostle) of a church which had not backed him in the Antioch incident over the terms on which Jews and Gentiles should be able to associate within the mixed churches established by Paul (Gal. 2.11–21). The movement into the Aegean region, therefore, was much more like the establishment of a separate or even independent mission than the extension of the mission from Antioch into a second missionary journey. Paul’s fierce resentment at encroachments on his mission subsequently is clearly expressed in passages like Gal. 1.6–9, II Cor. 12.11–13 and Phil. 3.2, and the terms of independence on which he worked are clearly indicated in II Cor. 10.13–16.
Likewise it is clear that the Aegean mission was the heart of Paul’s missionary work for Paul himself. Apart from Galatians and Romans, all the letters written by Paul or in his name were to churches founded in this period: Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, Ephesus, and also Colossae, only a hundred miles or so from the Aegean coast. More important in the long term, almost all his letters were written during this period from his Aegean bases. (Somewhat surprisingly from our perspective, Luke makes no mention of this activity which was to give Paul his lasting influence.) Paul himself also seems to recall the move into Macedonia as a new beginning (Phil. 4.15); and he certainly regarded the closure of this period as the end of what was to be the main phase of his work as an apostle (Rom. 15.18–21). So the Aegean mission was indeed the principal period of Paul’s missionary work and the one which has made the most lasting impact on Christian development and thought.
In it Luke, as usual, advances his own other concerns. (1) The reader is regularly reminded that the mission was ever at divine initiative and with divine approval (16.6–10, 14; 18.9–10; 19.11–12). (2) The success in attracting to faith both Jews (16.1; 17.4, 11–12; 18.4, 8, 19–20, 24–28) and God-fearing Gentiles is fairly constant (16.14; 17.4, 12, 34; 18.4, 7), as also the hostility of the Jewish community (17.5, 13; 18.6, 12–17; 19.9; 20.3, 19). (3) The theme of the gospel’s superiority over other spiritual forces is effectively developed (16.16–18; 19.11–20). (4) The encounter with Greek philosophy in Athens enables Luke to further the theme that the gospel’s encounter with paganism includes the proclamation of God (17.22–31). (5) The apologetic theme is steadily maintained that the new movement and its missionaries pose no threat to the civic authorities and should be treated with respect (16.35–39; 18.12–17; 19.23–41). (6) Not least, we should note the way in which Luke the accomplished raconteur delights in such wonderful stories as the episodes in Philippi and in Ephesus (16.11–40; 19.23–41).
