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vet, (g) Paul’s first missionary journey. The Holy Spirit revealed to the prophets of the church in Antioch that Paul was to undertake an itinerant apostolate (Acts 13:1-3); he also commanded them to set Barnabas and Paul apart for the work to which God had called them. The precise date of this trip is unknown, although it is located between the years 45 and 50 AD; it is possible that it took place between 46 and 48. It is also not known how long it lasted. Barnabas, who was older, led the mission, but Pablo, more eloquent, soon stood out; Juan Marcos accompanied them. The small party headed from Antioch to Seleucia, at the mouth of the Orontes. From there they embarked for Cyprus, Barnabas’ country of origin. The three missionaries landed in Salamis, on the eastern coast of Cyprus, and began preaching the Gospel in the synagogues. Thus they crossed the entire island, reaching the port of Paphos, in the southwest. Sergio Paulo, the Roman proconsul, resided in this city; Being interested in knowing the Gospel, a false Jewish prophet, Bar-jesus, who was nicknamed Elymas (the magician), who enjoyed the favor of the proconsul, tried to oppose it. The vehemence of his opposition to the Word of God incensed Paul, who apostrophized the magician, announcing that the Lord would strike him blind. Witness to this divine intervention, and attentive to the teachings of the missionaries, he wholeheartedly embraced the Christian faith (Acts 13: 6-12). The group, now led by Paul (cf. Acts 13:13), sailed for Asia Minor, arriving at Perga in Pamphylia. It is there that John-Mark refused to continue the journey, returning to Jerusalem. His motives are unknown. It does not appear that Paul and Barnabas stayed in Perge; heading north, they entered Phrygia, reaching Antioch in Pisidia, capital of the Roman province of Galatia. The missionaries went to the synagogue, where the principals invited them to speak. Then Paul delivered the great speech recorded in Acts. 13:16-41. After affirming that God had led Israel and that he had prepared it to receive the Messiah, Paul recalled the testimony given by John the Baptist and the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish authorities. The apostle said that God had resurrected Jesus, in whom all the ancient promises made to Israel were fulfilled, adding that only faith in Jesus justifies the sinner; he then exhorted the Jews not to assume the same attitude as the murderous princes of Jerusalem. This speech aroused the hostility of the Jewish notables, but convinced many of the pious Israelites, and especially many of the Gentiles who had felt the influence of Judaism. These proselytes enabled Paul to find everywhere the link between the synagogue and the Gentile world. The following Sabbath, the reviled missionaries broke off contact with the synagogue, and addressed the Gentiles directly. The Gospel spread throughout the country, but the authorities of Pisidian Antioch, alerted by the Jews, expelled Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:50). They then went to Iconium, a Phrygian city, where there were numerous conversions of Jews and Gentiles (Acts 13:51-14:1). The Jews, who maintained a hostile posture, revolted a part of the city against the missionaries, who left for Lystra, and then Derbe, important cities of Lycaonia (Acts 14:2-6). At Lystra, Paul miraculously cured a man paralyzed from birth. The crowd, who believed that they were the gods Jupiter and Mercury, wanted to offer sacrifices to them. Barnabas and Paul opposed this, and Paul gave his speech against idolatry, summarized in verses 15-18. This is the second of Paul’s speeches that Luke tells us about. Timothy’s conversion undoubtedly occurred at Lystra (cf. Acts 16:1; 2 Tim. 1:2; 3:11). The Jews of Antioch and Iconium then rioted the populace. Paul was stoned to death, driven from the city, and left for dead (Acts 14:19). However, God revived him, and he went with Barnabas to Derbe, possibly on the southeastern border of the province of Galatia (Acts 14:20). Arriving in Cilicia through the mountains, the missionaries could have gone to Tarsus and arrived directly at Antioch in Syria, after having made a circular itinerary. But they wanted to confirm the new churches before returning to Antioch from Syria. Thus, they returned from Derbe to Lystra, to Iconium, to Antioch in Pisidia, and to Perge, consolidating the churches and confirming the spirits of the disciples. They stopped at Perge to preach, which they probably had not done on their previous trip. They then went down to Athaliah, the port of Perge, and there embarked for Antioch in Syria (Acts 14:21-26). Thus ended Paul’s first missionary journey, in which he had toured the centers immediately to the west of those where the Gospel was already implanted. The apostle’s method was to present the Gospel first to the Jews, and then to the heathen. He discovered that Judaism had already influenced a large number of Gentiles, and that they had been prepared to accept the message of Christ. In this method, churches were also founded in the main cities, to which access was easy thanks to the excellent roads that the Roman Empire had built to link the various military garrisons with each other. The Greek language was spread everywhere. It is thus that God had opened the way for the herald of the Gospel. (h) The conflict with the Judaizing Christians: Jerusalem conference. The success of Paul’s work among the Gentiles then caused a conflict within the Church. Certain Christians of Jewish origin, still clinging to the Law of Moses, went from Jerusalem to Antioch in order to announce to the converted from the Gentiles that salvation depended on circumcision (Acts 15:1). Some years before, God had used Peter to reveal to the Church that they did not have to force the disciples of Gentile origin to observe the Mosaic Law (Acts 10:1-11:18). But the Judaizing Christians, mostly converted Pharisees (Acts 15:5), did not follow Peter’s instructions. When the church at Antioch saw what they were teaching, they sent Paul, Barnabas, and other brothers to Jerusalem to present the matter to the apostles and elders (Acts 15; Gal. 2:1-10; these two accounts fully agree, despite the difference in perspective between the two writers). Paul says that he was launched after a direct revelation from God (Gal. 2:2). The future of Christian witness was at stake. Fidelity to Christian doctrine and love triumphed. Paul and Barnabas expounded before the Jerusalem church the work that God had accomplished through them. Judaizing Christians responded by insisting on the need for circumcision and the Law of Moses, forcing the apostles and elders to meet together to study the problem (Acts 16:6-29). Peter reminded them that God had revealed his will in this regard when Cornelius had been converted, and that the Jews themselves had not been able to bear the yoke of the Law. Paul and Barnabas also showed how God had blessed his work among the Jews. gentiles. James, the Lord’s brother, declared that the OT prophets had foretold that the Gentiles would be called. It was resolved to recognize the uncircumcised converts as brothers, freeing them from the Law, but nevertheless demanding that they respect certain prohibitions necessary for their universality (of idolatry, blood and eating drowned animals, prohibitions imposed on Noah and his descendants, cf. Gen. 9:3, 4; and fornication). These prohibitions were not a concession to Jewish scruples, as some expositors have alleged. They would make no sense as a mere concession after having denied the necessity of circumcision, which is of paramount importance to them. The basis on which these prohibitions are given to Christians arising from the Gentiles is that of the express will of God on a “universal level”, in the case of “necessary things” (Acts 15:28, 29). In the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul affirms that the church in Jerusalem lent him their support against the “false brothers”, and that James, Peter and John gave him the hand of communion, recognizing that God, who had given them the apostleship among the Jews, he had commissioned Paul and Barnabas to evangelize the Gentiles. Thus, Paul remained in communion with the apostles, and also freed to fulfill his mission. The Judaizers then showed their fierceness, later manifesting hostility and even hatred against Paul, whose opinion had prevailed. The arguments of the ancient Pharisee had safeguarded the unity of the Church and the freedom of uncircumcised converts. The issued decision gave the exact relationship of Christians of Gentile origin with the Law, which was their freedom from it, putting them however on guard against practices that affected the relationship of all the descendants of Noah with the only sovereign God of this world, safeguarding His rights over Himself (no worship of false gods), over Creation (permission to Noah and his descendants to eat the flesh of animals, but not their blood), and over man himself (the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord). However, the controversy flared up again soon after at Antioch (Gal. 2:11-21). Peter, who had arrived in the capital of Syria, participated like Paul in the meals of the uncircumcised believers. After the arrival of certain Jews from Jerusalem, Peter, and even Barnabas, stopped eating with the Gentile converts. Paul publicly rebuked Peter, and reaffirmed the doctrinal principles on which the rights of the Gentiles in the Church rested: salvation is only obtained by faith in Christ, since the Christian, crucified with Christ, is dead to the Law of Moses. By dying, Christ has fulfilled for his people all legal obligations. It is enough to put faith in Christ to become a Christian; there is no other condition to be met. Paul knew that it was not just a question of preserving the unity of the Church, but of maintaining the fundamental basis of the Gospel. By defending the principle of salvation by faith and by making the Good News known everywhere, Paul did more than anyone to impress the universal character of Christian witness. The Jerusalem Council probably took place around AD 48 or 49 (See Chronology at the end of this article). (i) Second missionary journey. Shortly after the Jerusalem council, Paul proposed to Barnabas that he accompany him on his second journey (Acts 15:36). But, by refusing Pablo to Juan Marcos as a companion,…