Paul's missionary journeys

The apostle Paul is responsible for more of the New Testament than any other author. His three missionary journeys, recorded in Acts 13-21, took the gospel from Antioch across Asia Minor and into Europe. He founded churches, wrote letters, endured shipwrecks and beatings, and shaped Christian theology for all time.

This guide traces each journey, identifies the major cities and events, and connects them to the letters Paul later wrote to the churches he had visited.

Paul and Barnabas were sent from Antioch by the Holy Spirit. They sailed to Cyprus, then crossed to Asia Minor. They preached in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. At Lystra, Paul was stoned and left for dead but recovered and continued.

The pattern of each stop was similar: Paul preached first in the synagogue, some Jews and many Gentiles believed, opposition arose, and Paul moved on. On the return trip, he appointed elders in each new church and reported back to Antioch.

After the Jerusalem Council settled the question of Gentile circumcision, Paul set out again. He revisited the churches in Asia Minor, received a vision calling him to Macedonia, and crossed into Europe. He preached in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth.

This journey produced some of Paul's most important letters. First and Second Thessalonians were written during or shortly after this trip. The churches at Philippi and Corinth became two of his most significant congregations.

Paul spent over two years in Ephesus on this journey, teaching daily in the hall of Tyrannus. The church grew so powerfully that the local silversmith guild rioted because the gospel was threatening their idol-making business.

He then revisited the churches in Macedonia and Greece, writing Romans from Corinth. He collected a financial gift from the Gentile churches for the poor in Jerusalem. On the return, he gave a farewell address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus that is one of the most moving speeches in Acts.

Paul's journeys planted churches across the Roman Empire that survived his death and outlasted the empire itself. His letters to those churches became Scripture. His theology of justification by faith, union with Christ, and the body of Christ as the church shaped Christianity permanently.

He ended his third journey by going to Jerusalem, where he was arrested. After years of imprisonment and a voyage to Rome, tradition says he was executed under Nero. He had fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith.