March 25 / Acts 15:36-16:5

Acts 15:36-16:5

Back to Acts! I’ve always been troubled by Paul and Barnabas separating over the issue of John Mark going along. But you may recall that Barnabas was John Mark’s cousin (Colossians 4:10, translated as uncle only in the KJV), so family ties would have prompted Barnabas to have Mark along. And as I ponder this further, I always remember Barnabas as an encourager; even his name translates as the “Son of Encouragement” (Acts 4:36). So I see that Barnabas wants John Mark to go along as an encouragement to this young missionary. But Paul is adamant against him going along and they separate. But in fact, even as our Men’s Group split into a Versailles group and a Keene group and each group added new members, so Paul and Barnabas going different directions meant a doubling of missionary activity. So, not all bad…

And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. (v. 41) Syria is the region where the major city Antioch was located, inland from the east-northeast coast of the Mediterranean sea. Cilicia is the region where Tarsus (Paul’s hometown) was located, on the north-northeast coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Paul and Silas walked through these regions on their way to the cities in Asia Minor that Paul had visited on his first missionary journey. The verse cited above mentions them strengthening the churches along the way, but we have no mention of any of Paul’s earlier missionary activities in Syria and Cilicia. Still, it could have been other missionaries or Paul on his own missionary activity. It’s interesting that Paul and Silas likely traveled to and through Tarsus on their way to Derbe and Lystra, but there is no mention of Paul’s hometown in this passage.

Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. (v. 3) I imagine you wonder, along with me, as to why Paul had Timothy circumcised when the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) said there was no need for Gentiles to be circumcised. But Timothy’s parents were Jewish and Greek, so he did not fall fully into either camp. My Study Bible suggested that it was for the sake of expediency, so that Paul’s work among the many Jews in that region would be more effective.

As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. (v. 4) There has been a lot of discussion among Bible scholars as to when the Jerusalem Council met. I won’t go into all that, but it seems clear from this verse that the Council met sometime between Paul’s first and second missionary journeys. If Paul is bringing the decisions of the Council to these cities, there is a clear suggestion that he had not had those decisions the first time he visited these cities. Small point…

It’s nice to be back in Acts!!

Slava Bohu!