Acts 14:27-28

The chronological references in Acts and the Pauline epistles make it difficult to tell just how long it took Paul and Barnabas to complete the first missionary journey. Commentators estimate it took them between the better part of one year and almost two years. They travelled a minimum of 500 miles by sea and 700 by land. Beitzel estimated that Paul covered a total of about 1,400 miles on this journey. [Note: Beitzel, p. 177.]

Luke was careful to record again the priority of God’s initiative in this evangelistic mission (cf. Acts 1:1-2). Paul and Barnabas had accomplished a wonderful work (Acts 14:26), but they were careful to give God the credit for it.

"Paul and Barnabas never thought that it was their strength or their power which had achieved anything. They spoke of what God had done with them. . . . We will begin to have the right idea of Christian service when we work, not for our own honour or prestige, but only from the conviction that we are tools in the hand of God." [Note: Barclay, p. 120. Cf. 2 Corinthians 5:20.]

The fact that God had granted salvation to Gentiles equally with Jews simply by faith in Christ would have been of special interest to Luke’s early readers. This new phenomenon had taken place before on the Gaza Road, in Caesarea, and in Syrian Antioch. However now large numbers of Gentile converts were entering the church through the "door of faith" without first becoming Jewish proselytes. Paul used the figure of a door also in 1 Corinthians 16:9, 2 Corinthians 2:12, and Colossians 4:3. This situation constituted the background of the Jerusalem Council that Luke recorded in the next chapter.

It was probably during the time Paul was in Syrian Antioch, after returning from the first missionary journey and before attending the conference in Jerusalem (ch. 15), that he wrote the Epistle to the Galatians. He did so to instruct the believers in the churches he and Barnabas had planted. This would have been in the late A.D. 40s, probably A.D. 49. Galatians appears to have been the first of Paul’s inspired epistles. [Note: See Appendix 3: Paul’s Epistles, at the end of these notes.]

"What about Luke’s omission of Paul as letter writer? . . . Acts is about beginnings and missionary endeavors. Paul’s letters, so far as we know, were written to congregations [and individuals] that were already established. This falls outside the purview of what Luke seeks to describe. Such an omission was only natural since Luke chose not to record the further developments of church life within the congregations Paul founded." [Note: Witherington, p. 438.]

There are many ways in which Paul’s ministry and Peter’s corresponded. Here are a few of the correlations that Luke recorded apparently to accredit Paul’s ministry that was mainly to the Gentiles and highly controversial among the Jews. Peter’s ministry was primarily to the Jews.

"1. Both Peter and Paul engaged in three significant tours journeys [sic] recorded in the Book of Acts. Peter: Acts 8:14 ff; Acts 9:32 to Acts 11:2; Acts 15:1-14 (see Galatians 2:11); Paul: Acts 13:2 to Acts 14:28; Acts 15:36 to Acts 18:22; Acts 18:23 to Acts 21:17.

2. Early in their ministry both healed a lame person. Peter: Acts 3:2 ff; Paul: Acts 14:8 ff.

3. Both saw extraordinary healings take place apart from physical contact with the afflicted individual. Peter’s shadow in Acts 5:15; those who brought handkerchiefs and aprons to Paul in Acts 19:11. [The text does not say Peter’s shadow was God’s instrument in healing people.]

4. Both were God’s instruments to bring judgment on those who hindered the growth and purity of the infant church. Peter condemned Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11); Paul smote Elymas with blindness (Acts 13:6-11).

5. Each had at least one long discourse [re]produced in full which gives a summary of his preaching. Peter at Pentecost (Acts 2:14-40); Paul at Antioch (Acts 13:16-42).

6. Both made the resurrection a primary emphasis in their proclamation. Peter: Acts 2:24-36; Acts 3:15; Acts 3:26; Acts 5:30; Acts 10:40-41; Paul: Acts 13:30-37; Acts 17:3; Acts 17:18; Acts 17:31; Acts 24:15; Acts 24:21; Acts 25:19; Acts 26:8; Acts 26:23.

7. Both exorcised demons. Peter: Acts 5:16; Paul: Acts 16:18.

8. Both communicated the gift of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. Peter: Acts 8:17; Paul: Acts 19:6.

9. Both had triumphant encounters with sorcerers. Peter: Acts 8:18 ff; Paul: Acts 13:6 ff.

10. Both raised the dead. Peter: Acts 9:36 ff; Paul: Acts 20:9 ff.

11. Both received visions to direct them into critical witnessing efforts. Peter: Acts 19:9 ff; Paul: Acts 16:6 ff.

12. Both experienced miraculous deliverances from prison. Peter: Acts 12:7 ff; Paul: Acts 16:25 ff." [Note: Harm, p. 40.]