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Apostle Paul
- Apostle Paul
Apostle Paul and his Journeys in Greece
Apostle Paul, also known as Saint Paul, was an apostle (not one of the twelve though) who taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the 1st century. As long as he is considered to have written thirteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament and about half of the Acts of Apostles refer to his lige and work preaching and founding several churches across Asia Minor and Europe, he was one of the most important figures of the Christendom of the first era. Moreover, theology, worship and pastoral life of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Churches are still based on his epistles to this day.
Paul carried out four journeys.
2nd Journey
During the second one, while in the southwest part of Asia Minor, Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia calling him for help. As a result, Paul, accompanied by Silas, Timothy and then on Luke, left for Macedonia to preach the gospel. Believers were increasing and their faith strengthened in the places visited. From Troas area, in Northwest Asia Minor, they traveled by ship to Samothrace and from there to Neapolis (modern city of Kavala) and Phillipi, where Paul casted a spirit of divination out of a servant girl, enraging her masters who turned the whole city against Paul and his companions and putting him and Silas into jail. Due to a miraculous earthquake, the gate of the jail fell apart, but Paul and Silas did not escape, leading their jailor to conversion.
Continuing their journey, they visited Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessaloniki and Berea, from where they were urged to leave. Despite their unpopularity in most cities, the churches founded strengthened gradually. Their next stop was in Athens; Paul approached and preached to the Jews and God-fearing Greeks in the local synagogue and Pnyx, where he was disregarded mainly because of the opposition imposed by Athenian philosophers on the ressurection of Christ issue. Then Paul tried to preach to Stoics and Epicureans on the Areios Pagos (Areopagus), where he was mocked once more and according to the tradition only Dionysius the Areopagite and Damaris were actually converted.
His next stop was in Corinth, where he met Aquila and Priscilla, an exile Jew couple with whom he lived and worked as a tentmaker for one and a half year. During that time, he wrote his two epistles to Thessalonians, visited the nearby village of Cenchreae, where he cut his hair after a vow taken. Then they left for Ephesus altogether.
3rd Journey
Paul’s next visit in Greece took place during his third journey, due to great stress put on the church of Corinth, with which was particularly close as is implied by his visits and epistles, in which he tried to resolve the conflict between the new religion and the Greek anthropocentric mindset as well as the Jewish and other Churches. As a result, he left his preaching work in Troas and headed for Philippi again, where he met Titus, and from there to Achaea and Corinth, where he stayed for 3 more months and wrote his epistle to the Romans, and from there he left for Jerusalem. Due to a plot revealed there, he was made to return to Macedonia and from there visit several places, among others Rhodes, before reaching at last Jerusalem
4th Journey
After several adventures, in Rome, Southern France and Spain, Paul visited Greece, mainly Macedonia and Crete during his fourth and last journey, before he resulted in prison in Rome where he was executed.
It should be kept in mind that Paul used to put people at their ease and to approach them with his message in a language and style to which they could relate and because of this method he had such a significant impact on theological and organizational and social issues.