Saul began his preaching in the synagogues of Damascus, espe cially, we may suppose, after his return from Arabia (Acts. ix. 22; Gal. i. 17). Then came his first visit to Jerusalem since conver sion, in the third year from that event, for the purpose of making the personal acquaintance of Peter (Gal. i. i8), presumably to hear first-hand about Jesus's earthly ministry and teaching, as well as to make the leading apostle directly acquainted with his conversion and its fruits. Barnabas helped to dispel the suspicion with which the arch-persecutor was at first regarded. Such preach ing as Saul did in Jerusalem was to the Hellenists, e.g., his Cilician compatriots (ix. 29; cf. vi. 9). But he had to leave suddenly, apparently after a vision in the Temple which brought him fresh light as to the scope of his future ministry. During the io or II years at least "in the regions of Syria and Cilicia" which ensued, it was still primarily to the Jews that he preached ; for the news of him which reached "the churches of Judaea," from time to time, was such that they "kept glorifying God" in him (Gal. i. 21— 23)—as they would not have done had he addressed himself largely to Gentiles. His preaching, that is, was mostly to the Syna gogue and its adherents of non-Jewish origin, whether circumcised or not. Of Saul's history, however, during these obscure years we gain only rare glimpses (cf. 2 Cor. xi. 24), the first and most im portant being in connection with the foundation at Antioch of a mixed Church of Jews and Gentiles. Whatever may have been the first beginnings of this new departure, the situation soon caused Barnabas, who had been sent from Jerusalem to supervise the work begun by Hellenist preachers, to seek Saul's co-operation; and "for a whole year" the two worked in Antioch and instructed the numerous converts—including not a few uncircumcised Gen tiles. It is not clear for how long Antioch remained Saul's head quarters. But we may imagine him evangelizing also in the region between Antioch and Tarsus (Gal. i. 21; cf. Acts xv. 23, 41). About this time he seems to have attained quite a fresh sense of the degree to which Gentiles were destined to form part of that "Israel of God" which was being gathered through faith in Jesus as the Christ. Writing later, about A.D. 56, he speaks of having had an overpowering revelation some 13 years previously (i.e., about the very period now in question. He says nothing as to its theme ; but it can hardly have been unconnected with his cen tral preoccupation, the scope of the Church, as set forth later in Eph. ii. I I, iii. 13.
as pledge that the two should not diverge but remain sister branches of Messiah's Ecclesia, until He should return and remove all anomalies, they asked that the Gentile missionaries should "remember the poor"—whether generally or those of the Mother Church. Here was a proviso which Saul was as eager as they could be to get carried out ; and this he was able to prove ere long in the special form of relief to the poor in Judaea, which he and Barnabas fitly administered in person (Acts xi. 3o, xii. 25). This relief visit took place about 45-46.
Perhaps in the late summer or autumn of A.D. 46 or 47 Paul arrived in Pisidian Antioch. Its population included the native Anatolian, the Greek, and the Jewish elements, so frequently found together in Asia Minor since the days of the Seleucid kings of the Hellenistic period. The Anatolian ground-stock had marked affinity with the Semitic peoples, though it was Hellenized in speech and education. Hence the enthusiasm with which Paul's gospel was received (xiii. 44 sqq.; Gal. iv. 14 seq.). Here and now he uttered the memorable protest against Jewish un belief : "It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you : seeing ye thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles" (xiii. 46). This had at first for Paul only a local meaning, as he continued to begin in each city with the synagogue. But the emphasis laid on the incident in Acts shows that to one looking back it meant much, since henceforth Paul's work was to lie mainly among Gentiles.
Paul's experiences were much the same at Iconium. Then at Lystra, in the Lycaonian regio of the province, occurred the heal ing of a lame man at the word of Paul (cf. Rom. xv. 9). The story, told in a few graphic touches, sets before us Paul as the tactful missionary, meeting the needs of a simple folk with an elementary natural theology. At Derbe, the frontier city of Galatia to the south-east, Paul was within easy reach of Tarsus, his old home. But the needs of his young converts drew him back to face fresh dangers in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, in order to encourage "the disciples." To give them the support of responsi ble oversight, the apostles "appointed for them elders" in each church, probably on the model of the synagogue: for Paul had a due sense of the corporate life of each local brotherhood and of the value of recognized leaders and pastors. Then they returned to Antioch, and reported to a church meeting "all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith unto the Gentiles." So ended Paul's first missionary journey known to us in detail, the very first wherein his vocation as apostle of the Gentiles took marked effect.