CHAPTER XII

THE GOSPEL IN CYPRUS AND GALATIA

Ir was now nine years (38-47 A. D.) since Paul had gone from Jerusalem to work in Syria and Cilicia. Except for the brief visit at the time of the famine (Acts 11:30; compare Galatians 1: 22-24) he had not been in Jerusalem all this time. What results he saw from his preaching in Cilicia we do not know. At Antioch, however, the church was growing steadily, and Paul's year there with Barnabas (Acts 11: 25, 26) was a busy one, while he "taught much people" and preached the gospel week after week. Among the leaders of the church in Antioch, the "prophets and teachers" were Barnabas, Simeon Niger (that is, the African?); Lucius of Cyrene; Manaen, the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch; and Paul (Acts 13:1).

PREACHING IN CYPRUS

Some of these were no doubt the "men of Cyprus and Cyrene" who had come to Antioch and preached to Gentiles (Acts 11: 20). Naturally, they would be anxious to spread the gospel among their own people. We are not surprised, then, to read that "as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, 'Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.""

The missionaries set apart.-The time had come for another step to be taken in the westward advance of Christianity across the empire. So after the "prophets" had fasted and prayed they laid their hands upon the heads of the two missionaries, thus solemnly

consecrating them to their new work, and sent them away.

Paul's plans. Barnabas was a native of Cyprus (Acts 4:36f.). It was therefore quite natural that he should be chosen for this mission. The choice of Paul was doubtless due both to his success already achieved in Tarsus and Antioch and to his eagerness to spread the message still farther among both Jews and Gentiles. We can easily imagine how he planned his work in order to reach the greatest number in the shortest time. He would visit the great metropolitan key-cities in the various provinces, staying just long enough to get a church started, and then press on to more distant regions. Cyprus, the old home of his companion Barnabas, was only a stepping-stone on the way to Galatia, Asia, and Europe!

At Salamis.-Bidding farewell to the church, the two missionaries went down from Antioch to Seleucia, the seaport, and took ship for Cyprus. Some of the brethren no doubt came to see them off and stood on the great stone pier (fragments of which still remain, running far out beneath the water), and waved good-by as the small wooden coaster got slowly under way. At last only its angular lateen sails could be seen, far out over the blue waters, as it headed west-southwest for Cyprus. The route covered about one hundred and thirty-five or one hundred and forty miles-eighty miles to the northeast tip of the island and the remainder coastwise, with the Olympian range of mountains in full view. The voyage probably took the best part of a day and a night.

Salamis was the eastern port of Cyprus, with roads forking west, northwest and southwest toward the interior of the island. Here Paul and Barnabas disembarked, and preached the gospel in the Jewish

synagogues. They must have remained several weeks in order to preach in more than one. It is not said that they preached to Gentiles, though they doubtless did, as well as to Jews. It may even be that Salamis was the birthplace of Barnabas, and that he had relatives there with whom the apostles stayed. Luke says that they "had John as their attendant." This was John Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, whose mother owned the house in Jerusalem used by the church (Acts 12: 12), and who was later to write the Gospel known by his name.

At Paphos.-Leaving Salamis after some weeks, they journeyed through the island toward Paphos, its port on the southwest coast. Cyprus was a beautiful island, populous, and famous from early antiquity as the seat of the worship of Aphrodite. It had little to boast of in the way of culture or art or learning, but it was yearly visited by multitudes of pilgrims, and its shrines were known throughout the whole world. In the interior the missionaries would naturally find ample opportunity to preach to heathen as well as Jews; Luke says that they went through the "whole island" on their way to the opposite coast.

At Paphos lived the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus. He was a man of education, but, like most educated Greeks and Romans of the time, he believed in sorcery and magic. Few men in Paul's day had the courage to throw off the old superstitions, handed down for thousands of years; after all, most persons thought, there "might be something in them." In Sergius Paulus' retinue was a Jewish magician and false prophet called Bar-Jesus, or Elymas.

Unmasking a magician.-Hearing of Paul and Barnabas, the proconsul had them brought before him in order to learn more about their teaching. What they