2 Corinthians 11:26; In Journeyings Often
2 Corinthians 11:26 In journeyings often, inperils of waters, inperils of robbers, inperils by mine own countrymen, inperils by the heathen, inperils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, inperils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
From the time the church of Jesus Christ received the Great Commission to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth, the energizing of His servants to the work has been tremendous. The Apostles were willing to suffer for the gospel’s sake! What an example they set for posterity. Here is a chronicle of the Apostle Paul’s journeyings. Indeed, it has been extensive from the first missionary journey in A.D. 47 to his martyrdom in A.D. 68. For twenty-one years, he travelled within this period, when he was not travelling, he was in prison.
A.D. 30 – Death of Jesus
37 – Conversion of Paul (Acts 9)
44 – Death of James, son of Zebedee ( Acts 12)
44-46 – Paul and Barnabas at Antioch (Acts 12: 24, 25)
47-49 – First Missionary Journey (Acts 13-14)
50 – Conference at Jerusalem (Acts 15)
50-53 – Second Missionary Journey (Acts 16-18)
54-58 – Third Missionary Journey (Acts 18-21)
58 – Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem (Acts 21)
58-60 – Caesarean imprisonment (Acts 24-26)
61-63 – First Roman Imprisonment (Acts 28)
67-68 – Martyrdom of Paul and Peter, and perhaps of Luke.¹
To help us to see the impact of the Apostle Paul’s journeyings on the early mission outreaches of the church and the persecutions of the enemies of the gospel, the historian Philip Schaff who wrote based on his research of history provided a good insight to for the period beyond A.D. 68 to the death of Paul and Peter
The apostolic period extends from the Day of Pentecost to the death of St. John, and covers about seventy years, from A.D. 30 to 100. The field of action is Palestine, and gradually extends over Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. The most prominent centres are Jerusalem, Antioch, and Rome, which represent respectively the mother churches of Jewish, Gentile, and United Catholic Christianity…The Acts and the Pauline Epistles accompany us with reliable information down to the year 63. Peter and Paul are lost out of sight in the lurid fires of the Neronian persecution which seemed to consume Christianity itself. We know nothing certain of that satanic spectacle from authentic sources beyond the information of heathen historians. A few years afterwards followed the destruction of Jerusalem, which must have made an overpowering impression and broken the last ties which bound Jewish Christianity to the old theocracy. The event is indeed brought before us in the prophecy of Christ as recorded in the Gospels, but for the terrible fulfilment we are dependent on the account of an unbelieving Jew, which, as the testimony of an enemy, is all the more impressive. The remaining thirty years of the first century are involved in mysterious darkness, illuminated only by the writings of John. This is a period of church history about which we know least and would like to know most. This period is the favourite field for ecclesiastical fables and critical conjectures. How thankfully would the historian hail the discovery of any new authentic documents between the martyrdom of Peter and Paul and the death of John, and again between the death of John and the age of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus.²
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel and lo I am with you alway! Amen and Amen.
¹ The Chronology of Acts is based on the works of scholars Bengel, Wendt, Zahn, Ramsay, Harnack, Holtzmann, Lightfoot, Turner, and others. W. Graham Scroggie, The Unfolding Drama of Redemption,(Grand Rapids: L Kregel Publications, 1998), 173-4.
² Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, United States of America, (United States of America: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991, Electronic Version.