About St. Paul Third Journey
St. Paul's Third Journey
Antioch on the Orontes - Derbe - Lystra - Iconium - Antioch in
Pisidia - Ephesus - Alexandria Troas - Corinth - Philippi -
Thessalonica - Beroea - Alexandria Troas - Assos - Lesbos - Chios -
Samos - Trogyllium - Miletus - Cos - Rhodes - Patara - Tyre -
Ptolemais - Caesarea - Jerusalem
(Acts 18:2321:16)
Gods will was that St. Paul visit Ephesus, so after a time he and
Timothy started their journey to this metropolis of Asia. After
visiting the churches in Galatia and Phrygia, they arrived at
Ephesus via the upper road through the Cayster River valley. Ephesus
was the fourth largest city in the Empire, boasting a population of
perhaps 300,000 people.
He rented the lecture hall of Tyrannus to preach and teach the
gospel. In Romans 16:5 St. Paul sent greetings to Epenetus, his
first convert in the province of Asia. The fruit of his 2 year
residency in Ephesus was that the entire province of Asia heard the
word of the Lord (19:10).One of the seven wonders of the ancient
worldthe temple of Artemiswas located in Ephesus, and thousands of
pilgrims and sightseers journeyed to Ephesus annually to worship the
goddess at her temple.
St. Pauls success, however, brought a reduction in traffic; hence
the lucrative sale of Artemis images by the silversmiths was
declined. The threat to their commercial interests provoked these
merchants to take action, thus causing the riot described in Acts
19:2341. St. Paul barely escaped from the city and headed up the
coast, passing through Troas on the way to Macedonia.
He also had problems in the Corinthian church (cf. 2 Cor. 2:12ff.)
and was attempting to locate his emissary Titus, whom he had sent
ahead. After a period of successful ministry in Macedonia and
Achaia, St. Paul returned to Troas accompanied by at least eight of
his associates (Acts 20:4 plus Luke).
At Troas St. Paul raised the young Eutychus from the dead when he
fell from the upper story of a Roman apartment house called a domus.
The next day St. Paul walked over twenty miles to Assos where he met
the others on board ship. Luke carefully plots the sea journey south
through the Aegean Sea until the ship stopped at Miletos, a port
city that boasted two harbors.
There St. Paul summoned the Ephesian elders and delivered on the
beach one of his most impassioned messages (20: 1835). On his
journey to Jerusalem St. Paul stopped at one more site in Turkey,
the harbor at Patara (21:2). Patara became famous later as the
birthplace of Nicholas, the patron saint of Christmas. St. Paul's
third journey lasted from 5356.
Journeys of St. Paul
About St. Paul
Traveling in St. Pauls Time
City of St. Paul
Antioch on the Orontes
Seleucia Pieria
First Journey
Ministry in Antioch - Orontes
Second Journey
Third Journey
Arrest and Imprisonment
Journey to Rome
Story of Paul and Thecla
St. Paul's Letters