The Adventures of Paul in Acts Quiz

Answer: Tarsus

In chapter 22 of "Acts" Paul speaks of his life and career to the Jewish people in Jerusalem. He begins by stating that he was "born in Tarsus in Cilicia and raised in this city [Jerusalem]". Tarsus was an ancient city in eastern Turkey, located at the strategic spot where the main east-west road of the Persian Empire came down to the Mediterranean Sea. Tarsus was the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia and had one of the leading libraries and academies in the Roman world.

Answer: Lystra

"Acts" chapter 14 tells how on his first missionary journey Paul and Barnabas made their way through the interior of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) through the cities of Pisidian Antioch and Iconion to Lystra (modern Klistra). It lay on the major east-west road from Ephesus on the Aegean Sea to Tarsus and thence to Antioch.

When the inhabitants saw them heal a lame man, they shouted in the language of the area (Lycaonian) that "the gods have come down to us in human form". There was a local legend that the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes had once visited and blessed an elderly couple (Baucis and Philemon) in the region and so they identified Barnabas as Zeus and Paul ("who did all the talking") as Hermes.

Hermes was among other things the god of languages and communication.

When Paul realised what the people were saying, they tore their clothes (a sign of dismay) while Paul insisted that "we are just human beings like you".

Answer: Philippi

In chapter 16 Paul was accompanied by Silas and Timothy on his second missionary journey. They made their way west through Asia Minor, eventually ending up at Troas on the Aegean Sea. They crossed by boat to Europe and arrived in Philippi, the principal city in the eastern part of the Roman province of Macedonia. Accused of making a public disturbance, they were thrown into prison, but around midnight an earthquake shook the prison and opened all the doors. Rather than escape they remained inside, impressing the warden so greatly that he with his family accepted the Christian message and took them into his home.

Answer: Jerusalem

At the end of their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch where the issue arose of whether non-Jews (Gentiles) who have been baptised and accepted Christianity needed to adopt the life-style of the Jews, including circumcision for males and the Jewish dietary laws. Paul and Barnabas were sent by the Christian community in Antioch to a Council in Jerusalem to discuss and decide this issue. According to Luke in chapter 15, Paul related how that they had preached the gospel successfully to Gentiles in Asia Minor and both Peter and James (the brother of Jesus) spoke in their support.

The Council decreed that Gentile converts did NOT have to observe all the niceties of the Jewish tradition, which caused much rejoicing among the Christians in Antioch.

Answer: Caesarea

After Paul returned to Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey, he was arrested in the temple and brought first before the commander of the military garrison, then the Roman tribune, next the Council of the Jews (Sanhedrin), then the governor of Palestine (Felix), his successor (Festus) and finally in chapters 25 and 26 before King Herod Agrippa II.

This is the fourth Herod in the New Testament -- Herod the Great [Nativity story], Herod Antipas [John the Baptist], Herod Agrippa I [killed James the son of Zebedee in Acts 12], and his son Herod Agrippa II, who would become a close friend of the emperor Claudius. Caesarea, not Jerusalem, was the Roman political centre in Palestine.

Herod the Great had built a luxurious palace by the sea, and it was here that the Roman governor lived and conducted business. Only rarely would he go up to Jerusalem.

Answer: Damascus

In chapter 9 Saul of Tarsus was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus to arrest and bring to Jerusalem any men and women who were members of "the Way", the original name for Christianity. The story of his blinding encounter with Jesus on the road outside Damascus is told three times in "Acts".

After his sight returned, Saul (now called Paul) began to preach the Word in Damascus and attracted the attention and hostility of the Jews, who watched all the gates of the city to prevent him leaving. His (now) fellow-Christians lowered him by night in a basket from the walls of the city and he then made his way to Jerusalem.

Answer: Ephesus

In chapter 19 Paul arrived in Ephesus, one of the most important cities in the Roman world and capital of the province of Asia. It was an ancient Greek city, located on the west coast of what is now Turkey, and its temple to the goddess Artemis was considered as one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.

His preaching there that there was only one God and that people should not be worshipping idols offended a silversmith named Demetrius and his fellow artisans, who were making quite a nice living of what we would call "the tourist trade".

They were worried that their famous temple of Artemis would no longer be an important site. Demetrius incited the citizens of Ephesus to riot and they filled the theatre (held over 20,000 people), shouting "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians" for over two hours.

The local mayor convened an assembly and ruled that Paul and his companions had done nothing illegal and sent them on their way to Macedonia and from there to Greece.

Answer: Paphos (Cyprus)

In chapter 13 Paul and Barnabas, accompanied by Barnabas' nephew Mark, began the first missionary journey from Syria. Since Barnabas came from Cyprus, it was natural to make their first stop there. When they reached Paphos on the west coast of Cyprus, they met Elymas or Simon Bar-Jesus, "a Jewish false prophet and a magos".

The last term doesn't really mean "magician" but rather "wise man" or "sage". He was close to the Roman governor of Cyprus and was trying to prevent the governor from paying attention to what Paul was saying. Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit and formally cursed Elymas with blindness, calling him "son of the devil". Luke implies that, as in Paul's case, the blindness was temporary.

Answer: Beroea

On his second missionary journey Paul, with Silas and Timothy, made their way along the Via Egnatia from Philippi to the Roman capital of Macedonia, Thessalonike. In the Jewish synagogue he proclaimed the Christian message which was accepted eagerly by some, including some prominent citizens, but the leaders of the Jews accused Paul of treason, "for saying that there is a king other than Caesar". To forestall a threat from the mob, his followers there sent Paul's company by night to the town of Beroea (about 50 miles to the south-west), "who received the word with great enthusiasm".

Answer: Malta

In chapter 25 Paul is interrogated by the new governor of Palestine, Porcius Festus, who proposed sending Paul for trial in Jerusalem, where the hostile Jews would have surely condemned him. As a Roman citizen, Paul had the right to appeal for a trial by the Emperor (Nero), which Festus accepted.

In chapter 27 Luke relates that they began the voyage to Rome very late in the sailing season, probably October, and that it ended with a violent storm and a shipwreck off the island of Malta, but with no loss of life.

While Paul was gathering firewood, an echidna ("viper") slithered out of the wood-pile and bit Paul on the hand. He shook the snake off and suffered no ill effects from the bite. The others expected him to die in agony, but when nothing untoward happened, "they changed their minds and started calling him a god".

Answer: Antioch

In the years following the resurrection of Jesus and the establishment of Christian communities, Jerusalem became too dangerous for "followers of the Way" (see chapters 5-7) and the Word travelled first to Samaria (chapter 8) and from there north to Antioch, an important city in the Roman province of Syria.

Here we are told the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians". It was from Antioch that Paul set out, with Barnabas and Mark, on his first missionary journey, probably in the late 40s AD.

Answer: Troas

On his way back to Palestine from his third missionary journey Paul paused for seven days at Troas on the west coast of Asia Minor. The name might suggest a connection with the famous city of Troy, but Troas is a more recent city, founded around 300 BC. To go from Rome to the East with the least sea-travel involved taking the Via Egnatia across the top of Greece to Nea Polis, then a two-day boat ride to Troas. Paul travelled in the other direction on his second missionary journey.

In chapter 20 Luke tells how Paul at Troas was speaking at length until midnight in an upstairs room with many smoky lamps.

A young man named Eutychus was sitting on the window sill, became sleepy and fell to the ground below. They all thought that he had died in the fall, but Paul insisted that he still lived "and they took him upstairs, alive".

Incidentally his name in Greek means "good fortune".

Answer: Corinth

In chapter 18 Paul has travelled from Athens to Corinth, the capital of the Roman province of Achaea (Greece). Here he had considerable success with his ministry to both Gentiles and Jews, making converts that included the president of the synagogue and his family. Roman governors changed every year and the Jews decided to test their new governor, Junius Gallio, by laying political charges against Paul. Gallio dismissed their accusations without Paul having to defend himself, on the grounds that this was an internal Jewish matter that had nothing to do with the state. Two interesting things about Gallio: he was the brother of Seneca, the philosopher and tutor of the emperor Nero, and we know that Gallio was governor in AD 51.

This gives a fixed point in time from which we can date the events of Paul's journeys.

Answer: Athens

In chapter 17 Paul had to leave the welcoming community of Beroea because of hostility from the Jews of nearby Thessalonike. He went by ship to Athens, no longer the leading political city of Greece but still a centre of arts and culture. Here he preached every day in the agora (central market-square) and attracted the attention of leading philosophers.

In a public speech on the Areopagos he described how in his tour of Athens he had come across an altar with the inscription "to an unknown god".

This, he stated, was the god that he was proclaiming in his daily addresses to the Athenians.

Answer: Rome

The book of "Acts" can be summed up as "from Jerusalem to Rome". It begins with the Ascension of Jesus from a hill outside Jerusalem and continues in chapter 2 with the descent of the Holy Spirit on the celebration of Pentecost in Jerusalem. The narrative of the second half of the book takes Paul from Jerusalem through his journeys to end up in Rome, where he can make his appeal to Caesar.

It is generally thought that Paul died in the persecution of the Christians following the fire of Rome, but dating presents a problem. If we examine the chronology of the story in "Acts", the latest that Paul gets to Rome is around AD 60, but Nero's attacks on Christians don't start until AD 66. Even adding the two years that Luke tells us that Paul spent in Rome "without hindrance", we still have a gap of four years. Perhaps Paul's appeal was successful or never heard, and he was free to go on a further journey.

But for Luke the story ends when he has brought Paul to Rome, the centre of the Empire.