Acts 13:13-52

Paul And His Company Preach in Pisidian Antioch. (13:13-52).

Paul ‘and his company' (thus there were at least one or two others besides Mark) left Paphos and sailed across to Perga in Pamphylia. It will be noted that an interesting change has taken place. Paul is now depicted as being in overall charge, and from now on it will be ‘Paul and Barnabas'. This may have been because once they had left Cyprus, and Barnabas' familiar territory, it was agreed that as they were now in territory that Paul was more familiar with he was the best one to lead the party (Perga was on the same coastline some considerable distance west of Tarsus). Or it may simply have been at Barnabas' instigation because he felt that Paul's leadership would add to the effectiveness of the mission, or by general consensus. It will have been noted that Paul has previously been chief spokesman. Barnabas was one of those treasures among men who had no thought for his own importance and was quite ready to submit to his former assistant's guidance and leadership. ‘It takes more grace than I can tell, to play the second fiddle well,' but Barnabas was well up to it, and played the second fiddle beautifully, until again required to become first fiddle, when he did that beautifully as well (Acts 15:39).

It may also be this that unsettled Mark. He was not yet up to his cousin's humility. Geniuses like Paul are hard to cope with. They must either be given rein, or they are unable to operate. Barnabas recognised this and encouraged him until he was ready to take over, with the result that a star was born. Mark, still immature, possibly did not have the same grace, and it may be that hurt and angry for his cousin's sake he refused to go on with them. He had come along because he trusted and leaned on Barnabas and wanted to serve his expedition, and now (from his viewpoint) Barnabas had been ousted. He may have felt that he could not cope with Paul, (especially a sick Paul), and did not want to.

Or it may be that he thought it foolish to seek to cross the Taurus mountains when Paul was so ill (see below), or that he saw the journey becoming a much more extensive one than he had planned for, and he thus wanted to return home while it would not be too difficult to do so. Cyprus and Pamphylia were one thing. They were within easy sail of Palestine. But going on to the Taurus mountains and Pisidian Antioch quite another. Once there it would be a long way back.

So possibly he did not like the travel plans that Paul laid before them. These involved crossing the Taurus range of mountains by one of the hardest and most difficult roads in Asia Minor, a road which as well as being tough, was also notorious for its robbers and brigands, and finishing up in the large provincial city of Pisidian Antioch. Whatever the way of it Mark left the party and returned to Jerusalem (later he would have learned to appreciate Paul, and Paul to appreciate that perhaps some of the fault lay in himself).

There are three exceptions to this new alteration to the order of the names of Paul and Barnabas. They are in Acts 14:14; Acts 15:12; and Acts 15:25. The first arose because Barnabas, probably as the older man, had been called Jupiter, and was therefore being seen as the leader. The other two examples were at the Jerusalem assembly where the well known and highly esteemed Barnabas was naturally given the position that he held in their eyes as their directly appointed and senior representative. There is much to be said for the suggestion that few men could have done what Barnabas did in making the most of the genius of Paul, a genius which he recognised from the start, knowing when to accept the lead himself, when to exercise his esteemed position, and when to make it subsidiary to the wishes of Paul. Paul appreciated it too. Humanly speaking, without Barnabas he might still have been a provincial preacher.

It would appear that at this time Paul became very ill. It may well have been with lowland malaria. In Galatians 4:13 he says, "You know that it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first". So when he came to Pisidian Antioch in Galatia he was already a sick man. As we know Paul had a ‘thorn' or ‘stake' in the flesh which in spite of much prayer remained with him (2 Corinthians 12:7). Many suggestions have been made as to what that ‘thorn' or ‘stake' was. Early tradition suggested that Paul suffered from blinding headaches, and that might suggest that he was the victim of the virulent recurring malaria fever which haunted the low coastal strip of Asia Minor. One traveller informs us that the headache characteristic of this malaria was like a red-hot bar thrust through the forehead. This malaria may well have attacked Paul in the low-lying and enervating Pamphylia resulting in him recognising the need to seek the plateau country in order to shake it off (having lived for many years on a similar coastline he may have seen much of the illness).

Thus they left the low lying Pamphylia and made for Pisidian Antioch which stood on a lake dotted plateau 3,600 feet above sea-level and was a hundered miles away. To reach it Paul and Barnabas would have to cross the Taurus range of mountains by one of the hardest roads in Asia Minor, a road which was also notorious for bandits and thieves.