[PAGE-BREAK][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=””][vc_column_text]After a short stay in Antioch, likely still in AD 50, Paul asked Barnabas to accompany him on a return trip to the churches they had established in Galatia. Barnabas wanted to bring his cousin John Mark along; Paul point-blank refused, remembering too clearly John Mark’s bailout back in Perga (Acts 15:36–38; cf. 13:13).[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”14940″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text el_class=”content-img-src”]The Areopagus is a large hill of rough limestone, mostly bare today, rising just west of—and overshadowed by—Athen’s famed Acropolis. (Paul H. Wright)
Image source: © Carta, Jerusalem[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]After a sharp disagreement, Barnabas and John Mark returned to Cyprus to focus on spreading the Gospel in their homeland, while Paul tapped Silas, a leader of the Jerusalem church and a Roman citizen, instead (Acts 15:22, 32; 16:37).[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The two set off overland to Galatia (Acts 15:39–41), picking up a young Timothy in Lystra on the way (Acts 16:1–3). The result: two teams in the field rather than one, a net gain for the early church.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
