AD 54 – Wars and Rumors

from The Final Decade Before The End by Ed. Stevens

They were not expecting to be left behind not even knowing it happened

39 the Jews from Rome in AD 50 (Acts 18:2). Next we saw them go to Ephesus with Paul, where he left them and headed to Jerusalem for the feast (Acts 18:18-21). When Paul came to Ephesus on his third journey (late 54 or early 55 AD), Aquila and Priscilla were still there hosting a church in their home, with whom Paul sent greetings to the church in Corinth. However, news of the death of Claudius must have reached Ephesus about that time, and so it seems that Aquila and Priscilla must have left there and returned to Rome, where we find them two or three years later near the end of Paul’s third journey, as he greeted them in his epistle to the church in Rome (Rom. 16:3-4).

This narrative about Aquila and Priscilla helps us date the end of the second and the beginning of the third journeys. We know the exact date of the death of Claudius (Oct 13, AD 54). After that time, it would have been safe for Aquila and Priscilla to return to Rome. They evidently did not leave Ephesus and return to Rome until after Paul arrived there (late 54 or early 55 AD) and after he wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians (AD 56-57).

After Paul left Ephesus he went to Macedonia and Achaia. His traveling companions are listed in Acts 20:4. From Ephesus he traveled to Philippi in Macedonia (where he wrote Second Corinthians), and then to Corinth in Achaia (where he wrote the epistle to the Romans). Then he returned back through Philippi and then to Troas, Assos, Mitylene, Chios, Samos, Miletus (where he met with the Ephesian elders), Cos, Rhodes, Patara, past Cyprus to Tyre, Ptolemais, and to Caesarea. From there he traveled by land up to Jerusalem where he was arrested. This journey from start to finish lasted about four years (Spring of AD 54 until Spring of 58). Here is the sequence of his journey, including the places he visited and the approximate amount of time he stayed at each place:

(1) Galatia and Phrygia (Acts 18:23) – probably a few months (2) Ephesus synagogue (arrived while Apollos was at Corinth) – three months (3) Ephesus teaching in school of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9-10) – two years (4) Ephesus riot over idolatry (Acts 19:23-41) – sometime after the two years – see Acts 20:31 where Paul says he spent a total of “three years” there (AD 54-57) (5) Macedonia (Acts 20:1) – a few weeks? (6) Greece (Corinth - Acts 20:2-3) – spent three months (the Winter) (7) Macedonia (Acts 20:3-6) – Paul & Luke left Philippi after Passover (AD 58) (8) Troas (Acts 20:5-6) – voyage from Philippi to Troas took five days, then they stayed seven days in Troas (9) Assos (Acts 20:13-14) – few days (10) Mitylene (Acts 20:14) – few days (11) Chios (Acts 20:15) – one day (12) Samos (Acts 2015) – one day (13) Miletus (Acts 20:15) – a few days (where he called the Ephesian elders to him) (14) Cos, Rhodes, and Patara (Acts 21:1) – a few days (15) Tyre (Acts 21:2-3) – several days voyage, plus stayed seven days in Tyre (16) Ptolemais (Acts 21:7) – a few days voyage, plus one day at Ptolemais (17) Caesarea (Acts 21:8-14) – one day voyage from Ptolemais, then stayed “for some days” at Caesarea before going up to Jerusalem (18) Jerusalem (Acts 21:15-17) – a few days pilgrimage trip from Caesarea to go to the Pentecost celebration. Paul and company traveled with some of the saints from Caesarea who went up to the feast of Pentecost with him. This is when Paul was arrested, and spent the next two years in prison in Caesarea, until he appealed to Caesar and was sent to Rome.