Tyndale Bulletin 67.2 (2016) 217-246 THE ROUTE OF PAUL’S SECOND JOURNEY IN ASIA MINOR IN THE STEPS OF ROBERT JEWETT AND BEYOND Glen L. Thompson and Mark Wilson ([email protected] and [email protected]) Summary Robert Jewett, in his 1997 article on Paul’s second journey, explored the geographical dimensions of Paul’s travel in north-west Asia Minor as described in Acts 16:6-8.1 His focus was to investigate thoroughly the road ‘down to Troas’ mentioned in verse 8. This study will not only renew that investigation from Dorylaeum where Jewett began it,2 but will also look at the earlier stages of the journey that began at Antioch on the Orontes. In so doing, it will examine the textual and material evidence that provides knowledge of the region’s road system. Regarding this route, Johnson observes: ‘Although endless scholarly discussion has been devoted to determining the precise route Paul took … it is in fact unsolvable.’3 Despite such a pessimistic perspective, hodological research in north-west Asia Minor in recent decades has provided fresh data to aid in evaluating alternative proposals for Paul’s 1 Robert Jewett, ‘Mapping the Route of Paul’s “Second Missionary Journey” from Dorylaeum to Troas’, Tyndale Bulletin 48.1 (1997), 1-22. Another version of this article is found in Robert Jewett, ‘Paul and the Caravanners: A Proposal on the Mode of “Passing through Mysia”’, in Text and Artifact in the Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity: Essays in Honor of Peter Richardson, ed. Stephen G. Wilson and Michel Desjardins (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2000), 74-90. 2 In a later article Jewett, ‘Investigating the Route of Paul’s “Second Missionary Journey” from Pisidian Antioch to Troas’, in Acts du Ier Congres International sur Antioche de Pisidie, eds. Thomas Drew-Bear, Mehmet Taşlıalan, and Christine M. Thomas (Paris: Diffusion de Boccard, 2002), 93-96, esp. 96, articulated this need: ‘Investigating the system of roads from Galatia through the Troad would allow a more solid basis for Biblical scholars to construct up-to-date maps of Paul’s missionary travels.’ 3 Luke Timothy Johnson, The Acts of the Apostles (Collegeville: Liturgical, 1992), 285. 218 TYNDALE BULLETIN 67.2 (2016) route. To this end, milestones and inscriptions will be noted especially. Relevant finds from archaeological excavations in the area of the journey will also be mentioned. Lastly, we will review publications since 1997 that have interacted with Jewett’s important study and then suggest other alternatives to his thesis.4 The authors wish to thank Professor Jewett for his innovative work on this subject. His model of doing on-site investigation has inspired us to take up this study, which owes much to his pioneering spirit and example. 1. Introduction Tomasch describes geography as ‘the writing of the world’, hence it becomes ‘the reciprocal interaction of two associated processes — the textualization of territories and the territorialization of texts…. Through these processes land is re-presented as territory, and works are surveyed, explored, located, and bounded; they become as it were, texts.’5 Tomasch’s words have been a motivation to attempt systematically to localise the routes related to Paul’s journeys in Asia Minor and to elucidate them as geographical ‘texts’. In 2010 the authors together with a small student group localised a number of sites related to Paul’s first journey along the Via Sebaste and the King’s Highway in south central Turkey.6 In 2013 we conducted a similar investigation in west central and north-western Turkey for Paul’s second journey.7 Our guiding methodology centred on the principles outlined by David French as well as his terminology related to the definition of roads.8 His base maps of 4 We would like to thank the British Institute in Ankara for its invitation to present a poster entitled ‘Localizing the Route of Paul’s Second Journey in Anatolia’ at the symposium ‘Roads and Routes in Anatolia: Pathways of Communication from Prehistory to Seljuk Times’ held in Ankara during 20–22 March 2014. This article is based on research for that poster and the article by Mark Wilson, ‘The Role of the Holy Spirit in Paul’s Ministry Journeys’, Ekklesiastikos Pharos 87 (2005), 76-95, esp. 82-85. 5 Sylvia Tomasch, ‘Introduction: Medieval Geographical Desire’, in Text and Territory, eds. Sylvia Tomasch and Sealy Gilles (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1998), 5. 6 The investigation was based on the article by Mark Wilson, ‘The Route of Paul’s First Journey to Pisidian Antioch’, NTS 55 (2009), 1-13. 7 These research trips were conducted under the auspices of Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee, and the Asia Lutheran Seminary, Hong Kong, and supported by Jerry and Kay Fischer and the Fischer Family Foundation. We thank them heartily for their support as well as the students who participated. 8 David H. French, ‘A Study of Roman Roads in Anatolia: Principles and Methods’, AnSt 24 (1974), 143-49, esp. 143-44. French himself adapted these five principles from THOMPSON & WILSON: The Route of Paul’s Second Journey 219 the road system in Asia Minor were utilised for reconstructing the route of the second journey, and his map of Asia provided the alphanumerical references to the road segments.9 Bekker-Nielsen likewise provided methodological guidelines related to his fieldwork, textual studies, and contextual approach on roads in nearby Cyprus.10 The Barrington Atlas of the Classical World 11 depicting ancient routes around AD 100 also proved a useful tool. A number of Bible atlases were examined, since their maps are often referenced for discussions of Paul’s journeys in the classroom and local church.12 The article will interact with all of these resources where appropriate. However, the maps in Bible atlases were not particularly helpful because they often displayed limited knowledge of the topography, road system, and provincial boundaries in Asia Minor in the mid-first century AD. For example, the map of the second journey in The IVP Atlas of Bible History ignores the geographic and political F. Frederick Starr: 1) a study of pertinent information in ancient sources; 2) narrowing of the search area for a particular road to a band 1–5 miles wide; 3) area search; 4) questioning of local inhabitants; and 5) re-examining ancient writers in light of newly discovered data. The terminology includes: road, route, highway/roadway, track, path, and course. 9 Fig. 1 is based on David H. French, ‘Asia’, Roman Roads & Milestones of Asia Minor, vol. 3, fasc. 3.5 (Ankara: British Institute at Ankara, 2014), 25-26, which provides two Conspectus Maps of Asia, West and East (CM 5.1.1–5.1.2). Cüneyt Oral of Tutku Tours combined the maps digitally, which are reproduced here with the permission of French and the BIAA. 10 Tonnes Bekker-Nielsen, The Roads of Ancient Cyprus (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2004), 2-32, esp. 31-32. 11 Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000). 12 Paul Lawrence, The IVP Atlas of Bible History (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006), 154. The bibliographic information for the other atlases, identified later in abbreviated form, is: Tim Dowley, The Kregel Bible Atlas (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2002); Anson F. Rainey and R. Steven Notley, Carta’s New Century Handbook and Atlas of the Bible (Jerusalem: Carta, 2007); James B. Pritchard and Nick Page, eds., HarperCollins Atlas of Bible History (New York: HarperCollins, 2008); Adrian Curtis, Oxford Bible Atlas, 4th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); Barry J. Beitzel, The New Moody Atlas of the Bible (Chicago: Moody, 2009); John D. Currid and David P. Barrett, Crossway ESV Bible Atlas (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010); Carl Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010); John A. Beck, Discovery House Bible Atlas (Grand Rapids: Discovery House, 2015). 220 TYNDALE BULLETIN 67.2 (2016) Fig. 1. Composite of French’s maps of Asia’s ancient road system THOMPSON & WILSON: The Route of Paul’s Second Journey 221 realities of Paul’s day and shows ‘a vague line as if he traveled over mountain ranges in a helicopter’, quoting Jewett’s words (Fig. 2).13 2. Leg 1: Syrian Antioch to Antioch near Pisidia Several aspects of the first stage of Paul’s second journey continue to generate discussion. After leaving Antioch on the Orontes, Paul and Silas delivered the letter from the Jerusalem council to the churches in coastal Syria and Smooth Cilicia (Acts 15:41). He and Silas then visited Derbe, Lystra, where Timothy joined them, and Iconium (Acts 16:1-5). Fig. 2. Depiction of Paul’s Route in IVP Bible Atlas According to Jewett, at Iconium the apostolic party was ‘prevented from traveling on the main highway west into Asia’, so they continued into North Galatia where they ‘apparently missionized for a considerable period of time while being detained by illness (Gal. 4:13-14)’.14 In this 13 Robert Jewett, ‘Investigating the Route of Paul’s “Second Missionary Journey” from Pisidian Antioch to Troas’, in Acts du Ier Congres International sur Antioche de Pisidie, eds. Thomas Drew-Bear, Mehmet Taşlıalan, and Christine M. Thomas (Paris, de Boccard, 2002), 93. In the conclusion Jewett (96) calls for investigations using ‘satellite photographic and navigational systems currently available’. Our investigations have made extensive use of Google Earth and GPS technology. 14 Jewett, ‘Mapping the Route of Paul’s “Second Missionary Journey”’, 5. Also Rudolf Pesch, Die Apostelgeschichte, 2 vols. (Zurich: Benziger, 1986), 2:101. Carta’s New Century Handbook and Atlas of the Bible, 244, shows Iconium as the junction where the apostles continue northward.