Paul's Third Missionary Journey

The event

Paul's third journey centered on an extended, roughly three-year ministry in Ephesus, one of the great cities of the Roman province of Asia and home to the massive temple of Artemis. There Paul taught daily in the hall of Tyrannus, performed extraordinary miracles, and saw the gospel take such root that new believers publicly burned a small fortune in occult scrolls (Acts 19:8-20). Ephesus also produced one of the most colorful riots in Acts: a silversmith named Demetrius, whose trade in silver shrines of Artemis was suffering because of Paul's preaching, whipped the city into a two-hour chant of "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" in the theater until the town clerk finally calmed the crowd (Acts 19:23-41).

During this period Paul also wrote or dealt with much of the correspondence that makes up a large share of his New Testament letters, including his extended, often painful relationship with the church at Corinth. After leaving Ephesus, Paul traveled back through Macedonia and Greece, spending another three months in the Corinth area, before deciding to return to Jerusalem to deliver a collection he had gathered from the Gentile churches for the poor believers there (Romans 15:25-27) - an offering Paul hoped would visibly cement the unity of Jewish and Gentile Christians.

On the return trip, Paul stopped at Miletus and delivered an emotional farewell to the Ephesian elders, warning them that he expected imprisonment and affliction in every city and that he might never see their faces again (Acts 20:22-25) - a foreboding that proved accurate. This journey represents the height of Paul's church-planting ministry and the last extended season of freedom he would know before his arrest in Jerusalem.

Scripture references

• Acts 18:23-21:16

Further reading

• Bible Odyssey (SBL): Paul and Acts