THE APOSTLE OF THE RECONCILIATION

In Acts 16:1, when Paul was in Lystra, he stood upon Lycaonian soil, and was properly in Lycaonian Galatia.

We will just briefly notice the two occasions where the word Galatia occurs in the Acts:

`Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost

to preach the Word in Asia ... ' (Acts 16:6).

The Textus Receptus reads Dielthontes; the revised Texts read Dielthon, and omit the article from before

`And they went through the Phrygio-Galactic region forbidden of the Holy Ghost to speak the Word in Asia'.

Here the participial clause is even more important than the verbal predicate. The emphasis is that they went

through that region FORBIDDEN. Koluthentes is passive, and indicates the state of the travellers in regard to the

imposition. Luke 18:14 is an example of the importance of the participial clause. `This man went down to his

house', is a sentence grammatically complete, but tame; `This man went down to his house justified rather than the

other', is a sentence vivid with revelation.

Further, the exact language of the inspired narrative must be observed when dealing with the possible route of

the apostle. He was forbidden to speak in Asia, and to enter Bithynia. Antioch and Iconium belonged to Phrygian

Galatia; Lystra and Derbe belonged to Lycaonian Galatia; another part of Phrygia belonged to Asia. Hence the

record differentiates between Asian Phrygia, where the speaking was forbidden, and Galatian Phrygia, where the

speaking was blessed. In Acts 18:23 there is a slight change of expression.

Acts 16:6 reads Ten Phrugian kai Galatiken Choran.

Acts 18:23 reads Ten Galatiken Choran kai Phrugian.

In the second passage the translation is `The Galatian region and Phrygia', and may indicate two distinct places.

This second passage resembles the record of Acts 14:22 and 15:36 :

`... Antioch ... he departed, and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia IN ORDER, strengthening all the

disciples' (Acts 18:22,23).

Antioch was Paul's Jerusalem. At Antioch be received his first commission by the Holy Ghost; from Antioch he

set forth on his first missionary journey; and to Antioch he returned.

Reading Acts 13 we see the Phrygio-Galatian region traversed; Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe,

all of them cities of the Province of Galatia. The cities are revisited in the reverse order (14:20,21); thence through

Pamphylia to the coast, and so to Antioch in Syria, `from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God'.

This was an epoch in the experience of Paul, and in the development of the purpose of God for the church.

`And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with

them, and how He had OPENED THE DOOR OF FAITH UNTO THE GENTILES' (Acts 14:27).

To the end of his days he remembered this momentous period. The keeping of this door wide open and free of

stipulations involved the apostle in constant warfare. Writing on the eve of martyrdom in his old age, he reminds

Timothy of the persecutions and afflictions which came unto him at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra (2 Tim. 3:11).

`... some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have

preached the Word of the Lord, and see how they do ... Barnabas ... sailed unto Cyprus ... Paul chose Silas ...

Then came he to Derbe and Lystra ... and ... they went through the cities' (Acts 15:36 to 16:4).

This revisit of these churches is summed up in Acts 16:6, as their having gone through the Phrygio-Galatic

region; not a new departure to North Galatia and cities unknown and unnamed, but a summary of this journey and its

immediate development. The passages in chapters 13, 14, 15, 16:1-6 and 18:23 speak with one voice of one district.

First the churches are founded (chapters 13, 14) then, secondly, they are revisited to see how they do (16:6); and,

finally, they are strengthened (18:23).