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First missionary journey

The author of Acts arranges Paul's travels into three separate journeys. The first journey, for which Paul and Barnabas were commissioned by the Antioch community, and led initially by Barnabas, took Barnabas and Paul from Antioch to Cyprus then into southern Asia Minor, and finally returning to Antioch. In Cyprus, Paul rebukes and blinds Elymas the magician who was criticizing their teachings.

They sailed to Perga in Pamphylia. John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas went on to Pisidian Antioch. On Sabbath they went to the synagogue. The leaders invited them to speak. Paul reviewed Israelite history from life in Egypt to King David. He introduced Jesus as a descendant of David brought to Israel by God. He said that his group had come to bring the message of salvation. He recounted the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. He quoted from the Septuagint to assert that Jesus was the promised Christos who brought them forgiveness for their sins. Both the Jews and the " God-fearing " Gentiles invited them to talk more next Sabbath. At that time almost the whole city gathered. This upset some influential Jews who spoke against them. Paul used the occasion to announce a change in his mission which from then on would be to the Gentiles.

Antioch served as a major Christian home base for Paul's early missionary activities, and he remained there for "a long time with the disciples" at the conclusion of his first journey. The exact duration of Paul's stay in Antioch is unknown, with estimates ranging from nine months to as long as eight years.

In Raymond E. Brown 's An Introduction to the New Testament, published in 1997, a chronology of events in Paul's life is presented, illustrated from later 20th-century writings of biblical scholars. The first missionary journey of Paul is assigned a "traditional" (and majority) dating of 46–49 AD, compared to a "revisionist" (and minority) dating of after 37 AD.