2.55 Paul’s Third Mission: To the Galatians

Paul has been on the road for 20 years. In his third and final mission, Paul travels from his base in Antioch in Syria through his earlier foundations in Turkey and Greece. He re-unites with Priscilla and Aquila. He spends a few years in the great city of Ephesus in Asia Minor. We meet Apollos, who is spreading the word of John the Baptist. As usual, Paul is violently ejected from Ephesus. This time, the pagans are to blame. Paul tells all and sundry that he has the monopoly on religious trinkets. That really upsets all those making a fortune selling relics of the great goddess Artemis. Paul barely makes it out town with his skin intact. He travels through Macedonia and Greece, then back to Asia Minor. He delivers a melancholy speech at Miletus, and reluctantly turns toward Jerusalem. I finish the episode with a letter Paul wrote during the mission, his angry letter to the Galatians, where he denounces the circumcision party of James and Peter.