 from 41-46AD. He might have been in Antioch, continuing his ministry with Barnabas, or he might have gone on a few short journeys elsewhere, but there is nothing worthy of any special mention.
He went on his famine relief visit to Jerusalem in 46AD, and at that time there was the persecution that resulted in Peter's imprisonent and miraculous escape, described in Acts 12. At the end of Acts 12, Paul and Barnabas returned from Jerusalem to Antioch. Peter also came to Antioch, and they had their argument about the question of circumcision, described in Galatians 2:7-14. Then the church at Antioch sent out Paul and Barnabas on their first evangelistic journey.
Assuming that the prophecy of Agabus was made before Claudius Caesar became Emperor in 41AD, and consequently the latest date for Barnabas to go to Tarsus to get Paul was 40AD, then Peter's vision and his visit to Cornelius could have been at any time between 35 and 40AD. If the assumption regarding Agabus is false, then we have a wider time frame, from 35 to 45AD, but we continue this discussion on the basis that it's true.
Peter's vision was an act of Divine providence, because without it the second generation Believers who began preaching to the Gentiles would have been considered outright heretics. The early Jerusalem Believers never had any thoughts of ministry to the Gentiles, who were totally excluded from the church for at least the first five years until 35AD, and maybe the first ten years until 40AD. After that, the Judaising controversy raged for another 10 or 15 years until it was finally settled in Jerusalem in 50AD.
From the day of Pentecost when the church was founded, it took a total of 20 years for them to welcome the Gentiles without hindrance.
We have already seen how Paul's letter to the Galatians was written at some time during his first evangelistic journey, between 46 and 50AD, and he is obviously irritated that the Judaising Controversy has not been resolved. Galatians is probably the first of his letters to be written.
The book of Romans also has the Judaising Controversy as it's main theme, but when was it written? To resolve this, we have to go forward in time to his third evangelistic journey.
Acts 18:22 describes how Paul went to Jerusalem and then to Antioch at end of his second journey. This was in 52AD, which is one of our key dates mentioned earlier. Acts 18:23 says he spent "some time" in Antioch and then went off on his third journey. He went to Galatia and then to Ephesus. He spent a total of three years in Ephesus, as he recounts in Acts 20:31. This includes three months in a synagogue (Acts 19:8) and two years in the house of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9-10). Then there was the opposition from the silversmiths and the riot that followed. (Acts 19:24-41).
He went to Macedonia and then Greece (which means Corinth) and stayed there three months, which would have been long enough to put together the detailed arguments given in Romans, and then he went back through Macedonia. (Acts 20:1-3). We know that the book of Romans was written in Corinth because of certain people he mentions:
Paul's letter to the Romans was to a church he had never visited, although he always wanted to go there. (Rom. 1:8-15). He hoped to visit them on a future journey to Spain (Rom. 15:22-24) but his immediate plan was to go to Jerusalem with a contribution for the Believers who were in need (Rom. 15:25-27).
The remainder of Acts 20, from verse 3 onwards, tells us how he travelled to Phillipi where he celebrated Passover, then he sailed along the coast of Asia Minor, stopping at a number of places along the way, but missing out Ephesus because he wanted to be in Jerusalem for Pentecost. He was warned by the Holy Spirit in every city that trouble awaited him in Jerusalem but it didn't bother him because the knew the Lord wanted him to go there.
Paul arrived in Tyre (Acts 21:3), where there were further prophetic warnings, but he carried on and went to Jerusalem where the brethren received him gladly. (Acts 21:4-17). The remainder of Acts 21 tells us how he went into the