What does Acts 18:23 mean?
Paul is starting his third missionary journey. As in Acts 15:41—16:5, Luke skips over the places Paul has already visited, preferring to focus on new territory. At different times, Paul's companions include Timothy and Erastus (Acts 19:22), Gaius and Aristarchus (Acts 19:29), Luke, and others (Acts 20:4–5)."There" is Syrian Antioch. About twenty miles from the northeast coast of the Mediterranean Sea, it was the third largest city in the Roman Empire, after Rome and Alexandria, and an endpoint of the Silk Road. Jesus-followers from Cyrene and Cyprus first took the story of Jesus to Antioch while fleeing Paul's persecution before his conversion. The leadership in Jerusalem heard about the growing church and sent Barnabas to validate their beliefs. He found such enthusiasm for the gospel that he went to Paul in nearby Tarsus and invited him to help teach. Jesus-followers were first called "Christians" in Antioch, and it had been Paul's headquarters ever since (Acts 11:19–26).
Galatia is the large district in modern-day central Turkey. During Paul's first missions journey, he and Barnabas planted churches in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Derbe, and Lystra (Acts 13:13—14:23). On Paul's second trip, he and Silas returned to the area, meeting Timothy in Lystra (Acts 16:1–5).
Phrygia is a smaller region with ever-changing borders between Galatia and Asia, the large district in modern-day western Turkey. It included the cities Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis. When Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians, he hadn't been to any of these cities (Colossians 1:3–4; 2:1; 4:13), but they're on the way to his main objective: Ephesus (Acts 19:1).
Acts 18:22–23 quickly records the hiatus after Paul's second journey and the beginning of his third. He sails from Ephesus to Caesarea Maritima and travels to Jerusalem, then his home base of Syrian Antioch. After an extended stay, he returns to the churches he and Barnabas had planted in the district of Galatia in modern-day Turkey. Next, he will go to Ephesus for three years before revisiting the churches in Macedonia and Greece. After very short stops in Troas and Miletus, Paul will go back to Jerusalem. An altercation at the temple will lead to his arrest and eventual voyage to Rome for trial (Acts 19—28).
Acts 18 recounts the end of Paul's second missionary journey. He leaves Athens for Corinth, in southern Greece, and works with Priscilla and Aquila as a tentmaker until Silas and Timothy rejoin him. The team stays eighteen months with no significant pressure. Eventually, Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila sail east to Ephesus. Paul leaves a short time later for Judea and Syrian Antioch before returning to Galatia for his third missionary journey. Meanwhile, Priscilla and Aquilla host the church in Ephesus and train a talented speaker named Apollos to be a minister of Christ.
