Acts 18:23-21:19
Sometime after he finished his second missionary journey, Paul and Silas left Antioch and began a third missionary journey. As with their previous journey, they revisited the churches in Galatia and Phrygia and encouraged them. Then Paul fulfilled his promise to return to Ephesus, where he ministered for many months, preaching first in the synagogues but then lecturing daily in the hall of Tyrannus. Paul sent his coworkers Timothy and Erastus ahead of him to Macedonia while he continued to minister in Ephesus. Eventually a riot broke out in Ephesus, where the temple of Artemis was located, because the local silversmiths feared that Paul’s evangelistic work there would harm their business of making shrines of Artemis. So Paul left for Macedonia and southern Greece, most likely visiting the churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Corinth. Before Paul set sail to return to Antioch, a plot on his life was discovered, so he traveled back through Macedonia, probably by land. Paul eventually arrived at Troas, and then traveled on to Miletus, where he sent for the elders of the Ephesian church about 30 miles away to come and meet him. After speaking with the Ephesian elders and exchanging farewells, Paul set sail for Jerusalem. Paul’s ship stopped briefly at Tyre and then at Ptolemais before finally arriving at Caesarea on the coast of Palestine. Despite various warnings not to travel to Jerusalem, Paul pressed on until he reached Jerusalem, where he was greetedly warmly by the elders of the church there.
? download hi-res file 🔍 see in TimeGlider
Judea under Persian Rule
In 539 B.C., King Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon, and a year later he announced that any exiled Jews who wanted to return to their homeland could do so (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-2). A contingent of Jews under the leadership of Zerubbabel did return (Ezra 1:3-2:70) and established the minor Persian province of Judea within the larger province called Beyond the River (referring to the Euphrates River). This small province was much smaller than the kingdom of Judah before the exile, partially due to the migration of Edomites (now called Idumeans) into the region just south of Judea, where they too formed a new province.
Israel under the Maccabees
As the Seleucid Empire continued to lose land to rival powers and internal revolts, Antiochus IV Epiphanes sought to unify his diverse domain by forcing Greek religious and political practices upon all his subjects (1 Maccabees 1; 2 Maccabees 6-7). Eventually his harsh policies fomented open rebellion by faithful Jews under the leadership of Mattathias Maccabeus and his sons (1 Maccabees 2; 2 Maccabees 8). Beginning in Judea in 167 B.C., the Maccabean leaders established an independent kingdom and gradually accumulated more and more land until their domain roughly equalled the territory allotted to the twelve tribes of Israel (1 Maccabees 3-16; 2 Maccabees 9-15).
Israel Defeats Og and Sihon
As the Israelites approached Canaan from the east, they asked the Amorite king Sihon if they could pass through his land, but he attacked them instead. The Israelites defeated him at Jahaz and captured all his land (Deuteronomy 2:24-37). After this they turned northward toward Bashan and defeated King Og at Edrei (Deuteronomy 3:1-11). Though the lands of Sihon and Og were not part of Canaan (which lay west of the Jordan River; see Numbers 34), the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh requested that this land be allotted to them as their inheritance, and Moses agreed. The eastern tribes promised to continue helping the other tribes drive out the Canaanites from land west of the Jordan River (Numbers 32; Deuteronomy 3:12-20).
⤓ download hi-res file 🔍 see in TimeGlider
Israelites Are Exiled to Assyria
The northern kingdom of Israel had become subject to the vast Assyrian Empire as early as 740 B.C. during the reign of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser, and many Israelites from lands east of the Jordan River were exiled to places along the Habor River (2 Kings 15:29; 1 Chronicles 5:26). In 722 B.C., however, king Hoshea of Israel rebelled against Assyria’s rule, and king Shalmaneser of Assyria invaded the land again and besieged the capital city of Samaria. After three years Samaria fell, and many more Israelites were exiled to places along the Habor River and to Media (2 Kings 17:1-6). Shalmaneser resettled foreign peoples in Samaria, including people from the regions of Babylon and Hamath (2 Kings 17:24), in order to make it more difficult for people to join together in revolt against his rule. These foreign peoples brought with them their pagan worship practices and combined them with the worship practices of the local Israelites, and they also intermarried with them, forming a distinct Samaritan culture and religion that was often despised by Jews from Judah.
