Talk about suspense! I thought for sure we would be done with Chapter 15 of Acts and move on to the big question of why Paul had Timothy circumcised, but no. At this rate it will take forever to get through this book. He said that they had been studying it for over a year before I joined them around Chapter 10. I kind of wish now I'd been there at the beginning because I missed some good stuff.
Anyway Chapter 15 ends with a surprise. Paul and his sidekick Barnabas have a big fight and split up, never to work together again. They are planning to go back to Turkey, when Barnabas says something about taking his cousin John Mark with them. Oh, no, says Paul, he ran out on us on our last trip there, remember? I'm not having any deserters with us!
Now I'd missed that part where John Mark skipped town so I had to go back a few pages and there it was hidden in the middle of Chapter 13. Luke says simply that John Mark went back to Jerusalem. He doesn't say why. Maybe he was sent back, maybe he got a message that he was needed back there, anyway, at the time it didn't seem like a big deal. People are always coming and going in the Book of Acts.
But for Paul, apparently it was a big deal. As far as he is concerned, the kid split when the going got tough. Now, Paul had to have been carrying this grudge around for quite a while. Luke isn't very good at giving time-frames so it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking all this action was compressed into a span of a few weeks. But even though Roman highways were among the best in the world in that time, it still wasn't like hopping on the Interstate and going from point A to point B. All that traveling they did was mainly on foot. I'm not sure how long it took people to walk places back then but the last time I went on a 30 mile hike with friends it took us 3 days and that was on a flat railroad grade that had been converted to a trail. So, about 10 miles a day. Throw in all the preaching and rioting and jailing and being stoned and run out of town, and that adds up to quite a long time on the road. No one night stands here. So I'd say that this incident happened at least a year previously and maybe even longer.
Anyway, they had a big row about it and ended up parting ways. It doesn't say whether John Mark was involved in the argument or even if he was present. I am going to say that he probably was not. It also doesn't record his reaction, but I am also willing to bet that he was probably stunned to find out how Paul felt about him leaving.
I've had situations like that where things go along quite well for months at a time (or at least I think they are going well) and then out of the blue, I find that they aren't. And I have to go back in the text of my life to find that obscure little verse that if I'd been a little bit sharper in my reading I would have known, uh-oh, that means trouble down the road. I think we've all been there as Aspies.
Anyway Chapter 15 ends with a surprise. Paul and his sidekick Barnabas have a big fight and split up, never to work together again. They are planning to go back to Turkey, when Barnabas says something about taking his cousin John Mark with them. Oh, no, says Paul, he ran out on us on our last trip there, remember? I'm not having any deserters with us!
Now I'd missed that part where John Mark skipped town so I had to go back a few pages and there it was hidden in the middle of Chapter 13. Luke says simply that John Mark went back to Jerusalem. He doesn't say why. Maybe he was sent back, maybe he got a message that he was needed back there, anyway, at the time it didn't seem like a big deal. People are always coming and going in the Book of Acts.
But for Paul, apparently it was a big deal. As far as he is concerned, the kid split when the going got tough. Now, Paul had to have been carrying this grudge around for quite a while. Luke isn't very good at giving time-frames so it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking all this action was compressed into a span of a few weeks. But even though Roman highways were among the best in the world in that time, it still wasn't like hopping on the Interstate and going from point A to point B. All that traveling they did was mainly on foot. I'm not sure how long it took people to walk places back then but the last time I went on a 30 mile hike with friends it took us 3 days and that was on a flat railroad grade that had been converted to a trail. So, about 10 miles a day. Throw in all the preaching and rioting and jailing and being stoned and run out of town, and that adds up to quite a long time on the road. No one night stands here. So I'd say that this incident happened at least a year previously and maybe even longer.
Anyway, they had a big row about it and ended up parting ways. It doesn't say whether John Mark was involved in the argument or even if he was present. I am going to say that he probably was not. It also doesn't record his reaction, but I am also willing to bet that he was probably stunned to find out how Paul felt about him leaving.
I've had situations like that where things go along quite well for months at a time (or at least I think they are going well) and then out of the blue, I find that they aren't. And I have to go back in the text of my life to find that obscure little verse that if I'd been a little bit sharper in my reading I would have known, uh-oh, that means trouble down the road. I think we've all been there as Aspies.
