Paul the Apostle - The Second Journey

• We picture Paul busily weaving on a loom but, while working on this project, I learned that's not how tents are made. The goat hair is pounded into a felt-like fabric. When it rains, the goat hair expands to prevent water from falling in the tent. More on goat-hair tents here.

• Note the start of the "we verses" in Troas indicating that Luke has joined Paul, Silas and Timothy, and is taking notes.

• After trying many translations of the Bible, courtesy of Bible Gateway, the New Living Translation seems to convey the meaning of the text most efficiently for a 21st century American.

• Paul has a standard procedure when he arrives in a new town - he goes directly to the local synagogue to preach. If the Jews reject his message, he announces, as he does in Acts 18:6, that he will go preach to the Gentiles. To 21st c. ears, it sounds like he's making a sweeping statement but he isn't. He always goes first to the Jewish synagogue.

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Many thanks for generously sharing images on Wikimedia Commons:

Roman Road in Tarsus, Nedim Ardoğa, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Near East Topographic Map (blank) - By © Sémhur / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Blank Map of Roman Empire - ColdEel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Map of Asia Minor in Greco - Roman era. Caliniuc since Putzger & Westermann atlases (Atlas zur Weltgeschichte, Stier, H.E., dir., 1985), CC BY-SA 4.0

Via Egnatia Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Stocks - Ukiws, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Via Egnatia Radozda, Marion Golsteijn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Areopagus Hill - O.Mustafin, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Saint Paul, Il Guercino, 17th c., Metropolitan Museum

Ancient Kechries (Cenchrea) George E. Koronaios, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons