How long were Paul's missionary journeys?

Question

Accepted Answer

Measured from stop to stop in straight lines along the routes of the four tours on the map, Paul's first journey comes to about 1,980 km, the second about 3,650 km, the third about 2,850 km and the voyage to Rome about 2,995 km: more than 11,000 km in all. At a walker's 30 km a day those lengths would take 66, 122, 95 and 100 days on the road, but each journey was partly by sea, real roads are longer than straight lines, and Paul stayed for months or years in some cities, so the figures are a yardstick, not a timetable. The first journey (c. AD 47 on the map; Acts 13–14) went from Antioch down to its port Seleucia, "and from thence they sailed to Cyprus", then from Perga up into the hills to Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, and back the same way to the coast; the legs on land measure about 1,255 km by the roads on the map. The second (c. AD 50; Acts 15:36–18:22) began with the words "Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord": overland through Derbe and Lystra to Troas, by sea to Macedonia, then Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens and Corinth, where Paul stayed a year and six months, and home by sea through Ephesus and Caesarea; its land legs, about 2,825 km, are the longest of the four. The third (c. AD 54; Acts 18:23–21:17) took Paul over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia to Ephesus, 1,035 km from Antioch by the roads on the map, where he spent about three years, then through Macedonia to Troas and down the coast of Asia by Miletus, Rhodes and Patara to Tyre, Caesarea and Jerusalem; about 1,935 km of it on land. The voyage to Rome (AD 59–60) ran from Caesarea by Sidon, Myra and Crete to the wreck on Malta (Melita), then by Syracuse and Rhegium to Puteoli, from where the Appian Way led about 205 km to Rome; only that last stretch was on foot. The years are conventional points, since Paul's chronology is debated; Gallio's year of office at Corinth, 51–52, is its firmest anchor.