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Land & Air for Paul’s Earliest Ministry: CILICIA TOUR
Land Only for Paul’s Earliest Ministry: CILICIA TOUR
- Extension Tour+$1,200May 23, 2027 – May 27, 2027
Paul’s Earliest Ministry: CILICIA TOUR
May 9-23, 2027
Join Us for an Extraordinary Trip to the Cradle of Christianity and Paul’s Earliest Mission.
Shortly after Paul’s conversion, the apostle returned to this hometown Tarsus in the Roman province of Cilicia. There, Paul spent the next nine years learning the new faith. There he received revelations (Gal 1:11-12, 2 Cor 12:1-2). This was the time when the former Pharisee learned the fullness of the Gospel and began his earliest ministry. The Acts of the Apostles mentioned nothing of this ministry, although Paul briefly mentioned it in Gal 1:21. The trip will be led by Professor Mark Fairchild who recently authored a ground-breaking book on Paul’s work in this area, Unearthing Paul’s Forgotten Mission: The Archaeology and History of Rough Cilicia (IVP Academic, 2027).
The Cilicia Tour will visit St. Paul’s hometown of Tarsus and will follow an itinerary taking us to places seldom visited in the region known as “Rough Cilicia.” Here, Paul established the earliest churches of his ministry. The tour will visit the ancient coastal cities in the area and will advance a short distance into the mountainous interior to observe Jaw-dropping ancient villages and towns that Paul likely evangelized. These are places with spectacular surroundings, rock-cut reliefs, first-century watchtowers and fascinating stories of the ancient residents’ survival. Here, Paul preached in Jewish synagogues, including the earliest synagogue ever discovered.
***Since most of these sites are within a short distance of one another, we won’t need to change hotels often. We have also included many more sites than what we may be able to manage on each day. If so, we may drop some of the less important.
Dr. Fairchild received his Ph.D. in New Testament Studies from Drew University. He also completed Ph.D. coursework at Union Theological Seminary (NY) and Princeton Theological Seminary. Dr. Fairchild has twice received research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1992, he collaborated with 11 other scholars at Yeshiva University exploring the Greek encounter with Judaism during the Hellenistic Period. In 2002, he joined 20 other scholars at the University of Chicago to investigate societal transformations and the legitimization of power in the early Islamic states.
Fairchild’s recent discovery of two previously unknown ancient synagogues in Turkey (including the world’s oldest known synagogue) was published in the Biblical Archaeology Review in 2012. Research at this ancient synagogue was also published in the Journal of Ancient Judaism in 2014. The Biblical Archaeology Review also published Fairchild’s research on St. Paul’s first mission from Perga to Antioch (2013) and another article on the biblical city of Laodicea (2017). Fairchild’s book on Christian Origins in Ephesus and Asia Minor (originally published in 2015) has been expanded and a second edition is currently available with Hendrickson Publishers (2017).
Dr. Fairchild is currently the Program Director for the Ephesus Meeting, an academic conference at the ancient site of Ephesus in Turkey. He annually travels to Turkey, Greece, Israel, Egypt and Jordan for research and to conduct study tours.
