Galatians 1:21

Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;

I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia - `preaching the faith' (), and so founding the churches in Syria and Cilicia, which he subsequently confirmed in the faith (; ). His object is to show how far he was from where the apostles were: so that they could not have been his teachers. He went first to Caesarea, the seaport; thence by sea to Tarsus of Cilicia, his native place (); thence to Syria; Cilicia having its geographical affinities with Syria rather than with Asia Minor, as the Tarsus mountains separate it from the latter. His placing "Syria" in the order of words before "Cilicia" is due to Antioch being a more important city than Tarsus, as also to his longer stay in the former. Also "Syria and Cilicia," from their connection, became a geographical phrase, the more important being placed first (Conybeare). This sea Journey accounts for his being "unknown by face unto the churches of Judea" (). He passes by in silence his second visit, with alms, to Judea and Jerusalem (); doubtless because it, being for a limited and special object, occupied but a few days (), since there raged at Jerusalem at the time a persecution in which James, the brother of John, was martyred and Peter was in prison, and James seems to have been the only apostle present (); so it was needless to mention this visit, seeing that he could not at such a time have received the instruction which the Galatians alleged he had derived from the primary fountains of authority-the apostles.