From the city of Ephesus to the port city of Troas was a journey, on foot, of 349km (about 217 miles). In the spring this would have taken about 12 days of hard walking. From Troas, a boat across the Thracian Sea to Neapolis in Macedonia would have only taken 2.5 days to go the 347km (~216 miles) over water. Finally, the longest leg of the journey, from Neapolis down to Corinth, was a trek of 697km (~433 miles) by foot over a minimum of 23 days.

This was what it meant for Paul to write, “I will come to you after I go through Macedonia,” in 1 Corinthians 16:5. A short phrase to write, but an arduous journey requiring almost 40 days of travel time alone. 1,393km (865.6 miles) was the distance Paul was willing to go to strengthen the saints of Macedonia and repair the strained relationship with Corinth.

I’m thankful for the tools available today that let us explore the realities of travel and ministry in the ancient world. If you want to play around with what journeying between cities in the New Testament would have entailed in the Roman Empire, then check out a wonderful website called ORBIS that Stanford has put together and made available for free.

I’m also convicted that I often find something as trivial as a phone call or an email to be enough of an excuse to put off dealing with the difficult ministry needs that come my way! What a blessing it is to live in an age when communication can circumnavigate the Aegean Sea, and indeed the earth, in a matter of moments. I’m sure Paul would have been jealous.

He probably also would have told us that there is no substitute for loving people face-toface, though. Something worth pondering while exploring ancient routes on cutting-edge websites.