Salamis
Salamis was the first city Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark reached after sailing from Seleucia at the very start of the first missionary journey, chosen in part because Cyprus was Barnabas's home island. There they preached the word of God in the Jewish synagogues, beginning a pattern of proclaiming the gospel first to Jewish communities that would characterize much of Paul's subsequent ministry across Asia Minor. Though Scripture gives few details of what happened specifically in Salamis, it marks the literal starting point of organized Christian missionary work as a deliberate, church-commissioned enterprise rather than the more incidental spread of the gospel that had occurred up to that point.
Details
- Region
- Cyprus
- Modern Location
- Near Famagusta, Cyprus
Key Passages
Paul and Barnabas Begin in Salamis
Acts 13:4-5
This marks the literal starting point of the first missionary journey, the first organized, church-commissioned outreach in Christian history.
4o they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.
Did You Know?
Salamis had multiple synagogues - plural, as Acts notes - indicating the large Jewish community that made Cyprus a natural first mission field.
Barnabas was a native Cypriot, making the first missionary journey's first stop a homecoming.
Tradition holds Barnabas was later martyred at Salamis, and the island venerates him as the founder of the Cypriot church.