Videos · Documentary series

The Gospel That Began in Tarsus

A documentary series on the city where Paul was born and the road that led out of it — drawn from the Library one chapter at a time. Every claim keeps its register — Scripture, tradition or scholarship; scenes marked “Dramatised reconstruction” are illustrations, not footage. Each episode continues where the last one ended.

Episode 1
No Mean City
Tarsus, and the silent years of St Paul
The city where Paul was born — the river Cydnus, the Cilician Gates, the mound of Gözlükule, a city of Stoic teachers — and the nearly ten years between Damascus and Antioch that the sources leave in silence.
Drawn from: Tarsus · Roman Tarsus · The Apostle Paul
Episode 2
The City That Called Them Christians
Antioch, and the first journey
Barnabas brings Saul to Antioch on the Orontes, and from that city the first missionary journey goes out: Cyprus, where Saul becomes Paul; Perga; Pisidian Antioch; Iconium; Lystra; Derbe — and the road home not taken.
Drawn from: Antioch on the Orontes · Barnabas · Paul's First Missionary Journey
Episode 3
The Cilician Gates
The second journey, and the last walk through Tarsus
After the Council of Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas part over John Mark. Paul takes Silas and goes west by land — through Syria and Cilicia, along the highway that runs through his own city, and up into the mountain gorge the ancients called the Cilician Gates. Beyond the pass: Lystra and Timothy, a road that keeps closing, and a harbour facing Europe.
Drawn from: Paul's Second Missionary Journey · Silas · Timothy · Troas
Episode 4
Letters from the Road
The third journey, and the man who worked with his hands
Corinth, where Paul worked at his trade and stayed a year and six months; the proconsul Gallio, whose term gives Paul's life its firmest date; the letter to Thessalonica, most likely the earliest surviving Christian document; then Ephesus, the longest ministry of his career, the letter to a divided church, the riot of the silversmiths — and the voyage home to Jerusalem.
Drawn from: Paul's Third Missionary Journey · Corinth · Ephesus · 1 Thessalonians