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Was Paul unforgiving or Mark unrepentant (15:36-41)? Since Barnabas and Mark returned to Cyprus for a second mission, and since, after the expulsion of the Jews from Cyprus in a.d. 117, there seems to be no evidence of Christianity there until Constantine (a.d. 325), it would appear that Barnabas and Mark worked only among the Jewish synagogues—just as on the first mission. Apparently Barnabas and Mark were uncomfortable with the mission to the Gentiles.
Why did Paul circumcise Timothy (16:1-3)? Since Timothy was the son of a proselyte mother (a woman of Jewish faith) and a God-fearer father (cf. above on 11:19), he was in limbo religiously. Obviously he was born before his mother became a proselyte, else he would have been circumcised. Thus he was neither fully Jew nor clearly Gentile. Such ambiguity would hinder the Gospel in Jewish synagogues as well as give ammunition to Jewish opponents that Paul was advocating the overthrow of Judaism (21:21). Paul solves the problem incisively.
Again Luke stresses the role of the Holy Spirit in the outreach of Christianity (16:6-8), together with the dream vision that calls Paul to Europe from Troas (vv.9-10). How often, in our intention to “do God’s will,” does God have to restrict us and guide us into that will? Even Paul seems to have difficulty in discerning the mind of the Spirit, although his pliability in God’s hands enables him to relinquish his own agenda for God’s.