---
title: "Acts and the letters: a teaching pack"
canonical: "https://paulineletters.com/explore/resources/learning-acts-letters"
updated: "2026-09-08"
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
source: "Pauline Letters"
---

# Acts and the letters: a teaching pack

A flexible lesson in reading journeys, relationships, and evidence together.

**Acts and the letters: a teaching pack**

Plan one 45–60 minute session, or spread these five activities across a short series. Learners need a Bible, the route map, and space to write. Begin with the story, compare it with a letter, and end by naming both a connection and a question. The printable pack includes room for observation, interpretation, and application.

## What this shows

Acts narrates a journey; letters speak into particular relationships and needs. A chronology helps place them alongside one another, but some dates and connections are reconstructions. Use the date ranges and confidence notes in the timeline below. A matching place or person can illuminate a connection without proving every proposed sequence.

Biblical references: Acts 16:11–40; Philippians 1:3–11; Acts 18:1–18

## 1 · Find the route

Biblical references: Acts 13:1–4; Acts 16:6–12; Acts 20:1–6

Allow about eight minutes. Find Antioch, Philippi, Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome on the map. Ask learners to trace the broad movement from the eastern Mediterranean toward Rome. The familiar numbered “missionary journeys” are a way of organizing Acts; they are not headings Paul gives his own life.

> Which places recur? How might a second visit differ from a first arrival?

## 2 · A place becomes a partnership

Biblical references: Acts 16:11–40; Philippians 1:3–11; Philippians 4:10–20

Allow about twelve minutes. Read Acts’ account of Philippi, then compare Paul’s gratitude and thanks for support. List the people and actions explicitly mentioned in each reading. Put possible connections in a separate column. Acts and Philippians illuminate a relationship from different angles.

> What can you say directly from each passage? Which connection is plausible but not directly stated?

## 3 · Read beside a historical anchor

Biblical references: Acts 18:1–18; 1 Corinthians 1:10–17

Allow about ten minutes. Acts places Paul in Corinth during Gallio’s time as proconsul. An inscription from Delphi helps date Gallio’s office, giving the chronology an external point of reference. It does not date every event in Paul’s life. The later letter shows a community facing divisions beyond the moment of its founding.

> What does the Gallio evidence help establish? What does it leave open about the letter’s exact date and circumstances?

## 4 · Leave room for a question

Biblical references: Acts 9:26–30; Acts 11:27–30; Acts 15:1–29; Galatians 1:18–2:10

Allow about ten minutes. Compare the Jerusalem visits in Acts with Paul’s account in Galatians. Readers differ over how the visits correspond. Invite learners to notice purpose, companions, and sequence before choosing an explanation. It is reasonable to leave a question open while learning from what each passage clearly says.

> Which details would a proposed correspondence need to explain? How can a timeline display uncertainty honestly?

## 5 · Explain one connection

Biblical references: Acts 16:11–40; Philippians 1:3–11

Allow about ten minutes. In pairs, prepare a two-minute explanation linking one place, one passage from Acts, and one passage from a letter. Include a clear observation, an interpretation supported by the reading, and one question that remains. Finish by considering how the relationship described might shape a community today.

> What would you want a new reader to understand, and what would you avoid claiming more confidently than the evidence allows?

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Canonical: https://paulineletters.com/explore/resources/learning-acts-letters