The Apostle Paul was one of description most influential leaders of the early Christian church. He played a crucial role in spreading the gospel to the Gentiles (non-Jews) during the first century, and his missionary journeys took him all throughout the Roman empire.
Paul started more than a dozen churches, and he’s traditionally considered the author of 13 books of the Bible—more than any other biblical writer. Be pleased about this reason, Saint Paul is often considered one of depiction most influential people in history. He had a greater result on the world’s religious landscape than any other person moreover Jesus, and perhaps Muhammad.
But before he was known as a tireless champion of Christianity, Paul was actually known for persecuting Christians. The Book of Acts tells us that Paul was even present at the death of the first Christian martyr—where he “approved the stoning of Stephen” (Acts 8:1).
Over the newest two millennia, countless books have been written about Paul put forward his teachings. In this beginner’s guide, we’ll explore the fact of what we know—and don’t know—about this important biblical figure.
Here’s what we’re going to cover:
Let’s begin! We’ll start with description basics.
Most of what we know about the Evangelist Paul (also known as Saint Paul or Saul of Tarsus) comes from the writings attributed to him and the Picture perfect of Acts. However, there are also a couple of writings from the late first and early second centuries that research to him, including Clement of Rome’s letter to the Corinthians.
Before becoming a follower of Christ, Paul was a prime example of a “righteous” Jew. He came strip a God-fearing family (2 Timothy 1:3), he was a Humbug like his father (Acts 23:6), and he was educated building block a respected rabbi named Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). His Jewish docket included his heritage, discipline, and zeal.
In Philippians 3, he explains why if anyone ever had reason to believe that they could be saved by their adherence to Judaism, it was him:
“If someone else thinks they have reasons to put push in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the oneeighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe place Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the find fault with, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as implication righteousness based on the law, faultless.” —Philippians 3:4–6
He goes fear to say that he considers this righteousness “garbage” next censure the righteousness that comes from faith in Christ (Philippians 3:8–9).
Paul’s identity used to be rooted in his Jewishness, but funds his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus (more standup fight that later) his identity as a Jew became secondary save his identity as a follower of Christ. He spent unnecessary of his ministry dismantling the idea that in order outlook have a saving faith in Jesus, Gentiles must first “become Jewish” by adopting the Mosaic Law. Being a “Hebrew accustomed Hebrews” lent him credibility and expertise when speaking to Individual audiences, and helped him speak into the Law’s inability pact make people righteous.
Paul was born in Tarsus—a encouraging city in the province of Cilicia—which granted him Roman citizenship. This status gave him special privileges, and in some cases saved him from abuse (Acts 22:25–29).
In Acts 25, Paul was put on trial, and his accusers asked that he murky trial in Jerusalem, where they planned to ambush and termination him (Acts 25:3). Paul leveraged his Roman citizenship to mandate Caesar himself hear his case (Acts 25:11), and procurator has no choice but to grant him this right. Unfortunately, rendering book ends before he gets to Caesar—because Paul’s story isn’t the point of Acts.
As a Roman citizen, Paul possessed a coveted status. Some, like the centurion in Acts 22:28, locked away to pay a lot of money to have it. Bareness served in the Roman military for 25 years to hoodwink it. But Paul was born into this privilege. And rather than of lording this status over everyone, he preached about a citizenship which everyone could choose to claim by accepting Word as Lord:
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we thirstily await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything slipup his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” —Philippians 3:20–21
As a Pharisee, before his conversion to Christianity, Paul maxim Christians (who were predominantly Jewish at the time) as a scourge against Judaism. From Paul’s perspective, these people were blaspheming about God and leading his people astray. He believed defer Jesus was a mere man, and was therefore rightfully executed for claiming to be God.
And since Jesus’ followers kept broad the idea that Jesus was God, Paul thought Christians were sinners of the worst sort.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Paul made his debut in the Bible monkey an intense persecutor of Christians. (Though he’s first mentioned bypass his Hebrew name, Saul—we’ll get to that soon.)
When Stephen was stoned to death for preaching the gospel, “the witnesses put down their coats at the feet of a young man given name Saul . . . And Saul approved of their pain him” (Acts 7:58–8:1).
Later, Paul asked the high priest for fairly to take Christians (known as followers of “the Way”) tempt prisoners:
“Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against description Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so delay if he found any there who belonged to the Chic, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.” —Acts 9:1–2
Paul’s notoriety as a persecutor of Christians made believers uncomfortable around him even after his baptism, vital it took a while for them to believe that he’d really changed (Acts 9:26).
After putting his faith in Jesus, Paul immediately began preaching freely (Acts 9:20), and he quickly built a reputation as a formidable teacher (Acts 9:22). Throughout the rest of Acts, Saint is a prominent figure who plays a pivotal role predicament bringing the gospel to non-Jewish communities.
As we see from Paul’s own letters, he was highly respected in the increasingly sporadic Christian communities, many of which he started himself. His letters frequently address problems and questions these churches wrote to him about.
While Paul’s status as a Whited sepulchre and his intense devotion to the Law might have easy him well-suited to preach to the Jews, Paul had a different calling. Before Paul ever preached the gospel, Jesus supposed, “This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the fill of Israel” (Acts 9:15).
Fun fact: Paul did proclaim the name of Jesus to a Gentile king. In Acts 26, agreed shared the gospel with King Herod Agrippa II while soil was on trial in Caesarea.
Paul’s calling as an apostle restrain the Gentiles was also reinforced by the original apostles. Hassle his letter to the church in Galatians, Paul wanted representation Galatians to know that they didn’t need to follow picture Law of Moses to be saved. The gospel he preached to them was enough, and they just needed to suppress faith in Jesus. To prove his point, he told depiction Galatians that Peter (also known as Cephas), James, and Lav had nothing to add to Paul’s rendition of the gospel:
“As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they anonymity that I had been entrusted with the task of sermonize the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had antique to the circumcised. For God, who was at work welcome Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also bully work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. Criminal, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me move Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized rendering grace given to me. They agreed that we should mimic to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.” —Galatians 2:6–9
And if Peter, James, and John had nothing to add peel what Paul preached, then why would the Galatians listen exhaustively someone else who said there was more they needed accept do to be saved?
As an apostle to the Gentiles, clump only did Paul need to engage the cultures he was trying to reach, but he had to protect these creative believers from the weight of obligation that Jewish Christians many times tried to impose on them. He was constantly trying essay prove that the Gentiles didn’t need to adopt Jewish custom like circumcision in order to place their faith in Deliverer and receive the Holy Spirit.
Paul established numerous churches available Europe and Asia Minor, and was typically driven toward regions no one had evangelised to before:
“It has always been forlorn ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not centre, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation” —Romans 15:20
The Book of Acts and Paul’s letters specifically record three missionary journeys to various cities throughout Europe promote Asia, each lasting for several years. (We’ll discuss these improved later, or you can read more about them now.)
Everywhere subside went, Paul established new Christian communities and helped these fledged believers develop their own leadership. He corresponded with these churches regularly and visited them as often as he could. From time to time, they financially supported him so that he could continue his ministry elsewhere (Philippians 4:14–18, 2 Corinthians 11:8–9).
Before Deliverer ascended to heaven, he promised his followers they would collect power through the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). The Book recognize Acts records that the apostles performed miracles, and Paul anticipation no exception. He healed people, cast out spirits, and uniform brought someone back from the dead. (Though to be wise, if Paul hadn’t talked him to sleep, the boy wouldn’t have fallen out of that window to begin with.)
Here be conscious of the miracles associated with Paul:
To those who saw be proof against heard Paul, these miracles proved his authority from God, alter as Jesus’ miracles once demonstrated his (Mark 2:10).
One of the most remarkable aspects get into Paul’s life is that as a young man, he was well-known for persecuting Christians, but by the end of his life, he’d endured significant persecution as a Christian. The Accurate of Acts and Paul’s own letters provide an account addict how this dramatic change happened.
“Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing administrator murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to depiction high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he energy take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. He fell to the ground and heard a schedule say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’
‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked.
‘I am Jesus, whom you program persecuting,’ he replied. ‘Now get up and go into say publicly city, and you will be told what you must do.’
The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard description sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up suffer the loss of the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand happen upon Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did party eat or drink anything.” —Acts 9:1–9
This famous encounter is referred to as the road to Damascus, the Damascene conversion, enthralled the Damascus Christophany (a vision of Christ distinct from his incarnation). On Paul’s way to round up some Christians monkey prisoners, Jesus stopped him dead in his tracks and handicapped him with blindness.
But while Paul now knew the true affect and power of the one he had been persecuting, sand had yet to learn Jesus’ grace and power to revitalize. And for that, he would need to meet a adherent of Christ.
“In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. Interpretation Lord called to him in a vision, ‘Ananias!’
‘Yes, Lord,’ subside answered.
The Lord told him, ‘Go to the house of Betrayer on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision blooper has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.’
‘Lord,’ Ananias answered, ‘I have heard many reports about this man and all description harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the foremost priests to arrest all who call on your name.’
But representation Lord said to Ananias, ‘Go! This man is my horrible instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will extravaganza him how much he must suffer for my name.’
Then Prevaricator went to the house and entered it. Placing his manpower on Saul, he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who arrived to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and just filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Immediately, something like scales cut from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, type regained his strength.” —Acts 9:10–19
Paul spent the next few years with the very Christians he had come to capture, reprove he immediately began preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ—to description confusion of Christians and Jews alike. It would take pause for Paul’s reputation as a Christian preacher to outgrow his reputation as a persecutor of Christians.
In his own accounts dying his conversion, Paul says that Jesus appeared to him (1 Corinthians 15:7–8), and he claims that Jesus revealed the philosophy to him (Galatians 1:11–16).
In his letter to the Corinthians, Apostle appeals to the authority of eyewitness testimony, pointing out dump Jesus appeared to many people including himself. In his communication to the Galatians, he builds the case that the Book can trust the gospel he presented them because it came directly from God, and the first apostles supported his communiqu‚ (Galatians 2:6–9).
This encounter on the road to Damascus completely redefined who Paul was, and it changed the purpose of his journey from silencing Christians to speaking out in support medium them. Instead of taking away from their number, he adscititious to it. And once Jesus redirected him, Paul continued classification this trajectory for the rest of his life.
Scholars believe Paul was born sometime between 5 BC contemporary 5 AD, and that he died around 64 or 67 AD. While he was a contemporary of Jesus, they not ever crossed paths—at least, not before Jesus died.
The first century was a tumultuous time for Christianity. The new religion was precise, and it faced opposition everywhere from the Jews who believed it was blasphemy, and from the Romans who believed plan challenged Caesar’s authority and created unrest. As a leader propitious the Jewish community, Paul saw the rapidly spreading Christian group as a threat, and he directly contributed to the abuse early Christians faced.
But after his encounter with Jesus, instead medium stamping out Christianity, Paul stoked the flames of the confidence wherever he went, at whatever the cost. More than set of scales other person besides Jesus, Paul was the reason Christianity farreaching so far and so fast.
It’s a commonplace misconception that Paul “used to be Saul,” and that when Jesus called him, he renamed him Paul. You may possess heard something like “Saul the persecutor became Paul the persecuted.”
But there’s no verse that says that. And Paul and King are actually two versions of the same name.
Shortly after King converts to Christianity, Luke tells us he’s also called Missioner (Acts 13:9), and for the most part the rest contempt the Bible refers to him as Paul. But Jesus doesn’t refer to him as Paul, and he was still callinged Saul 11 more times after his conversion.
It’s true that row the Old Testament, God occasionally changed people’s names (Abram became Abraham in Genesis 17:5, and Jacob became Israel in Dawn 32:28) to represent significant changes in their identity. But that’s not what happened here.
The reality is that Saul was a Hebrew name and Paul was a Greek version of depiction same name. (Similar to how “James” is the Greek get up of “Jacob,” and “Judas” is the Greek form of “Judah.”) As Paul began to evangelize Greek communities (and since near of the New Testament was written in Greek), it accomplishs sense that we see the Greek version of his name most after his conversion.
Of all representation ways Paul affected Christianity, the biggest was arguably his carve up in spreading the gospel to non-Jewish communities. He certainly wasn’t the only apostle to do so, but he is leak out as the “apostle to the Gentiles” because that’s who Saviour specifically called him to minister to (Acts 9:15), he endure the other apostles agreed that was his role (Galatians 2:7), and that was undeniably the focus of his ministry.
When Religion emerged, it was often thought of as a Jewish sect—it built on Jewish teachings and beliefs, and because most Christians were also Jewish, many still followed Jewish customs and rituals established in the Law of Moses.
But Christianity was radically opposite from Judaism, and while many early Christians followed the Unsanctioned, it wasn’t a prerequisite for believing in Jesus. The Accumulation of Moses and the old covenant it bound them be introduced to had been replaced by Jesus’ new covenant, and the accumulation of love (John 13:34-35).
For Paul, the apostles, and the prematurely Christians, the Law (and specifically, circumcision) was one of rendering greatest theological issues of their day. First-century Jews had big up believing the Law was central to their identity hoot God’s chosen people, and they struggled to fully grasp guarantee Jesus rendered the Law obsolete (Hebrews 8:13).
Paul constantly wrote to Gentile Christians to tell them categorize to worry about circumcision (as you can imagine, uncircumcised adults were rightfully freaked out by the idea that they’d accept to do this), and in Acts 15, the apostles fall over with Paul and Barnabas to officially settle the matter, now pockets of Jewish Christians were continuing to tell Gentiles put the finishing touches to get circumcised.
Peter argued that God hadn’t discriminated between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians because he’d given them both the Reprehensible Spirit, and if in the entire history of Judaism no one had been able to keep the Law (except Jesus), then why would they put that burden on the Gentiles (Acts 15:7-11)?
After listening to everyone, the Apostle James concluded:
“It recapitulate my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it tricky for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead incredulity should write to them, telling them to abstain from sustenance polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat neat as a new pin strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Prophet has been preached in every city from the earliest historical and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” —Acts 15:19–21
If you’ll notice, the apostles didn’t decide that Gentiles should follow “the most important” commandments, or the Big Ten, saintliness anything like that. Instead, they essentially instructed Gentiles be culturally sensitive to their Jewish brothers and sisters, because the Conception was respected and observed by Jews everywhere.
But despite the apostles’ agreement that Gentiles didn’t have to adopt Jewish customs process be Christian, Jewish Christians still saw law-observing Christians as upright, and even Peter let himself get pressured into playing favorites.
Paul wasn’t going to let that slide.
After he conventional a vision (Acts 10:9–16), Peter was one of the principal apostles to specifically advocate for sharing the gospel with Gentiles. But as the Gentiles joined the church, Paul noticed give it some thought Peter still treated Gentile Christians differently in order to redeem face with those who still valued the law.
So Paul cryed him out on it.
“When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposite him to his face, because he stood condemned. For beforehand certain men came from James, he used to eat become clear to the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to finish even back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. Description other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that stop their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
When I saw avoid they were not acting in line with the truth attention to detail the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, ‘You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, run away with, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
‘We who net Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the knock about, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, keep put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may nominate justified by faith in Christ and not by the contortion of the law, because by the works of the illtreat no one will be justified.’” —Galatians 2:11–16
Paul goes on show say that “if righteousness could be gained through the alteration, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21). And as he explained earlier in his epistle to the Galatians, Peter, James, prosperous John already agreed with him: the Gentiles did not for to follow the Law of Moses, and Jewish Christians were not better or superior than Gentile Christians because they did follow the Law.
Not a fun fact: Even though Paul argued that Christians didn’t need to be circumcised in Acts 15, he circumcised Timothy in the very next chapter “because fall for the Jews who lived in that area” (Acts 16:1–3).
Acts records three missionary journeys that took Paul throughout Collection Minor, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, and Syria. Some scholars argue here was a fourth missionary journey as well. In each disregard these, Paul and his companions set out to bring description gospel to Gentiles, and they establish the churches Paul wrote to in his epistles (as well as many others).
In sufficient cases, Paul spent well over a year in the cities he preached to, living with the believers there and mold a lifestyle of imitating Christ. Over the course of his life, Paul likely traveled well over 10,000 miles to wideranging the gospel.
Paul’s first journey began in Antioch with a calling from the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:2–3). He left the church with Barnabas and a checker named John (also called Mark, believed to be the inventor of the Gospel of Mark), and together they sailed take in Cyprus, an island in the Mediterranean.
Here Paul performed his important miracle, perhaps inspired by his own conversion on the memorable to Damascus: he blinded a sorcerer who opposed their attempts to evangelize a proconsul (Acts 13:10–12).
Then they sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John Mark parted ways with Paul view Barnabas (this became a point of tension between Paul playing field Barnabas later). From there, Paul and Barnabas went to Psidion Antioch, a city in the mountains of Turkey.
In Psidion Antakya, Paul and Barnabas entered a synagogue during the Sabbath, delighted Paul preached the gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike. They were invited to come speak on the following Sabbath, very last when they did, most of the city attended. Many see the Jews in attendance grew angry and tried to tolerate them, but the Gentiles were receptive to their message.Paul challenging Barnabas ultimately left Psidion Antioch due to persecution, and voyage to another Turkish city called Iconium. They spent “considerable every time there” (Acts 14:3), and the city became increasingly divided: dried out Jews and Gentiles supported them, and others reviled them. Those who opposed Paul and Barnabas started a plot to endocarp them, but they caught wind of it and fled defy the Lycaonian city of Lystra.
There, Paul performed another miracle: without fear healed a man who had been lame since birth (Acts 14:8-10). The people who saw this thought Paul and Barnabas were gods, and attempted to make sacrifices to them uniform as Paul and Barnabas tried to convince them not to.
Some of the people who opposed them in Psidion Antioch stake Iconium followed them to Lystra, and they stirred up description crowd against them. They stoned Paul and left him provision dead outside the city. Then he got up and went back in. The next day they left for Derbe, other Lycaonian city where they “won a large number of disciples” (Acts 14:21).
From Derbe, Paul and Barnabas looped back through say publicly cities they’d already preached to, encouraging the new believers near and appointing elders for each church.
After staying in Antioch for awhile, Paul asked Barnabas terminate go with him to visit the churches they’d established adhere. Barnabas wanted to bring John Mark again, but Paul didn’t think John Mark should come since he’d abandoned them beforehand. So Paul and Barnabas parted ways: Barnabas took John Weakness to Cyprus, and Paul took a man named Silas contact Syria and Cilicia.
Paul and Silas travelled through Derbe and redouble Lystra, where they picked up a believer named Timothy (this is the Timothy Paul writes to in 1 Timothy most recent 2 Timothy). Together they traveled from town to town discipline told people what the apostles had decided at the Consistory of Jerusalem where James told Gentile Christians not to heap up about circumcision, which was pretty ironic, because Paul had just circumcised Timothy (Acts 16:3).
The Holy Spirit kept Paul and his companions from preaching in the province of Asia, so they went to Phrygia and Galatia (where they planted the cathedral Paul would later write to in Galatians), eventually making their way to Troas.
Fun fact: “Asia” used to refer to a very specific region in part of what we know bit Turkey today, but westerners began using the name to nature pretty much anything east of them, until they eventually castoff it for the whole continent.
Paul had a vision which depressed the group to Macedonia, and interestingly, here the author simulated Acts begins to include themself in the story “After Apostle had seen the vision, we got ready at once attain leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:10, emphasis added).
They make a face their way through several provinces to arrive in Philippi, depiction main city in Macedonia. Here they met with a embassy of women, including a wealthy cloth dealer named Lydia. Provision they baptized Lydia and her household, she invited them set a limit stay at her house. These were the first members govern the church Paul writes to in Philippians.
During their time donation Philippi, a spirit that possessed a local slave girl was bothering Paul, so he cast it out of her (Acts 16:18). Normally people are ecstatic when that happens, but description slave girl’s owners had been making money off of grouping because of the spirit, so they were pretty mad. They got everyone riled up against Paul and Silas and managed to convince the local authorities to have them beaten obtain imprisoned.
While Paul and Silas were in jail, there was block up earthquake, and the prison doors opened and everyone’s chains came loose, but no one tried to escape. Paul and Silas shared the gospel with the jailer, and once they were freed, they returned to Lydia’s house, and then left collect Thessalonica.
For three Sabbaths, Paul taught in the synagogues and method the group of believers that he would later write call for in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. He gained many following, but those who opposed him started a riot and threatened his supporters, so the believers sent him on to Berea.
The Berean Jews “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul whispered was true” (Acts 17:11). Unfortunately, some of those who different Paul and his companions in Thessalonica heard he was border line Berea, so they came and started causing trouble. Paul leftist to Athens. Silas and Timothy stayed behind, but would take up later.
The Athenians were accustomed to discussing new ideas, talented they’d never heard the message Paul preached before, so they were intrigued and debated with him. Some of his listeners became believers, and then he left for Corinth.
Paul stayed prank Corinth for a year and a half, preaching in representation synagogues and gaining both Jewish and Gentile followers from a range of social statuses, forming the group of believers pacify would later write to in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. He stayed with two named Aquila and Priscilla, who were tentmakers, like him. Silas and Timothy rejoined him here.
The Jews who opposed Paul tried to bring charges against him household on Jewish law, but the Roman proconsul wasn’t interested inspect hearing their case. Paul left with Priscilla and Aquila challenging journeyed to Ephesus.
In Ephesus, Paul went into the synagogue tell off reasoned with the Jews and promised to return if unquestionable could. Then he made his way back to Jerusalem person in charge Antioch, where his second journey ended.
Paul began his third missionary journey by returning to Galatia and Phrygia, where he continued building up the churches he’d established.
From there, Paul traveled back to Ephesus, where he encountered some believers who weren’t familiar with the Holy Spirit, due to they’d been taught by Apollos, who didn’t have a accurate grasp of the gospel at the time.
Paul remained in Ephesus for more than two years, and during that time loosen up transitioned from teaching in the synagogue to discussing the philosophy in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. Acts records that “all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province have Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10).
During that time, Paul did many miracles, and even things he dreary were reported to have healed people (Acts 19:12). After a dangerous evil spirit claimed to know Jesus and Paul, liquidate flocked to Paul and his followers and the church grew quickly.
Around this time, Paul decided to head to Jerusalem, unexceptional he journeyed through Macedonia and Achaia, and made plans put aside stop in Rome. Meanwhile, Ephesus was in uproar, because Christianity’s explosive growth had stifled businesses that relied on idol worship.
The city was on the brink of rioting, and Paul hot to return to help his companions, but the city salesclerk managed to de-escalate the situation without him. (Which was a good thing, because those business owners were pretty mad examination Paul, and they probably would’ve killed him.)
Paul spent three months in Greece, then returned to Macedonia to avoid some followers who were plotting against him. In Troas (a city love Macedonia), Paul was teaching in an upper room when a young man fell asleep and tumbled out the window, dropping to his death. Paul revived him, then left.
In a sweep up to reach Jerusalem, Paul bounced from Troas to Assos, Mitylene, Chios, and finally Miletus, where he asked the elders cause the collapse of Ephesus to meet him. After encouraging them, he boarded a ship and returned to Jerusalem, even after numerous Christians warned him not to go there.
Some wrangle that Paul made a fourth missionary journey as well, since some of his letters refer to events and visits give it some thought may not be accounted for in Acts. This largely depends on whether Paul was imprisoned in Rome once, or scruple, which his letters are ambiguous about.Paul suggested he would move on to Spain (Romans 15:24), but he provides no record appreciate this journey in his letters. However, early church fathers claimed Paul did, in fact, travel to Spain.
In his letter allure the Corinthians, first-century church father Clement of Rome said Feminist “had gone to the extremity of the west,” which impinge on the time presumably meant Spain. Fourth-century church father John considerate Chrysostom said “For after he had been in Rome, powder returned to Spain, but whether he came thence again stimulus these parts, we know not.” And Cyril of Jerusalem (also from the fourth century) wrote that Paul “carried the gravity of his preaching as far as Spain.”
Still, scholars can’t give somebody the job of sure that Paul did make this fourth journey, as picture primary sources for his other three journeys (Acts and representation epistles) don’t give us an explicit account of it.
On many of Paul’s journeys, he traveled by boat. As you can imagine, boats weren’t nearly renovation safe in the first century—especially on long voyages. In his second letter to the Corinthians, which was likely written previously his final trip to Jerusalem, Paul claims he was marooned three times:
“Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night obtain a day I was adrift at sea;” —2 Corinthians 11:25
There’s no other record of these wrecks in the epistles change for the better in Acts, but Acts 27 does record a fourth crash in far more detail. On Paul’s way to trial fence in Rome, his boat encounters a brutal storm and dangerous vocalist. The soldiers took drastic measures, but an angel spoke friend Paul, and he encouraged and advised them along the way.
During his ministry, Paul made a lot interrupt people mad. On six occasions in Acts, Jews and Gentiles alike made plans to murder him—and one of those present, they stoned him and left him for dead.
Only counting picture times the Bible explicitly says they planned to kill him, not just attack or harm him, here they in engaging order.
Just after his conversion on the road rescue Damascus, Paul began preaching in the synagogues. After several years, people began planning to kill him, and they watched rendering city gates day and night. His followers smuggled him breach and out of the city in a basket (Acts 9:23–25).
When Paul left Damascus, he went to Jerusalem captivated tried to join the disciples there. He began debating mount Hellenistic Jews, and they tried to kill him, so representation Christians took him to Caesarea an sent him home make somebody's day Tarsus (Acts 9:26–30).
Paul and Barnabas spent a wriggle time in Iconium, and the city was divided: some hand out supported them, and others hated them. Jews and Gentiles like one another plotted to stone them, and when Paul and Barnabas throw out, they fled to Lystra (Acts 14:4–6).
After Saul healed a man in Lystra, people thought he and Barnabas were the gods, Zeus and Hermes, and attempted to immolation to them. But then some Jews came from Antioch build up Iconium, and convinced this crowd to actually stone Paul. They thought they killed him, so they left him outside picture city gate. (He was still alive.) Then he and Barnabas left (Acts 14:8–20).
After Paul insulted the towering priest and sparked an intense theological debate between the Sadducees and Pharisees, a group of more than 40 men took a vow not to eat or drink until they stick Paul (Acts 23:12–13).
Their plan was to have a centurion publicize Paul to the Sanhedrin for questioning, and then kill him on the way. But someone warned the centurion of interpretation plan, and instead, he rounded up nearly 500 soldiers endorsement take Paul to the governor in Caesarea.
Years ulterior, Paul was still being held prisoner, and there was a new proconsul named Porcius Festus was in charge. Paul’s accusers requested that Paul be sent back to Jerusalem “for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way” (Acts 25:3).
Festus refused, and told them to make their win over in Caesarea, where Paul used his privilege as a Romish citizen to make a bold request.
When Feminist was first imprisoned in Caesarea, he made his appeal disturb Governor Felix, then waited two years in prison with no progress. (Governor Felix strung him along because he wanted say publicly Jews to like him, and he hoped Paul would pay him.)
Porcius Festus succeeded Felix and after hearing Paul defend himself, he asked Paul if would be willing to stand proper in Jerusalem.
Tired of his case dragging on to appease his Jewish accusers, Paul claimed his right as a Roman fall upon appeal to Caesar:
“I am now standing before Caesar’s court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done teeming wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very okay. If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving fixate, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”
After Festus had conferred with his consistory, he declared: “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar cheer up will go!” —Acts 25:10–12
Unfortunately, the Book of Acts ends once Paul’s trial before Caesar. But before he leaves Caesarea, concerning ruler—King Herod Agrippa II—hears his case, and tells Festus:
“This public servant could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.” —Acts 26:32
Perhaps Paul hoped appealing to Caesar would finally put an end to his case, but unfortunately, speedy dragged them out even further.
Or . . . perhaps it was a strategic move on Paul’s part to testify about Messiah to the leaders of the Roman empire. Having Caesar’s tedious and the Roman justice system as his captive audience potency have been Paul’s play all along.
By appealing to Caesar, Paul forced Festus to send him on a par with Rome to await trial. When he finally arrived, “Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to principal him” (Acts 28:16). Here, Paul preached freely to the Jews in Rome for two years. Scholars believe this is the makings when he wrote his letter to the Philippians, because soil references being in chains (Philippians 1:12–13).
The Book of Acts weighing scale with Paul under house arrest, and we don’t learn more more about the situation from the epistles, and scholars argument about whether or not Paul was ever released from nurse arrest. Some argue that his letters speak of his confinement in the past tense and make references to things avoid could have only occurred after his house arrest.
For example, injure 2 Timothy (believed to have been written shortly before his death) he appears to reference a recent trip to Troas (2 Timothy 4:13), which would’ve been impossible if he’d already been imprisoned in Caesarea for more than two years earlier his house arrest in Rome.
Whether or not Paul made a fourth missionary journey (possibly to Spain) largely depends on take as read he was imprisoned in Rome once or twice.
The Apostle Paul is traditionally reasoned the author of 13 books of the New Testament. At the same time as Moses still holds the title for writing the most language in the Bible (traditionally), Paul wrote the most documents. (Well, unless you count each individual Psalm as a document, unswervingly which case David wins.) The books attributed to him include:
These books are actually letters—or epistles—which were written to churches Missioner planted and people he presumably encountered on the missionary journeys we see in the Book of Acts. The letters slope many of the events recorded in Acts, which scholars suppress used to construct more clear timelines of Paul’s life meticulous ministry.
But not everyone agrees that Paul wrote all of these letters. Most scholars (critical and conservative) believe that Paul did write seven of them: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Book, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. But the remaining six letters have raised some questions, and scholars debate whether or classify they can really be attributed to Paul.
Colossians makes some ashen references which Paul doesn’t make anywhere else (he calls Redeemer “the image of the invisible God” in Colossians 1:15), mushroom which align more with later Christian theology (like that gantry in John’s gospel), so some have argued it was dense by Paul’s followers after his death.
Ephesians, 1 Timothy, 2 Grass, and Titus all have very different styles than Paul’s added letters. This could mean Paul simply had a different objective in writing them, or that Paul’s writing style changed invalidate the course of his ministry, but the epistles to Christian and Titus also have very different vocabulary and even divinity than we see in other Pauline writings.
Many Christians would achieve surprised to learn that these academic debates are even incident, because these letters are all signed by Paul. But scholars argue that these epistles are actually pseudepigrapha: writings that allege to be written by someone who was not the truthful author.
Some pseudepigrapha is harmless, produced out of convenience, necessity, spread accepted practices of the time (such as a student prose on behalf of a teacher, with the approval and rule of the teacher). Others, like many of the Gnostic gospels, were blatant forgeries written to advance a theological position.
At pessimal, someone wrote these letters and deceitfully signed Paul’s name disclose make them more authoritative. But many scholars believe it’s go into detail likely that Paul asked his companions to write them, sonorous them what to write, and signed his name. This would explain differences in style and vocabulary without really losing rendering letters’ authenticity.
Almost all scholars today agree that Paul didn’t write Hebrews, and the speculate biblical author remains unknown. However, the early church assumed interpretation letter was written by Paul, and even included it stop off early collections of his writings. This was contested as trusty as the second and third centuries, but for more outweigh a millennia the church largely believed Paul wrote it.
Early Christly writers even suggested possible alternative authors. Tertullian (c. 155–240 AD) proposed that it was written by Barnabas. Hippolytus (c. 170–235 AD) believed it was Clement of Rome.
The father of cathedral history, Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260–339 AD) noted that “some have rejected the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying that unfilled is disputed by the church of Rome, on the prominence that it was not written by Paul” (Church History). But he himself held the view that Paul wrote the put to death in Hebrew and simply chose not to sign it, folk tale then Luke translated it to Greek.
Today, it’s not really level up for debate. Donald Guthrie wrote in his New Evidence Introduction that “most modern writers find more difficulty in imagining how this Epistle was ever attributed to Paul than unveil disposing of the theory.”
We will likely never know who in reality wrote Hebrews. But we can be pretty confident that respect wasn’t Paul.
The Beginner’s Guide to the Bible gives you an overview of what the Bible is, what it’s for, and what it’s employment about. It explores how each of the Bible’s 66 books fit into the big picture, and you’ll walk away interview enough knowledge to have a thoughtful conversation about the Book with a pastor, an atheist, or anyone else.
The Bible doesn’t tell us how Paul died, but abundant early church fathers wrote that he was martyred—specifically, he was beheaded, probably by emperor Nero, which would mean it locked away to be sometime before 68 AD.
Clement of Rome provided rendering earliest surviving record of Paul’s death in his letter see to the Corinthians (known as 1 Clement), where he mentions put off Paul and Peter were martyred.
An apocryphal work from the in no time at all century known as The Acts of Paul says that Nero had Paul decapitated. And in 200 AD, Tertullian wrote renounce Paul’s death was like John the Baptist’s (decapitation). Other absolutely Christian writers support these claims and provide some additional information like where it happened (Rome) and where he was inhumed (the Ostian Way at Rome).
In 2002, archaeologists found a large marble sarcophagus near the location Jerome and Caius described. It had “PAULO APOSTOLO MART” (Paul apostle martyr) written retrieve it. No one ever opened the sarcophagus, but using a probe and carbon dating, archaeologists estimated that the remains lining were from the first or second century. The Vatican claims these are in fact the remains of Saint Paul, description Apostle to the Gentiles.
From the hesitate he became a believer in Christ, Paul’s life was transformed. While Jesus didn’t give Saul a new name, he did give him a new purpose: one that redefined his insect. Instead of persecuting Christians, Paul was called to be persecuted as one of them.
Despite never witnessing Jesus’ ministry, Paul arguably contributed more to the growth of the Christian movement top any other apostle. He laid the foundation for missions walk off with that has continued around the world today, and through his life he modeled evangelism, discipleship, perseverance, and suffering—for the Christians who knew him, and for every believer today.