Apostle Paul

Paul, known in Jewish contexts as Saul, was a first-century Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia who became the most influential early missionary and theologian of the Christian movement. According to the Acts of the Apostles he was a Roman citizen by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, and trained as a Pharisee; Acts further reports that he studied in Jerusalem under the noted teacher Gamaliel. Paul’s own letters confirm his Jewish credentials, his former life in Judaism, and his zeal in persecuting the assembly of Jesus’ followers before a decisive change of allegiance. That change is described in Acts as a visionary encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus and is alluded to by Paul himself in Galatians and 1 Corinthians as a revelation of God’s Son. After a period in Arabia and Damascus, and a later visit to Jerusalem in which he met Cephas (Peter) and James, he worked in Syria and Cilicia and then, with Barnabas, in Antioch, which became a base for missions among Gentiles.

From Antioch Paul undertook journeys around the eastern Mediterranean that established or strengthened communities in Cyprus, southern Asia Minor, Macedonia, Achaia, and the province of Asia. His undisputed letters—Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon—are among the earliest surviving Christian writings and were composed in the middle decades of the first century. In them he addresses questions of Torah observance and Gentile inclusion, the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the life of local assemblies, and his own apostolic authority. He describes himself as apostle to the Gentiles and insists that Gentiles need not become Jews in order to belong to the people of God in Christ. A further group of letters bearing his name (Colossians, Ephesians, 2 Thessalonians, and the Pastoral Epistles) has been read as Pauline through most of Christian history, though many modern scholars regard some or all of them as the work of later disciples in the Pauline tradition. In 1 Corinthians he presents himself as unmarried and commends remaining as he is; no spouse or children are documented in the early sources.

Acts narrates Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem after a riot in the Temple, a series of hearings before Jewish and Roman authorities, and his appeal to the emperor as a Roman citizen, which brought him to Rome. The narrative of Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in the capital, preaching freely for two years. Later Christian tradition, already reflected in the late-first-century letter known as 1 Clement, holds that he was martyred in Rome during the reign of Nero, commonly by beheading, a form of execution consistent with citizen status. Precise years of birth and death are not recorded in contemporary sources; later writers place the martyrdom in the mid-60s of the first century. The traditional site of his burial on the Ostian Way is marked by the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls; a sarcophagus beneath the papal altar has been associated with him since late antiquity.

Paul was not one of the Twelve, yet from an early date he was honored as an apostle alongside Peter. His principal feast is kept on 29 June together with Peter in both East and West, and the Western church also commemorates his conversion on 25 January. His letters have shaped Christian teaching on grace, justification, the church, and ethics across Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions. He is invoked as patron of missionaries, theologians, and numerous trades and places connected with his life and legend, including Malta, where Acts places his shipwreck, and the city of Rome.