Apostle Paul

Saul of Tarsus, known after his conversion as the Apostle Paul, was a first-century Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a city of the eastern Mediterranean under Roman rule. The Acts of the Apostles and his own letters present him as a Roman citizen by birth, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, and a Pharisee. He received a rigorous education in the Jewish law and is associated in Acts with study in Jerusalem under Gamaliel. Before he joined the followers of Jesus he was a determined opponent of the movement, taking part in the persecution of early Christians. Acts depicts him as present at the stoning of Stephen and as seeking authority to arrest believers in Damascus; his own letters confirm that he had violently persecuted the church and tried to destroy it.

The turning point of his life is described as a visionary encounter with the risen Christ while he was travelling to Damascus, after which he was baptized and began to proclaim Jesus as Messiah. He spent a period in Arabia, returned to Damascus, and later went up to Jerusalem, where he met Cephas (Peter) and James. Barnabas subsequently brought him to Antioch in Syria, which became a principal base for missions among Gentiles. From there Paul undertook journeys through Cyprus, Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece, founding or strengthening communities in cities such as Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus. He argued that Gentile converts were not bound to circumcision and the full Mosaic law, a position he defended in the controversy recalled in Galatians and in the meeting at Jerusalem described in Acts and Galatians.

A large part of the New Testament consists of letters that bear Paul’s name. A core group—commonly including Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon—is widely accepted by historians as authentic first-century correspondence. These writings treat justification and faith, the status of the Jewish law, the inclusion of Gentiles, the life of local assemblies, and the expected return of Christ. Other letters in the Pauline collection are regarded by many scholars as later compositions written in his name. Together with the narrative of Acts they made Paul the most fully documented missionary of the first Christian generation and a central source for later Christian theology.

According to Acts, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem after a riot in the Temple precincts, held for a time at Caesarea, and, as a Roman citizen, appealed to the emperor. He was taken by sea to Rome, surviving shipwreck on Malta, and spent a period under house arrest in the city, where Acts leaves him preaching. Early Christian tradition holds that he was put to death in Rome during the reign of Nero, in the mid-60s of the first century, and that he was beheaded rather than crucified because of his citizenship. The First Letter of Clement, written from Rome near the end of the first century, already refers to Paul’s witness and death. Later tradition places his burial on the Ostian Way, the site of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, where a sarcophagus associated with his tomb has been investigated in modern times.

Paul was venerated from the earliest period as apostle to the Gentiles and as a principal shaper of Christian teaching and mission. He is commemorated together with the Apostle Peter on 29 June, and the Western church also keeps 25 January as the feast of his conversion. His letters have remained foundational for Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant doctrine, and he is invoked as patron of missionaries, theologians, tentmakers, and numerous places, including Malta and, with Peter, the city of Rome.