Apostle Paul

The Apostle Paul, called Saul in Hebrew, was a first-century Jewish Christian missionary and theologian whose letters form a large part of the New Testament. By his own account and that of the Acts of the Apostles, he was born in Tarsus, a Hellenistic city in the Roman province of Cilicia, and held Roman citizenship. He described himself as a Hebrew of the tribe of Benjamin and a Pharisee, and Acts presents him as having studied in Jerusalem under the noted teacher Gamaliel. In early adulthood he was a vigorous opponent of the followers of Jesus: he speaks of having persecuted the church, and Acts links him with the killing of Stephen and with warrants to arrest believers in Damascus.

Christian tradition and Paul’s own letters place a decisive turning point in an encounter with the risen Christ while he was travelling to Damascus, generally dated to the mid-first century. After time in Arabia and Damascus, and a later visit to Jerusalem in which he met Cephas (Peter) and James, he worked as a missionary among Jews and Gentiles in Syria, Cilicia, Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Achaia. With companions such as Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, and Luke he founded or strengthened communities in Antioch, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, Ephesus, and other cities. He argued that Gentile converts were not bound to the full Mosaic law, a stance that brought conflict with some Jewish Christians and that he defended at the gathering in Jerusalem described in Acts and Galatians, and at length in letters such as Galatians and Romans. He sometimes supported himself as a tentmaker.

A group of letters that most modern scholars accept as authentic—among them Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon—sets out his teaching on justification, the law, the unity of Jew and Gentile in Christ, the meaning of the cross and resurrection, and the expected return of Jesus. Other New Testament writings that bear his name are of disputed authorship. In 2 Corinthians and elsewhere he lists imprisonments, beatings, a stoning, and shipwrecks. Acts narrates later arrests in Jerusalem, hearings before Roman officials, and a voyage to Rome after he appealed to the emperor as a citizen. First Corinthians indicates that he was unmarried when he wrote, and he is not recorded as having children.

Early Christian tradition, already reflected in the late first-century letter known as 1 Clement, holds that Paul was put to death in Rome during the reign of Nero, in the mid-60s of the first century. As a Roman citizen he is said to have been beheaded rather than crucified; later legend places the execution on the Ostian Way. Veneration of a tomb on the Via Ostiensis is ancient, and the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls stands over the traditional burial site. Together with the Apostle Peter he is commemorated on 29 June; the Western church also observes his conversion on 25 January. He is remembered as the Apostle to the Gentiles and as a principal shaper of Christian doctrine and missionary practice.