Paul

Paul, known in his earlier life as Saul, was a first-century Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, born in Tarsus in Cilicia and a Roman citizen by birth. The Acts of the Apostles and his own letters present him as a Pharisee, educated in Jerusalem under the teacher Gamaliel, and as a zealous opponent of the earliest followers of Jesus. Acts associates him with the stoning of Stephen and with efforts to suppress the Christian movement in Jerusalem and beyond, including a journey toward Damascus to arrest disciples. Neither the letters nor Acts records a year of birth; later estimates that place it in the opening years of the first century remain conjectural and are not grounded in a contemporary dated source.

According to Acts, Saul was traveling to Damascus when he experienced a vision of the risen Jesus, was left temporarily blind, and after three days recovered his sight and was baptized by a disciple named Ananias. He then spent time in Arabia and Damascus, later visited Jerusalem, where he met Cephas (Peter) and James, and withdrew for a period to Syria and Cilicia. From the church at Antioch he undertook missionary journeys, attested in Acts and reflected in the letters, through Cyprus, southern Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Achaia. He founded or strengthened communities in cities such as Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus, at times supporting himself as a tentmaker. He maintained that Gentile believers were not bound to circumcision and the full Mosaic ceremonial law, a position that generated conflict with some Jewish Christians and was addressed at a meeting in Jerusalem often called the Apostolic Council.

A substantial portion of the New Testament consists of letters circulating under Paul's name. There is broad scholarly agreement that Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, First Thessalonians, and Philemon are authentic; the authorship of Ephesians, Colossians, Second Thessalonians, and the Pastoral Epistles (First and Second Timothy and Titus) is disputed. These writings treat the death and resurrection of Jesus, justification and the role of the Jewish law, the inclusion of the Gentiles, ethical conduct, and the life of local churches. They became foundational for later Christian theology in both East and West.

Acts reports that Paul was seized after a disturbance in the Jerusalem temple, detained for a prolonged period at Caesarea under the governors Felix and Festus, and, after appealing to the emperor as a Roman citizen, was sent under guard to Rome. The voyage included a shipwreck on Malta. The canonical narrative ends with him under house arrest in Rome, preaching. The New Testament does not describe his death. Late first-century tradition, notably First Clement, and later writers such as Eusebius hold that he was executed in Rome during the reign of Nero, by beheading in keeping with his citizenship, and buried outside the city on the Ostian Way. The tomb associated with that tradition lies beneath the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. He is commemorated with the Apostle Peter on 29 June in East and West; the Conversion of Saint Paul is observed on 25 January. He is widely invoked as patron of missionaries, theologians, tentmakers, evangelists, and the island of Malta.