Paul

(d. c. 65)

   Apostle.

   According to the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament, Paul’s Jewish name was Saul. Although a Roman citizen, he was brought up as a pharisee and had been a student of Gamaliel, the most eminent Jewish teacher of the day. As a young man, he had been strongly opposed to the teachings of Christianity. He was present at the martyrdom of stephen and he embarked on a journey to Damascus to round up and arrest the adherents of the new sect. During the course of the journey, however, he had an experience of the resurrected Jesus. In consequence he was baptised and he determined to spend the rest of his life serving his new master. It is not easy to reconcile the events of Acts with Paul’s own account in the Epistle to the Galatians. He seems to have spent some time in Arabia preparing himself for his mission; he was introduced to the Church in Jerusalem by barnabas; he then visited Caesarea, Syria and Cilicia and finally made his headquarters in Antioch. Acts describes three missionary journeys. Everywhere Paul preached first in the local synagogue to the Jews, but he also encouraged Gentile believers to be baptised. This raised the difficult issue as to whether the Gentile Christians should be compelled to keep the full Jewish law. Paul strongly argued against this at the first Council of the Church, the Council of Jerusalem, and he won his point. He preached throughout Asia Minor, Macedonia and went as far as Athens. Everywhere he planted new churches. Eventually he was arrested in Jerusalem and was first brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council. Protected by the Romans, he was imprisoned in Caesarea for two years and eventually demanded, as was his right as a Roman citizen, to be tried before the Emperor in Rome. The Book of Acts ends with Paul preaching openly and unhindered in Rome. We learn more about his life from the Epistles and from later Church tradition. He is said to have been martyred in Rome during the persecution of Nero. Arguably Paul can be described as the founder of Christianity. It was he who established the network of churches throughout the Roman Empire and his Epistles, as collected in the New Testament, laid the groundwork for subsequent Christian theology. He taught that the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus ushered in a new era in which sin and death no longer hold sway over humanity. Through baptism and faith, Christians can share in the new age of love and joy in the Holy Spirit. Collectively all believers form the body of Christ here on earth; each individual has a different function, but all (Jew and Gentile alike) are animated by the one Spirit; they are nourished by the one food and they are all inheritors of the promises outlined in the Hebrew Scriptures. They can look forward in perfect confidence to Christ’s return in glory, when the dead shall be raised, Christ shall receive the homage of all creation and God will be all in all.

   Acts of the Apostles;

   Epistles of Paul to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians and Thessalonians;

   W.D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism (1948);

   E.P. Sanders, Paul (1991).