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Paul of Tarsus

Sources of information

thumb|Conversion of Saint Paul, fresco by Michelangelo
The Book of Acts contains an account of Paul's travels and deeds, his conflicts with pagans and Jews, and his interactions with the other apostles. It was written from a perspective of reconciliation between Pauline Christians and their opponents, so portrays Paul as a law-abiding Jewish Christian and omits his dispute with Peter. The Book of Acts schematizes Paul's travels and takes liberties with his speeches. The primary source for historical information about Paul's life is the material found in his seven letters. However, these letters contain very little information about Paul's past. Acts leaves important parts of Paul's life undocumented."Paul, St" Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
Scholars such as Hans Conzelmann and 20th century theologian John Knox (not the 16th century John Knox), dispute the historical accuracy of Acts. Paul's own account of his background is found particularly in Galatians. Acts sometimes contradicts Paul's own epistles. (Please see the full discussion in Acts of the Apostles). An example is the account in Acts of Paul visiting Jerusalem which some say doesn't fit the account in Paul's letters. Most scholars consider Paul's accounts more reliable than those found in Acts.Harris, p. 316-320

Life

Prior to conversion

St Paul, whose earlier Hebrew name was Saul,Ehrman, Bart. Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend. Oxford University Press, USA. 2006. ISBN 0-19-530013-0 was "of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee.” Acts identifies Paul as from Mediterranean city of Tarsus (in present-day south-central Turkey), well-known for its intellectual environment. Acts also claims Paul said he was "a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee".

According to his own testimony, Paul “violently persecuted” the “church of God” (followers of Jesus) prior to his conversion to Christianity.

Paul asserted that he received the Gospel not from any person, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul claimed independence from the "mother church" in Jerusalem, but was just as quick to claim agreement with it on the nature and content of the "gospel of Christ".

Conversion and mission

Geography relevant to Paul's life, stretching from Jerusalem to Rome.

Paul's conversion can be dated to AD 33 - AD 36 by his reference to it in one of his letters. According to the Acts of the Apostles, his conversion (or metanoia) took place on the road to Damascus, where he experienced a vision of the resurrected Jesus after which he was temporarily blinded. This event is the source of the phrase Pauline conversion.

Early ministry

The house believed to be of St. Ananias in Damascus

Bab Kisan, believed to be where St. Paul escaped from persecution in Damascus

Following his stay in Damascus after his conversion, where he states he was healed of his blindness and baptized by Ananias of Damascus, Paul says that he first went to Arabia, and then came back to Damascus. He describes in Galatians how three years after his conversion he went to Jerusalem. There he met James and stayed with Simon Peter for 15 days.

There is no evidence that Paul had known Jesus prior to the Crucifixion. Paul asserted that he received the Gospel not from any person, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul claimed almost total independence from the "mother church" in Jerusalem.
Paul's narrative in Galatians states that 14 years after his conversion he went again to Jerusalem. It is not completely known what happened during these so-called "unknown years," but both Acts and Galatians provide some partial details. At the end of this time, Barnabas went to find Paul and brought him back to Antioch.

When a famine happened in Judea, around 45–46, Paul and Barnabas journeyed to Jerusalem to deliver financial support from the Antioch community. According to Acts, Antioch had become an alternative centre for Christians following the dispersion of the believers after the death of Stephen. It was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians."

First missionary journey

Luke, writing c 85-90 (though there is a growing acceptance within scholarship that Luke probably wrote Acts before Paul's execution c. 62), arranges Paul's travels into three separate journeys. The first journey, led by Barnabas, takes Paul from Antioch to Cyprus then southern Asia Minor (Anatolia), and back to Antioch. Antioch served as a major Christian center for Paul's evangelizing.Harris

Council of Jerusalem

Icon of James the Just, whose judgment was adopted in the Apostolic Decree of , c. 50 AD.

Most scholars agree that a vital meeting between Paul and the Jerusalem church took place in AD 49 or 50. Paul refers to this meeting in Galatians, and Luke also describes it. Most think that corresponds to the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15. The key question raised was whether Gentile converts needed to be circumcised. At this meeting, Peter, James, and John accepted Paul's mission to the Gentiles. See also Circumcision controversy in early Christianity.

Jerusalem meetings are mentioned in Acts, in Paul's letters, and some appear in both. For example, the Jerusalem visit for famine relief apparently corresponds to the "first visit" (to Cephas and James only). F. F. Bruce suggested that the "fourteen years" could be from Paul's conversion rather than the first visit to Jerusalem.

Incident at Antioch

Despite the agreement achieved at the Council of Jerusalem as understood by Paul, Paul recounts how he later publicly confronted Peter, also called the "Incident at Antioch" over his reluctance to share a meal with Gentile Christians in Antioch.

Writing later of the incident, Paul recounts: "I opposed [Peter] to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong". Paul reports that he told Peter: "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?" Paul also mentions that even Barnabas (his traveling companion and fellow apostle until that time) sided with Peter.

The final outcome of the incident remains uncertain. The states: "St. Paul's account of the incident leaves no doubt that St. Peter saw the justice of the rebuke." In contrast, L. Michael White's From Jesus to Christianity claims: "The blowup with Peter was a total failure of political bravado, and Paul soon left Antioch as persona non grata, never again to return."

The primary source for the Incident at Antioch is Paul's letter to the Galatians.

Paul's visits to Jerusalem in Acts and the epistles

This table is adapted from White, From Jesus to Christianity.

Resumed mission

Around AD 50-52, Paul spent 18 months in Corinth. The reference in Acts to proconsul Gallio helps ascertain this date. Here he worked with Silas and Timothy.
After Corinth, the next major center for Paul's activities was Ephesus. Ephesus was an important center for early Christianity from the AD 50s, see also Early Christianity#Western Anatolia. From AD 52 to AD 54, Paul lived here, working with the congregation and apparently organizing missionary activity into the hinterlands. Paul's time here was marked by disturbances and possibly imprisonment. Finally, he was forced to leave.
Next, he traveled to Macedonia before going probably to Corinth for three months (AD 56-57) before his final visit to Jerusalem.

Arrest and death

thumb|left|250px|A statue of Paul holding a scroll (symbolising the Scriptures) and the sword (symbolising his martyrdom).
Paul arrived in Jerusalem .AD 57 with a collection of money for the congregation there. Acts reports that the church welcomed Paul gladly, but it was apparently a proposal of James that led to his arrest. Paul caused a stir when he appeared at the Temple, and he escaped being killed by the crowd by being taken into custody. He was held as a prisoner for two years in Caesarea until, in AD 59, a new governor reopened his case. He appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen and was sent to Rome for trial. Acts reports that he was shipwrecked on Malta where he was met by St Publius and the islanders, who showed him "unusual kindness." He arrived in Rome c AD 60 and spent two years under house arrest.
Irenaeus of Lyons believed that Peter and Paul had been the founders of the Church in Rome and had appointed Linus as succeeding bishop. Though not considered a bishop of Rome, Paul is considered highly responsible for bringing the Christianity to Rome.

Tradition has said that Paul was beheaded, likely at Tre Fontane Abbey (English: Three Fountains Abbey). By comparison, Peter was crucified upside-down. This account fits with the report from Acts that Paul was a Roman citizen and would have been accorded the more merciful execution. Paul's death is commonly dated to c 60-62 or c 62-65, or c 65-67, in any case during the reign of Nero.

In June 2009, Pope Benedict XVI announced excavation results concerning the tomb of Saint Paul at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. The sarcophagus itself was not opened but examined by means of a probe, which revealed pieces of incense and purple and blue linen as well as small bone fragments. The bone was radiocarbon dated to the 1st to 2nd century. According to the Vatican, this seems to confirm the tradition of the tomb being Saint Paul's.

Writings

Thirteen epistles in the New Testament are traditionally attributed to Paul, of which seven are almost universally accepted, three are considered in some academic circles as other than Pauline for textual and grammatical reasons, and the other three are in dispute in those same circles. Paul apparently dictated all his epistles through a secretary (or amanuensis), who would usually paraphrase the gist of his message, as was the practice among first-century scribes. These epistles were circulated within the Christian community, where they were read aloud by members of the church along with other works. Paul's epistles were accepted early as scripture and later established as Canon of Scripture. Critical scholars regard Paul's epistles (written 50-62) to be the earliest-written books of the New Testament. They are referenced as early as c. 96 by Clement of Rome.

Authorship

<i>Saint Paul Writing His Epistles</i>, 16th century (Blaffer Foundation Collection, <a href="http://reference.findtarget.com/search/Houston/" class="wiki">Houston</a>, <a href="http://reference.findtarget.com/search/Texas/" class="wiki">Texas</a>). Most scholars think Paul actually dictated his letters to a secretary.

Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, 16th century (Blaffer Foundation Collection, Houston, Texas). Most scholars think Paul actually dictated his letters to a secretary.

Paul's letters are largely written to churches which he had visited; he was a great traveler, visiting Cyprus, Asia Minor (modern Turkey), mainland Greece, Crete, and Rome bringing the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth with him. His letters are full of expositions of what Christians should believe and how they should live. He does not tell his correspondents (or the modern reader) much about the life of Jesus; his most explicit references are to the Last Supper and the crucifixion and resurrection. His specific references to Jesus' teaching are likewise sparse, raising the question, still disputed, as to how consistent his account of the faith is with that of the four canonical Gospels, Acts, and the Epistle of James. The view that Paul's Christ is very different from the historical Jesus has been expounded by Adolf Harnack among many others. Nevertheless, he provides the first written account of what it is to be a Christian and thus of Christian spirituality.

Of the thirteen letters traditionally attributed to Paul and included in the Western New Testament canon, there is little or no dispute that Paul actually wrote at least seven, those being Romans, First Corinthians, Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, First Thessalonians, and Philemon. Hebrews, which was ascribed to him in antiquity, was questioned even then, never having an ancient attribution, and in modern times is considered by most experts as not by Paul (see also Antilegomena). The authorship of the remaining six Pauline epistles is disputed to varying degrees.

The authenticity of Colossians has been questioned on the grounds that it contains an otherwise unparalleled description (among his writings) of Jesus as 'the image of the invisible God,' a Christology found elsewhere only in St. John's gospel. On the other hand, the personal notes in the letter connect it to Philemon, unquestionably the work of Paul. More problematic is Ephesians, a very similar letter to Colossians, but which reads more like a manifesto than a letter. It is almost entirely lacking in personal reminiscences. Its style is unique. It lacks the emphasis on the cross to be found in other Pauline writings, reference to the Second Coming is missing, and Christian marriage is exalted in a way which contrasts with the reference in . Finally, it exalts the Church in a way suggestive of a second generation of Christians, 'built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets' now past.Brown, R.E., The Churches the Apostles left behind p.48. The defenders of its Pauline authorship argue that it was intended to be read by a number of different churches and that it marks the final stage of the development of Paul of Tarsus's thinking.

The Pastoral Epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus have likewise been put in question as Pauline works. Three main reasons are advanced: first, their difference in vocabulary, style and theology from Paul's acknowledged writings; secondly, the difficulty in fitting them into Paul's biography as we have it.Barrett, C.K. the Pastoral Epistles p.4ff. They, like Colossians and Ephesians, were written from prison but suppose Paul's release and travel thereafter. Finally, the concerns expressed are very much the practical ones as to how a church should function. They are more about maintenance than about mission.

2 Thessalonians, like Colossians, is questioned on stylistic grounds, with scholars noting, among other peculiarities, a dependence on 1 Thessalonians yet a distinctiveness in language from the Pauline corpus.

Atonement

Russian Orthodox icon of the Apostle Paul, 18th century (Iconostasis of Transfiguration Church, Kizhi Monastery, Karelia, Russia).

For its theology of atonement, the Christian church owes a unique debt to the writings of Paul."Atonement." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005 Paul taught that Christians are redeemed from the Law and from sin by Jesus' death and resurrection. His death was an expiation, and by Christ's blood, peace is made between God and man. By baptism, a Christian mystically shares in Jesus' death and in his victory over death, gaining, as a free gift, a new, justified status of sonship.

Relationship with Judaism

Saint Paul, Byzantine ivory relief, 6th - early 7th century (Musée de Cluny)

Some scholars see Paul (or Shaul) as completely in line with first-century Judaism (a "Pharisee"), others see him as opposed to first-century Judaism (see Antinomianism in the New Testament and Marcionism), while still others see him as somewhere in between these two extremes, opposed to "Ritual Laws" (see for example Circumcision controversy in early Christianity) but in full agreement on "Divine Law". These views of Paul are paralleled by the views of Biblical law in Christianity. See also Expounding of the Law versus Antithesis of the Law.

Paul's theology of the gospel accelerated the separation of the messianic sect of Christians from Judaism, a development contrary to Paul's own intent. He wrote that faith in Christ was alone decisive in salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike, making the schism between the followers of Christ and mainstream Jews inevitable and permanent. He successfully argued that Gentile converts did not need to become Jews, get circumcised, follow Jewish dietary restrictions, or otherwise observe Jewish Law. Nevertheless, in Romans he insisted on the positive value of the Law, as a moral guide.
E. P. Sanders' publications have since been taken up by Professor James Dunn who coined the phrase "The New Perspective on Paul" and N.T. Wright, the Anglican Bishop of Durham. Wright, noting a difference between Romans and Galatians, the latter being much more positive about the continuing covenantal relationship between God and his ancient people than the former, contends that works are not insignificant but rather proof of attaining the redemption of Jesus Christ by grace (free gift received by faith) and that Paul distinguishes between works which are signs of ethnic identity and those which are a sign of obedience to Christ.

World to come

Paul believed that Jesus would return within his lifetime. He expected that Christians who had died in the mean time would be resurrected to share in God's kingdom, and he believed that the saved would be transformed, assuming spiritual bodies.
Paul's teaching about the end of the world is expressed most clearly in his letters to the Christians at Thessalonica. Heavily persecuted, it appears that they had written asking him first about those who had died already, and, secondly, when they should expect the end. Paul regarded the age as passing and, in such difficult times, he therefore encouraged marriage as a means of happiness. He assures them that the dead will rise first and be followed by those left alive. This suggests an imminence of the end but he is unspecific about times and seasons, and encourages his hearers to expect a delay. The form of the end will be a battle between Jesus and the man of lawlessness whose conclusion is the triumph of Christ.

Role of women

Paul restricted the role of women in the church, including as prophets and also apparently as apostles.

Influence on Christianity

The conversion on the way to Damascus, by Caravaggio.

Paul's influence on Christian thinking arguably has been more significant than any other New Testament author. Paul declared that faith in Christ made the Torah unnecessary for salvation, exalted the Christian church as the body of Christ, and depicted the world outside the Church as under judgment.

Lord's Supper

Paul's writings include the earliest reference to the supper of the Lord, a rite traditionally identified as the Christian Eucharist, as instituted by Christ at the Last Supper.

Some postulate that the Last Supper was actually a Jewish Passover meal, known as a seder. Jews for Judaism FAQ The Illustrated Guide to the Bible J. R. Porter pg.192
Some contemporary scholars hold that the Lord's supper had its origins in a pagan context, where dinners to memorialize the dead were common and the Jewish prohibition against drinking blood did not prevail. They conclude the "Lord's Supper" that Paul describes probably originated in the Christian communities that he had founded in Asia Minor and Greece.

Eastern tradition

In the East, church fathers reduced the element of election in Romans 9 to divine foreknowledge. The themes of predestination found in Western Christianity do not appear in Eastern theology.

Western tradition

Augustine's foundational work on the gospel as a gift (grace), on morality as life in the Spirit, on predestination, and on original sin all derives from Paul, especially Romans.
In the Reformation, Martin Luther expressed Paul's doctrine of faith most strongly as justification by faith alone. John Calvin developed Augustine's predestination into double predestination.

Modern theology

In his commentary The Epistle to the Romans (Ger. Der Römerbrief; particularly in the thoroughly re-written second edition of 1922) Karl Barth argued that the God who is revealed in the cross of Jesus challenges and overthrows any attempt to ally God with human cultures, achievements, or possessions. Many theologians believe this work to be the most important theological treatise since Friedrich Schleiermacher's On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers.

As in the Eastern tradition in general, Western humanists interpret the reference to election in Romans 9 as reflecting divine foreknowledge.

Church tradition

thumb|right|The Pilgrim Image of Saint Paul in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Novaliches.
thumb|left|The image of Saint Paul in a Diocese of Cubao./" class="wiki">parish dedicated to him in the Diocese of Cubao.
Various Christian writers have suggested more details about Paul's life.
1 Clement reports this about Paul:

"By reason of jealousy and strife Paul by his example pointed out the
prize of patient endurance. After that he had been seven times in
bonds, had been driven into exile, had been stoned, had preached in
the East and in the West, he won the noble renown which was the
reward of his faith, having taught righteousness unto the whole world and having reached
the farthest bounds of the West; and when he had borne his testimony
before the rulers, so he departed from the world and went unto the
holy place, having been found a notable pattern of patient endurance."

Commenting on this passage, Raymond Brown writes that while it "does not explicitly say" that Paul was martyred in Rome, "such a martyrdom is the most reasonable interpretation."
Eusebius of Caesarea, who wrote in the fourth century, states that Paul was beheaded in the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero. This event has been dated either to the year 64, when Rome was devastated by a fire, or a few years later, to 67. The San Paolo alle Tre Fontane church was built on the location where the execution was believed to have taken place. A Roman Catholic liturgical solemnity of Peter and Paul, celebrated on June 29, may reflect the day of his martyrdom, other sources have articulated the tradition that Peter and Paul died on the same day (and possibly the same year). A number of other sources including Clement of Rome, say that Paul survived Rome and went to "the limits of the west." Some hold the view that he could have revisited Greece and Asia Minor after his trip to Spain, and might then have been arrested in Troas, and taken to Rome and executed. A tradition holds that Paul was interred with Saint Peter ad Catacumbas by the via Appia until moved to what is now the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History, writes that Pope Vitalian in 665 gave Paul's relics (including a cross made from his prison chains) from the crypts of Lucina to King Oswy of Northumbria, northern Britain. However, Bede's use of the word "relic" was not limited to corporal remains.

Paul, who was quite possibly martyred in Rome, has long been associated with that city and its church. Paul is the patron saint of London.

Speculative views

Facial composite of Paul the Apostle by experts of the LKA NRW, Germany

thumb|left|250px|A parish dedicated to Saint Paul in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cubao.

Elaine Pagels, professor of religion at Princeton and an authority on Gnosticism, argues that Paul was a Gnostic and that the anti-Gnostic Pastoral Epistles were "pseudo-Pauline" forgeries written to rebut this.

British Jewish scholar Hyam Maccoby contends that the Paul as described in the Book of Acts and the view of Paul gleaned from his own writings are very different people. Some difficulties have been noted in the account of his life. Additionally, the speeches of Paul, as recorded in Acts, have been argued to show a different turn of mind. Paul as described in the Book of Acts is much more interested in factual history, less in theology; ideas such as justification by faith are absent as are references to the Spirit.

On the other hand, according to Maccoby, there are no references to John the Baptist in the Pauline Epistles, but Paul mentions him several times in the Book of Acts.
F.C.Baur (1792–1860), professor of theology at Tübingen in Germany, the first scholar to critique Acts and the Pauline Epistles, and founder of the so-called Tübingen School of theology, argued that Paul, as the "Apostle to the Gentiles", was in violent opposition to the original 12 Apostles. Baur considers the Acts of the Apostles were late and unreliable. This debate has continued ever since, with Adolf Deissmann (1866–1937) and Richard Reitzenstein (1861–1931) emphasising Paul's Greek inheritance and Albert Schweitzer stressing his dependence on Judaism.

Maccoby theorizes that Paul synthesized Judaism, Gnosticism, and mysticism to create Christianity as a cosmic savior religion. According to Maccoby, Paul's Pharisaism was his own invention, though actually he was probably associated with the Sadducees. Maccoby attributes the origins of Christian anti-Semitism to Paul and claims that Paul's view of women, though inconsistent, reflects his Gnosticism in its misogynist aspects.

Professor Robert Eisenman of California State University, Long Beach argues that Paul was a member of the family of Herod the Great. Professor Eisenman makes a connection between Paul and an individual identified by Josephus as "Saulus," a "kinsman of Agrippa." Another oft-cited element of the case for Paul as a member of Herod's family is found in where Paul writes, "Greet Herodion, my kinsman." This is a minority view in the academic community.

Among the critics of Paul the Apostle was Thomas Jefferson who wrote that Paul was the "first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus."
Howard Brenton's 2005 play Paul also takes a skeptical view of his conversion.
F.F. Powell argues that Paul made use of many of the ideas of the Greek philosopher Plato in his epistles, sometimes even using the same metaphors and language. For example, in Phaedrus, Socrates says that the heavenly ideals are perceived as though "through a glass dimly." These words are echoed by Paul in .

Endnotes and citations

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