Apostle
Apostle to the Gentiles
c. 5-67 AD
The Apostle Paul — Rembrandt
Summary
Paul was a Pharisee who persecuted Christians until the risen Christ appeared to him on the Damascus road. He became the greatest missionary and theologian of the early church.
Paul was born a Jew in Tarsus, a Greek city of Cilicia, and raised in Jerusalem. He was trained at the feet of Gamaliel, whom Acts calls a teacher of the law honored by all the people. He held Roman citizenship from birth, which the commander who arrested him had to buy. He was a Pharisee whose father was a Pharisee, which names a family and a party rather than a private opinion. He stood at Stephen's execution while the witnesses laid their coats at his feet. Then he went house to house, dragging men and women off to prison. In his own account before Agrippa he says he cast his vote for death sentences and tried to force believers to blaspheme. He never softened any of it in later years. He was on the road to Damascus with arrest warrants from the high priest when a light stopped him and a voice asked why he was persecuting Me. Not them. He spent three days blind and without food. The first Christian word spoken to him was Brother Saul, said by a man who had just told the Lord exactly what this man had done. The name did not change on that road. Luke goes on calling him Saul for four more chapters and switches at Acts 13:9, on Cyprus, with the phrase “Saul, who was also called Paul.” Saul was his Hebrew name and Paul his Roman one, and a Roman citizen from a Greek city would have carried both from birth. For about thirty years he crossed the eastern Roman world and planted churches in Cyprus, Asia Minor, Macedonia and Achaia. At Lystra a crowd tried to sacrifice to him and then stoned him and left him for dead, and he got up and went back into the city. By his own count he took five floggings, three beatings with rods, one stoning and three shipwrecks before the famous wreck of Acts 27 ever happened. He argued the case for Gentile freedom at Jerusalem and refused to let Titus be circumcised. He corrected Peter to his face at Antioch when a shared meal turned into a test of the gospel. He also parted from Barnabas over whether to take Mark, and Luke calls that disagreement sharp. Years later he asked for Mark by name and called him useful in the ministry. He was arrested in the temple courts on a charge Luke says rested on an assumption, held two years at Caesarea by a governor who was hoping for a bribe, and sent on to Rome because he appealed to Caesar. Acts ends with him under guard in a rented house, preaching for two full years, and reports no verdict.
Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee zealous for the law, trained under Gamaliel, and a violent persecutor of the early church. He approved of Stephen's stoning and was "breathing threats and murder" against Christians when Christ appeared to him on the Damascus road. The persecutor became the preacher. Blinded by the light and humbled before the risen Lord, Paul spent time in Arabia before beginning the most influential missionary career in history. His three missionary journeys established churches throughout Asia Minor and Greece, and his letters form the largest section of the New Testament. Paul's theology clarified salvation by grace through faith, the relationship between law and gospel, the nature of the church as Christ's body, and the hope of resurrection. His personal testimony remained constant: "The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Paul suffered shipwrecks, beatings, stonings, imprisonments, and constant danger. Tradition holds he was beheaded under Nero, having "fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith."
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
Paul's union with Christ
Acts 9:1-27, with Paul's own two retellings in Acts 22 and Acts 26 beside it
No horse appears in any of the three accounts. Acts 9:4, 22:7 and 26:14 all say he fell to the ground. Paul tells the story twice himself, once in Hebrew from the barracks steps and once to a Roman court, and the audience shapes each telling. Acts 22 stresses that Ananias was a devout observer of the law, well regarded by the Jews of Damascus. Acts 26 leaves Ananias out and adds the line about kicking against the goads.
The Damascus road, verse by versein the order the canon tells it
The risen Christ appeared and transformed the persecutor
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord. He approached the high priest
Paul and Barnabas planted churches in Asia Minor
Paul defended Gentile freedom from circumcision
Then some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
Imprisoned and released after earthquake
One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl with a spirit of divination, who earned a large income for her masters by fortune-telling.
Paul preached in Rome under house arrest
When we arrived in Rome, Paul was permitted to stay by himself, with a soldier to guard him.
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
Strengths
Theological depth, tireless missionary zeal, pastoral care, courage under persecution, contentment in all circumstances
Weaknesses
Former persecutor of the church, sharp disagreement with Barnabas over Mark, struggled with ongoing internal conflict
Lessons
No one is beyond God's reach. Grace transforms persecutors into preachers. Suffering is a normal part of faithful ministry. Contentment is possible in all circumstances.
Paul demonstrates that Christ transforms His worst enemies into His greatest servants. His life shows the power of grace to overcome any past.
Paul says the center of what he preached was handed to him rather than composed by him. He writes to Corinth: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve.” The list of witnesses runs on through more than five hundred at once, then James, then all the apostles, and it ends with him: “And last of all He appeared to me also, as to one of untimely birth.” The shortest statement of the Christian message in the New Testament closes with the name of the man who had tried to destroy it. He is never presented as a type of Christ. He is presented as the demonstration case for Christ's patience. His own words are: “But for this very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His perfect patience as an example to those who would believe in Him for eternal life.” The worst instance is handled first, so that nobody who comes later can claim to stand outside the offer. Augustine of Hippo said the same thing about the work that followed, writing in the early fifth century that Paul did not labor in order to receive grace, but received grace so that he might labor. Paul's own summary of his preaching, given under guard to a Roman court, is Christ out of Israel's prophets. “I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen: that the Christ would suffer, and as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to our people and to the Gentiles.” Tertullian read that sentence in the early third century as a claim of continuity rather than a break, and said Paul was maintaining just such a resurrection as the prophets had foretold. Notice the order Paul gives. To our people, and to the Gentiles. Romans 11 is where he answers the charge most often laid at his own door. He raises it himself and answers it in the first person: “I ask then, did God reject His people? Certainly not! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.” He closes the argument in the same place: “Regarding the gospel, they are enemies on your account; but regarding election, they are loved on account of the patriarchs. For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.” John Calvin wrote in 1554 that the point of the passage is that nobody should think the covenant made with Abraham has been abrogated. John Wesley drew the plain conclusion in 1755, that Israel is neither totally nor finally rejected. Cyril of Alexandria, in the fifth century, said Israel will be saved in its own time. Replacement theology is condemned on this site, and Paul is the last writer in the New Testament who can be enlisted for it. The gifts he describes are given to the church rather than withdrawn from it. At Ephesus he laid his hands on disciples who had not heard there was a Holy Spirit, and “the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.” Writing to a congregation that had mishandled the same gifts, his instruction was not to stop using them: “Earnestly pursue love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy,” and at the close of the argument, “So, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.” The correction he gives is order, and everything is to be done in a proper and orderly manner. This site teaches that the gifts continue. He also wrote the clearest account in the New Testament of the catching up of the church. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.” Where that event falls in relation to the tribulation is a question Scripture leaves genuinely open, and serious people hold each of the answers. The site's page on the rapture plots the timings on one timeline of Daniel's seventieth week, gives each its best case and its hardest problem, and names this site's own tradition. This page quotes the verses and argues none of it.
Paul's conversion is the pattern for sinners finding mercy through Christ (1 Timothy 1:16). He became an example for all who would believe.
each quoted from the work named
Saul, Saul, saith He, why persecutest thou me? And He tells him nothing: does not say, Believe, nor anything whatever of the kind: but expostulates with him, all but saying, What wrong, great or small, hast thou suffered from Me, that thou doest these things?
HOW MARVELLOUS the condescension which induced the Saviour to take notice of such a wretch as Saul! Enthroned in the highest heavens, amidst the eternal melodies of the redeemed, and the seraphic sonnets of the cherubim and all the angelic hosts, it was strange that the Saviour should stoop himself from his dignity to speak to a persecutor.
Paul did not labor in order to receive grace, but he received grace so that he might labor.
This objection is what he anticipates in this passage, and he so modifies what he had previously said respecting the repudiation of the Jews, that no one might think that the covenant formerly made with Abraham is now abrogated, or that God had so forgotten it that the Jews were now so entirely alienated from his kingdom, as the Gentiles were before the coming of Christ.
Although it was rejected, Israel will also be saved eventually, a hope which Paul confirms by quoting this text of Scripture. For indeed, Israel will be saved in its own time and will be called at the end, after the calling of the Gentiles.
It is beautiful to see how earthly misunderstandings of Christians are lost in Christ. For in 2Pe 3:15, Peter praises the very Epistles of Paul which he knew contained his own condemnation. Though apart from one another and differing in characteristics, the two apostles were one in Christ.
But not to dwell upon ancient examples, let us come to the most recent spiritual heroes. Let us take the noble examples furnished in our own generation. Through envy and jealousy the greatest and most righteous pillars [of the church] have been persecuted and put to death. Let us set before our eyes the illustrious apostles... Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the east and west, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects. Thus was he removed from the world, and went into the holy place, having proved himself a striking example of patience.
208 verses use this name, in 15 books. Open a book to read its mentions here. Text: Berean Standard Bible. Names repeat in Scripture, some of these verses may speak of another person called Paul.
Old TestamentNew Testamentsegment width = share of mentions
174 further mentions in Acts — read them in the book.
2 further mentions in 1 Corinthians — read them in the book.
No. Luke goes on calling him Saul for four more chapters and switches in the middle of Acts 13:9, on Cyprus, with the phrase “Saul, who was also called Paul.” That is a note about two names already in use, not a note about a change.
Saul was his Hebrew name and Paul his Roman one, and a Roman citizen born in a Greek city of Cilicia would have carried both from birth. None of the three accounts of the Damascus road mentions a new name.
Readers differ; the positions are named
Acts 9:7 says his companions heard the voice and saw no one. Acts 22:9 says they saw the light and could not understand the voice of the One speaking to him. Acts 26:14 says they all fell to the ground. Read together, the men took in the light and a sound without receiving the message that was spoken to Paul.
That is the reading carried from the ancient commentators onward. Theophylact of Ohrid, writing in the eleventh century, makes the point directly on Acts 9:7: the light shines on all of them so that they can bear witness to what happened, and it blinds Paul alone. This page shows all three texts rather than harmonizing the difficulty out of sight.
Readers differ; the positions are named
The text names neither an illness nor an enemy. It says a thorn in the flesh and a messenger of Satan, given to keep him from becoming conceited, and it records three requests to have it removed and three refusals.
The ancient readings split. Severian of Gabala, writing in the early fifth century, held that Paul meant the persecutions he suffered rather than a bodily ailment. Theophylact of Ohrid in the eleventh century records a headache reading and rejects it. Neither side settles it and this page names no ailment either. What the text does settle is the answer he was given: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.”
No. Romans 11:1 raises the question and answers it in his own first person: did God reject His people, certainly not, I am an Israelite myself. Romans 11:28-29 says they are loved on account of the patriarchs and that God's gifts and His call are irrevocable.
Galatians 2:7 sets two commissions side by side, Peter's to the circumcised and Paul's to the uncircumcised, recognized by one grace, with neither replacing the other. Replacement theology is condemned on this site, and this page carries Romans 11 at full strength.
They were two different questions. Galatians 2:3-5 was about whether circumcision is required for salvation, and Paul would not concede that for a moment. Acts 16:3 was about whether Timothy, whose mother was Jewish and whose father was Greek, could go with him into synagogues.
One question is the gospel itself and the other is access to a hearing, and he treated them differently on purpose.
Readers differ; the positions are named
The text does not say so. The pillars had already given Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, and Peter's own second letter calls Paul a beloved brother afterward.
What happened at Antioch was a real and public correction. Paul says he opposed Cephas to his face because the practice was not walking in line with the truth of the gospel. Whether the rebuke was a genuine disagreement or a scene arranged for the benefit of those watching was argued in the early church, with Theophylact of Ohrid carrying the older Eastern reading and Augustine of Hippo reading it as a real fault really rebuked. Both men are honored here and the site's page on that confrontation carries the argument in full.
Readers differ; the positions are named
Scripture does not say. Acts leaves him under guard in Rome for two full years, preaching without hindrance and with no verdict reported, and 2 Timothy 4:6 has him saying the time of his departure is at hand.
The earliest witness outside Scripture is Clement of Rome, writing to Corinth near the end of the first century. He says Paul preached in the east and the west, came to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects. He does not say how. Ignatius of Antioch calls him the holy, the martyred, early in the second century, and Eusebius of Caesarea in the fourth century reads 2 Timothy 4 as Paul foreseeing his own death. The martyrdom at Rome is early tradition and it is reported here as tradition. The manner of it is not sourced on this page, so this page does not state one.
He says he did not. Galatians 1:11-12 says he received it by revelation from Jesus Christ, 1:17 says he did not go up to Jerusalem but went into Arabia, and 1:20 puts the claim under oath before God.
Acts and Galatians agree on what came next. Barnabas introduced him to the apostles, and the pillars recognized his commission rather than granting it. Galatians 1:17 names Arabia and says nothing else about it, and this page leaves that silence alone.
Yes. Acts 18:12 says Gallio was proconsul of Achaia when the Jews of Corinth brought Paul before his judgment seat, and Acts 18:11 says Paul had already stayed there a year and six months. An inscription found at Delphi records a letter of the emperor Claudius that names Gallio as proconsul of Achaia and can be dated to about AD 52, which places his term in office at about AD 51 to 52.
The inscription is a Roman civil record rather than a Christian text, and it names the same office and the same man Luke names in Acts. It is one of the few points in Paul's story where an outside date can be set beside the text.
Yes. Paul is writing to a congregation that had abused the gifts, and his instruction is to pursue love, to desire the gifts, to be eager to prophesy and not to forbid speaking in tongues, with everything done in a proper and orderly manner.
At Ephesus he laid his hands on disciples who had not heard there was a Holy Spirit, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. This site teaches that the gifts continue, at full strength.
4 verified pieces depicting Paul
through Paul's story
Named in passing:Typology of Christ; Women of Faith
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