People of the Bible

Paul

Died in the 60s · Tarsus, the Roman East and Rome

He hunted the first Christians until a light stopped him on the road to Damascus. Then he carried the faith across the Roman world.

Picture: Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, attributed to Valentin de Boulogne, about 1618 to 1620. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Public domain.

His path, in order

1. PhariseeTaught at the feet of Gamaliel
2. PersecutorOf the church in Jerusalem
3. ApostleCalled on the road to Damascus
4. MissionaryFrom Cyprus to Greece
5. PrisonerIn Caesarea, then in Rome
6. MartyrAt Rome, under Nero

in numbers

• Lashes, five times over39
  • “the forty lashes minus one”
  • Five times, by his own count
  2 Corinthians 11:24
• Shipwrecks, by his own count3
  • “three times I was shipwrecked”
  • He wrote this before the wreck off Malta
  2 Corinthians 11:25; Catholic Encyclopedia
• Soldiers sent to guard him470
  • 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen
  • More than 40 men had sworn to kill him
  Acts 23:12-24
• On board when his ship ran aground off Malta276
  • Soldiers, prisoners and crew
  • Every one reached land safely
  Acts 27:37-44
• Letters under his name13
  • Nearly half the books of the New Testament
  • Seven are accepted as his by nearly all scholars
  Britannica

did you know?

• The saying about scales falling from someone's eyes comes from his story. As a disciple named Ananias laid his hands on him in Damascus, “something like scales fell from Saul's eyes”.

  Acts 9:17-18

• He quotes words of Jesus that are in none of the four Gospels: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

  Acts 20:35

• He quoted Greek poets. The Bible scholar Jerome names three: Epimenides on the Cretans, Menander for “Bad company corrupts good character”, and Aratus for “We are His offspring”.

  Jerome, Letter 70; Titus 1:12; 1 Corinthians 15:33; Acts 17:28

Born

At Tarsus in Cilicia, in today's Turkey, “a citizen of no ordinary city”. No one recorded the year. The Bible scholar Jerome says the family came to Tarsus from Gischala, in the Holy Land.

Family

Of the tribe of Benjamin, “a Hebrew of Hebrews”. A Pharisee, “the son of a Pharisee”. A Roman citizen from birth. His sister's son lived in Jerusalem.

Married?

Unmarried when he wrote 1 Corinthians: “It is good for them to remain unmarried, as I am.” Clement of Alexandria, a Christian teacher of about 200, thought he had a wife and left her at home for the sake of his work.

Schooling

In Jerusalem, “at the feet of Gamaliel”, a teacher of the law honoured by all the people.

Work

A tentmaker, like his friends Priscilla and Aquila. He paid his own way: “these hands of mine have ministered to my own needs”.

Also called

Saul, his Hebrew name. It was the name of Israel's first king, who was also of the tribe of Benjamin. Paul, his Roman name. The apostle to the Gentiles, his own words.

Died

At Rome, under the emperor Nero, in the 60s. Early Christian writers say he was beheaded. Jerome puts it on the same day as Peter's death.

Buried

By the road to Ostia, says Jerome. The basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls marks the grave.

Wrote

Thirteen letters of the New Testament open with his name. Who wrote six of them is debated. Hebrews, which names no author, was long counted his too. See the section on his letters, below.

Patron of

Missionaries, evangelists, writers, journalists and publishers, in the Catholic Church, says Britannica.

The Forge

His personality type

Serious by nature, and at his best when there is something to do.

In Gregory the Great's terms

• Serious
• Restless mind

Our reading, from the Christian Personality Test. The Forge is serious by nature, and at its best with something to do. The personality test sets Paul against Barnabas, the Hearth, over young Mark: Barnabas gave him a second chance, and Paul would not. Years later Paul wrote, “Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is useful to me in the ministry.”

See The Forge

feast days

East and West, side by side

West

• Jan25

  The Conversion of Paul, a Catholic feast. A Festival in the Church of England, and kept by the Episcopal Church and Lutherans in the Missouri Synod and the ELCA. It closes the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

• Jun29

  Peter and Paul, a Catholic solemnity. Also the Church of England, the Episcopal Church, and Lutherans in the Missouri Synod and the ELCA.

• Jun30

  The Commemoration of Paul, in the 1916 Roman Martyrology and the 1962 Missal. Since 1969 Rome keeps the day for the first martyrs of Rome.

• Nov18

  The dedication of the basilicas of Peter and Paul in Rome. A Catholic optional memorial.

East

• Jun29

  Peter and Paul, the leaders of the apostles, for the OCA and the Greek churches.

• Jun30

  All twelve apostles together, the day after Peter and Paul, in the OCA.

• Jul12

  The Coptic Church, on 5 Abib in its own calendar: the martyrdom of Peter and Paul. The Russian Church keeps 29 June on the old calendar, which falls on this day too.

Why a day of his own on 30 June? The Catholic Encyclopedia explains. On 29 June the pope went from St Peter's to St Paul's, about five miles apart, and the double ceremony was too tiring. So Paul's part moved to the next day. Rome's calendar of 1969 notes that the Martyrology of Jerome already marks his conversion on 25 January. Books from Gaul keep it as a feast by the end of the 700s. Churches on the old calendar keep each date 13 days later.

Jesus, his friends, his critics and the first generations after him, in their own words.

1. Jerusalem

   A young man

   Stephen's death

   Stephen, the first martyr, was dragged out of the city and stoned. “Meanwhile the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.” Stephen fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Acts adds, “And Saul was there, giving approval to Stephen's death.” Then Saul began to destroy the church. He went from house to house and dragged off men and women to prison.

   Acts 7:58 to 8:3

2. The road to Damascus

   About noon

   A light from heaven

   Saul asked the high priest for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so he could bring the Lord's followers back to Jerusalem in chains. Near the city a light flashed around him, “brighter than the sun”. He fell to the ground and heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” “Who are You, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting.” The men with him heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up blind, and they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he did not eat or drink.

   Acts 9:1-9; 26:13

3. Straight Street, Damascus

   Three days later

   “Brother Saul”

   The Lord sent a disciple named Ananias to the blinded Saul. Ananias was afraid. “Lord, many people have told me about this man and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.” He went anyway, and placed his hands on the man. “Brother Saul,” he said. At once Saul could see again. He was baptised, and began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All who heard him were astounded. “Isn't this the man who wreaked havoc in Jerusalem on those who call on this name?”

   Acts 9:10-22

4. Damascus

   After many days

   Over the wall in a basket

   He went away into Arabia, he writes, and came back to Damascus. Then some of the Jews plotted to kill him. Day and night they watched the city gates. So one night his disciples lowered him in a basket through a window in the wall. Paul tells it himself, in a list of things he could boast of. The governor under King Aretas was guarding the city to arrest him. “But I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his grasp.”

   Acts 9:23-25; 2 Corinthians 11:32-33; Galatians 1:17

5. Jerusalem, then Tarsus

   Three years on

   Barnabas speaks for him

   In Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, “but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.” Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles, and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the road to Damascus. Paul says he stayed fifteen days with Cephas, that is Peter. When some of the Greek-speaking Jews tried to kill him, the believers took him down to Caesarea and sent him home to Tarsus.

   Acts 9:26-30; Galatians 1:18

6. Antioch

   A full year

   Where they were first called Christians

   Years after Saul went home to Tarsus, Barnabas went there to look for him, and brought him back to Antioch. For a full year the two of them taught large numbers of people there. “The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.” When a prophet foretold a famine, the church sent help to the believers in Judea, carried by Barnabas and Saul.

   Acts 11:25-30

7. Antioch and Cyprus

   The first journey

   “Saul, who was also called Paul”

   The church at Antioch was worshipping and fasting when the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” They sailed to Cyprus, with John Mark as their helper. At Paphos the Roman governor, Sergius Paulus, sent for them to hear the word of God. From that day on, Acts calls Saul by his Roman name, Paul. On the mainland, at Perga, Mark left them and went home to Jerusalem.

   Acts 13:1-13

8. Lystra

   Taken for gods

   Zeus, Hermes, and then stones

   When Paul healed a man lame from birth, the crowd shouted, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” They called Barnabas Zeus, and Paul Hermes, “because he was the chief speaker.” The priest of Zeus brought bulls and wreaths to offer them a sacrifice. The two tore their clothes and rushed into the crowd: “We too are only men, human like you.” Then Jews came from Iconium and from Pisidian Antioch, a different Antioch from the one that had sent him out. They won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead. The disciples gathered around him. He got up and went back into the city.

   Acts 14:8-20

9. Antioch

   Before the second journey

   A sharp disagreement

   Paul wanted to go back and visit the churches he and Barnabas had founded. Barnabas wanted to take John Mark. Paul thought it best not to, because Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia. “Their disagreement was so sharp that they parted company.” Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus. Paul chose Silas and set out by land. John Chrysostom saw two gifts at work: Barnabas was the gentler, Paul the stricter. As he put it, the one was “more tender and indulgent, but this one more strict and austere,” and he saw God's plan in the parting.

   Acts 15:36-41; John Chrysostom, Homilies on Acts, Homily 34

10. Philippi

    About midnight

    Singing in the stocks

    In a night vision a man of Macedonia begged him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” So Paul crossed into Europe. At Philippi he freed a slave girl from a spirit, and her owners dragged him and his companion Silas before the magistrates. They were beaten with rods and put in the stocks. “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.” An earthquake shook the prison, and every door flew open. The jailer was about to kill himself when Paul called out, “Do not harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.” In the morning Paul refused to slip away quietly. He and Silas were Roman citizens, beaten without a trial: “Let them come themselves and escort us out!”

    Acts 16:9-40

11. Athens

    The Areopagus

    To an unknown god

    Paul was deeply disturbed to see Athens full of idols. He argued in the marketplace every day. Some philosophers asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” At the Areopagus he began, “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious.” He had found an altar inscribed TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. “Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you.” He quoted their own poets. When he spoke of the resurrection of the dead, some began to mock. Others said, “We want to hear you again on this topic.” A few believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris.

    Acts 17:16-34

12. Corinth

    A year and a half

    Tentmakers

    At Corinth he met Aquila and his wife Priscilla, Jews lately expelled from Rome by the emperor Claudius. “They were tentmakers by trade, just as he was”, so he stayed and worked with them. One night the Lord spoke to him in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking; do not be silent. For I am with you.” He stayed a year and a half, teaching the word of God.

    Acts 18:1-11

13. Ephesus

    About two hours

    The riot of the silversmiths

    At Ephesus, people who had practised magic burned their books in public. The books were worth fifty thousand drachmas. Then a silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of the goddess Artemis, warned his fellow craftsmen that Paul was ruining their trade. “He says that man-made gods are no gods at all.” The whole city rushed into the theatre. Paul wanted to go in, but the disciples would not let him. For about two hours the crowd shouted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Most of them did not even know why they were there. At last the city clerk calmed them and sent them home.

    Acts 19:19-41

14. Miletus

    On the way to Jerusalem

    The last goodbye

    Paul sent for the elders of the church at Ephesus. He told them the Holy Spirit warned him in town after town that chains awaited him. “But I consider my life of no value to me, if only I may finish my course.” He reminded them that he had worked with his own hands to help the weak. Then he knelt down with them all and prayed. “They all wept openly as they embraced Paul and kissed him.” What grieved them most was that they would never see his face again.

    Acts 20:17-38

15. Jerusalem

    In the temple courts

    Arrested

    Jews from Asia saw him in the temple and stirred up the crowd. They dragged him out and were trying to kill him when Roman soldiers ran down. The commander had him bound with two chains. As they stretched him out to be flogged, Paul asked, “Is it lawful for you to flog a Roman citizen without a trial?” The commander said he had paid a high price for his own citizenship. “But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied. Then more than forty men swore not to eat or drink until they had killed him. The son of Paul's sister heard of the plot and warned him. That night the Romans sent him to the governor at Caesarea, under a heavy guard.

    Acts 21:27 to 23:24

16. Caesarea

    Two years in prison

    “I appeal to Caesar!”

    The governor Felix kept him in prison for two years, hoping for a bribe. When Paul spoke of righteousness, self-control and the coming judgment, Felix grew frightened. The next governor, Festus, asked if he would stand trial in Jerusalem. Paul refused: “I appeal to Caesar!” Before King Agrippa he told his story again. Festus shouted, “You are insane, Paul! Your great learning is driving you to madness!” Agrippa asked, “Can you persuade me in such a short time to become a Christian?” “Short time or long,” Paul replied, “I wish to God that not only you but all who hear me this day may become what I am, except for these chains.”

    Acts 24:24 to 26:32

17. The sea off Crete, then Malta

    Fourteen days

    Shipwreck

    Paul was being taken to Rome by sea, as a prisoner. He warned that sailing on had become dangerous. No one listened. A wind called the Northeaster caught the ship, and for many days neither sun nor stars appeared. Paul stood up among the men. An angel had told him, “Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar.” On the fourteenth night he urged them all to eat. He took bread, gave thanks to God in front of them all, and broke it. At daybreak the ship struck a sandbar and broke up. The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners, but the centurion stopped them to save Paul. “In this way everyone was brought safely to land.”

    Acts 27:9-44

18. Rome

    Two full years

    Boldly and freely

    Believers from Rome walked out along the road to meet him, and when Paul saw them he took courage. In Rome he was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him. “Paul stayed there two full years in his own rented house, welcoming all who came to visit him.” Acts ends there, with Paul still waiting for his trial. Its last verse says of him: “Boldly and freely he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.”

    Acts 28:14-31

Thirteen letters in the New Testament bear his name, and Acts records his speeches. Outside the section on where the quiz places him, every Bible line on this page is from the Berean Standard Bible.

Barnabas

The “Son of Encouragement”. He brought Saul to the apostles when they were all afraid of him, fetched him from Tarsus to Antioch, and travelled with him to Cyprus and Lystra. They parted over Mark. Later Paul wrote of him as a fellow apostle who, like Paul, worked for a living.

Acts 4:36; 9:27; 11:25-26; 15:39; 1 Corinthians 9:6 Peter

Paul stayed fifteen days with him in Jerusalem. Later, at Antioch, Peter drew back from eating with Gentile believers, and Paul writes, “I opposed him to his face.” The second letter under Peter's name calls him “our beloved brother Paul”. Early Christian writers say both died at Rome under Nero.

Galatians 1:18; 2:11; 2 Peter 3:15; Eusebius, Church History, Book 2, chapter 25

Mark

John Mark, Barnabas's cousin. He left Paul and Barnabas at Perga and went home, and Paul would not take him again. Years later Mark was at Paul's side while Paul was a prisoner, and near the end of his life Paul asked for him.

Acts 13:13; 15:37-39; Colossians 4:10; Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:11

Timothy

A young disciple from Lystra, with a believing Jewish mother and a Greek father. Paul called him “my true child in the faith”, and told the Philippians, “I have nobody else like him.”

Acts 16:1-3; 1 Timothy 1:2; Philippians 2:20

Luke

“Luke, the beloved physician”. Acts is held to be his work. At Troas its story turns from “they” to “we”. Irenaeus, a bishop of the 100s, took that as proof “that this Luke was inseparable from Paul”. Near the end of his life Paul wrote, “Only Luke is with me.”

Colossians 4:14; Acts 16:10; 2 Timothy 4:11; Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 3, chapter 14

Silas

A leader of the Jerusalem church, whom Paul chose after he parted from Barnabas. He was beaten and jailed with Paul at Philippi, and sang hymns with him at midnight. Paul's letters call him Silvanus.

Acts 15:22, 40; 16:25; 1 Thessalonians 1:1

Priscilla and Aquila

A husband and wife, tentmakers expelled from Rome with the other Jews. Paul lived and worked with them at Corinth. They “risked their lives” for him, he says, and “all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.”

Acts 18:1-3; Romans 16:3-4

Gamaliel

His teacher, a Pharisee “honored by all the people”. When the council wanted to kill the apostles, Gamaliel told the council to leave them alone. If their work was from God, “you will not be able to stop them.”

Acts 22:3; 5:34-39

Stephen

The first martyr, “full of grace and power”. Paul never forgot his death. Years later he told the Lord, “I stood there giving my approval and watching over the garments of those who killed him.”

Acts 6:8; 22:20

Onesimus

A slave of Paul's friend Philemon. He became a Christian through Paul, while Paul was in prison. Paul sent him back with a short letter, asking Philemon to take him “no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a beloved brother.”

Philemon 1:10-16

Quiz Who in the Bible are you most like? Answer eighteen plain statements about you, none of them about the Bible, and see how near you land to Paul. Start Quiz Christian Personality Test Paul reads as The Forge. Find your own type. Start

John ChrysostomThe Forge

He preached or wrote on every one of Paul's letters, and longed to see the dust of Paul's heart at his grave in Rome. A historian says it was his nature to rebuke wrongdoing.

Homilies on Romans, Homily 32; Sozomen, Church History JeromeThe Forge

The great translator of the Bible was a fighter by his own account. In an argument, he wrote, he threw himself into the thick of it.

Jerome, Letter 48