Paul had many names Saul was his Jewish name before he converted into Christianity. Before many heard his preaching’s and before he learned of Jesus Christ being the actual son of God. St. Paul or Paul the apostle as he is known today was very influential among Christians. This essay will touch base in Paul’s accounts as He is recognized today as one of the greatest missionaries in Christianity. I will help the reader understand how Paul was known as the apostle to the gentiles. I will take reference as Paul lived as a humanitarian. And take light in the fact that Paul was a sinner at first by persecuting the Christian church. Paul later turned to repentance and love for the Lord. I will showcase his theology in which he wrote letters to every place he had visited in which we read today to address the church’s unique problems and try to make them better. This will let the reader recognize that his journey towards life wasn’t towards damnation and that his death wasn’t in vain. Paul knew he awaited salvation. Paul was shaped and changed by Christianity.
Paul was born to Jewish parents in Tarsus in Cilicia which was at the time in Asia Minor and now Turkey. It is believed that Paul may have been born AD 5-10. Although Paul never tells us where he was born we can gather that information in Acts, when it is said that he was a citizen of Tarsus the prosperous capital of Cilicia. See (22:3; 21:39)
He was born during the reign of the emperor Augustus. He was probably born around ten years after Christ; since he is referred to as a young man at the time of Stephens stoning. (Acts 7:58); which we will get into depth later on. Paul’s Jewish name was Saul. His name derives from the ancient Hebrew king Saul. Jewish people in the Diaspora, which were referred to as being outside of Palestine, went by two names one being there Greek or roman name and the other being the Semitic name. Paul was a well known Roman family name. We also are open to the fact that Paul was born a Pharisee as it is suggested in his description in (Phil 3:5; II Cor 11:22). This is in concurrence in Acts 23:6 which acquired the notion of Paul being the son of Pharisees.
In Paul’s letters there are two passages in which he describes himself as the “Hebrew of the Hebrews”[1] whom had respect for the law with respect to zeal, meaning that he was expected to be overly zealous or eager to follow the Jewish law and commands; and so he was circumcised on the eighth day (Phil. 3:5-6). In this passage mentioned Paul also emphasizes the fact that “if anyone was to have advantages before God for being a good law-observant Jew, it was he.” He became very zealous during his teenage years perhaps during the time that he was being taught by the famous teacher Gamaliel. He states while he speaks to Jewish leaders later on “under Gamamiel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.”[2](Acts 22:3) There is evidence to suggest that Paul deliberately worked in order of not imposing a burden among those whom he wished to proclaim an absolutely “free” gospel. (1 Cor. 9:16 -19.) He was a [3] tent maker” He was taught the craft by his father. Which is suggested to mean that he was a trades man (Acts.18:3) as a trades man he would have been in a lower social class but freed from slavery.
Being as educated as he was it is likely that Paul spoke a couple different languages since he traveled a lot even before he converted into Christianity he would have of course been fluent in Greek and Hebrew or Aramaic or both. With all these structures he was considered a gentile. The notion of Paul practicing zealous activities as a Jew, suggests that this led him to join the persecutions. He is first seen in acts as he watches people’s clothing while the crowd stones Stephen to death for his faith, commitment towards Christ and his desire to promote the gospel. Saul as he is addressed by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles was there giving his approval to end the life of Stephen. (Acts 7:58-8:1) Saul became violent with his persecutions and would volunteer to service the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. So extreme was his violence that he began to destroy the Christian church. Saul would go from house to house to drag of men and women and put them into prison. (Acts 8:3; also see Cor 15:9; Phil. 3:6). I’d like us to focus as to what made him become this violent? Here is a passage that Paul stated after his conversion that might help us understand as to why Saul was so violent. (Paul never addressed himself as Saul but as Paul; Perhaps because the unclean and impure Saul was no longer in existence with the new and cleansed Paul. He mentions “For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism. I persecuted the church of god to an extreme and tried to destroy it; and I was advanced into Judaism beyond my own age in the nation, being more extremely zealous by ancestral traditions.”(Gal 1:13-14) My interpretation of this is that Paul at a young age was persuaded into this belief and therefore invoked the anger that his fellow elders and ancestors felt towards anything that was different from their belief such as Christ and his Gnostic views or heretic views as they believed. Anything outside of there views or interpretation of the law was seen as blasphemy. (See Acts 26:9)
Paul decides to convert according to both Gal 1:13 -17 and Acts 9:1-9 while on his was to Damascus He believes he sees a light shine upon him that throws him towards the ground. He is under the impression he saw Jesus raised from the dead. (Also see 15:8) The appearance of the lord was a major factor in why Paul chose to become an apostle. Paul seeing Jesus is very hard to adhere because in “any of the three accounts in acts this does not happen”. (See R. E. Brown, Introduction to the New Testament pg.427) Paul states that a voice called upon him and said “Saul, Saul why do you persecute me” Paul knew that what he had done was wrong therefore it might have not been Jesus that called upon him but his mere conscience guilty by what he had done. Saul proceeded to ask “who are you, Lord?” Not knowing that probably this was his guilty conscience in action because it transpires afterwards that the voice continued and said “I am Jesus that you are persecuting”(Acts9:4-5) According to this passage Jesus then instructed Paul to proceed to Damascus and wait for more instructions.
Paul went through a time of repentance while fasting for three days at Damascus and then proceeded to go to the house of a Christian by the name Ananias. Ananias found Paul praying. This Christian baptized Paul and laid his hands on him and restored his vision that was damaged by the light in his encounter with Jesus. Paul then spent several days with the disciples and tried learning everything he possibly could about Jesus. He preached the word of the lord. That Jesus was in fact the son of God and the Jews were outraged. So much so that they tried to assassinate him while at Damascus in which he escaped by night and proceeded back to Jerusalem. Paul continues to preach, but once again his life was in danger. The disciples took him to Caesarea where he boarded a boat for Tarsus (Acts 9:29-30; Gal. 1:18-24)
Paul was being driven to his ultimate calling, becoming an apostle to the gentiles. Paul mentioned his special calling of god to a ministry among the gentiles in his letters. (Rom. 11:13; Gal 2:8 1 Tim. 2:7). It is not clear how long Paul remained in Tarsus but it could have been several years. He learned the tradition very well and continued his journey to invoke the acceptance of truth about Jesus Christ being the son of god. Paul proceeded along with his journey to Antioch in Syria which took great importance in Paul’s life. It became the base for Paul’s missionary activity. The Jerusalem meeting took place. In discussion was if the gentiles should be circumcised. Paul was there with Barnabas, who also accompanied him to Antioch along with peter and James and others. Peter and James the brother of Jesus agreed with Paul that circumcision could not be demanded. There the decision was made to accept the gentiles without circumcision.
Paul did not want any thing to do with the Jewish law he felt it violated the truth of the gospel. After Paul left Antioch with Barnabas, there occurred a major dispute. Peter backed down when men came from James and wanted Jewish people to keep the purity laws especially concerning the food they ate. (Gal 2:13) Paul lost the battle concerning the purity laws and parted ways with Barnabas. Paul continued his journey with Silas and mostly on his own.
The second missionary Journey lasted from AD49 to AD 52 (Acts 15:36 18:22). This Journey was very significant since it spread the gospel more widely taking it from Asia Minor into S E Europe as well. Then he proceeded north to Galatia and Phrygia, under divine guidance. There is a sign that Luke the writer began to accompany Paul because for the first time he uses “we” in reference to the traveling missionaries. (Acts16:9-10)[4] During his travels eventually he ended in Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea, Athens, and Corinth. New Testament letters were to be sent to three of these cities. The first was Pauline letter, I Thessalonians, was written from Corinth when it featured Paul expressing concern for a church he had evangelized. (AD 50-51). Paul stayed at Corinth for 18 months. He then proceeded to Ephesus where he stayed three years (Acts 20:31). Acts 19:1-20:1 tells us that Paul encountered a struggle with the seven sons of a Jewish high priest who were exorcists. He mentions that he fought in Ephesus with beasts (I Cor 15:32). He doesn’t mention this in his letters. This is why he had to depart from Ephesus. There is a possibility that Paul was imprisoned in Ephesus and there as a prisoner wrote the letters to the Philippians and to Philemon but acts doesn’t mention this. [5]
Also while at Ephesus Paul wrote to the Galatians, expressing concern about evangelizing efforts over the four or five years. Towards the end of his stay at Ephesus the trouble that was happening in the church of Corinth were brought to his attention there he wrote I Corinthians (16:8) and the letter II Corinthians 2:3-4 which was supposedly lost. After Ephesus in 57 he proceeded to Troas, farther north and crossed Europe and Macedonia and found Titus who brought good news that a reconciliation took place. Paul then wrote II Corinthians in two stages. Finally he went to Achaia and Corinth where he spent 1 year (57/58). At Corinth he also composed Romans; Acts 24:17 mentions that Paul went to Jerusalem to bring donation money. According to Acts Paul was imprisoned and then put under house arrest because of a Jewish riot that took place. While under house arrest he was enabled to preach to those who came to him.
The question that is posed by many is that if Paul was indeed under house arrest did he travel between 63 and the time of his death (64-67). This debate goes on and on among many scholars. Some assume that Paul might have been declared innocent and released, therefore, he could have achieved his visit to Spain. During this period it is said that he wrote a letter to Timothy and Titus. In Acts Paul speaks about the possibility of his own death (Acts20:24 also see Acts20:38). It is said that he was probably executed in Rome in AD 62; according to Christian tradition from the 4th century makes the day as February 22.[6] Once Christianity was outlawed Paul was rearrested and taken to Rome where he wrote 2 timothy. 2 Tim 4 it is said to be a sad account of what seemed to be Paul’s final trial before his death (v.18). Even through the sadness of the chapter, Paul took every opportunity to preach gospel. (2 Tim. 4:17-18) According to tradition it is said that Paul died in Rome at the hands of Nero around AD 67.
Every attempt to summarize Pauls theory encounters complication especially because each of the letters were written to a specific church, paul felt it was necessary to slant his teachings and address the church’s unique problems and to correct his particular errors. The letters to the Romans failed to provide a complete understanding of Paul’s theology. Certain occurrences put into perspective and comprise the core of his theology.
Paul is recognized as the greatest teacher of the Christian faith after the lord Jesus himself. He was called and led by the spirit of the lord to practice and preach the name of the lord and the gospel until his death. He created a foundation to the Christian church and casted out any doubts of faith among many. I believe Gods’ spirit lived within him as a believer and he repented for what he had done and transformed into a believer of Jesus. His conscience and his faith took a hold of him and he taught others what he learned and experienced. If he could change and convert anyone could. He wrote his letters and still to this day we recognize the influence he brought upon Christianity. He knew that what the persecutors of the Christian church had done was wrong. They were putting people to death. Deep inside himself he knew that there was something else that was bigger and grandiose than the persecutors. After all they were killing people to protect there Jewish ideology and succumbed in their zealous ways, by suppressing any new ideas. Finally, Paul was trying to advocate the word of the lord throughout the world.
[1] See An article from funk & Wagnalls 2006 http://History.com
[2] Bart D. Ehrman, Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene The followers of Jesus in History and Legend
3 R. E. Brown, Introduction to the New Testament, pg. 425
[4] R. E. Brown, Introduction to the New Testament pg. 433
[5] See R. E. Brown, Introduction to the New Testament pg 434 and Paul D. Gardener, The complete who is who in the Bible pg.516-517
[6] See An article from funk & Wagnalls 2006 http://History.com
Works Cited
Brown, R. E. Introduction to the New Testament: Paul’s life and thought.
New York: Double Day, 1997.
Gardner, Paul. Editor. The Complete Who’s Who in the Bible.
United Kingdom: Zondervan Publishing house, 1995
Ehrman, Bart. Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in history and Legend. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
An article from Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. World Almanac Education Group. A WRC Media Company. 2006.
