Paul the Apostle
Paul[a] (Koinē Greek: Παῦλος, romanized: Paûlos), also named Saul of Tarsus (Aramaic: ܫܐܘܠ, romanized: Šāʾūl), commonly known as Paul the Apostle[7] and Saint Paul,[8] was a Christian apostle (c. 5 – c. 64/65 AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world.[9] For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally regarded as one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age,[8][10] and he also founded several Christian communities in Asia Minor and Europe from the mid-40s to the mid-50s AD.[11]
"Saint Paul" redirects here. For other uses, see Saint Paul (disambiguation).
Paul the Apostle
Saul of Tarsus
c. 5 AD[1]
Tarsus, Cilicia, Roman Empire
All Christian denominations that venerate saints
- 25 January – Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul
- 10 February – Feast of Saint Paul's Shipwreck in Malta
- 29 June – Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (with Peter the Apostle)
- 30 June – Former solo feast day, still celebrated by some religious orders
- 18 November – Feast of the dedication of the basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul
- Saturday before the sixth Sunday after Pentecost – Feast of the Twelve Apostles and Paul the thirteenth Apostle (Armenian Apostolic Church)[5]
Christian martyrdom, sword, book
Missionaries, theologians, evangelists, and Gentile Christians, Malta
Christian missionary and preacher
- Certain:
- Epistle to the Romans
- Epistle to the Galatians
- First Epistle to the Corinthians
- Second Epistle to the Corinthians
- First Epistle to the Thessalonians
- Epistle to Philemon
- Epistle to the Philippians
- Disputed:
- Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
- Epistle to the Colossians
- Epistle to the Ephesians
- First Epistle to Timothy
- Second Epistle to Timothy
- Epistle to Titus
The main source of information on Paul's life and works is the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament. Approximately half of its content documents his travels, preaching and miracles. Paul was not one of the Twelve Apostles, and did not know Jesus during his lifetime. According to the Acts, Paul lived as a Pharisee and participated in the persecution of early disciples of Jesus, possibly Hellenised diaspora Jews converted to Christianity,[12] in the area of Jerusalem, prior to his conversion.[note 1] Some time after having approved of the execution of Stephen,[13] Paul was traveling on the road to Damascus so that he might find any Christians there and bring them "bound to Jerusalem".[14] At midday, a light brighter than the sun shone around both him and those with him, causing all to fall to the ground, with the risen Christ verbally addressing Paul regarding his persecution in a vision.[15][16] Having been made blind,[17] along with being commanded to enter the city, his sight was restored three days later by Ananias of Damascus. After these events, Paul was baptized, beginning immediately to proclaim that Jesus of Nazareth was the Jewish messiah and the Son of God.[18] He made three missionary journeys to spread the Christian message to non-Jewish communities in Asia Minor, the Greek provinces of Achaia, Macedonia, and Cyprus, as well as Judea and Syria, as narrated in the Acts.
Fourteen of the 27 books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul.[19] Seven of the Pauline epistles are undisputed by scholars as being authentic, with varying degrees of argument about the remainder. Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not asserted in the Epistle itself and was already doubted in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.[note 2] It was almost unquestioningly accepted from the 5th to the 16th centuries that Paul was the author of Hebrews,[21] but that view is now almost universally rejected by scholars.[21][22] The other six are believed by some scholars to have come from followers writing in his name, using material from Paul's surviving letters and letters written by him that no longer survive.[9][8][note 3] Other scholars argue that the idea of a pseudonymous author for the disputed epistles raises many problems.[24]
Today, Paul's epistles continue to be vital roots of the theology, worship and pastoral life in the Latin and Protestant traditions of the West, as well as the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox traditions of the East.[25] Paul's influence on Christian thought and practice has been characterized as being as "profound as it is pervasive", among that of many other apostles and missionaries involved in the spread of the Christian faith.[9]
The main source for information about Paul's life is the material found in his epistles and in the Acts of the Apostles.[41] However, the epistles contain little information about Paul's pre-conversion past. The Acts of the Apostles recounts more information but leaves several parts of Paul's life out of its narrative, such as his probable but undocumented execution in Rome.[42] The Acts of the Apostles also appear to contradict Paul's epistles on multiple matters, in particular concerning the frequency of Paul's visits to the church in Jerusalem.[43][44]
Sources outside the New Testament that mention Paul include:
Remains
According to the Liber Pontificalis, Paul's body was buried outside the walls of Rome, at the second mile on the Via Ostiensis, on the estate owned by a Christian woman named Lucina.[202] It was here, in the fourth century, that the Emperor Constantine the Great built a first church. Then, between the fourth and fifth centuries, it was considerably enlarged by the Emperors Valentinian I, Valentinian II, Theodosius I, and Arcadius. The present-day Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls was built there in the early 19th century.[199]
Caius in his Disputation Against Proclus (198 AD) mentions this of the places in which the remains of the apostles Peter and Paul were deposited: "I can point out the trophies of the apostles. For if you are willing to go to the Vatican or to the Ostian Way, you will find the trophies of those who founded this Church".[203]
Writing on Paul's biography, Jerome in his De Viris Illustribus in 392 AD mentions that "Paul was buried in the Ostian Way at Rome".[204]
In 2002, an 8-foot (2.4 m)-long marble sarcophagus, inscribed with the words "PAULO APOSTOLO MART", which translates as "Paul apostle martyr", was discovered during excavations around the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls on the Via Ostiensis. Vatican archaeologists declared this to be the tomb of Paul the Apostle in 2005. In June 2009, Pope Benedict XVI announced excavation results on the tomb. The sarcophagus was not opened but was examined by a probe, which revealed pieces of incense, purple, and blue linen, and small bone fragments. The bone was radiocarbon dated to the 1st or 2nd century. According to the Vatican, these findings support the conclusion that the tomb is Paul's.[205][206]
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