Paul, St, also known as Saul of Tarsus Died c.64/68AD
Christian missionary and martyr, the Apostle of the Gentiles

Paul was born of Jewish parents at Tarsus in Cilicia, and was brought up to be a rabbi by Gamaliel at Jerusalem; he also acquired the trade of tent-maker. A strenuous Pharisee, he took an active part in the persecution of Christians, including St Stephen. He was on his way to Damascus on this mission when a vision of Jesus Christ converted him into a fervent adherent of the new faith.

After three years spent mainly in Damascus and partly in Arabia, he visited Jerusalem again, where Barnabas persuaded the Apostles of the genuineness of his conversion. He began to preach, but opposition to him was strong and he was compelled to live in retirement in Tarsus. After 10 years, he was brought to Antioch by Barnabas, and began with him and Mark the first of three missionary journeys, this one to Cyprus, Pisidia, Pamphylia and Lycaonia. On his return to Antioch, he encountered controversy over the manner in which Gentiles and Jews were to be admitted to the Christian Church; this dispute led to the first apostolic council in Jerusalem (c.49 or 50). Paul opposed Peter during the debate, and once the question was finally settled by a compromise, he addressed himself mainly to the Gentiles. Thousands of people became Christians through the clarity of Paul's teaching and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul's second missionary journey took him, with Silas, again to Asia Minor and through Galatia and Phrygia to Macedonia and Achaia; he was especially well received in Corinth. A year and a half later he was again in Jerusalem and Antioch, and then he undertook a third journey, to Galatia and Phrygia. Driven from Ephesus, he visited Achaia and Macedonia again, and by way of Miletus returned by sea to Jerusalem. There the fanaticism of the Jews against him led to disturbances, whereupon he was brought to Caesarea to be tried before Felix the procurator, and after two years' imprisonment, before Felix's successor M Porcius Festus. Paul, invoking his right as a Roman citizen, 'appealed to Caesar', and in the spring of 56 arrived in Rome, where he spent two years a prisoner in his own hired house. Paul was executed under Nero, probably at the end of the two years' captivity, although according to tradition he escaped to visit Spain and other countries.

The ancient Church recognized 13 of the New Testament Epistles as Paul's, although it did not unanimously regard Hebrews as his. Most critics now accept the Epistles to the Galatians, Romans, Corinthians (1st and 2nd) and Galatians, but scholarly opinion is divided over the Pastoral Epistles, 2nd Thessalonians and Ephesians, and some also Colossians and Philippians. The order of the Epistles is certainly not chronological, although it is difficult to establish the correct order.

Bibliography: The many important studies of the life of St Paul include G Ogg, The Chronology of the Life of St Paul (1966); A Schweitzer, The Mysticism of St Paul the Apostle (1931); and W M Ramsay, St Paul the Traveller (1908). The Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles are major sources.