PERSON · APOSTLE
Paul
Paul identified himself as the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13) and reported that he had been set apart and called by God before his birth for this mission (Galatians 1:15–16). His letters constitute the largest single body of writing in the New Testament and were circulated among multiple early churches (Colossians 4:16).
Acts 9:1–19
- Ministry
- First century AD; active approximately AD 33–67
The Story
Before a single step was taken on the road to Damascus, before the light blazed and the voice spoke, the life of the man who would become the apostle Paul was already being shaped toward a collision with the risen Christ. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised on the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, raised in the strictest school of his faith as a Pharisee.
5Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Philippians 3:5–6·KJV
By his own account he had outrun his contemporaries in zeal, advancing in his ancestral traditions beyond many of equal age — and that zeal had a violent edge. He did not merely disagree with the followers of Jesus; he persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. This was the man God had chosen before he was born.
That paradox sits at the very center of Paul's story, and it never ceased to astonish him. He would write decades later that God had separated him from his mother's womb and called him by grace — not by virtue, not by qualification, but by grace — to reveal the Son among the Gentiles.
15But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, 16To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
Galatians 1:15–16·KJV
The mission did not begin with Paul's willingness. It began with God's appointment. And so the account of Paul's life cannot be told as a story of a man who found his calling; it must be told as a story of a calling that found its man.
The finding happened on a road. Acts records it with the economy of a moment that requires no embellishment: Saul of Tarsus, breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, journeying toward Damascus with letters of arrest in hand, was suddenly surrounded by a light from heaven. He fell to the ground. A voice asked why he was persecuting the one who spoke.
4And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Acts 9:4·KJV
The man who would later prove immovable in the face of imprisonment and flogging could not stand upright before this. He was led by the hand into Damascus, blind, neither eating nor drinking for three days — the great engine of persecution reduced to stillness and dependence.
Life & Legacy
Death
TraditionScripture does not record Paul's death directly; the account in Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome (Acts 28:30–31). Tradition holds that he was beheaded in Rome under the emperor Nero, around AD 67.
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.22; Acts 28:30–31
Legacy
ScripturePaul authored at least thirteen epistles included in the New Testament (Romans through Philemon), addressed to churches and individuals across the Roman world. He conducted at least three major missionary journeys, planting churches in Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Achaia, as recorded throughout Acts 13–21.
Romans 1:1; Acts 13–21
Character
ScripturePaul described himself before his conversion as a zealous Pharisee who persecuted the church and was blameless according to the righteousness of the law (Philippians 3:5–6). After his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he endured imprisonments, beatings, shipwreck, and many dangers in the course of his apostolic ministry (2 Corinthians 11:23–27).
Philippians 3:5–6; 2 Corinthians 11:23–27
Significance
ScripturePaul identified himself as the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13) and reported that he had been set apart and called by God before his birth for this mission (Galatians 1:15–16). His letters constitute the largest single body of writing in the New Testament and were circulated among multiple early churches (Colossians 4:16).
Romans 11:13; Galatians 1:15–16; Colossians 4:16
DeathTradition
Scripture does not record Paul's death directly; the account in Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome (Acts 28:30–31). Tradition holds that he was beheaded in Rome under the emperor Nero, around AD 67.
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.22; Acts 28:30–31
LegacyScripture
Paul authored at least thirteen epistles included in the New Testament (Romans through Philemon), addressed to churches and individuals across the Roman world. He conducted at least three major missionary journeys, planting churches in Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Achaia, as recorded throughout Acts 13–21.
Romans 1:1; Acts 13–21
CharacterScripture
Paul described himself before his conversion as a zealous Pharisee who persecuted the church and was blameless according to the righteousness of the law (Philippians 3:5–6). After his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he endured imprisonments, beatings, shipwreck, and many dangers in the course of his apostolic ministry (2 Corinthians 11:23–27).
Philippians 3:5–6; 2 Corinthians 11:23–27
SignificanceScripture
Paul identified himself as the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13) and reported that he had been set apart and called by God before his birth for this mission (Galatians 1:15–16). His letters constitute the largest single body of writing in the New Testament and were circulated among multiple early churches (Colossians 4:16).
Romans 11:13; Galatians 1:15–16; Colossians 4:16
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