Paul was born in Tarsus, in Cilicia (modern southern Turkey), around the beginning of the first century. He was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin (Phil. 3:5), a Roman citizen by birth (Acts 22:28), and a Pharisee trained under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). He was also, by his own account, a violent persecutor of the early church (Gal. 1:13; 1 Cor. 15:9).
Conversion
The Damascus road encounter is narrated three times in Acts (9, 22, 26) and referred to by Paul himself in Galatians 1 and 1 Corinthians 15. Paul does not describe it in the language of psychological conversion; he describes it as a call — a revelation of the risen Christ who commissioned him as apostle to the Gentiles. The date is conventionally placed around AD 33–35.
Missionary Journeys
Acts describes three major missionary journeys and a final voyage to Rome:
- First journey (c. AD 46–49) — Cyprus and southern Galatia, with Barnabas. See Journeys.
- Second journey (c. AD 49–52) — through Asia Minor into Macedonia and Greece. See Journeys.
- Third journey (c. AD 52–57) — extended stay in Ephesus and return through Macedonia and Achaia. See Journeys.
- Arrest and voyage to Rome (c. AD 57–60) — tried before Felix and Festus in Caesarea, appeals to Caesar, shipwrecked at Malta, arrives in Rome.
Letters
Thirteen letters in the New Testament are attributed to Paul. Seven are undisputed by scholars (Romans, 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon). The others (Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1–2 Timothy, Titus) are debated, with critical scholars tending to see them as written by later followers of Paul. See the Timeline for dating.
Death
1 Clement 5 (c. AD 95) says that Paul "suffered martyrdom" and "went to the holy place." Ignatius, writing to the Romans around AD 110, mentions Paul by name as an example. The consistent tradition, from the second century onward, is that Paul was beheaded in Rome under Nero, probably around AD 64–67. Because he was a Roman citizen, he would have been executed by beheading rather than crucifixion — a tradition that appears as early as Tertullian (c. AD 200).
Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome, still preaching, without a resolution. The story of his trial and death is told only by later sources.
Sources
- Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, 422–540.
- 1 Clement 5; Tertullian, De Praescriptione 36; Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.25.
- F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free (Eerdmans, 1977).
- N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography (HarperOne, 2018).