The Origin of Paul

St. Paul is undoubtedly a very important figure in the history of the Western world, and just a quick glance at his accomplishments is enough to understand the influence his life and works had on Christians and indeed the world.

The apostle Paul, who began his life as Saul of Tarsus, is clearly one of the most intriguing figures of the first century of Christianity, and he comes second only to Jesus Christ. Comparing these two towering figures of Christianity, Paul is considered to be more recognizable and also better known, especially because of the letters he wrote, which we have as primary sources of the Christian faith. In fact, his works are some of the earliest documents we have on Christianity, as he penned thirteen out of the twenty-seven books of the Bible. He's also the hero of another book, the Acts of the Apostles.

Paul is also an astonishing figure because we tend to divide various categories in modern scholarship, such as Jews from Gentiles or Greek-speaking from Hebrew-speaking people. There is also Palestinian Judaism, from which derives apocalypticism. And then there's Rabbinic Judaism and Hellenistic Judaism, which has been derived from the Greek world. The apostle Paul seems to fall under all these categories, which therefore confounds modern divisions, thus making the man a puzzling figure in many respects.

The major influence that Paul has had on Christianity as a faith after he died is through his letters. But in his own time, Paul saw himself as a prophet, especially to the disbelievers, and his goal was to bring them together through the message of the crucified Christ. And this was one goal that he accomplished in a rather extraordinary way.

Paul viewed the cities where he lived as the key to the rapid expansion of the Christian faith, which was relatively new at the time. We can see this in the places where his journeys took him, all of which are either on a major Roman road or seaport. These cities all great trading centers of the world and the center of major migrations of people. This is how we know that Paul looked at the spread of the new faith not only from a Roman point of view but from an urban perspective as well.

Early works have described Paul as a man of a pleasing and affable manner with broad shoulders, closely knit eyebrows, a fair complexion, and a thick, grayish beard. He famously converted to Christianity on the road to Damascus, after which he traveled thousands of miles across the Mediterranean to spread the new message. Paul came up with a doctrine that would transform Christianity from a small Jewish sect into a worldwide faith that was open to all.

Whatever we know about the apostle Paul comes from two rather extraordinary sources. The first, the Acts of the Apostles, was composed after his death by someone who could also be linked to the Gospel of St. Luke. There is lots of evidence that Acts was primarily written to spread the Christian message, but behind the theology, there are some clues about the extraordinary life of a man who is credited with transforming Christianity as a faith. Acts is the go-to source to find out more about Paul's life because the author claims to have known Paul and even contends that he accompanied Paul on his many travels to spread the Christian message.

The second source comes in the shape of Paul's own letters, which represent his own version of various events that unfolded during his life. It's safe to say that they are a more reasonable and reliable source for those who really want to find out more about Paul.

Behind all the puzzles and paradoxes, we get to see fascinating glimpses of the man who has intrigued believers and nonbelievers alike. In this book, we are going to learn more about how a Hellenistic Jew named Saul transformed into the revered St. Paul.

Paul's Nationality

As with other faiths, while observing Christianity, we see that all of the threads of its early development — which the great races of older history formed — have been gathered together as a complex whole. This brings us to the quick conclusion that we have just the same amount of truth on the faith as we have on the trustworthiness of early history. In other words, the earlier works its way into the latter, and the latter grows out of the earlier. In this way, both aspects should be taken in together in order to receive the complete picture of history's subject and to guarantee the truth.

While we must understand that each exists for the other and they both derive their comprehensibility from each other, we must also accept the general outline of history as a whole or else fall victim to rejecting it as a whole on the plea that there is insufficient proof.

It is true that there is not a fact of early history — be it Christian or non-Christian — that isn't susceptible to being disputed with sufficient amount of logical and rational argument. For instance, if we revisited the battles of Marathon or Salamis, we would find that everywhere we will be reduced to a fine balance between the evidence and the frequent to balance those events to such an extent that one would be left without any confidence on the point at hand. Yet the confidence we have in the general facts regarding these two battles and their immediate results is not, as a rule, even slightly affected by the uncertainty that we have on the details.

Regardless there are always going to be those who argue that the trustworthiness of the whole should be equally proportionate to the trustworthiness of the parts. In fact, it should also be pointed out, in such circumstances where all the details are uncertain, it is hard to study the whole as a worthy subject matter. And even those who are unable to see or feel for themselves the fallacy of an argument will not be convinced by any amount of reasoning that will be adduced on the subject.

For those who do not find it favorable to adopt this extreme point of view, there is no other logical position except accepting the general details of ancient history. This is where Christianity, as a faith, is the crowning factor of both a rational plan and unity that brings purpose to the whole.

The life of St....