The hymns for their
Feast speak of Sts Peter and Paul as the leaders (koryphaioi), and
chiefs of the Apostles. They are, without a doubt, the foremost in the
ranks of the Apostles.The koryphaioi were leaders of the chorus in ancient Greek tragedy. They
set the pattern for the singing, and also for the dance movements and
gestures of the chorus. Before Sophocles, there were twelve members of
the chorus, and Sts Peter and Paul were the leaders of the twelve
Apostles.
St Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin, and lived in Tarsus in Cilicia. He
once described himself as a Hebrew, an Israelite of the seed of Abraham
(2 Corinthians 11:22). He was also a Pharisee and a tent-maker (Acts 18:03) who
had studied the Law with Gamaliel at Jerusalem.
When we first meet him in the Book of Acts
(07:58-8:1) it is as Saul; and later, Acts 13:09 describes him as
“Saul, who is also called Paul.” As a Jew he bore the name of
Israel’s first king (1 Samuel 9:2, 17); but as a free citizen of the
Empire, he also bore a Roman name. Many Jews of this period in history
had two names, one Semitic and the other Greek or Roman. A child of the
tribe of Benjamin (Romans 11:1; Philippians 3:5; 2 Corinthians 11:22),
Paul proudly identified himself as an “Israelite” and a “Hebrew born of
Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee” (Philippians 3:5) “extremely zealous
for the traditions of my fathers” who excelled his peers “in Judaism”
(Galatians 1:14).
But he was also proud to be “a Jew from
Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city” (Acts 21:39).
Tarsus was a Hellenized city, famous for its university, gymnasium,
theatre, art school and gymnasium. It became the capital of the province
of Cilicia during Pompey’s reorganization of Roman Asia Minor in 66 BC.
Later on, Mark Antony – famous as Cleopatra’s lover – granted freedom
and Roman citizenship to the people of Tarsus. In an age when most of
the people living within the boundaries of the Pax Romana
were slaves, Paul was born a free citizen of the Empire.
St. Paul was “educated strictly according to
the law of our fathers” at the rabbinical school conducted in Jerusalem
by the great rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). Gamaliel was a Pharisee and a
member of the Sanhedrin, “a teacher of the law respected by all the
people” (Acts 5:34). Although Gamaliel is depicted in the New Testament
as lenient towards Christians (Acts 5:33-39), his disciple Saul was
active in the earliest persecutions of Christianity and attended the
stoning of Saint Stephen the Deacon and first Christian
martyr (Acts 07:58). Paul “persecuted this Way to the death, binding and
delivering to prison both men and women” (Acts 22:4).
Paul's Conversion
Intent on exterminating the new faith,
Paul sought to travel to Damascus to undertake the persecution of
Christians there. It was during his trip from Jerusalem to Damascus in
Syria that his life would take a crucial turn when he encountered the
risen Jesus in a searing vision of light that left him temporarily
blind. This experience was revolutionary, engendering a complete
transformation and redirection of his life. As a result of this
“revelation” (Galatians 1:12), Saul, the bloodthirsty persecutor of
Christianity converted to the faith he once hated, was baptized by
Ananias and received into the Church of Damascus, the very community he
had set out to suppress (Acts 9:10-31). From this moment on, he became a
“slave of Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:1) and in that slavery discovered “the
glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).
Luke recounts this Damascus experience three times in the Book of Acts:
once in the narrative, Acts 9:3-19; and twice, in speeches, before a
crowd in Jerusalem (22:6-16) and before Festus and King Agrippa
(26:12-18).
“Saul, still breathing threats and murder
against the disciples of the Lord,went to the high priest and asked
him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found
any that belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them
bound to Jerusalem.”
“While I was on my way and approaching
Damascus, about noon, I saw a great light from heaven, brighter than
the sun, that suddenly shone around me and my companions. When we
had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the
Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’
I answered, asking, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are
persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet!
I have appeared to you for this purpose: to
appoint you to serve and testify to the things you have seen. I will
rescue you from your people and the Gentiles – to whom I am sending
you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from
darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they
may receive forgiveness of their sins and a place among those who
are being made holy by faith in Me.”
This vision of the glory of God - what later
theologians and saints will call the uncreated light - is the call by
which Paul becomes the Apostle to the Gentiles, the greatest missionary
in the history of Christianity. It is through his missionary efforts
that Christianity, originally a sect of Judaism, becomes a world
religion.
Then, on the road to
Damascus, he was converted when Christ appeared to him. Blinded by the
vision, he was healed when Ananias laid his hands on him. After his
cure, he was baptized (Acts 09:18).
Paul's Preaching and Missionary
Journeys
After his encounter with the risen Lord on the road to Damascus and
baptism at the hands of Ananias, Paul tells us in his letter to the
Galatians that he “went away at once into Arabia,” spending time in the
desert wastes before returning to Damascus, where he remained for three
years (1:17-18). By the time of his return to Damascus, the essentials
of his teaching were crystal clear: God’s promise to Abraham has been
fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus. The risen Jesus is the climax of
history for He is both the Messiah, the Christ, and “the power and
wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). Teaching in the synagogues in
Damascus that Jesus “is the Son of God,” his preaching proved so
controversial that there were plots to kill him. He escaped Damascus by
being lowered over the city walls in a basket at night (Acts 9:19-25).
Three years after his conversion, Paul journeyed to Jerusalem to meet
with Peter and stayed with him for fifteen days. “But I did not see any
other apostle except James, the Lord’s brother” (Galatians 1:18-19). In
Acts 9:26-30 Luke describes the suspicion with which the leaders of the
Church in Jerusalem greeted Paul and that it was Barnabas who secured
Paul’s acceptance. From Jerusalem, Paul returned to Syria and ultimately
went to its capital, Antioch, the third city in the empire after Rome
itself and Alexandria in Egypt.
It had been in Antioch of Syria that followers of the Way had first been
called Christians (Acts 11:26) and it was this community that would
commission Paul and Barnabas as missionaries (Acts 13:1-3).
Luke organizes Paul’s missionary activity into three segments or
journeys. Paul’s missionary journeys cover roughly 46-58AD, the most
active years of his life, as he evangelized Greece and Asia Minor.
Paul’s first missionary journey is recounted by Luke in Acts 13:3-14:28
and lasted for three years, probably from 46 to 49AD.
However, Paul’s message created controversy wherever he went. Initially
preaching and teaching in the synagogues of the various cities they
visited, it was in Antioch of Pisidia that the conflict led Paul and
Barnabas to declare that they were now “turning to the Gentiles” (Acts
13:46). This decision, to preach not only to the Jews but to all
peoples, marks a decisive turning point in the history of Christianity.
From that moment on the message of Jesus, the crucified yet risen
Messiah, was clearly open to everyone and this was understood by Paul
and Barnabas to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures (Acts
13:47-48). God had “opened the door of faith for the Gentiles” (Acts
14:27).
But it was in Antioch of Pisidia that Paul and Barnabas soon found
themselves in conflict with other teachers in the Church, “believers who
belonged to the sect of the Pharisees” (Acts 15:5), men “from Judea” who
were teaching that “unless you are circumcised according to the custom
of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). When this leads to “no small
dissension and debate, Paul, Barnabas and some of the others were
appointed to go up to Jerusalem” to consult “the apostles and
presbyters” about the status of Gentile converts and whether or not it
was necessary for them to conform to the Mosaic covenant (Acts 15:1-5).
The Apostolic Council in Jerusalem
Shortly after the debate between Paul and Barnabas the council of Jerusalem (circa 49-50AD)
met. This
council was to be a paradigmatic event in the life of the Church, the
pattern for ecumenical councils yet to be called in the centuries to
come. At this council there was “much debate” as Paul and Barnabas
presented their Gospel before the assembled community, which included
“James, Peter and John” who were “acknowledged” as “leaders” and
“pillars” of the Church (Galatians 02:01-10). According to Acts 15:06-21,
it was Peter’s voice that carried the day in favor of Paul and Barnabas.
But it was James, speaking on behalf of all, who announced the decision
of the council: circumcision is not obligatory for salvation.
After the council of Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas go their separate
ways: Barnabas taking John Mark and sailing to Cyprus, Paul choosing
Silas and traveling throughout Syria and Cilicia “strengthening the
churches” (Acts 15:36-41).
In the decade to come, Paul was to embark on two more missionary
journeys, the second one from 50 to 53AD and the third and final
missionary journey lasting six years, from 53 to 59 AD. During these
journeys Paul would travel throughout the ancient Mediterranean world,
preaching and teaching, establishing new churches everywhere he went.
His Letters leave a trail of churches founded and/or nurtured by him:
Ephesus, Corinth, Thessaloniki, Philippi. He preached in Athens and was
to die in Rome, the intellectual and political centers of the Empire.
To view maps of St. Paul’s
missionary journeys throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, click
below:
Paul’s letters are the
oldest Christian documents that we have. Most modern scholars believe
that Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians is the first book of the
New Testament to be written, sometime in 52AD. His letters are also the
largest collection of writings by any one person in the New Testament.
In modern Bibles, they are placed in order of their length, with the
longest letter, that to the Romans, being first and then followed by
letters to individuals (Timothy, Titus and Philemon) last. Paul’s
letters are exactly that: letters, occasional writings meant to deal
with specific issues in the churches to which he addressed them. They
are not systematic theological treatises in the modern sense. And yet,
they have provided rich and deep theological insights that have never
been surpassed in the Church’s history.
Image of copy of St. Paul's letter to the Romans c. AD 180-200
Greek text on papyrus
Click to see larger image
To read more about each of the letters of St. Paul
click here.
To read excerpts from St. Paul’s letters about
living the Christian life, click here.
St Paul preached the Gospel in Greece, Asia Minor, and in Rome, and
wrote fourteen Epistles. Tradition says that he was martyred in Rome
about the year 68.
The celebration of his
memory in the life of the Church: October 29th and June 29th.
St. Paul’s significance in
the history of Christianity can hardly be underestimated: an
indefatigable missionary, the first interpreter of the Good News of
Jesus Christ to the Gentile world, he is also the author of more New
Testament books than any other writer.
IMPRISONMENT
AND FINAL YEARS
It is during his last visit to Jerusalem “to visit James” (Acts 21:18)
that Paul is arrested near the Temple after a small riot and taken by a
Roman tribune before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council. Paul defends
himself before the Sanhedrin by playing on the dissension between the
Pharisees and Sadducees and their conflict over the resurrection. After
a plot to assassinate Paul is discovered, Paul’s case is transferred to
Antonius Felix, the procurator of Judea, who keeps him in prison for two
years, expecting a bribe. When Felix’s successor, Festus, arrives on the
scene, Paul appeals his case to Caesar, requesting a trial in Rome by
virtue of his Roman citizenship. “You have appealed to the emperor; to
the emperor you will go,” Festus replied (Acts 25:12). Paul’s journey to
Rome was to be an eventful one that included shipwreck. The Book of Acts
closes with Paul under house arrest in Rome still carrying out his
ministry of teaching and preaching – faithful to his Master to the end.
During his thirty-year ministry as an apostle what had Paul suffered for
the sake of the Gospel? Already in 2 Corinthians, Paul describes some of
what he endured to preach the Good News of Jesus risen from the dead:
“Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three
times I was shipwrecked. For a night and a day I was adrift at sea. On
frequent journeys, I was in danger from rivers, from bandits, from my
own people, from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the
wilderness, in danger at sea, in danger from false brethren; in toil and
hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often
without food, cold and naked. And, besides other things, I am under
daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches” (11:24-29).
Eusebius, the 4th century bishop of Caesarea who is often called the
first Church historian, records that the apostle Paul was executed in
Rome during the persecution of the emperor and madman, Nero. Nero’s
persecution of Christians lasted for four years, from 64 to 68AD. It was
also during this persecution that the apostle Peter was executed. As a
Roman citizen entitled to a quick death, Paul was beheaded. St. Gregory
the Great, the 6th century pope, wrote that Paul’s execution took place
on the left bank of the Tiber River on the Via Ostiensis, the road to
the port of Ostia, and is buried near the site of the basilica of St.
Paul Outside the Walls.
The
Hymn of St. Paul
Facing danger at sea and fearful
persecution,
you became a chosen vessel of the Savior.
By your sermons you enlightened the nations
and to the Athenians you revealed the unknown God.
Teacher of the nations, St. Paul the Apostle, protector of us all,
keep us who honor you safe from every trial and danger
