Paul (died ca. 65 C.E.) was born to Jewish parents in the Cilicia (now in Turkey) city of Tarsus. Paul also had Roman citizenship because at least one of his parents was a Roman citizen. He was reared a strict Pharisee and went to Jerusalem to study under one of the greatest rabbis of his day, Gamaliel. His strong orthodox Jewish beliefs helped him to become a leader in the persecution of the early church, and he was present at the stoning of Stephen.
Paul, who was called Saul before he became a Christian, experienced a dramatic conversion while traveling to Damascus. There he was to arrest some Christians and bring them to Jerusalem for trial According to Acts 91-31, on the road to Damascus Paul was blinded by a light and a vision of the living Christ. In this vision, Paul became convinced that Jesus was the Christ and converted to Christianity. He was baptized, then retired to Arabia for a three- year period of meditation and preparation. He then returned to Jerusalem, where he was received with suspicion.
Paul eventually came to see himself as the Apostle to the Gentiles. His unique background in both Judaism and Hellenistic culture equipped him well Acts reports that Paul undertook three missionary journeys around the eastern lands of the Mediterranean Sea He began churches throughout Asia Minor and preached in Athens. The Christian communities in Galatia, Macedonia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea, Corinth, Ephesus, Colossae, Philadelphia, Hierapolis, and Laodicea among others probably had their origins in the work of Paul.
Upon completion of his third journey, Paul went to Jerusalem to bring donations from the churches in Asia Minor to the mother church. In Jerusalem Paul was arrested by the Jewish temple leaders, but he used his right as a Roman citizen to have his case heard by the Roman emperor. Paul was shipwrecked during the trip to Rome, but he had many opportunities to minister The Book of Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome awaiting trial Tradition says he was freed and then preached the Gospel in Spain, though most scholars dispute this. Little is known about his death. Very early tradi-
tions claim he was martyred (killed for the faith) at Rome during persecutions of Christians by the emperor Nero 10
Paul not only founded many churches in his role as a missionary but also served as a "pastor advisor" to a number of first-century congregations. He often wrote to these communities to provide encouragement, to give guidance on questions of how believers should behave, and to offer opinions on theological disputes He also had opponents who seemed to have followed him throughout his life One group of these were the "Judaizers," who wanted to place the Christian faith under the laws of the Jewish covenant.
Paul wrote a number of letters, or Epistles, to these early churches, which became the documents that orthodox Christianity would use as its basis for correct Christian morals and theology A good portion of the New Testament is made up of Paul's letters. Because of the influence of his letters, it can be said that Paul created the basic framework for the type of Christianity that is practiced by most Christians.
Paul began to write some ten to fifteen years after Jesus' crucifixion. His was not the first attempt to express the Christian faith. In fact, the effort to understand and explain the meaning of the life, teachings, and ministry of Jesus began shortly after the Resurrection With Pentecost, a "fire" had been turned loose in the church. People felt the power of God and found their lives completely changed They experienced forgiveness and cleansing. They knew reconciliation (coming together) with God, with others, and within themselves.
The first attempt by Christians to explain who Jesus was and what was happening in the new community is found in what scholars call the Kerygma, which refers to the preaching or proclamation of the early church Examples of the Kerygma are found in several places in the New Testament, including Peter's sermon at Pentecost (Acts 2: 14—40). This sermon can be summarized as follows:
1 Jesus came in fulfillment of Old Testament promises
2 He lived among us doing many mighty works
3. According to God's plan, he was delivered to lawless men and crucified 4 He died, was raised from the dead, and sits at the right hand of God 5. God has made him both Lord and Christ
6 Because of this you should repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ,
and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
These ideas made sense to many Jews. As Christianity spread into the Greco-Roman world, however, they had little meaning Hellenic culture had no cultural or religious basis for understanding a Jewish Messiah Paul and
others thus used ideas from other religions and philosophies as well as events in the everyday lives of the Gentiles to try to explain who Jesus was and what he did for people.
Paul's powerful mind produced a great expansion of the simple teachings of the early church. To him Jesus was more than the Jewish Messiah. He was the Son of God who existed before the world was created Because of his death on the cross, he now sits at the right hand of God where all of creation worships him. Christ is pictured as the head of a new humanity—a new Israel—which is made of people who are saved by belief in Jesus God has established with these believers a new covenant that includes both Jews and Gentiles. It ensures that Christians are the true "sons of Abraham" who will inherit the good things that were once intended for Jews alone.
Christ is also presented as the head of the church The church serves as the "body" that does his work and completes his suffering in the world Completing the suffering of Christ means that the church is involved in bearing the burdens of those in need and taking on injustice aimed at the weak Completing the suffering of Christ also means that the church is involved in restoring humanity to the proper relationship with God and assisting in bringing God's salvation.
Salvation was needed because humankind's sin had removed them from their proper relationship with God. All of creation was wrecked as a result. Humans rebelled against God and God's laws. They could not relate as they should to one another. Their natural drives and instincts were perverted, and even when they wanted to do good, they could not.
Paul taught that salvation was by grace through faith Grace is God's unearned favor or unmerited love toward people It was God's grace that sent Christ to redeem sinful humans. God's grace produces faith in believers. Through faith people accept God's action in Christ and try to live as Christ lived Faith for Paul is not a matter of a person deciding to "be better" It is a response to God that is produced by the Holy Spirit, which allows the believer to "put on Christ" (to become more like Christ). Paul pictured the life of grace as one which brought about a radical change in humans. He described Christians as people "in Christ" who no longer lived for themselves. They no longer lived according to the flesh (their sinful state) but lived according to the Spirit (their newfound relationship to God).
Paul also had some significant thoughts on the relation of the (Jewish) Law to the true Law of God The Law was imposed from the outside and could not bring about the type of drastic change needed for a person to live as Christ. Humans by their good works could not earn salvation To Paul, Jewish Law was a teacher to point up human shortcomings so they would have to be driven to rely on the grace of God Whether one chose to follow the Jewish Law was not very important to Paul This Law might change peoples' behavior but not
their hearts In Christ, the true Law of God had been "written on the hearts" of believers That is, it had been made a part of their very characters. Doing good, obeying God, becoming like Christ were seen as the natural results of the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. Good works were not efforts to win salvation, they "flowed out" from the power active in the hearts of Christians.
The sign of the activity of the Spirit in the community was the way Christians loved one another and those around them This activity would be complete when Jesus returned to establish the new heaven and the new earth where humans would live in proper relationship to God, fellow humans, and nature Peace and harmony would be restored Early on, these and other teachings of Paul were accepted by parts of the church as correct understandings of Christ and his work. By the end of the first century, many Christians held that Paul's epistles were Scripture much like the Old Testament writings. Paul's writings continue today to be a powerful force in the church.