Paul
A Pharisee from Tarsus who persecuted the first believers and then became a missionary to the Gentiles. His letters are, on the usual dating, older than the Gospels. Early tradition says he was put to death at Rome under Nero.
Paul describes himself as an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the eighth day, a Pharisee, and a persecutor of the church (Philippians 3:5–6) (Galatians 1:13–14). Acts adds that he was born at Tarsus in Cilicia, was a Roman citizen by birth, studied in Jerusalem under Gamaliel and worked as a tentmaker; it calls him Saul until his first missionary journey (Acts 22:3, 25–28) (Acts 18:3) (Acts 13:9). Near Damascus he became a follower of Jesus, an event he describes as God revealing his Son to him (Galatians 1:15–16); see the Conversion of Paul.
From Antioch he travelled through Cyprus, Asia Minor, Macedonia and Greece, founding churches and writing to them; see Paul’s First Missionary Journey, Paul Carries the Gospel into Europe, Paul in Ephesus and the Collection for Jerusalem and the Letters of Paul. He called himself an apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13). Acts ends with him at Rome, where he had been sent as a prisoner, teaching for two years in his own rented house (Acts 28:30–31). The letter of the Roman church known as 1 Clement, about AD 96, says that he reached “the extreme limit of the west” and died a martyr (1 Clement 5), and Eusebius, writing in the early fourth century, reports that he was beheaded at Rome under Nero (Eusebius, Church History 2.25.5). The dates of his death given here are the traditional range; see the Martyrdoms of Peter and Paul.
In the timeline
- about AD 34, estimated dateThe Martyrdom of Stephen
Acts tells how Stephen, one of seven men chosen to serve the Jerusalem church, is accused before the council of speaking against the temple and the law and is stoned to death. The persecution that follows scatters the believers beyond Jerusalem.
- c. AD 31–36, estimated dateThe Conversion of Paul
Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee who is persecuting the followers of Jesus, becomes one of them near Damascus. Acts tells the story three times, and Paul’s own letters speak of it as a revelation of God’s Son and a call to preach to the Gentiles.
- about AD 43, estimated dateThe Church at Antioch, Where Believers Were First Called Christians
Acts tells how believers scattered from Jerusalem begin to preach to non-Jews at Antioch in Syria. Barnabas is sent to them and brings Saul from Tarsus. Acts says that the disciples were first called Christians there and that the church sent famine relief to Judea.
- about AD 46 to AD 48, estimated datePaul’s First Missionary Journey
Acts tells how Barnabas and Paul, sent out by the church at Antioch, preach in Cyprus and in the cities of southern Asia Minor, first in the synagogues and then to Gentiles, and found churches there before returning to Antioch.
- about AD 49, estimated dateThe Council of Jerusalem
Acts tells how Paul and Barnabas go up from Antioch to Jerusalem to settle whether Gentile believers must be circumcised, and how the apostles and elders decide that they need not be. Whether the meeting Paul describes in Galatians is the same one is disputed.
- about AD 49, estimated datePaul Opposes Peter at Antioch
Paul tells the Galatians how Cephas, who had been eating with Gentile believers at Antioch, withdrew when people came from James, and how he rebuked him in front of everyone. Whether this came before or after the council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 is disputed.
- about AD 49 to AD 52, estimated datePaul Carries the Gospel into Europe
With Silas and Timothy, Paul crosses from Asia Minor to Macedonia and founds churches at Philippi, Thessalonica and Corinth. Acts brings him before the proconsul Gallio at Corinth, whose year of office an inscription at Delphi puts at about AD 51–52.
- about AD 50 to AD 60, estimated dateThe Letters of Paul
In the course of his missions Paul writes letters to the churches he has founded and to others. On the usual dating they are older than the Gospels. They came to be collected and read alongside the Scriptures.
- about AD 53 to AD 57, estimated datePaul in Ephesus and the Collection for Jerusalem
Paul works for some three years at Ephesus, then travels through Macedonia and Greece gathering money from his Gentile churches for the poor of Jerusalem, and sets out to deliver it in spite of warnings.
- about AD 57 to AD 59, estimated datePaul’s Arrest and Imprisonment at Caesarea
A riot in the temple puts Paul into Roman custody. He is held for two years at Caesarea under the governor Felix, defends himself before Festus and King Agrippa, and appeals to the emperor.
- about AD 59 to AD 62, estimated datePaul’s Voyage to Rome
Sent to Italy as a prisoner, Paul is shipwrecked on Malta, winters there and reaches Rome, where he lives for two years under guard and teaches all who come to him. There the book of Acts ends.
- c. AD 64–68, traditional dateThe Martyrdoms of Peter and Paul
The New Testament does not tell how Peter and Paul died. A letter from Rome, usually dated about AD 96, says that both suffered and died for their witness; writers from about AD 170 onwards place their deaths at Rome, and later ones under Nero.