Saint Paul

Paul was originally called Saul of Tarsus. Never having seen or met Jesus himself, he was suddenly converted to the latter's claims on his way to persecute his followers at Damascus. He reportedly saw a blinding white light and fell to the ground convulsing and writhing uncontrollably, even being rendered temporarily blind for several days afterwards by the sheer power of what he took to be God's vision. (Acts 9)

Saul claimed to have been "a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless." (Philippeans 3:5b-6) As such, he originally hated the Christians and took a lead in persecuting them: specifically, he was "in hearty agreement" with the stoning of Stephen. After his conversion, however, he adopted the name 'Paul' ('little one'), apparently in order to fulfil Isaiah's prophecy at 11:6, 'And a little young man [naar] shall lead them'. He then became one of the leading evangelists, specialising in missionary Journeys to the gentiles. These were dedicated to spreading his own particular version of Jesus' message, freeing gentiles from the necessity of observing the Jewish Law, reportedly much to the initial scandal of the official Church at Jerusalem. Paul wrote 13 books of the Bible: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon.

Because the liberating effects of his message caused much unintended immorality and uncertainty among his gentile converts, many of whom promptly gave up their jobs and other commitments in expectation of the imminent End of the World, Saint Paul wrote many letters to his various 'churches' on a wide variety of subjects, including the essential kerygma or preaching thrust of what was to become Christianity, and not least the subservience of women to Man. He was also a proponent of the idea of agape, or universal, unconditional compassion, as referred to at 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.

Since it was Paul's followers, and not those of Jesus, who were originally dubbed Christiani, Paul (since dubbed by the Church Saint Paul) may be regarded as the founder of modern Christianity.

Sources

• Cruden, A., Complete Concordance to the Old and New Testaments (Lutterworth, 1930)
• Cross, C., Who Was Jesus? (Hodder & Stoughton, 1970)
• The Holy Bible (King James Version)
• James, M. R., The Apocryphal New Testament (Clarendon, Oxford, 1953)
• The New English Bible (Oxford & Cambridge University Presses, 1970)
• The New Jerusalem Bible (Darton, Longman & Todd, 1990)
• Lemesurier, P., The Armageddon Script (Element Books, 1981)
• Peake, A.S., Commentary on the Bible (Nelson, 1962)
• Schonfield, H. J., The Passover Plot (Hutchinson, 1965)
• Schonfield, H. J., The Pentecost Revolution (Macdonald, 1974)
• Schonfield, H.J., Those Incredible Christians (Bernard Geis, New York, 1968)
• Vermes, G., Jesus the Jew (Collins, 1973)
• Young, R., Analytical Concordance to the Holy Bible (Lutterworth, 1939)