Paul, from persecuting the church to writing to churches across the Roman world

The New Testament does not give a long account of Paul’s childhood. It does tell us that he called himself a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia and that he held Roman citizenship. He wrote that he had been circumcised on the eighth day and belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. In Jerusalem, he said, he had been educated under Gamaliel in the law of his ancestors. When he first enters the story of Acts, he is called Saul.

Saul regarded the people who followed Jesus as dangerous. When Stephen was stoned, the witnesses laid their outer garments at Saul’s feet. Acts says that Saul approved of Stephen’s death. After that, he went from house to house, dragging off men and women and handing them over to prison. Looking back in one of his letters, he said that he had violently persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.

As the persecution that began in Jerusalem reached beyond the city, Saul set out for Damascus. He obtained letters from the high priest so that he could bring back to Jerusalem any men or women he found belonging to the Way. Near Damascus, a light from heaven flashed around him. Saul fell to the ground and heard a voice call his name. The voice told him that in persecuting these people, he was persecuting Jesus.

For three days Saul remained in Damascus unable to see. A disciple named Ananias lived there. Ananias knew what Saul had done to believers in Jerusalem and was afraid to go to him. But the Lord told him that Saul would carry his name before Gentiles, kings, and the people of Israel. When Ananias laid his hands on Saul, something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see again. Saul was baptized, ate, and recovered his strength.

Saul’s first action in Damascus was not to explain himself. He went into the synagogues and proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of God. The man who had come to persecute people bearing that name was now speaking for it, and listeners did not easily know what to make of him. Acts says that Saul grew stronger and showed that Jesus was the Christ. Looking back in Galatians, Paul says that he did not first seek advice from people, but went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus. Together, the accounts show that his calling was not followed by immediate acceptance in Jerusalem; he spent time in and around Damascus before that came.

The change did not make everyone trust him at once. Saul began speaking in the synagogues of Damascus, saying that Jesus was the Son of God, and listeners were astonished that this was the man who had tried to destroy those who called on that name in Jerusalem. When some people plotted to kill him and watched the city gates, disciples lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall at night. Back in Jerusalem, the disciples were afraid of him. Barnabas brought Saul to the apostles and explained what had happened on the road and how Saul had spoken boldly in Jesus’ name in Damascus.

For a time Saul went to Tarsus. Barnabas later went looking for him because the church in Antioch needed help. The two spent a year with that church, teaching many people. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. When a famine was predicted in Judea, the believers there decided to send relief according to their ability. Barnabas and Saul carried that gift to the elders in Jerusalem. Saul’s work had become more than the story of one changed life; it was beginning to connect churches with one another.

While the church in Antioch was worshiping and fasting, the Holy Spirit told them to set apart Barnabas and Saul for a work to which they had been called. The two traveled through Cyprus and other places, speaking about Jesus in synagogues and before local people. Around this part of Acts, Saul is also called Paul. Paul and Barnabas saw Gentiles receive the message, and that experience soon led to a major question in the church: did Gentile believers have to adopt all Jewish practices before they could belong?

The first place they went after leaving Antioch was Cyprus, the island where Barnabas had come from. They spoke God’s word in synagogues, and the proconsul Sergius Paulus wanted to hear it. In Pisidian Antioch, Paul spoke in a synagogue about Israel’s history and about Jesus’ death and resurrection. After the first Sabbath, many people came back to hear more, but opposition also grew. Paul and Barnabas said that God’s word had to be spoken first to Jews, but that since people in that city rejected it, they would turn to the Gentiles. This was not a declaration that any people had been discarded; it was the scene in which the message in that city moved out to a wider group of hearers.

In Lystra, Paul healed a man who had never been able to walk, and the crowd began to treat the two travelers as gods. They called Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes, and some people prepared to offer sacrifices. Barnabas and Paul tore their clothes and rushed into the crowd, saying that they too were only human. Soon afterward, people from other towns persuaded the crowd against Paul. He was stoned and dragged outside the city, and people thought he was dead. But when the disciples gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. Paul and Barnabas went on strengthening disciples, appointing elders in the churches, and then returned to Antioch after seeing both welcome and violence.

The apostles and elders gathered in Jerusalem and discussed the question at length. Peter spoke of God giving the Holy Spirit to Gentiles. Barnabas and Paul told what God had done among other peoples through them. The meeting ended with a letter to Gentile believers. In his letters, Paul continued to address the question of how Jews and Gentiles could be received together through faith, and he insisted that the gospel he preached was not something he had invented or received from people.

Paul and Barnabas later disagreed about traveling together again. Barnabas took Mark and went to Cyprus; Paul chose Silas and left with the church’s blessing. In Lystra he met Timothy. In Philippi he stayed with Lydia and was imprisoned. He also worked in Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus. In some places people received his message; in others opposition and public disorder followed. As Paul moved from city to city, he worked for groups of believers to remain after he left, and he continued to speak to many of those churches through letters.

In Philippi, Paul and Silas were beaten, placed in the inner prison, and fastened in stocks. At midnight they prayed and sang to God while the other prisoners listened. An earthquake opened the doors and loosened everyone’s chains. Thinking the prisoners had escaped, the jailer was about to take his own life, but Paul called out that everyone was still there. The jailer brought them out and asked what he must do to be saved. That night Paul and Silas spoke God’s word to him and to the people in his house. The next day Paul told the officials that they had publicly beaten and imprisoned Roman citizens without a trial. His citizenship was not simply a private privilege; in this scene it became part of the way he protected his companions and the new church.

Years later Paul brought help collected by several churches to Jerusalem. A disturbance began when people saw him at the temple, and Roman soldiers took him into custody. Paul told the crowd about the Damascus road, and he explained his work before the council, the governors Felix and Festus, and Herod Agrippa. As a Roman citizen, he appealed to the emperor. He was eventually sent toward Rome as a prisoner. On the voyage the ship was caught in a violent storm and wrecked, but everyone on board reached land alive.

At the end of Acts, Paul arrives in Rome and lives separately with a soldier guarding him. He welcomes those who come to him, explains the kingdom of God, and teaches about the Lord Jesus Christ. Several New Testament letters begin in Paul’s name. Acts does not tell where he lived afterward, or when or how he died. The final biblical picture is of Paul under guard, still receiving people and speaking to them about Jesus.