Story of paul in the bible summary
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By Clayton Kraby. Share 2 people shared the story. Listen to This Article. Hengel goes so far as to assert that it is almost probable that the young Saul even witnessed Jesus' death. In any case, only a couple of years after Jesus' crucifixion ca. As he traveled the miles from Jerusalem to Damascus armed with legal authority to hunt down Jewish Christians Acts , bright light and a heavenly voice stopped him dead in his tracks.
Paul's conversion was never the focal point of his preaching he preached Christ, not his personal experience 2 Cor but it does not fail to influence him in later years Acts ; We can only sketch the rough outlines of Paul's life from his conversion to his first missionary journey in the late a. He spent various lengths of time in Arabia, Damascus, and Jerusalem, eventually spending a lengthier stint far to the north in Syria and his native Cilicia Gal From there Barnabas enlisted his services for teaching duties in the church at Syrian Antioch Acts Ironically, this multiracial church had been founded by Christians driven out of Palestine by persecutions instigated by Saul of Tarsus Acts It is from this period that our sources permit us to speak in some detail about the biblical theology of the apostle Paul.
Missionary Journeys. Paul's writings all arise from the crucible of missionary activity and the theological effort required to educate and sustain those who found Christ through his preaching. Galatians was probably written following Paul and Barnabas's tour of the Roman province of Asia around a. This is the so-called first missionary journey Acts A second foray, this time with Silas and Timothy, lasted almost three years ca.
The Thessalonian letters were written during this period. Paul's third missionary journey Acts lasted from about a. During a sweep through Macedonia he wrote 2 Corinthians. At the end of this time, awaiting departure for Jerusalem, he wrote Romans from Corinth ca. Paul's arrival in Jerusalem was followed quickly by arrest and a two-year imprisonment in Caesarea Maritima.
Thereafter he was shipped to Rome on appeal to the imperial court of Nero. There see Acts 28 he apparently wrote his so-called prison letters: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. From this point reconstructions of Paul's movements are tentative. Assuming release from imprisonment Paul may have managed a fourth journey, perhaps as far west as Spain and then back into the Aegean area.
Timeline of apostle pauls life: The apostle Paul, whose life was cut short by the Romans in 68 A.D., is easily the most influential Christian in the New Testament short of Jesus himself. Important Apostle Paul Dates. c. 2 A.D. - Apostle Paul is born in the city of Tarsus which is within the Roman Province of Cilicia.
One or more of the Pastoral Epistles may date from this period. Second Timothy concludes with Paul once more in chains. Reports of uncertain reliability place Paul's death at about a. The exact shape of Paul's theology depends to a considerable degree on which writings are used to reconstruct his thought. Since the Enlightenment most critics have agreed that Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon are definitely from Paul's hand.
Some deny Paul's authorship of Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians, but others demur, and there is ample scholarly justification for drawing on them in outlining Paul's theology. Yet scholars like D. Guthrie and E. Ellis urge that Paul ine authorship is entirely feasible the documents do state that Paul wrote them.
Even M. Prior's recent study critical of Paul ine authorship argues that the basis on which the Pastorals are excluded from the Paul ine corpus is not secure. Fowl finds a significant line of continuity among Philippians, Colossians, and 1 Timothy. It is not irresponsible to draw from the entire thirteen-letter New Testament collection in summarizing Paul's theology.
An equally pressing question is whether data from Acts can be merged with material in Paul's letters. This complex issue hinges on Acts' historicity. Those who see Acts as probably well-meaning, perhaps literarily skillful, but ultimately fanciful storytelling will naturally reject it as a source for reliable information about Paul and his message.
A sizeable and growing body of research, however, spearheaded by the late W. Ramsey, F. Bruce, and C. Hemer and continued by I. Marshall, M. Hengel, B. Winter, and others is more optimistic that Luke was as careful about his reports as he claimed to be see Luke Paul's own writings remain the primary source for his theology, but mounting evidence suggests that Acts is a reliable guide for the historical framework of Paul's life and travels.
It is also a dependable third-person and sometimes first-person account of the kinds of things Paul was wont to urge on his listeners in the various situations he faced.
The story of apostle pauls life timeline
Paul and Jesus. Since the Enlightenment the claim recurs that Jesus taught a simple ethical spirituality, or called for political or social revolution; then Paul came along and transmuted the gentle or revolutionary Jesus into an idealized divine man. Classic creedal Christianity, in this view, was never Jesus' intention but purely the brainchild of Paul.
Clearly there are differences between Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God and Paul's proclamation of the risen Jesus. But the differences are incidental to the overarching truth that God was manifesting himself definitively, in the threat of judgment and the offer of free pardon, in the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus announced, explained in advance, and finally carried out the atoning ministry God laid on him; Paul acknowledged Jesus' saving death and resurrection, became his follower, and spread the word of his glory across the Roman world.
Paul and Jesus are not identical in either their words or their work; but they are wonderfully complementary. Paul's theology is Christ's own authorized extension of the gospel of salvation for Jew and Gentile alike Acts Paul's Theology. The New Testament uses the word "God" over 1, times. Over of these occurrences are in Paul's writings.
The story of apostle pauls life before conversion
At the center of Paul's theology is God. Several doxological statements capture Paul's majestic vision. God's wisdom and knowledge transcend human ken; he is infinitely wise and all-knowing; all things are "from him and through him and to him" Rom God comforts the afflicted and raises the dead 2 Corinthians 2 Corinthians He is faithful 2 Cor ; his "solid foundation stands firm" 2 Tim He grants believers his own Spirit as a downpayment of greater glory in the coming age 2 Cor The "living God who made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them" Acts is, quite simply, "the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God" 1 Tim Or again, he is "the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see" 1 Tim No wonder Paul, like his master Jesus before him, lays such great stresses on hearing, obeying, and proclaiming the Lord God.
Against polytheism Paul insisted that God is one. Against stoicism Paul preached a God that was personal and accessible rather than impersonal and inscrutable. Against most pagan religions Paul presented a God concerned with social morality and personal ethics; God is not a cipher for a spirit experienced through rites of worship, ascetic denial, or mystical sensuality.
Both Paul's example and his teaching affirm that God is to be feared, love, and served. Evil and the Human Dilemma. Paul was not a pure dualist, positing one all-embracing eternal reality that was part good and part evil. God, all of whose ways are perfect, is solely sovereign over all. All reality will one day reflect his perfect justice and glory, even if the human eye cannot yet see or the human mind imagine this.
Paul was rather a modified, or hierarchical, dualist. There is God, perfectly just Rom And under his ultimate sway there is evil, somehow orchestrated by Satan 10 times in Paul or the devil 5 times. He was struck blind, but after three days his sight was renewed by Ananias of Damascus and Paul began to preach that Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah and the Son of God.
Approximately half of the book of Acts deals with Paul's life and works. Life of Paul in the Bible Paul's birthplace was not the land Christ walked but the Hellenistic city of Tarsus, the chief city of the Roman province of Cilicia. Tarsus, modern-day Tersous in southeastern Turkey, has never been systematically excavated to first-century levels, so extensive archaeological data are lacking.
Literary sources confirm that Paul's native city was a hotbed of Roman imperial activity and Hellenistic culture. Yet his writings show no conscious imitation, and scarcely any significant influence, of the pagan leading lights of the era. Instead, as Paul himself suggests, he was a Jew in terms of his circumcision, Benjaminite lineage, Hebrew ancestry, and Pharisaic training.
Paul, in the New Testament known by his Hebrew name Saul until Acts , was apparently educated from boyhood in Jerusalem, not Tarsus.
The story of apostle pauls life
It is not clear whether his family moved to Jerusalem where both Greek and Jewish schooling was offered while he was young, or whether Paul was simply sent there for his education. He studied under the ranking rabbi of the era, Gamaliel. His exegesis of the Old Testament bears testimony to his rabbinic training.
Paul was at least trilingual. His letters attest to an excellent command of Greek, while life and studies in Palestine presuppose knowledge of Hebrew and Aramaic. Facility in Latin cannot be ruled out. His writings show an intimate knowledge of the Greek Old Testament, though there is no reason to suppose that he was ignorant of or unskilled in Hebrew.
Paul would preach the gospel to everyone, while also performing miracles such as healing a crippled man.
Apostle paul
He first traveled with a fellow believer named Barnabas, who also suffered the same persecution at times as Paul. When the possibility of bringing another believer, John Mark, caused the men to bicker, Paul departed from Barnabas and went on his second missionary journey with another believer named Silas and a new believer name Timotheus, or Timothy.
They traveled to Lystra, Syria, Apollonia, Athens, and Thessalonica, among several other towns and villages. However, Paul still had his fair share of imprisonments, ridicule, beatings, and a near-fatal stoning. Many will recall the letters he wrote to some of these church congregations as featured books of the Bible Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Colosse.
These letters were meant to advise the people on whatever struggles they were going through and to hold fast to God in these precarious times. Timothy remained his trusted friend and apprentice through most of his last two journeys. In two letters that became books of the Bible — 1 and 2 Timothy — Paul wrote to encourage Timothy as he dealt with persecution.
While in his third missionary journey, Paul traveled to Jerusalem, despite his friends and fellow believers telling him not to go. He told them he was not only prepared to be captured by his enemies, but to die for his work for Jesus Christ Acts While preaching to the Gentiles, he was captured in the temple by Jews who were ready to kill him.
Though he was rescued by a band of soldiers, he remained a prisoner upon his return to Rome.