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107-794: According to the book of Acts , contained in the Christian New Testament , when the Apostle Paul visited Athens, he saw an altar with an inscription dedicated to that god (possibly connected to the Cylonian affair ), and, when invited to speak to the Athenian elite at the Areopagus , gave the following speech : Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus , and said, "You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things. For as I passed along, and observed

214-549: A Gentile, Greek audience, notably at Antioch, which had a large Jewish community and significant numbers of Gentile "God-fearers." From Antioch the mission to the Gentiles started, which would fundamentally change the character of the early Christian movement, eventually turning it into a new, Gentile religion. When a famine occurred in Judea , around 45–46, Paul and Barnabas journeyed to Jerusalem to deliver financial support from

321-518: A date in the early 2nd century is possible. There are two major textual variants of Acts, the Western text-type and the Alexandrian . The oldest complete Alexandrian manuscripts date from the 4th century and the oldest Western ones from the 6th, with fragments and citations going back to the 3rd. Western texts of Acts are 6.2–8.4% longer than Alexandrian texts, the additions tending to enhance

428-474: A harmonious church is quite at odds with that given by Paul's letters, and it omits important events such as the deaths of both Peter and Paul. The mid-19th-century scholar Ferdinand Baur suggested that the author had re-written history to present a united Peter and Paul and advance a single orthodoxy against the Marcionites (Marcion was a 2nd-century heretic who wished to cut Christianity off entirely from

535-640: A language and style that was relatable to them, as he did in 1 Corinthians 9 :19–23 . The main source for information about Paul's life is the material found in his epistles and in the Acts of the Apostles. However, the epistles contain little information about Paul's pre-conversion past. The Acts of the Apostles recounts more information but leaves several parts of Paul's life out of its narrative, such as his probable but undocumented execution in Rome. The Acts of

642-567: A meal with Gentile Christians in Antioch because they did not strictly adhere to Jewish customs. Writing later of the incident, Paul recounts, "I opposed [Peter] to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong", and says he told Peter, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew . How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs ?" Paul also mentions that even Barnabas, his traveling companion and fellow apostle until that time, sided with Peter. The outcome of

749-586: A member of The Twelve. On Pentecost , the Holy Spirit descends and confers God's power on them, and Peter and John preach to many in Jerusalem and perform healings, casting out of evil spirits , and raising of the dead . The first believers share all property in common , eat in each other's homes, and worship together. At first many Jews follow Christ and are baptized, but the followers of Jesus begin to be increasingly persecuted by other Jews. Stephen

856-609: A minority view considers it may have been penned while he was imprisoned in Rome. Paul went through Macedonia into Achaea and stayed in Greece, probably Corinth, for three months during 56–57 AD. Commentators generally agree that Paul dictated his Epistle to the Romans during this period. He then made ready to continue on to Syria , but he changed his plans and traveled back through Macedonia, putatively because certain Jews had made

963-558: A plot against him. In Romans 15:19, Paul wrote that he visited Illyricum , but he may have meant what would now be called Illyria Graeca , which was at that time a division of the Roman province of Macedonia. On their way back to Jerusalem, Paul and his companions visited other cities such as Philippi , Troas , Miletus , Rhodes , and Tyre . Paul finished his trip with a stop in Caesarea , where he and his companions stayed with Philip

1070-632: A revisionist (and minority) dating of 47/51 AD. The meeting is described in Acts 15:2 and usually seen as the same event mentioned by Paul in Galatians 2:1–10 The key question raised was whether Gentile converts needed to be circumcised. At this meeting, Paul states in his letter to the Galatians, Peter , James , and John accepted Paul's mission to the Gentiles. The Jerusalem meetings are mentioned in Acts, and also in Paul's letters. For example,

1177-477: A servant girl, whose masters were then unhappy about the loss of income her soothsaying provided. They seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities and Paul and Silas were put in jail. After a miraculous earthquake, the gates of the prison fell apart and Paul and Silas could have escaped but remained; this event led to the conversion of the jailor. They continued traveling, going by Berea and then to Athens, where Paul preached to

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1284-555: A two-volume work which scholars call Luke–Acts . Together they account for 27.5% of the New Testament , the largest contribution attributed to a single author, providing the framework for both the Church's liturgical calendar and the historical outline into which later generations have fitted their idea of the story of Jesus and the early church . The author is not named in either volume. According to Church tradition dating from

1391-464: A validation of his teaching. Paul's narrative in Galatians states that 14 years after his conversion he went again to Jerusalem. It is not known what happened during this time, but both Acts and Galatians provide some details. At the end of this time, Barnabas went to find Paul and brought him to Antioch . The Christian community at Antioch had been established by Hellenised diaspora Jews living in Jerusalem, who played an important role in reaching

1498-636: A vote of the senate." The altar is currently exhibited in the Palatine Museum. The idea of an unknown god, however, seems to predate the Greeks. For in Ancient Egypt, Amun was an unknowable god, not only in the sense of his name being unknown, but also his identity or essence. For Plotinus, the first principle of reality is " the One ", an utterly simple, ineffable, unknowable subsistence which

1605-569: Is accepted, a trip that has no mention in the letters). There are also major differences between Acts and Paul on Christology (the understanding of Christ's nature), eschatology (the understanding of the "last things"), and apostleship . Paul the Apostle Paul also named Saul of Tarsus , commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul , was a Christian apostle ( c.  5  – c.  64/65 AD) who spread

1712-514: Is accused of blasphemy and stoned . Stephen's death marks a major turning point: the Jews have rejected the message, and henceforth it will be taken to the Gentiles. The death of Stephen initiates persecution, and many followers of Jesus leave Jerusalem. The message is taken to the Samaritans, a people rejected by Jews, and to the Gentiles . Saul of Tarsus , one of the Jews who persecuted

1819-620: Is an attempt to answer a theological problem, namely how the Messiah of the Jews came to have an overwhelmingly non-Jewish church; the answer it provides is that the message of Christ was sent to the Gentiles because the Jews rejected it . Luke–Acts can also be seen as a defense of the Jesus movement addressed to the Jews: the bulk of the speeches and sermons in Acts are addressed to Jewish audiences, with

1926-536: Is around 62 AD, the time of Paul's imprisonment in Rome, but most scholars date the work to 80–90 AD on the grounds that it uses Mark as a source, looks back on the destruction of Jerusalem, and does not show any awareness of the letters of Paul (which began circulating late in the first century); if it does show awareness of the Pauline epistles, and also of the work of the Jewish historian Josephus, as some believe, then

2033-654: Is both the creative source of the Universe and the teleological end of all existing things. Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles ( Koinē Greek : Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων , Práxeis Apostólōn ; Latin : Actūs Apostolōrum ) is the fifth book of the New Testament ; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire . Acts and

2140-441: Is considerably different from Paul's on key points and does not represent Paul's own views accurately." He was educated, a man of means, probably urban, and someone who respected manual work, although not a worker himself; this is significant, because more high-brow writers of the time looked down on the artisans and small business people who made up the early church of Paul and were presumably Luke's audience. The interpretation of

2247-465: Is for all mankind. The Gentile church is established in Antioch (north-western Syria, the third-largest city of the empire), and here Christ's followers are first called Christians. The mission to the Gentiles is promoted from Antioch and confirmed at a meeting in Jerusalem between Paul and the leadership of the Jerusalem church. Paul spends the next few years traveling through western Asia Minor and

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2354-473: Is intended as a work of "edification", meaning "the empirical demonstration that virtue is superior to vice." The work also engages with the question of a Christian's proper relationship with the Roman Empire, the civil power of the day: could a Christian obey God and also Caesar? The answer is ambiguous. The Romans never move against Jesus or his followers unless provoked by the Jews, in the trial scenes

2461-478: Is lowered down the walls in a basket. But details of these same incidents are frequently contradictory: for example, according to Paul it was a pagan king who was trying to arrest him in Damascus, but according to Luke it was the Jews (2 Corinthians 11:33 and Acts 9:24). Acts speaks of "Christians" and "disciples", but Paul never uses either term, and it is striking that Acts never mentions Paul being in conflict with

2568-468: Is reflected in Peter's speech to the Roman centurion, Cornelius (Acts 10:36). Peter states that "this one" [οὗτος], i.e. Jesus, "is lord [κύριος] of all." The title, κύριος, was often ascribed to the Roman emperor in antiquity, rendering its use by Luke as an appellation for Jesus an unsubtle challenge to the emperor's authority. As the second part of the two-part work Luke–Acts, Acts has significant links to

2675-617: Is said to have performed numerous miracles, healing people and casting out demons, and he apparently organized missionary activity in other regions. Paul left Ephesus after an attack from a local silversmith resulted in a pro- Artemis riot involving most of the city. During his stay in Ephesus, Paul wrote four letters to the church in Corinth. The letter to the church in Philippi is generally thought to have been written from Ephesus, though

2782-562: Is the geographic movement from Jerusalem, centre of God's Covenantal people, the Jews, to Rome, centre of the Gentile world. This structure reaches back to the author's preceding work, the Gospel of Luke , and is signaled by parallel scenes such as Paul's utterance in Acts 19:21, which echoes Jesus's words in Luke 9:51: Paul has Rome as his destination, as Jesus had Jerusalem. The second key element

2889-472: Is the roles of Peter and Paul, the first representing the Jewish Christian church, the second the mission to the Gentiles. The Gospel of Luke began with a prologue addressed to Theophilus; Acts likewise opens with an address to Theophilus and refers to "my earlier book", almost certainly the gospel. The apostles and other followers of Jesus meet and elect Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot as

2996-566: Is used in Acts 10, and Mark's account of the accusation that Jesus has attacked the Temple (Mark 14:58) is used in a story about Stephen (Acts 6:14). There are also points of contacts (meaning suggestive parallels but something less than clear evidence) with 1 Peter , the Letter to the Hebrews , and 1 Clement. Other sources can only be inferred from internal evidence—the traditional explanation of

3103-509: The Gospel not from man, but directly by "the revelation of Jesus Christ". He claimed almost total independence from the Jerusalem community (possibly in the Cenacle ), but agreed with it on the nature and content of the gospel. He appeared eager to bring material support to Jerusalem from the various growing Gentile churches that he started. In his writings, Paul used the persecutions he endured to avow proximity and union with Jesus and as

3210-580: The Gospel of Luke make up a two-part work, Luke–Acts , by the same anonymous author. Traditionally, the author is believed to be Luke the Evangelist , a doctor who travelled with Paul the Apostle . It is usually dated to around 80–90 AD, although some scholars suggest 110–120 AD. The first part, the Gospel of Luke, tells how God fulfilled his plan for the world's salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth . Acts continues

3317-577: The Gospel of Luke . Major turning points in the structure of Acts find parallels in Luke: the presentation of the child Jesus in the Temple parallels the opening of Acts in the Temple, Jesus's forty days of testing in the wilderness prior to his mission parallel the forty days prior to his Ascension in Acts, the mission of Jesus in Samaria and the Decapolis (the lands of the Samaritans and Gentiles) parallels

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3424-558: The Kingdom of God and teaching freely about "the Lord Jesus Christ". Acts ends abruptly without recording the outcome of Paul's legal troubles. Prior to the 1950s, Luke–Acts was seen as a historical work, written to defend Christianity before the Romans or Paul against his detractors; since then the tendency has been to see the work as primarily theological. Luke's theology is expressed primarily through his overarching plot,

3531-468: The Lutheran tradition, have classically read Paul as advocating for a law-free Gospel against Judaism. Polemicists and scholars likewise, especially during the early 20th century, have alleged that Paul corrupted or hijacked Christianity , often by introducing pagan or Hellenistic themes to the early church. There has since been increasing acceptance of Paul as a fundamentally Jewish figure in line with

3638-526: The New Testament . Approximately half of its content documents his travels, preaching and miracles . Paul was not one of the Twelve Apostles , and did not know Jesus during his lifetime. According to the Acts, Paul lived as a Pharisee and participated in the persecution of early disciples of Jesus, possibly Hellenised diaspora Jews converted to Christianity, in the area of Jerusalem , before his conversion . Some time after having approved of

3745-572: The teachings of Jesus in the first-century world . For his contributions towards the New Testament , he is generally regarded as one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age , and he also founded several Christian communities in Asia Minor and Europe from the mid-40s to the mid-50s AD. The main source of information on Paul's life and works is the Acts of the Apostles in

3852-417: The "we" passages as indicative that the writer was a historical eyewitness (whether Luke the evangelist or not), remains the most influential in current biblical studies. Objections to this viewpoint include the above claim that Luke-Acts contains differences in theology and historical narrative which are irreconcilable with the authentic letters of Paul the Apostle . The earliest possible date for Luke-Acts

3959-693: The 2nd century, the author was Luke , named as a companion of the apostle Paul in three of the letters attributed to Paul himself; this view is still sometimes advanced, but "a critical consensus emphasizes the countless contradictions between the account in Acts and the authentic Pauline letters." (An example can be seen by comparing Acts's accounts of Paul's conversion (Acts 9:1–31, 22:6–21, and 26:9–23) with Paul's own statement that he remained unknown to Christians in Judea after that event (Galatians 1:17–24).) The author "is an admirer of Paul, but does not share Paul's own view of himself as an apostle; his own theology

4066-487: The 5th to the 16th centuries that Paul was the author of Hebrews, but that view is now almost universally rejected by scholars. The other six are believed by some scholars to have come from followers writing in his name, using material from Paul's surviving letters and letters written by him that no longer survive. Other scholars argue that the idea of a pseudonymous author for the disputed epistles raises many problems. Today, Paul's epistles continue to be vital roots of

4173-493: The Acts of the Apostles, when he had the vision which led to his conversion on the road to Damascus. Later, in a vision to Ananias of Damascus , "the Lord" referred to him as "Saul, of Tarsus". When Ananias came to restore his sight, he called him "Brother Saul". In Acts 13:9 , Saul is called "Paul" for the first time on the island of Cyprus , much later than the time of his conversion. The author of Luke–Acts indicates that

4280-597: The Acts. Fourteen of the 27 books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul. Seven of the Pauline epistles are undisputed by scholars as being authentic , with varying degrees of argument about the remainder. Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not asserted in the Epistle itself and was already doubted in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. It was almost unquestioningly accepted from

4387-536: The Aegean, preaching, converting, and founding new churches. On a visit to Jerusalem he is set on by a Jewish mob. Saved by the Roman commander, he is accused by the Jews of being a revolutionary , the "ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes", and imprisoned. Later, Paul asserts his right as a Roman citizen, to be tried in Rome and is sent by sea to Rome, where he spends another two years under house arrest, proclaiming

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4494-603: The Antioch community. According to Acts, Antioch had become an alternative center for Christians following the dispersion of the believers after the death of Stephen . It was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians". The author of Acts arranges Paul's travels into three separate journeys. The first journey, for which Paul and Barnabas were commissioned by the Antioch community, and led initially by Barnabas, took Barnabas and Paul from Antioch to Cyprus then into southern Asia Minor, and finally returning to Antioch. In Cyprus, Paul rebukes and blinds Elymas

4601-407: The Apostles also appear to contradict Paul's epistles on multiple matters, in particular concerning the frequency of Paul's visits to the church in Jerusalem . Sources outside the New Testament that mention Paul include: The two main sources of information that give access to the earliest segments of Paul's career are the Acts of the Apostles and the autobiographical elements of Paul's letters to

4708-467: The Apostles said that John Mark had left them in a previous trip and gone home. Unable to resolve the dispute, Paul and Barnabas decided to separate; Barnabas took John Mark with him, while Silas joined Paul. Paul and Silas initially visited Tarsus (Paul's birthplace), Derbe and Lystra . In Lystra, they met Timothy , a disciple who was spoken well of, and decided to take him with them. Paul and his companions, Silas and Timothy, had plans to journey to

4815-532: The Apostles" ( Praxeis Apostolon ) would seem to identify it with the genre telling of the deeds and achievements of great men ( praxeis ), but it was not the title given by the author. The anonymous author aligned Luke–Acts to the "narratives" (διήγησις, diēgēsis ) which many others had written, and described his own work as an "orderly account" (ἀκριβῶς καθεξῆς). It lacks exact analogies in Hellenistic or Jewish literature. The author may have taken as his model

4922-540: The Baptist , each time as a sign of God's approval. The Holy Spirit represents God's power (at his ascension, Jesus tells his followers, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you"): through it the disciples are given speech to convert thousands in Jerusalem, forming the first church (the term is used for the first time in Acts 5). One issue debated by scholars is Luke's political vision regarding

5029-481: The Christian missionaries are always cleared of charges of violating Roman laws, and Acts ends with Paul in Rome proclaiming the Christian message under Roman protection; at the same time, Luke makes clear that the Romans, like all earthly rulers, receive their authority from Satan, while Christ is ruler of the kingdom of God . Acts is divided into 28 chapters . The work has two key structural principles. The first

5136-434: The Church there. He then traveled north to Antioch, where he stayed for some time ( Ancient Greek : ποιήσας χρόνον τινὰ . Some New Testament texts suggest that he also visited Jerusalem during this period for one of the Jewish feasts, possibly Pentecost . Textual critic Henry Alford and others consider the reference to a Jerusalem visit to be genuine and it accords with Acts 21:29, according to which Paul and Trophimus

5243-518: The Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man. The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead." Because Paul's God could not be named , according to

5350-492: The Earth." They then proceed to do so, in the order outlined: first Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, then the entire (Roman) world. For Luke, the Holy Spirit is the driving force behind the spread of the Christian message, and he places more emphasis on it than do any of the other evangelists. The Spirit is "poured out" at Pentecost on the first Samaritan and Gentile believers and on disciples who had been baptised only by John

5457-538: The Ephesian had previously been seen in Jerusalem. According to Acts, Paul began his third missionary journey by traveling all around the region of Galatia and Phrygia to strengthen, teach and rebuke the believers. Paul then traveled to Ephesus , an important center of early Christianity , and stayed there for almost three years, probably working there as a tentmaker, as he had done when he stayed in Corinth . He

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5564-772: The Evangelist before finally arriving in Jerusalem. Among the writings of the early Christians, Pope Clement I said that Paul was "Herald (of the Gospel of Christ) in the West", and that "he had gone to the extremity of the west". Where Lightfoot 's translation has "had preached" below (in the "Church tradition" section), the Hoole translation has "having become a herald". John Chrysostom indicated that Paul preached in Spain: "For after he had been in Rome, he returned to Spain, but whether he came thence again into these parts, we know not". Cyril of Jerusalem said that Paul, "fully preached

5671-515: The Gentiles because the Jews rejected it. This theme is introduced in Chapter 4 of the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus, rejected in Nazareth, recalls the rejection of prophets. at the end of the gospel he commands his disciples to preach his message to all nations, "beginning from Jerusalem." He repeats the command in Acts, telling them to preach "in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of

5778-499: The Gospel and to explain his Christology. Paul says that before his conversion , he persecuted early Christians "beyond measure", more specifically Hellenised diaspora Jewish members who had returned to the area of Jerusalem . According to James Dunn , the Jerusalem community consisted of "Hebrews", Jews speaking both Aramaic and Greek, and "Hellenists", Jews speaking only Greek, possibly diaspora Jews who had resettled in Jerusalem. Paul's initial persecution of Christians probably

5885-458: The Gospel, and instructed even imperial Rome, and carried the earnestness of his preaching as far as Spain, undergoing conflicts innumerable, and performing Signs and wonders". The Muratorian fragment mentions "the departure of Paul from the city [of Rome] [5a] (39) when he journeyed to Spain". The following table is adapted from the book From Jesus to Christianity by Biblical scholar L. Michael White , matching Paul's travels as documented in

5992-488: The Greco-Roman world at large. He begins his gospel with a preface addressed to Theophilus ( Luke 1:3 ; cf. Acts 1:1 ), informing him of his intention to provide an "ordered account" of events which will lead his reader to "certainty". He did not write in order to provide Theophilus with historical justification—"did it happen?"—but to encourage faith—"what happened, and what does it all mean?" Acts (or Luke–Acts)

6099-691: The Holy Ghost." His sight was restored, he got up and was baptized. This story occurs only in Acts, not in the Pauline epistles. The author of the Acts of the Apostles may have learned of Paul's conversion from the church in Jerusalem , or from the church in Antioch , or possibly from Paul himself. According to Timo Eskola, early Christian theology and discourse was influenced by the Jewish Merkabah tradition. John Bowker , Alan Segal and Daniel Boyarin have variously argued that Paul's accounts of his conversion experience and his ascent to

6206-424: The Jerusalem church and places Paul under the authority of the Jerusalem church and its leaders, especially James and Peter (Acts 15 vs. Galatians 2). Acts omits much from the letters, notably Paul's problems with his congregations (internal difficulties are said to be the fault of the Jews instead), and his apparent final rejection by the church leaders in Jerusalem (Acts has Paul and Barnabas deliver an offering that

6313-503: The Jerusalem visit for famine relief apparently corresponds to the "first visit" (to Peter and James only). F. F. Bruce suggested that the "fourteen years" could be from Paul's conversion rather than from his first visit to Jerusalem. Despite the agreement achieved at the Council of Jerusalem, Paul recounts how he later publicly confronted Peter in a dispute sometimes called the " Incident at Antioch ", over Peter's reluctance to share

6420-523: The Jewish rejection of the Messiah and the role of the Holy Spirit, in ways that are stylistically different from the rest of Acts. The majority of scholars prefer the Alexandrian (shorter) text-type over the Western as the more authentic, but this same argument would favour the Western over the Alexandrian for the Gospel of Luke, as in that case the Western version is the shorter. The title "Acts of

6527-566: The Jews and God-fearing Greeks in the synagogue and to the Greek intellectuals in the Areopagus . Paul continued from Athens to Corinth . Around 50–52 AD, Paul spent 18 months in Corinth . The reference in Acts to Proconsul Gallio helps ascertain this date (cf. Gallio Inscription ). In Corinth, Paul met Priscilla and Aquila , who became faithful believers and helped Paul through his other missionary journeys. The couple followed Paul and his companions to Ephesus and stayed there to start one of

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6634-474: The Jews had rejected the Messiah. The name "Acts of the Apostles" was first used by Irenaeus in the late 2nd century. It is not known whether this was an existing name for the book or one invented by Irenaeus; it does seem clear that it was not given by the author, as the word práxeis (deeds, acts) only appears once in the text ( Acts 19 :18) and there it refers not to the apostles but to deeds confessed by their followers. The Gospel of Luke and Acts make up

6741-523: The Jews); Baur continues to have enormous influence, but today there is less interest in determining the historical accuracy of Acts (although this has never died out) than in understanding the author's theological program. Luke was written to be read aloud to a group of Jesus-followers gathered in a house to share the Lord's supper. The author assumes an educated Greek-speaking audience, but directs his attention to specifically Christian concerns rather than to

6848-573: The Messianic kingdom by Israel, and God's sovereign establishment of the church for both Jews and Gentiles. Acts agrees with Paul's letters on the major outline of Paul's career: he is converted and becomes a Christian missionary and apostle, establishing new churches in Asia Minor and the Aegean and struggling to free Gentile Christians from the Jewish Law . There are also agreements on many incidents, such as Paul's escape from Damascus, where he

6955-462: The New Testament , published in 1997, a chronology of events in Paul's life is presented, illustrated from later 20th-century writings of biblical scholars . The first missionary journey of Paul is assigned a "traditional" (and majority) dating of 46–49 AD, compared to a "revisionist" (and minority) dating of after 37 AD. A vital meeting between Paul and the Jerusalem church took place in the year 49 AD by traditional (and majority) dating, compared to

7062-417: The Romans serving as external arbiters on disputes concerning Jewish customs and law. On the one hand, Luke portrays the followers of Jesus as a sect of the Jews , and therefore entitled to legal protection as a recognised religion; on the other, Luke seems unclear as to the future that God intends for Jews and Christians, celebrating the Jewishness of Jesus and his immediate followers, while also stressing how

7169-426: The account in Acts 9:1–22, he was blinded for three days and had to be led into Damascus by the hand. During these three days, Saul took no food or water and spent his time in prayer to God. When Ananias of Damascus arrived, he laid his hands on him and said: "Brother Saul, the Lord, [even] Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with

7276-435: The city, his sight was restored three days later by Ananias of Damascus . After these events, Paul was baptized, beginning immediately to proclaim that Jesus of Nazareth was the Jewish messiah and the Son of God . He made three missionary journeys to spread the Christian message to non-Jewish communities in Asia Minor , the Greek provinces of Achaia , Macedonia , and Cyprus , as well as Judea and Syria , as narrated in

7383-419: The customs of his people, it is possible that Paul's Athenian listeners would have considered his God to be "the unknown god par excellence". His listeners may also have understood the introduction of a new god by allusions to Aeschylus ' The Eumenides ; the irony would have been that just as the Eumenides were not new gods at all but the Furies in a new form, so was the Christian God not a new god but rather

7490-407: The early Christian communities. Paul was likely born between the years of 5 BC and 5 AD. The Acts of the Apostles indicates that Paul was a Roman citizen by birth, but Helmut Koester took issue with the evidence presented by the text. Some have suggested that Paul's ancestors may have been freedmen from among the thousands of Jews whom Pompey took as slaves in 63 BC , which would explain how he

7597-423: The execution of Stephen , Paul was traveling on the road to Damascus so that he might find any Christians there and bring them "bound to Jerusalem". At midday, a light brighter than the sun shone around both him and those with him, causing all to fall to the ground, with the risen Christ verbally addressing Paul regarding his persecution in a vision. Having been made blind, along with being commanded to enter

7704-515: The followers of Jesus, is converted by a vision to become a follower of Christ (an event which Luke regards as so important that he relates it three times). Peter, directed by a series of visions, preaches to Cornelius the Centurion , a Gentile God-fearer, who becomes a follower of Christ. The Holy Spirit descends on Cornelius and his guests, thus confirming that the message of eternal life in Christ

7811-729: The god the Greeks already worshipped as the Unknown God. His audience would also have recognized the quotes in verse 28 as coming from Epimenides and Aratus , respectively. There is an altar dedicated to the Unknown God found in 1820 on the Palatine Hill of Rome. It contains an inscription in Latin that says: SEI·DEO·SEI·DEIVAE·SAC G·SEXTIVS·C·F·CALVINVSPR DE·SENATI·SENTENTIA RESTITVIT This could be translated into English as: "Whether sacred to god or to goddess, Gaius Sextius Calvinus , son of Gaius, praetor, restored this on

7918-481: The heavens (in 2 Corinthians 12 ) are the earliest first-person accounts that are extant of a Merkabah mystic in Jewish or Christian literature. Conversely, Timothy Churchill has argued that Paul's Damascus road encounter does not fit the pattern of Merkabah. According to Acts : And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God." And all who heard him were amazed and said, "Is not this

8025-416: The illegal practice of magic (Acts 19:17–19) as well as the amicability of his rapport with Roman officials such as Sergius Paulus (Acts 13:6–12) and Festus (Acts 26:30–32). Furthermore, Acts does not include any account of a struggle between Christians and the Roman government as a result of the latter's imperial cult. Thus Paul is depicted as a moderating presence between the church and the Roman Empire. On

8132-551: The incident at Antioch is Paul's letter to the Galatians . Paul left for his second missionary journey from Jerusalem, in late Autumn 49 AD, after the meeting of the Council of Jerusalem where the circumcision question was debated. On their trip around the Mediterranean Sea, Paul and his companion Barnabas stopped in Antioch where they had a sharp argument about taking John Mark with them on their trips. The Acts of

8239-504: The incident remains uncertain. The Catholic Encyclopedia suggests that Paul won the argument, because "Paul's account of the incident leaves no doubt that Peter saw the justice of the rebuke". However, Paul himself never mentions a victory, and L. Michael White 's From Jesus to Christianity draws the opposite conclusion: "The blowup with Peter was a total failure of political bravado, and Paul soon left Antioch as persona non grata , never again to return". The primary source account of

8346-551: The magician who was criticizing their teachings. They sailed to Perga in Pamphylia . John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas went on to Pisidian Antioch . On Sabbath they went to the synagogue. The leaders invited them to speak. Paul reviewed Israelite history from life in Egypt to King David. He introduced Jesus as a descendant of David brought to Israel by God. He said that his group had come to bring

8453-449: The man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?" But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. After his conversion, Paul went to Damascus , where Acts 9 states he was healed of his blindness and baptized by Ananias of Damascus. Paul says that it

8560-464: The message of salvation. He recounted the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. He quoted from the Septuagint to assert that Jesus was the promised Christos who brought them forgiveness for their sins. Both the Jews and the " God-fearing " Gentiles invited them to talk more next Sabbath. At that time almost the whole city gathered. This upset some influential Jews who spoke against them. Paul used

8667-603: The missions of the Apostles in Samaria and the Gentile lands, and so on (see Gospel of Luke ). These parallels continue through both books, contributing to the narrative unity of the work. However, scholars have noted differences between Luke and Acts, including some apparent contradictions. For example, the gospel seems to place the Ascension on Easter Sunday , shortly after the Resurrection , while Acts 1 puts it forty days later. Such differences have led to debates over

8774-405: The names were interchangeable: "Saul, who also is called Paul." He refers to him as Paul through the remainder of Acts. This was apparently Paul's preference since he is called Paul in all other Bible books where he is mentioned, including those that he authored . Adopting his Roman name was typical of Paul's missionary style. His method was to put people at ease and approach them with his message in

8881-414: The nature of the unity between the two books. While not seriously questioning the single authorship of Luke–Acts, these variations suggest a complex literary structure that balances thematic continuity with narrative development across two volumes. Literary studies have explored how Luke sets the stage in his gospel for key themes that recur and develop throughout Acts, including the offer to and rejection of

8988-476: The objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things. He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all

9095-454: The occasion to announce a change in his mission which from then on would be to the Gentiles. Antioch served as a major Christian home base for Paul's early missionary activities, and he remained there for "a long time with the disciples" at the conclusion of his first journey. The exact duration of Paul's stay in Antioch is unknown, with estimates ranging from nine months to as long as eight years. In Raymond E. Brown 's An Introduction to

9202-541: The order in which Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, Paul writes, "last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also." According to the account in the Acts of the Apostles, it took place on the road to Damascus , where he reported having experienced a vision of the ascended Jesus. The account says that "He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' He asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' The reply came, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting'." According to

9309-572: The original disciples in Jerusalem over past misinterpretations, manifested though movements like "Paul Within Judaism". Paul's Jewish name was "Saul" ( Hebrew : שָׁאוּל , Modern :   Sha'ûl , Tiberian :   Šā'ûl ), perhaps after the biblical King Saul , the first king of Israel and, like Paul, a member of the Tribe of Benjamin ; the Latin name Paulus, meaning small,

9416-417: The other hand, events such as the imprisonment of Paul at the hands of the empire (Acts 22–28) as well as several encounters that reflect negatively on Roman officials (for instance, Felix's desire for a bribe from Paul in Acts 24:26) function as concrete points of conflict between Rome and the early church. Perhaps the most significant point of tension between Roman imperial ideology and Luke's political vision

9523-679: The relationship between the early church and the Roman Empire. On the one hand, Luke generally does not portray this interaction as one of direct conflict. Rather, there are ways in which each may have considered having a relationship with the other rather advantageous to its own cause. For example, early Christians may have appreciated hearing about the protection Paul received from Roman officials against Gentile rioters in Philippi (Acts 16:16–40) and Ephesus (Acts 19:23–41), and against Jewish rioters on two occasions (Acts 17:1–17; Acts 18:12–17). Meanwhile, Roman readers may have approved of Paul's censure of

9630-573: The son of one of his sisters saved his life there. Nothing more is known of his biography until he takes an active part in the martyrdom of Stephen , a Hellenised diaspora Jew. Some modern scholarship argues that while Paul was fluent in Koine Greek , the language he used to write his letters, his first language was probably Aramaic . In his letters, Paul drew heavily on his knowledge of Stoic philosophy , using Stoic terms and metaphors to assist his new Gentile converts in their understanding of

9737-538: The sources for Acts can only be guessed at, but the author would have had access to the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures), the Gospel of Mark , and either the hypothetical collection of "sayings of Jesus" called the Q source or the Gospel of Matthew . He transposed a few incidents from Mark's gospel to the time of the Apostles—for example, the material about "clean" and "unclean" foods in Mark 7

9844-410: The southwest portion of Asia Minor to preach the gospel but during the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him to go to Macedonia to help them. After seeing the vision, Paul and his companions left for Macedonia to preach the gospel to them. The Church kept growing, adding believers, and strengthening in faith daily. In Philippi , Paul cast a spirit of divination out of

9951-512: The story of Christianity in the 1st century , beginning with the ascension of Jesus to Heaven . The early chapters, set in Jerusalem , describe the Day of Pentecost (the coming of the Holy Spirit ), the expulsion of Christians from Jerusalem and the establishment of the church at Antioch . The later chapters narrate the continuation of the message under Paul the Apostle and concludes with his imprisonment in Rome, where he awaits trial . Luke–Acts

10058-449: The strongest and most faithful churches at that time. In 52, departing from Corinth, Paul stopped at the nearby village of Cenchreae to have his hair cut off, because of a vow he had earlier taken. It is possible this was to be a final haircut before fulfilling his vow to become a Nazirite for a defined period of time. With Priscilla and Aquila, the missionaries then sailed to Ephesus and then Paul alone went on to Caesarea to greet

10165-411: The surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.' Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that

10272-581: The theology, worship and pastoral life in the Latin and Protestant traditions of the West , as well as the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox traditions of the East . Paul's influence on Christian thought and practice has been characterized as being as "profound as it is pervasive", among that of many other apostles and missionaries involved in the spread of the Christian faith. Christians, notably in

10379-410: The three "we" passages, for example, is that they represent eyewitness accounts. The search for such inferred sources was popular in the 19th century, but by the mid-20th it had largely been abandoned. Acts was read as a reliable history of the early church well into the post-Reformation era, but by the 17th century biblical scholars began to notice that it was incomplete and tendentious—its picture of

10486-563: The time of Alexander the Great , who died in 323 BC. Paul referred to himself as being "of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin , a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee ". The Bible reveals very little about Paul's family. Acts quotes Paul referring to his family by saying he was "a Pharisee, born of Pharisees". Paul's nephew, his sister's son, is mentioned in Acts 23:16. In Romans 16:7, he states that his relatives, Andronicus and Junia , were Christians before he

10593-565: The way scenes, themes and characters combine to construct his specific worldview. His "salvation history" stretches from the Creation to the present time of his readers, in three ages: first, the time of "the Law and the Prophets" (Luke 16:16), the period beginning with Genesis and ending with the appearance of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5–3:1); second, the epoch of Jesus, in which the Kingdom of God

10700-444: The works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus , who wrote a well-known history of Rome, or the Jewish historian Josephus , author of a history of the Jews . Like them, he anchors his history by dating the birth of the founder (Romulus for Dionysius, Moses for Josephus, Jesus for Luke) and like them he tells how the founder is born from God, taught authoritatively, and appeared to witnesses after death before ascending to heaven. By and large

10807-491: Was and were prominent among the Apostles. The family had a history of religious piety. Apparently, the family lineage had been very attached to Pharisaic traditions and observances for generations. Acts says that he was an artisan involved in the leather crafting or tent-making profession. This was to become an initial connection with Priscilla and Aquila , with whom he would partner in tentmaking and later become very important teammates as fellow missionaries. While he

10914-616: Was born into Roman citizenship , as slaves of Roman citizens gained citizenship upon emancipation. He was from a devout Jewish family based in the city of Tarsus , which had been made part of the Roman Province of Syria by the time of Paul's adulthood. Tarsus was of the larger centers of trade on the Mediterranean coast and renowned for its academy , it had been among the most influential cities in Asia Minor since

11021-486: Was directed against these Greek-speaking "Hellenists" due to their anti-Temple attitude. Within the early Jewish Christian community, this also set them apart from the "Hebrews" and their continuing participation in the Temple cult. Paul's conversion to the movement of followers of Jesus can be dated to 31–36 AD by his reference to it in one of his letters . In Galatians 1:16, Paul writes that God "was pleased to reveal his son to me." In 1 Corinthians 15:8, as he lists

11128-645: Was in Damascus that he barely escaped death. Paul also says that he then went first to Arabia, and then came back to Damascus. Paul's trip to Arabia is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, although it has been theorized that he traveled to Mount Sinai for meditations in the desert. He describes in Galatians how three years after his conversion he went to Jerusalem . There he met James and stayed with Simon Peter for 15 days. Paul located Mount Sinai in Arabia in Galatians 4:24–25. Paul asserted that he received

11235-529: Was not a result of his conversion as is commonly believed but a second name for use in communicating with a Greco-Roman audience. According to the Acts of the Apostles , he was a Roman citizen . As such, he bore the Latin name Paulus , which translates in biblical Greek as Παῦλος ( Paulos ). It was typical for the Jews of that time to have two names: one Hebrew, the other Latin or Greek. Jesus called him "Saul, Saul" in "the Hebrew tongue" in

11342-410: Was preached (Luke 3:2–24:51); and finally the period of the Church, which began when the risen Christ was taken into Heaven, and would end with his second coming . Luke–Acts is an attempt to answer a theological problem, namely how the Messiah, promised to the Jews, came to have an overwhelmingly non-Jewish church; the answer it provides, and its central theme, is that the message of Christ was sent to

11449-509: Was still fairly young, he was sent to Jerusalem to receive his education at the school of Gamaliel , one of the most noted teachers of Jewish law in history. Although modern scholarship accepts that Paul was educated under the supervision of Gamaliel in Jerusalem, he was not preparing to become a scholar of Jewish law, and probably never had any contact with the Hillelite school. Some of his family may have resided in Jerusalem since later

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