PAUL OF TARSUS: BIOGRAPHIES, TRAVELS, THEOLOGY, WORKS - ARTE

Paul of Tarsus (c. 5/10 BC - c. 58/64), also known as Saint Paul, was a founding apostle of the first Christian communities and an evangelizer of various Gentile peoples. In the mid-1930s and 1950s he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe.

Although he was not a member of the group that followed Jesus in life, the Twelve Apostles, Saint Paul is one of the most important figures in Christianity. He took advantage of his status as a Jewish and Roman citizen to teach Hebrew and Latin audiences.

Statue of Saint Paul in the Vatican, photo by Mattana, via Wikimedia Commons.

According to the New Testament, before his conversion, Paul dedicated himself to persecuting the first Christian disciples in Jerusalem. While Paul was traveling to Damascus, the risen Jesus appeared to him bathed in a powerful halo of light.

Paul was blinded by the brightness, but after three days his sight was restored by Ananias of Damascus. This is how Paul began to preach that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah foreshadowed by Jewish tradition.

Of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament at least 13 are thought to have been produced by Paul. Scholars have cataloged seven of the Pauline Epistles as his authorship.

Today, Paul's epistles remain vital sources of Christian theology, and have greatly influenced the Western Protestant and Eastern Orthodox traditions.

Martin Luther's interpretation of the texts of Paul of Tarsus was one of the foundational bases in the doctrine of the father of Protestantism.

Names

It has traditionally been assumed that Paul's name was changed when he became a follower of Jesus, but this is not the case. His Hebrew name was Saul (Shaúl), a name that came from the first king of Israel.

According to the Book of Acts, Saul also had the name "Paul," a Latin transliteration of the Hebrew version. That happened since he was also a Roman citizen.

Jews contemporary with Paul had adopted by custom having two names, one in their native language and the other in Latin or Greek.

Acts of the Apostles "13, 9" is the writing in which the first reference to Saul as "Paul" is found. Lucas, the author of that book, pointed out that the names were interchangeable: "Saúl, who is also called Pablo."

Biography

Sources

The main source of information about Paul's life is the material found in his epistles. However, they contain little data concerning the time that preceded their conversion.

More information can be found in Acts, although some periods in his life remain unclear.

Some scholars believe that the Acts of the Apostles contradict Saint Paul's letters in some respects, especially regarding the frequency with which he went to church in Jerusalem.

Regarding material external to the New Testament, the following can be mentioned:

- The epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians (1st - 2nd century).

- Letters of Ignatius of Antioch to the Romans and the Ephesians (2nd century).

- Letter from Polycarp to the Philippians (early 2nd century).

Early years

Pablo was born between 5 and 10 BC. C., in the city of Tarsus, capital of Cilicia, which at present includes a part of Turkey.

The two main sources of information about the first years of the life of the Catholic saint are the book of the Acts of the Apostles, in addition to the autobiographical fragments contained in the letters that he wrote to the church communities.

He came from a devout Jewish family in the city of Tarsus, which had served as the economic epicenter for the Mediterranean at the dawn of the Hellenistic era.

In the time of Alexander the Great, more than three hundred years before the birth of Paul, Tarsus played a fundamental role in the geopolitical reality of Asia Minor.

Education

When he was very young, Paul was sent to Jerusalem to receive his education at the school of Gamaliel, grandson of Hillel, one of the most remarkable rabbis in history, "Acts 22: 3".

The school stood out for giving its students a balanced education. It was probably there that Paul managed to gain extensive exposure to classical literature, philosophy, and ethics.

In his letters, Paul used his knowledge of the Stoics. He used terms and metaphors peculiar to that philosophy to help his new converts understand the revealed word of God.

Conversion

Paul's conversion has traditionally been assigned to the period between 31 or 36, by his reference to it in one of his letters. He affirmed in "Galatians 1:16" that it was God himself who presented his son to him.

In "Corinthians 15, 8", when listing the order in which Jesus appeared to his followers after being resurrected, Paul noted: "The last of all, as to a premature born, he appeared to me also."

The Conversion of Saint Paul, by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, via Wikimedia Commons

Event

According to the Acts account, the aforementioned event occurred on the road to Damascus, where he reported experiencing a vision of the risen Jesus.

According to tradition, after falling to the ground, he heard a voice that repeated his name, questioning the motive behind his persecution, to which Paul replied: "Who are you, Lord?" The voice answered that it was Christ, who was being harassed by him.

In "Acts 9,1-22" it is stated that Paul was blinded for three days and had to be led to his destination by the hand. During that period, he did not eat any food and devoted himself to prayer to God.

According to "Acts 9, 17" when Ananias from Damascus arrived, he put his hands on him and said: "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the way you were coming, has sent me to receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit ”.

Then a kind of scales separated from his eyes and he could see again. After that he was baptized. The account goes on to say that “having taken food, he regained strength. And Saul was with the disciples who were in Damascus for a few days. "

Later, Paul regained his vision, stood up, and received baptism.

After conversion

From their meeting, Paul began to spread the message of Jesus in the temples. The change he had demonstrated, as well as his words, astonished those who came in contact with him.

His contemporaries were especially shocked by the fact that it was Paul himself who had persecuted the Christians long ago, in addition to having promised to present them in chains before the synagogue leaders.

The words that Saul addressed to the people every day became more convincing, so that the Jews of Damascus could find no arguments to refute the evidence that Jesus really was the Messiah.

Early years of ministry

After accepting Jesus as the Messiah, Paul went to Damascus, there his blindness disappeared and he received baptism by Ananias. He expressed that in that city he could hardly escape death "Corinthians 11:32."

It is believed that then Paul was in Arabia and after that he returned. However, that journey is not documented in other texts, so some have speculated that his visit was to Mount Sinai.

Three years later Paul undertook a journey that took him to Jerusalem, those events were narrated by the same saint in the book of Galatians. Upon reaching his destination, he met disciples of Christ such as Santiago or Simon Peter, who offered him their hospitality.

In "Galatians 1: 11-16", Paul noted that the Gospel he had received had been given to him directly by Jesus Christ and through men, that is, the one spread by his followers in Jerusalem, from whom he considered himself independent.

For Paul of Tarsus the spreading of the Gospel was fundamental and he considered it prudent that in Jerusalem he had contact with the material of Gentile churches that were in other places.

Return to jerusalem

In his writings, Paul used the persecutions he suffered to confess closeness and union with Jesus, as well as a validation of his teaching. In "Galatians 2: 1-10" he narrates his return to Jerusalem 14 years after converting to Christianity.

From his first trip to Jerusalem until his second it is considered a dark space, since the references in the Bible are brief. Despite this, it is known that it was Barnabas who urged Paul to return to Antioch.

Saint Paul, by El Greco, via Wikimedia Commons

When a famine occurred in Judea around AD 45, Paul and Barnabas traveled to Jerusalem to give financial support to the Antioch community.

According to Acts, Antioch had become an alternative center for Christians after the dispersion of the believers after Stephen's death. From there the believers in Jesus received the name "Christians", "Acts 11:26."

First missionary trip

The chronology of Paul's travels were arranged in three sections: In "Acts 13-14" the first journey that was led by Barnabas is narrated. On that occasion Paul went from Antioch to Cyprus, then to Anatolia, and finally back to Antioch.

In Cyprus, Paul punished and took the vision of Elimas, a magician who, according to what is recorded in "Acts 13: 8-12", was given the task of criticizing the teachings of the word of Christ spread by Paul.

Then they sailed to Perga, in Pamphylia. Juan Marcos left them and they returned to Jerusalem, later, Paul and Barnabas headed for Pisidian Antioch. They both showed up to the synagogue on a Saturday.

Interval in Antioch

The leaders invited them to speak, and Paul reviewed Israelite history, from life in Egypt to King David. In his account Jesus was portrayed as one of David's descendants, who had also been brought to Israel by God.

Pablo said that his team had attended the city to bring him the message of salvation. Then he went on to tell the present audience the story of Christ's death and resurrection.

He was later invited to speak to Jews and Gentiles again the following week. Most of the city dwellers came to hear Paul's words.

That attitude upset some influential Jews who spoke out against him. It was then that Paul decided to announce the change in his personal evangelizing mission, in which from then on it would be directed only to the Gentiles.

Antioch served as an important Christian center for Paul's evangelism, and he stayed there for a long time with the disciples at the end of his first journey.

The exact length of Paul's stay in Antioch is unknown, with estimates ranging from nine months to eight years.

Council of jerusalem

A vital meeting between Paul and the Jerusalem church took place sometime in the 1950s or '51. It was described in "Acts 15: 2" and is usually seen as the same event mentioned by Paul in "Galatians 2: 1".

The key question posed at the meeting was whether Gentile converts needed to be circumcised.

Incident in Antioquia

Despite the agreement reached at the Jerusalem Council, Paul recounted that he later had to publicly confront Peter in a dispute called the "Antioch Incident."

In this altercation, Peter was reluctant to share a meal with Gentile Christians in the city, claiming that they did not adhere strictly to Jewish customs.

Writing later about the incident, Paul said: “I opposed (Peter) to his face, because he was clearly wrong,” and says that he told Peter: “You are a Jew, but you live as a Gentile and not as a Jew. ”.

Paul also mentions that even Barnabas, his traveling companion and apostle up to that point, sided with Peter. However, nowhere in the text is it clear what the result of the discussion was.

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 reprimand."

Second missionary trip

In the year 49 it was that Paul decided to go in search of his new evangelizing journey. That year he left Jerusalem and headed around the Mediterranean Sea.

Then, Paul and Barnabas stopped in Antioch where they had a heated argument about whether or not to take Juan Marcos with them.

In the book of the Acts of the Apostles it is stated that John Mark, together with Barnabas, separated from Paul and began their journey in another direction due to the differences that arose between them, while Silas remained at Paul's side.

Pablo and Silas

The companions first visited Tarsus, the birthplace of Paul. They also reached Derbe and Lystra, where they met Timothy, whose reputation was impeccable. Thereafter the three men joined them and continued their journey.

Paul and his companions, Silas and Timothy, had plans to travel to southwest Asia Minor to preach. The plans changed after an event that happened to Paul: in a vision a Macedonian appeared to him who implored him to come to his land to help them.

After the outcry that was presented to Paul, he decided to go to that land with his companions. There they dedicated themselves to preaching the gospel, as recorded in "Acts 16: 6-10". In Macedonia the Church grew, and began to add believers and strengthen the faith of Christians "Acts 16: 5".

They continued traveling, passing through Berea, and then arriving in Athens, where Paul preached to both Jews and Greeks who attended the synagogue. Later he addressed Greek intellectuals on the Areopagus.

Interval in Corinths

After having traveled to other Greek cities, around 52, Paul spent about a year and a half in Corinth. There he met Priscilla and Aquila "Acts 18: 2", who became faithful believers and helped Paul in his successive missionary journeys.

The couple followed Paul and his companions to Ephesus, and they stayed there, where they founded one of the strongest and most faithful churches at that time "Acts 18: 18-21".

In 52, after leaving Corinth, Paul stopped in the nearby town of Cencreas. Along with his new mission companions, Paul sailed to Ephesus and from there to Caesarea for the purpose of greeting the Church there.

He then traveled north to Antioch, where he stayed for some time, before again undertaking a third missionary journey.

In the New Testament it is stated that Paul of Tarsus was also in Jerusalem at the time for the celebration of one of the Jewish holidays, possibly Pentecost.

Third trip as a missionary

According to Acts, while he was in Galatia and Phrygia Paul began his third missionary journey to educate the faithful.

He then traveled to Ephesus, an important center of Christianity, and stayed there for almost three years, probably working as a tentmaker, just as he did when he remained in Corinth.

Paul traveled through Macedonia and arrived in Achaia "Acts 20: 1-2". Then he settled for three months in Greece, possibly in Corinth around the year 57, according to "Acts 20: 1-2".

Then he prepared to go to Syria, but he altered his plans and retraced his steps by being the target of a plot carried out by Hebrews in the area.

When he returned to Jerusalem he passed through other towns such as Philippi, Troas, Miletus, Rhodes and Tire. Paul completed his journey with a stop in Caesarea, where he stayed with the evangelist Philip and his companions before reaching his destination.

Last visit to Jerusalem and arrest

Paul settled in Jerusalem in AD 57, after completing his third missionary journey. In the book Acts it is stated that at first he was welcomed with benevolence.

He undertook a purification ritual so as not to offer the Jews any reason to accuse them of not following his law "Acts 21: 17-26". Seven days later a rumor began to spread that Paul had desecrated the temple. An enraged crowd captured him and threw him into the street.

He was close to death, but he was saved by surrendering to a band of Roman centurions who arrested him, handcuffed him and took him to the "Acts 21: 27-36" platform.

Marcus Antonius Felix kept him as a prisoner for two years, until Porcius Festus, the new governor, closed his case in '59. When the new regent proposed that he be sent to Jerusalem for prosecution, Paul exercised the privilege of “opposing Caesar As a Roman citizen.

Acts mentions that on his way to Rome for submission to Caesar as a Roman citizen, Paul was shipwrecked in Malta, there he was granted exceptional treatment, and even Publius met him. From there he moved to Syracuse, Rhegium and Puteoli and, finally, "Acts 28, 11-14" arrived in Rome.

Final years in Rome

When Paul arrived in the capital of the Roman Empire, around the year 60, he had to remain for two more years under house arrest. The account of the Acts of the Apostles culminates with the preaching of Paul, who rented a house while awaiting the judgment "Acts 28: 30-31".

In the second century, Irenaeus wrote that Peter and Paul had been the founders of the Catholic Church in Rome and that they had appointed Linus as the successor bishop.

Death

Paul's death is believed to have happened at some point after the Great Fire of Rome in July 64.

Head of Saint Paul, reproduction of the original by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, via Wikimedia Commons.

According to various sources, Paul was beheaded under Nero in Rome. It is believed that his martyrdom took place at the Aquae Salviae, on the Via Laurentina.

According to legend, the body of the saint was buried on the property of a Christian woman named Lucina outside the walls of Rome, on the second mile of Via Ostiensis. Right there, two centuries later, Emperor Constantine the Great built the first church.

The emperors Valentine I, Valentine II, Theodosius I and Arcadius expanded it significantly between the 4th and 5th centuries. The current basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls is much more recent as it was erected in the 17th century.

Remains

In 2002, a 2.4 m long bronze sarcophagus with the inscription “Paulo apostolo mart”, which translates as “Paul the apostle martyr”, was found during an inspection of the Via Ostiensis around the Basilica of Saint Paul Extramural.

In June 2009, Pope Benedict XVI announced the conclusions of the excavation of the site. The sarcophagus was not opened, but was examined using a probe that revealed parts of incense, purple and blue linen, and small bone fragments.

The bone was dated to the 1st or 2nd century with radiocarbon. These results, according to the Vatican, support the assumption that the tomb belongs to Paul.

Physical appearance

The New Testament provides little information about Paul's physical appearance, but several details exist in the apocryphal writings.

In the Acts of Paul he is characterized as "a person of short stature, with a bald head and bent feet, in good physical condition, with slightly bent eyebrows and nose." In the Latin edition of the same text, it is added that his face was reddish.

The Acts of St. Peter confirmed that Paul's head was bald and shiny, with black hair. Chrysostom notes that Paul's size was small, his body bowed, and his head bald.

Nicephorus argued that Paul was a small man with a long, wrinkled, pale face and a crooked, bald head almost bent like a bow.

Work

Of the 27 books of the New Testament, 14 have been attributed to Paul. Seven of them are generally considered genuine, while the validity of the other seven is questioned.

Documents whose authorship is considered faithful are generally taken as the most significant references. Paul was the one who established for the first time what was the meaning of being a Christian, as well as the essence of his spirituality.

Like the Gospels of Matthew and John, the epistles of Paul have represented one of the greatest influences that are present in the New Testament.

Pauline theology

The summary exposition of the scholasticism of St. Paul is considerably arduous. In general, Pauline theology is called the well-founded, methodical and exhaustive analysis of the ideology proposed by Paul, which mutated through time and the interpretations that were made of his writings.

According to classical Lutheran theory, the fundamental argument of Pauline theology would be that of the defense of the faith without the works of the Law. From this notion, it was speculated that the essential nucleus of the Christian proclamation was found in the Pauline doctrine..

The greatest conflict in any attempt to systematize the apostle's thought lies in the fact that Paul was not a consistent theologian, so any categorization and classification seems to respond more to the questions of the exegete than to Pauline schemes.

For a long time the discussion was subject to a crossroads.

From the perspective of Christianity, although the foundation is part of the Pauline message, it is not its central element. The original Catholic testimony argued that God, rather than "declaring just" the individual, makes man equanimous by transforming him.

Evolution through the centuries

In the 20th century, the attitude in favor of the principle of sola fide, or only by faith, was a constant in the background and in the orientation of the school of Rudolf Karl Bultmann. Likewise, it was presented, with a diversity of nuances, in his followers such as Ernst Käsemann or G. Bornkamm.

Barbaglio proposed that the Evangelist wrote a "theology in epistle." Hence, his scheme was based on exhibiting the theology of each epistle, chronologically following each one, to culminate with the chapter: "Coherence of Paul's theology: hermeneutics of the Gospel."

According to R. Penna, there is a tendency to recognize that at the bottom of Paul's current is the “Christ-event”, an indisputable fact in “his theology”. It is argued that said antecedent influenced both the anthropological, eschatological and ecclesiological consequences.

Brown suggested that all the proposals contain a piece of truth, although they derive from "analytical judgments" after Paul.

Pauline theology today

In recent years different Protestant scholars, such as Krister Stendahl, Ed Parish Sanders, and James DG Dunn, criticized the classical Lutheran attitude.

Until then, the opposition of a Christian faith bearing grace and independence had been raised, against a supposed ancestral Judaism affected by legalism and a proud exacerbation of the discipline of the Mosaic prescriptions.

Catholic authors Lucien Cerfaux, Rudolf Schnackenburg, and especially Joseph A. Fitzmyer, centered Paul's doctrine on his abstraction of Christ. Particularly regarding his fall and resurrection.

For J. Fitzmyer the axis of Pauline mysticism is "Christology". This author considers that the theology of Saint Paul was a Christocentric scholasticism, specifically, a theology whose transcendental support is Christ dead and risen.

Other authors such as Joachim Gnilka and Giuseppe Barbaglio speak of a Pauline theocentrism, that is, that all of Paul's thought starts in Christ and returns to him.

A detailed investigation of the Pauline Epistles certified as true allows us to perceive that in the ideology of the disciple there was an advance and that, as a result, a single focus of interest in his preaching could not be brought into account.

Perspectives

About himself

Paul offered a litany of his own apostolic appointment to preach among the Gentiles in the opening passages of Romano.

He was considered the same as those who knew Christ in life, since Jesus appeared before him after his resurrection, just as long ago he had been shown to Peter, James and the other disciples.

Due to almighty grace, Paul perceived this as an unforeseen, sudden, and shocking change, and not as the fruit of his arguments or thoughts.

He also stated that he had a weak physical condition, which could be a disability. He portrayed this aspect with a comparison that he described as: "a thorn in the flesh."

There are discussions about whether Paul at the time of his conversion saw himself as the chief commissioner to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Interpretation of the figure of Jesus Christ

Paul saw Jesus as the true Messiah and Son of God, as the Holy Scriptures predicted through his prophets. Paul's writings emphasize the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the Parousia or second coming of Christ.

It was claimed that Jesus descended directly from David by biological line. Paul showed in his texts the death of Christ as a victory. He considered that Jesus' last act of mercy, his sacrifice, pursued the purpose of emancipating believers from sin.

Paul taught that when Christ returned those who had died believing him to be the savior of mankind would come back to life, while those who still lived would be "caught up in the clouds along with them to meet the Lord in the air", "Thessalonians 4, 14-18 ».

Keys to Christianity

In Paul's writings, what would later become the essence of the Christian message was revealed:

1) God sent his son.

2) The death and resurrection of the son pursue the objective of saving humanity.

3) The son would return soon.

4) Those who believed in the son would live with him forever.

Paul's gospel also included the need to live under a higher morality: "May your spirit, your soul and your body be healthy and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ", "Thessalonians 5:23".

Saint Paul writing his Spistles, by Valentin de Boulogne, via Wikimedia Commons

Atonement

Paul said that Christians would be redeemed from all their sins and, consequently, could hope to gain new life through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

His death was "atonement and propitiation, and through the blood of Christ peace is made between God and man." The coming of Jesus as a way for the salvation of men eliminated the problem of the exclusion of non-Jews from God's covenant, as indicated by "Romans 3: 21-26".

Paul's conversion fundamentally changed his basic beliefs regarding God's covenant and the inclusion of Gentiles in this covenant.

Before his conversion he believed that circumcision was the rite by which men became part of Israel, an exclusive community of God's chosen people, but later he thought that circumcision was not transcendental on the way to eternal life.

Relationship with Judaism

Some scholars see Paul as a character completely in line with first century Judaism, others see him as the opposite of Judaism, while most see him as somewhere in between these two extremes.

Paul objected to the insistence on keeping the sacred rituals of Judaism, for example, the circumcision controversy in early Christianity, previously considered necessary to enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Gospel of Saint Paul increased the division between those who considered Christ as the Messiah, with those who faithfully followed the precepts of Judaism, even though that had not been their purpose.

One faith

He wrote that faith in Christ was the only decisive one in salvation for both Hebrews and Gentiles. This made the schism between the followers of Christ and the Jews of the dogmatic current inevitable and permanent.

Paul's opposition to male circumcision for non-Jews is in line with what had been raised by the Old Testament prophets in which it is stated that the rest of the nations would seek the God of Israel when the end of the ages approached. time.

Paul of Tarsus considered that God had bequeathed him the responsibility of making possible the encounter between the nations, "Romans 11:25".

World to come

Paul believed that before his own death Jesus would return to earth. He thought that Christians who had died in the meantime would rise again to share the kingdom of God, and he believed that the saved would be transformed, assuming celestial and imperishable bodies, "Corinthians 15: 51-53".

The lessons of Paul of Tarsus concerning the end of the world are detailed in his letters to the Christians in Thessalonica.

This suggests an imminent end, but it is nonspecific as to timing and encourages his followers to wait for a delay. The end of the world will be in a confrontation between Christ and the lawless man, as stated in "Thessalonians 2, 3", the conclusion of which would be the triumph of Jesus.

Role of women

The second chapter of the original letter, addressed to Timothy, has been used by many confraternities to deny women a vote in church affairs.

It also justifies the rejection of women to serve as teachers of adult Bible classes, the impediments to serving as missionaries, and in general depriving them of the duties and privileges of church leadership.

However, some theologians agree that Paul's letters embraced a much more inclusive view of women. Theologian JR Daniel Kirk writes that "Romans 16" is a tremendously important testimony to the role of women in the early church.

Paul praises Phoebe for her work as a deacon and Junia, whom Paul describes as a respected person among the apostles "Romans 16: 7".

Controversy over female prohibition

According to Kirk, various studies have concluded that the passage in Corinthians 14 commanding women to remain silent during worship was an apocryphal addition that was not part of St. Paul's original text to the Corinthians.

In the case of Giancarlo Biguzzi, he argues that Paul's restriction on the women of "Corinthians 14" is genuine, but only applies to a particular case where there were local issues of women asking questions or chatting during worship services.

Biguzzi does not believe that it is a general prohibition for any woman to speak in places of worship, since Paul affirms the right of women to exercise as prophets in Corinthians.

Influence on other religions

Paul's influence on Christianity has been possibly more significant than that of any other New Testament author. It was he who declared that "Christ is the end of the law," exalted the Church as the body of Christ, and described the world outside of those precepts as under judgment.

Paul's writings include the earliest reference to the "Lord's Supper," a rite traditionally identified as the Christian communion or Eucharist, and known a posteriori as the Last Supper.

Judaism

Jewish interest in Paul of Tarsus is a recent phenomenon, since the religious and academic leaders of Judaism had written very little about him.

Before the positive historical reassessments of Jesus by some Jewish thinkers in the 18th and 19th centuries, Paul had barely appeared in the Jewish popular imagination.

It is arguably absent from the Talmud and rabbinical literature, although it appears in some variants of medieval polemic.

However, with Jesus no longer considered as the paradigm of non-Jewish Christianity, Paul's position became more important in Hebrew historical investigations and the contextualization of his religion's relationship to Christianity.

Jewish philosophers such as Baruch Spinoza, Leo Shestov or Jacob Taubes, and psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Hanns Sachs, recognized the apostle as one of the most influential figures in Western thought due to his influence on the massification of Christianity.

Islamism

Muslims have long believed that Paul intentionally corrupted the original teachings revealed by Jesus.

That has been affirmed since it is attributed the introduction of elements such as: paganism, the conversion of Christianity into a theology of the cross, and the introduction of original sin and the need for redemption.

Sayf ibn Umar claimed that certain rabbis persuaded Paul to deliberately mislead the early Christians by introducing into Christianity what Ibn Hazm considered objectionable doctrines.

Saint Paul, author unknown, from Dulwich Picture Gallery, via Wikimedia Commons

Paul of Tarsus has also been criticized by some modern Muslim thinkers.

Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas wrote that Paul misrepresented the message of Jesus. On the other hand, Rashid Rida accused Paul of introducing polytheism into Christianity.

In the Sunni Muslim polemic, Paul plays the same corrupting role of Jesus' teachings as a later Jew, Abdullah ibn Saba, in his attempt to destroy the message of Islam from within, by introducing Proto-Hittite beliefs.

Among those who supported this view were the scholars Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Hazm, who claimed that the Jews even admitted Paul's sinister purpose.

References

En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Paul the Apostle. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2019). Saint Paul the Apostle - Biography & Facts. Available at: britannica.com.
Newadvent.org. (2019). CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Paul. Available at: newadvent.org.
Barbaglio, G. (2009). Jesus of Nazareth and Paul of Tarsus. Salamanca: Trinitarian Secretariat.
Rius-Camps, J. (1984). Paul's path to the mission of the pagans. Madrid: Christianity.

PAUL OF TARSUS: BIOGRAPHIES, TRAVELS, THEOLOGY, WORKS - ARTE - 2024