Apostle to the Gentiles
c. 5 CE – c. 64 CE
Paul of Tarsus is the most important figure in the history of Christianity after Jesus himself. A Roman citizen of Jewish birth, educated as a Pharisee (he studied under Gamaliel according to Acts 22:3), Paul initially persecuted the early Church before a dramatic conversion experience on the road to Damascus, probably around 33–36 CE.
His letters are the earliest surviving Christian documents — 1 Thessalonians, written around 50 CE, predates the earliest Gospel by at least fifteen years. Of the thirteen letters attributed to Paul in the New Testament, seven are virtually undisputed (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon). Three are widely considered pseudonymous (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus — the "Pastoral Epistles"), and three are disputed (Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians).
Paul's Greek is vigorous, dense, and often syntactically tortured — he dictated his letters and his thought frequently outran his grammar. But his rhetorical power is extraordinary. Passages like the hymn to love in 1 Corinthians 13, the Christ hymn in Philippians 2:5–11, and the argument for justification by faith in Romans 3–8 are among the most influential texts ever written.
He developed the theological framework — justification by faith, the body of Christ, the new creation — that would shape Christianity's self-understanding for two millennia. He established communities across Asia Minor, Greece, and planned to reach Spain. According to tradition, he was martyred in Rome under Nero, probably around 64 CE.
His letters were collected and circulated as a corpus within decades of his death, and their interpretation has driven every major theological controversy in Christian history, from Augustine's doctrine of grace to Luther's Reformation.