Paul of Tarsus

Paul of Tarsus (originally Saul of Tarsus) or Paulus, also known as Saint Paul the Apostle, (ce. 3–67) is widely considered to be central to the early development and adoption of Christianity. Many Christians view him as an important interpreter of the teachings of Jesus. Paul is described in the New Testament as a Hellenized Jew and Roman citizen from Tarsus (present-day Turkey), and as a great persecutor of Christians prior to his "Road to Damascus" experience, which brought about Saul's conversion to the religion. He made the first great efforts through his Epistles to Gentile communities to show that the God of Abraham is for all people, rather than for Jews only, though he did not originate the idea; for example, see Isaiah 56:6-8 or proselyte.

Writings

See also Authorship of the Pauline Epistles

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Paul wrote a number of letters to Christian churches and individuals. However, not all have been preserved; 1 Corinthians 5:9 alludes to a previous letter sent by him to the Christians in Corinth that has clearly been lost. Those letters that have survived are part of the New Testament canon, where they appear in order of length, from longest to shortest. A subgroup of these letters, written from captivity, are called the "prison-letters", and tradition states they were written in Rome.

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His possible authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews had been questioned as early as Origen. Since at least 1750, a number of other letters commonly attributed to Paul have also been suspected of having been written by his followers some time in the 1st century—so early that religious writers like Marcion and Tertullian knew of no other author for them.

Related Topics:
Epistle to the Hebrews - Origen - 1750 - 1st century - Marcion - Tertullian

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The Pauline Corpus: those considered to be the "prison-letters" are marked with an asterisk (*).

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Undisputed Pauline Epistles (almost certainly authentic)

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• Romans
• 1 Corinthians
• 2 Corinthians
• Galatians
• Philippians*
• 1 Thessalonians
• Philemon*

The Deutero-Pauline Epistles(suspected to be pseudonymous)

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• Ephesians*
• Colossians*
• 2 Thessalonians

The Pastoral epistles are usually considered a separate category, no longer generally attributed to Paul, save by traditionalists (also possibly pseudonymous):

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• 1 Timothy
• 2 Timothy
• Titus

Two further epistles attributed to Paul have been lost:

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• Epistle to the Alexandrians (lost) Nothing is known of this letter apart from a brief mention in the Muratorian fragment that claims it was a Marcionite forgery.
• Epistle to the Macedonians (lost)

The following epistles, agreed to be pseudepigraphical (non-canonical), present themselves as if written by Paul:

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• 3 Corinthians
• Epistle to the Laodiceans
• The Correspondence of Paul and Seneca the Younger