A SURVEY OF PAUL'S LIFE AND MINISTRY

CHAPTER GOALS

• To be knowledgeable of and conversant with what can be known about Paul prior to his life-changing encounter with Christ

• To be conversant with texts and issues related to Paul's Damascus experience

• To understand various facets and underlying commitments of Paul's missional strategy and practice

• To be able to describe the make-up of Pauline communities and Paul's commitment to and communication with them

• To be able to summarize how Paul is thought to have died

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

1. From Tarsus to Damascus

2. Paul's Encounter with Christ and Its Immediate Aftermath

3. Paul's Mission to and Ministry in the Mediterranean World

4. Paul's Departure

5. Concluding Remarks

6. Key People, Places, and Terms

7. Questions for Review and Discussion

8. Contemporary Theological Reflection

9. Going Further

KEY VERSES

Philippians 3:4b - 6: "If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless."

1 Corinthians15:8 - 11: "And last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed."

Galatians 1:11 - 17: "I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus."

1 Corinthians 9:19 - 22: "Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some."

2 Timothy 4:6 - 8: "For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."

Having met our subject and surveyed our volume in the introduction, we are now ready to "think through" Paul's life, letters, and theology. In this chapter, our aim is to piece together Paul's life. And what a life it was!

Born in Tarsus to Jewish parents, Paul (also known as Saul) was a zealous follower of the Lord (Yahweh) and of the law (Torah). Over time, he became both a Pharisee and a persecutor of Jesus-followers. A life-altering encounter with the risen Christ while en route to Damascus, however, caused Paul to reevaluate and to alter a number of his convictions and commitments. Having become convinced that Jesus is the living Lord, Paul proceeded tc risk life and limb to proclaim the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection to the nations. Like his Lord, Paul was ultimately put to death by Roman hands, but not before his work as an apostle was widely disseminated and well established.

If the above is something of a trailer, below we consider the fuller motion picture of Paul's life. Because we lack the details necessary to trace his life from womb to tomb, the picture that emerges is incomplete. This unfortunate reality will require us to cobble together, with critical care, autobiographical materials from Paul's letters with biographical information found in Acts and other early Christian literature. Yet given the scarcity of our sources and the chronological chasm that separates us from our subject, we are fortunate to know as much about Paul as we do.

A person can examine Paul's life in any number of ways. In this chapter we will treat the apostle's eventful life under the following four headings:

1. From Tarsus to Damascus

2. Paul's Encounter with Christ and Its Immediate Aftermath

3. Paul's Mission to and Ministry in the Mediterranean World

4. Paul's Departure

While Pauline chronology is complicated and controversial, there is a broad scholarly consensus regarding the dating of certain periods and episodes in Paul's life and ministry that we will follow as we proceed with our study.

FROM TARSUS TO DAMASCUS

Birth and Upbringing

Place of birth. Paul does not indicate in his letters where he was born. Acts reports, however, that Paul was born in Tarsus in Cilicia. As it happens, Paul refers to the province of Cilicia in conjunction with Syria in Gal 1:21. Although Pauline and Lukan scholars have questioned the historical veracity of certain claims that Acts makes about Paul, few interpreters doubt that Acts accurately identifies the place of Paul's birth.

Pompey won Cilicia for the Romans in 67 BC. In turn, he named Tarsus the provincial capital. Later Mark Antony made Tarsus a "free city" and exempted it from Roman taxation. Still later, Augustus confirmed and extended these civic privileges. By the...