8. Are the Witnesses Honest? (2)

(5) The Letters by Paul - Paul's Epistles

 

• Born as a Jew in a family of Pharisees (Acts 23:6), of the tribe of Benjamin (Philippians 3:5) in Tarsus of Cilicia (Acts 9:11). He was also a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37, 22:25).

• His name was Saul (after the first king of Israel ), but he was also called Paul (Acts 13:9).
• He was well educated, spoke different languages (Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek), and was well-training in the Jewish Law (Galatians 1:14, Philippians 3:5-6). He was even trained by the well respected Pharisee Gamaliel (Acts 22:3).
• Paul was a tentmaker by profession (Acts 18:13), which allowed him to support himself financially (Acts 20:34).
• When the Christian movement began to spread in Jerusalem , Paul was a leading figure in the growing persecution by the Jews. He was present at the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58), where he “persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it” (Galatians 1:13). He obtained letters of recommendation from the high priest in Jerusalem and traveled to Damascus for further persecutions (Acts 9:1-2).
• On the road to Damascus (around 34/35 AD, one or two years after the resurrection[1]), he met the resurrected Jesus and was converted to Christianity (Acts 9:3-19).
• During the next period of about 13 years (Galatians 1:18-2:1), he met with Peter and James in Jerusalem , and spent time in Syria and Cilicia .
• Together with Barnabas and John Mark (who left them halfway), Paul traveled through the Asia Minor mainland to start churches in Gentile territory. This First Missionary Journey must have taken place in the 46-48 AD timeframe (Acts chapters 13-14).
• This resulted in the now famous Jerusalem council of 49 AD in which the church reached agreement about how to integrate Gentiles into an originally Jewish religion (Acts 15).
• The Second Missionary Journey in 49-52 AD (Acts 16-18:22)  brought Paul, traveling together with Silas and Timothy, even further west into Greece . During the subsequent Third Missionary Journey in 53-57 AD (Acts 18:23- 20), Paul and his travel companions revisited the churches planted during his previous trips.
• After his return, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem (Acts 21-23), remained a Roman prisoner in Caesarea (Acts 24-26), and ultimately arrived in Rome   (Acts 27-28) where he remained under house arrest. 
• Tradition (also confirmed by Clement of Rome[2]) tells us that Paul was ultimately martyred during Nero’s persecutions in Rome around 66/67 AD.

Paul's Timeline

Paul himself was not one of Jesus’ personal disciples, however his personal encounter with Jesus and his numerous meetings with the other disciples make his epistles and the detailed travel accounts in the book of Acts valuable testimony. He was not only recognized as one of the key figures in the apostolic church, he was also recognized as a true apostle by the other apostles. Through Paul’s writings[3], we have confirmation from a source independent of the gospels of a number of key facts and events about Jesus (see table 16-2). In many ways Paul is our “fifth witness.”

Paul’s Testimony about Jesus Christ
Facts and events from the life of Jesus[4]	Reference
He descended from Abraham	Galatians 3:16
He was a Son of David	Roman 1:3
He was born of a woman, born under Jewish law, the Son of God	Galatians 4:4
He welcomed people	Romans 15:5,7
His lifestyle was one of humility and service	Philippians 2:7-8
He was abused and insulted during His life	Romans 15:3
He had a brother named James	Galatians 1:19
He has also other unnamed brothers	1 Corinthians 9:5
His disciple Peter was married	1 Corinthians 9:5
He instituted a memorial meal of bread and wine, on the night of His betrayal	1 Corinthians 11:23-25
He was betrayed	1 Corinthians 11:23
He gave testimony before Pontius Pilate	1 Timothy 6:13
He was crucified under Roman law	1 Corinthians 1:23, Galatians 3:13, 6:14
He was killed by Jews of Judea	1 Thessalonians 2:14-15
He was buried, rose on the third day and was seen on a number of occasions by numerous witnesses of whom the majority were still alive at the time this letter was written (20 years later)	1 Corinthians 15:4-8

Table 16- 2 : Paul, the Fifth Witness, his Testimony about Jesus

Read on about:: (3) Internal criteria for honest testimony