In the Bible
Did God change Saul’s name to Paul?
No. Saul was his Jewish name and Paul his Roman one. Acts keeps calling him Saul for years after Damascus, then says “Saul, who was also called Paul” and uses Paul from then on.
See Acts 13:9
The first church
Who was Paul in the Bible?
Paul, also called Saul, was a Jewish Pharisee from Tarsus who hunted the first Christians. On the road to Damascus the risen Jesus stopped him, and he became the church’s best-known missionary. He traveled across what is now Turkey and Greece starting churches, wrote letters to them, 13 of which carry his name in the New Testament, and was taken to Rome as a prisoner.
- When
- Converted about AD 33 to 36. He traveled and wrote through the 40s and 50s, and reached Rome about AD 60.
- Read
- Acts 7–28 and his letters, Romans to Philemon
10 moments
Paul’s life, in order
See where Paul fits on the Bible timeline
Tap a passage to read it here. Each one opens in full in the Lumin Translation.
Born in Tarsus
A Jew born in Tarsus, a Roman citizen from birth, trained in Jerusalem under the teacher Gamaliel.
At Stephen’s death
Saul guards the coats of the men stoning Stephen and approves. Then he goes house to house dragging believers off to prison.
The road to Damascus
A light from heaven throws him down. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Blind, he is led into the city and baptized.
Sent from Antioch
The church at Antioch sends Paul and Barnabas out. They sail to Cyprus and on into Galatia.
Into Europe
A vision calls Paul to Macedonia. At Philippi he and Silas are beaten and jailed, and sing in the night.
Athens and Corinth
He speaks to the philosophers on the Areopagus, then stays 18 months in Corinth making tents.
Three years in Ephesus
He teaches daily in a lecture hall, and a riot breaks out over the goddess Artemis.
Arrested in Jerusalem
A crowd seizes him at the temple. He spends two years held at Caesarea and appeals to Caesar.
Shipwreck
Sailing to Rome as a prisoner, his ship breaks up off Malta. All 276 aboard reach land.
Rome
In Rome he lives two years under guard in a rented house, preaching openly. Acts ends there.
Read these first
Key verses about Paul
We know that, for those who love God, all things work together toward good—for those who are called in keeping with his purpose.
Romans 8:28All things work together
I have been crucified with Christ. I am no longer the one living; Christ is the one living in me. The life I am now living in the flesh, I am living by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and handed himself over for me.
Galatians 2:20Christ lives in me
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
2 Timothy 4:7I have finished the race
Questions people ask
What the Bible says, and what tradition adds
Each answer is marked: in the Bible, tradition, readers disagree, or not known.
Tradition, not the Bible
How did Paul die?
Acts ends with him alive in Rome. Early Christian writers say he was beheaded in Rome under Nero, in the mid 60s AD. The Bible does not tell it.
See 2 Timothy 4:6
Readers disagree
Did Paul write all 13 letters with his name?
The church has long held that he did. Many scholars are sure of 7 of them and doubt some or all of the rest, such as 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus.
Not known
Did Paul write Hebrews?
Hebrews does not name its writer. Some early Christians said Paul. Many others, then and now, thought someone else wrote it.
Not known
What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh?
He does not say. Guesses include poor eyesight, illness, and the people who opposed him.
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