The Apostle Paul

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The Apostle Paul Starting out life as Saul the Pharisee, a self-confessed enemy of Christians, Paul had a life-changing experience on the road to Damascus and converted to Christianity, becoming the very picture of how even the most contrary sinner can be changed through an encounter with the Lord (McBirnie, 2008). Once converted, Paul became one of the most committed Christians in Jesus' time, preaching the Gospel and enduring imprisonment at Rome before embarking on missionary journeys (McBirnie, 2008). Paul is credited with writing a number of New Testament books, including Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, and some Bible scholars attribute the Book of Hebrews to him (Borean, n.d.). The preoccupation with the supernatural in these books demonstrates that Paul was a mystic in the sense that he was "a human being looking upon the division between earthly and super-earthly, temporal and eternal," a juxtaposition that is of the most intensive import to Christians (Schweitzer, Pelikan, & Montgomer, 1998). When Paul returned to Rome, he was believed to have been taken prisoner, along with the apostle Peter (McBirnie, 2008). Paul was martyred in Rome, when by orders of Emperor Nero, he was beheaded with a sword (McBirnie, 2008). Paul was born in the Cilician town of Tarsus, in Asia Minor, as a Hebrew named Saul from the tribe of Benjamin (Milean, 2001). A descendent of Jews set free from Roman slavery, Paul was a full Roman citizen with all the pertinent rights of such citizenship (Mileant, 2001). An educated man, he was acquainted with the pagan culture, as his speeches and writings give evidence, and he studied in rabbinical school under the noted teacher Gamaliel (Mileant, 2001). Gamaliel was "considered an expert on the law and despite belonging
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