5 - Saul of Tarsus (Saint Paul)

5 - Saul of Tarsus (Saint Paul)

The preaching success of the disciples among the Greek-speaking diaspora Jews prompted the intervention of the high priest of Jerusalem and of the Pharisees before the synagogues in various cities, and Jews organized persecutions against Christians. A Jew named Saul, better known by the Greco-Roman name Paul, was sent by the Pharisees to Damascus to direct there the anti-Christian movement. According to the book of Acts of the Apostles, Jesus appeared to Paul on the road and from then he became an ardent Christian. Paul would become the greatest apostle of Christianity, carrying the message of Jesus throughout the Roman Empire, and he would be the main architect of the transformation of a simple Jewish sect into a universal religion.

Paul was also from the diaspora, he was born in the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor. He came from a wealthy family, and he had Roman citizenship. He also was learned, he had Greek and Jewish education, he spoke Greek and Aramaic, and he dominated the Hellenistic rhetoric. Unlike the original 12 apostles, he was literate. These conditions provided invaluable advantages along his preaching career.

Paul's conversion must have occurred between the years 31 and 34, but he began to stand out around the year 40. At that time, the large number of Gentiles (non-Jews) becoming Christians in the city of Antioch worried the Church of Jerusalem led by James and the twelve apostles, as it raised the need to solve new problems such as the coexistence of Jews and Greeks, non-compliance of the mosaics precepts by the Gentiles, and the risk of moral and doctrinal deviation of the community caused by Greek influence. These problems did not exist before due to the common Jewish origin of all Christians.

The Jewish ritual was complicated and confusing for those educated in Greek philosophy. It demanded strange dietary restrictions and, in addition, the Jews considered essential that every convert male submitted himself to the painful operation of circumcision. Finally, Judaism was centered in the Temple of Jerusalem, which was the only place where someone could actually be closer to God.

A veteran disciple named Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to organize the Christian community of Antioch. Barnabas went first to Tarsus to ask Paul to help him with the task assigned. When they arrived to Antioch, they found a church composed mainly of Gentiles who were not previously converted to Judaism, and accepting the fait accompli, they continued converting to Christianity as many Gentiles as they could, without asking the new faithful to go through circumcision. Thus began the amazing career of the "Apostle to the Gentiles."

Between the years 46 and 48, Paul traveled to Cyprus and Asia Minor, preaching openly to the Gentiles, and he realized that the intricate ritual of Judaism was not essential and could even alienate converts as they had to concentrate on minor details that tainted the essence of the message of Jesus. To follow the teachings of Jesus, Gentiles didn’t need to be circumcised, neither did they have to follow the full extent of Jewish ritual nor worship the Temple of Jerusalem. Paul urged Gentiles to simply accept Jesus, and he had extraordinary success. Wherever he went, he raised Christian churches whose strength derived from the Gentiles. Paul contributed more than anyone else in the organization of the early Christian communities.

But the Jerusalem Church objected the ideas of Paul and considered circumcision indispensable. Christians, in fact, were divided into two groups: the Jewish circumcised Christians, who fully accepted the Mosaic Law with the messianism of Jesus and the uncircumcised Hellenists Christians, willing to interpret the teachings of Jesus in the light of Greek philosophy.

The two streams faced each other in the council made in Jerusalem around year 48. James, brother of Jesus and leader of the Church of Jerusalem, was the exponent of the Jewish Christian current, and Paul of the Christian Gentile Hellenistic current. The council came to a compromise, proposed by James and Peter, which was not liked by any of the two groups. The disagreement continued and became harsher.

So Paul resumed his missionary work among the Gentiles and Jews in the Diaspora, and set out alone to convert the world. For 10 years (approximately 49 to 59) he evangelized the cities of Asia Minor, Greece and the Aegean Sea basin, founding new churches and writing numerous letters (epistles) to the Christian communities of the Empire.

Without abandoning Judaism and certain Mosaic prescriptions, Paul gave great importance to community life and to the gathering of the faithful in the "Lord's Supper"; He took Greek philosophy notions that were unknown to the Judaic thought, such as "consciousness", "nature" and "utility." As the concept of "Messiah" made no sense to the Greeks and Romans, he added to his letters and to Christian thought the notion that the pre-existent Son of God became man and suffered the torture to save humanity and wash away humanity sins. The Greek world could accept Jesus as deity because it had many human gods, but Judaism could not. Judaism absolutely separated God from humanity.

Around the year 59, Paul returned from his third mission trip and visited Jerusalem in an attempt to get closer to the Mother Church. He received a cold welcome because the Jews and Jewish Christians felt that his teachings were contrary to the Law of Moses and that his presence desecrated the Temple. Riots broke out and Paul was imprisoned. He appealed to the emperor as a Roman citizen, and after two years in prison he was allowed to sail to Rome, in his fourth and last voyage.

Today, few Christians know the important role played by Paul, the "apostle of the Gentiles" in the history of Christianity. Although he did not meet Jesus nor was he one of the twelve apostles, he carried the message of Jesus around the Roman Empire. By combining the teachings of Jesus with Greek philosophy, he managed that Greeks and Romans easily assimilated Christianity and he began the transformation of a simple Jewish sect into a universal religion.

We ignore what happened to Paul later, but it is believed that he remained in Rome, continuing his missionary work. Peter joined him in Rome and he accept the theology of Paul after leaving the Judeo-Christian Church of Jerusalem. Although they had differences over their careers, they found together martyrdom and death probably after the fire of Rome, like many other Christians martyred during Nero's persecution. The tradition that says that Peter was the first head of the Roman Church comes from his preaching in Rome.