Saint Paul is unique among those who have changed the course of history — responsible not just for one but two critical historical developments 15 centuries apart. First, he persuaded the early followers of Jesus of Nazareth that gentiles as well as Jews could belong to their nascent church. This enabled its spread throughout the Roman empire, until Christianity become the state religion under the Emperor Constantine, and remained the official creed of all European nations until the French revolution. Second, there was his teaching on justification by faith alone —a ticking time bomb detonated by Martin Luther in the 16th century. ‘If we were to do justice to Paul today,’ writes the author of this new biography, ‘we ought to teach him in departments of politics, ancient history, economics and/or philosophy, just as much as divinity schools and departments of religion.’
Such justice has not been done, and it has been largely left to theologians and Biblical scholars such as N.T. (Tom) Wright — once Bishop of Durham, now research professor in New Testament and Early Christianity at the university of St Andrews — to enquire into the nature and motivation of this remarkable man. Writing his life is a tricky task because, while more is known about Paul than most of the other Apostles, through his letters and The Acts of the Apostles, there are gaps and mysteries that can only be filled by conjecture. For example, nothing is known about his final years.
He was born as Saul, in Tarsus in Cilicia, about ten years after Jesus. He learned the skills of tent-making — no doubt the family business — but was intellectually precocious and, though a Roman citizen, a zealous Jew. Indeed zeal, Wright believes, is the key to his character.
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