The Life and Prayers of Saint Paul the Apostle (4 page)

Paul and Barnabas won the argument and the result, we learn, was that a letter was sent out to the Christian communities instructing them about the decision: “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right.” (Acts 15:28-29)

Whether there was in fact a Council of Jerusalem has long been debated by historians. One important argument against such a council comes from the writings of Paul himself. When Paul wrote to the Galatians about that apparently fateful visit to Jerusalem, he did not mention participating in any such important debate. Instead, he tells us that he was approved to preach to the Gentiles. The next event that Paul tells us of is his conflict with Peter in Antioch, on another topic of Mosaic law. Why would Paul leave out such crucially important details, when he clearly did not mind telling the Galatians that he had been in conflict with the Twelve?

Regardless of the historicity of the Council of Jerusalem, these passages bring to our attention that there was a very real conflict going on, splitting the Christian community in two.

Not long after Paul had returned to Antioch, the Apostle Peter came to visit. When he arrived, Peter dined often with the Gentiles during their communal meals. After some time, however, they were joined by some Jewish Christians sent to Antioch by James. Suddenly, Peter would no longer dine with the Gentiles and there were many others who saw his change and followed suit. Although it is not explicitly stated, the problem was most likely that the Gentile diet was not kosher and the Jews who dined with them were thus breaking Mosaic Law, but there might have been further underlying issues concerning circumcision and Jewish Law.

Regardless of their reasons, Paul was outraged by their actions. It was Paul's opinion that through the coming of Christ the righteous were righteous through their faith in Christ rather than through their maintaining of the ancient Jewish laws. When Isaiah prophesied that all peoples would seek God through Israel, Paul felt, it meant that they would come to God as Gentiles, not as Israelites.

This attempt to force Gentiles to act like Jews went against the prophecy, and Paul's perception of the message of Christ. Furthermore, changing sides out of fear of losing one's more orthodox supporters, Paul felt, was pure hypocrisy. He called Peter out publicly, but in the end it was Peter and James' fraction who won the argument and as a result the group of Jewish Christians favoring Gentile circumcision and adoption of Mosaic Laws grew significantly in Antioch. Even Paul's long term friend and companion, Barnabas, took the side of Peter and James, which may have facilitated their split very soon thereafter.

Unfortunately, it was not merely in Jerusalem and in Antioch that the fractions were felt and Paul was met by early Christian controversy. It also occurred in the communities that he had established abroad, especially in his absence.

One such controversy is on display in 1 Corinthians, the letter that Paul wrote to his church in Corinth in response to a letter he had received from them. In this epistle we see Paul appealing to his community to be one in Christ, for they had split into fractions. Some said to follow Paul, others to follow his co-missionary Apollos, others still followed Peter.

The rift was probably largely caused by the stream of missionaries traveling through Corinth. They were Jewish Christians, who preached, according to Paul, another Jesus and “a different Gospel,” and they proclaimed that Paul was a false Apostle, sent by Satan, proclaiming a weak Jesus. Given the increase in followers of Peter it is possible that some of them belonged to the fraction wanting all Gentiles to follow Mosaic Law, but they could also have belonged to other fractions. They were very influential, and their hold over the congregation in Corinth did not end with a single letter from Paul. His first letter was not well-received, nor his second, third or fourth.

When Paul then finally arrived in Corinth to address the matter in person, he walked right into a confrontation. At full assembly, a powerful local believer condemned Paul with devastating force, publicly humiliating him. Paul fled humiliated, and from a safe distance he fired off an angry letter, known as the "letter of tears," which he sent Titus to deliver. This fifth letter, the fourth that is partially preserved in the Bible, can be found in 2 Corinthians 10-13. The result of Paul's "letter of tears" was that Titus was eventually welcomed back into Corinth, and the person who had publicly attacked Paul was rebuked. But, the warlike nature of Paul's words forever hurt the relationship between Paul and the congregation.

Not long after his “letter of tears,” Paul found himself in prison. He had been preaching the Gospel in Ephesus when he had some trouble with a competing Christian fraction and ended up imprisoned. He alludes to this in Philippians 1.

Imprisonment in the Roman Empire was rarely a final punishment, and there were no real public prisons, but rather it was an incarceration awaiting a trial, usually within a military buildings or a large household. While under lock and guard, Paul was allowed visitors, even to baptize them, financial assistance, and to send letters. One letter to the Philippians thanked them for sending money, probably as a bribe to keep up Paul's many privileges.

According to the late 2nd century
Saint Paul and the Baptized Lion
, Paul was not merely imprisoned in Ephesus, but sentenced to death by fighting wild animals in the arena. Paul only escaped with the help of a friendly lion, whom Paul had previously baptized.

When Paul was released from his imprisonment in Ephesus, Paul immediately wrote a letter to Corinth to express his happiness over their reconciliation and to promise them a visit. He finally arrived in circa 57 AD, a man in his early to mid-50s, approximately five years after his first visit. He had regained some of his former respect, and could enjoy a level of authority within the community.

It was not an extended visit and he soon bid them farewell again. When he left, he took with him several sealed bags of coins. This was the Gentiles' collection as a gift to the poor of Jerusalem, honoring a promise Paul had made to Peter, John and James on the day that they approved his mission to the Gentiles. It may also have contained their collection in order to offer sacrifice at the Temple. It was also common practice for the Jewish diaspora to make such collections for temple sacrifices in their absence. It was not only the Jews who acted in this way, many Pagan diaspora communities in the Roman empire are known to have sent money back to the temple of their hometown's god.

Paul's Final Years

Paul sailed to Jerusalem with the money, probably from Cenchreae where he had been staying with Phoebe, a convert who ran a church from her house there. Phoebe, on the other hand set off to Rome as Paul's delegation to the Christians there, with a letter of introduction introducing Paul and his gospel. This letter is preserved as Paul's
Epistle to the Romans
, in which Paul promised to visit the Roman Christians on his way to Spain, where he hoped to found new Christian communities.

According to the writer of Acts, Paul had received warning through the Holy Spirit that things would not go well for him in Jerusalem. In Acts 20, Paul tells the Ephesians: “But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. What will happen to me there I do not know, except that in one city after another the Holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me. Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel of God’s grace.”

In Acts 21, he was warned by the Holy Spirit, through the people of Tyre, as well as by a prophet in Caesarea, and when he arrived in Jerusalem he was warned by James and urged to purify himself so that no one could accuse him of being an unlawful Jew. Many Bible scholars see this as part of the Acts author's attempt to liken Paul's story to the Passion of Christ. In his own writings, as we have just seen, Paul seems oblivious to the danger that awaits in Jerusalem, and even makes plans for trips to follow.

The main source for information about what happened next is Acts 21-28, although historians doubt the historicity of the events described. According to acts, some Jews from the provinces of Minor Asia stirred up a mob and seized Paul inside the Temple, accusing him of having brought Gentiles into the sacred Court of Israel, where only Hebrews were allowed. Although the author of Acts makes it clear that this was a false accusation based on a simple misunderstanding, some scholars believe that the allegations were in fact true.

The allegations against Paul are so inconvenient for his supporters, they mean to say, that they can hardly have been made up simply for the sake of making Paul into a martyr. And, if it was true that the allegations were made, they also feel that it was plausible that they were correct. They argue that when Paul originally delivered his Gospel to Peter, James, and John, he did so in the presence of an uncircumcised Greek Christian. These same historians feel that Paul most likely planned to do the same thing in the Temple, a very provocative move in favor of his inclusive understanding of the Gospel.

While the Jews at the Temple tried to kill Paul, word reached the local Roman cohort commander that all of Jerusalem was in a riot, so he immediately charged upon the mob with several soldiers. Paul was arrested. After being questioned by the commander, Paul was allowed to address the Jews in Hebrew, and although they listened they still wished him dead.

The commander ordered that Paul be interrogated under the lash to determine why it was the Jews wanted him dead. When they had bound Paul, stretched for the whip, Paul remarked to the centurion on duty that it would probably not be lawful for them to whip a Roman citizen like himself. This sudden claim of Roman citizenship, at just the right moment, and the subsequent unquestioning trust of Paul by all Romans, has lead many scholars to question this part of the story.

At the moment of his arrest, Paul had told the commander “I am a Jew, of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city.” If his historically very unlikely Roman citizenship were more than a literary device, why would he not have included his Roman citizenship in his presentation of himself?

Next, Paul was allowed to address the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court at Jerusalem. His speech caused such an uproar that several men created a plot to kill Paul. The Roman commander in charge then sent Paul to Caesarea, where the governor held him prisoner for two more years until a new governor was appointed.

The new governor wished to ingratiate himself with the Jews, so he ordered that Paul be sent back to Jerusalem to stand trial before the Jews, but as a Roman citizen, and unwilling to go back to a certain stoning, Paul demanded to be allowed to plead his case before the Emperor in Rome. Before setting off, however, he was allowed to plea his case before King Herod Agrippa II, the Roman client king of Galilee.

Traveling to Rome was a slow affair even by sea, as seafarers in Antiquity preferred to sail close to the shore rather than go out too far across the open water. It was also a dangerous affair, and before they could arrive in Rome the ship that was taking Paul across shipwrecked on Malta, where the islanders were very kind to him. He finally reached Rome, circa 60 AD, about 55 years old.

His imprisonment in Rome was probably not terribly difficult for him. Paul was allowed to live on his own in a sort of house arrest, with a soldier present to ensure that he did not try to leave the city. And as Acts 28 tells us: “He remained for two full years in his lodgings. He received all who came to him,
and with complete assurance and without hindrance he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.”

What happened next is the matter of some debate. The now traditional view, which exists in several versions, is that Paul stood trial before Emperor Nero, was found guilty, and finally beheaded. Those familiar with the martyrdom of Saint Peter may wonder why Paul was not crucified, like his fellow Apostle, and the reason for this was that Paul was supposedly a Roman citizen. Crucifixion was a slow and painful death, reserved for foreigners.

According to
The Martyrdom of Saint Paul
, this trial came about because Paul bought a barn outside of Rome in order to preach to the people. A great many people came to see him, and among them were Nero's favorite cup bearer, Patroclus.

The boy, alas, sat on a high window to better hear Paul and fell to his death purely by accident. When Paul raised the boy from death, he was overjoyed and ran back to his master, proclaiming that he had enlisted as a “soldier” in the coming “Kingdom.”

A coming kingdom with soldiers frightened Nero, who arrested and executed all Christians he could find. Paul was the first to die, but when he was beheaded it was milk, rather than blood, that gushed out of Paul's neck. Resurrected, Paul later returned to rebuke Nero for breaking both divine and Roman law, and so Nero released all of the Christians.

The fourth century
Passion of Saint Paul
tells us that before his beheading, Paul borrowed the veil of a woman called Plautilla as a blindfold. He returned it to her after his resurrection.

Some sources claim that Paul never died in Rome at all. The
Acts of Peter
and the
Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena
maintain that after his imprisonment in Rome, Paul went on to proselytize in the west, like he planned to in his letter to the Romans. Other sources claim that he returned eastwards, for yet an apostolic tour.