ABSTRACT
When we read or hear Paul’s letters, we are actually intruding into a process of communication, a dialogue in which Paul is one conversation partner. About this person, we find first-hand information in his genuine letters, and second-hand in the disputed letters and the Book of Acts (we should always keep in mind that the perspective on Paul given in Acts is the view held by the author of Luke-Acts, which is not necessarily the same as Paul’s own view of himself ). The information that we find in New Testament apocrypha such as the Acts of Paul, is clearly legendary. Paul was a Pharisaic Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia (Acts 22.3; 23.6), who at first persecuted the Christian church, until his decisive experience on the road to Damascus, which he himself interpreted as a revelation, by God, of his Son, and as a commission to preach God’s Son among the Gentiles (Gal. 1.13-17). From that moment, he displayed an immense missionary activity (Acts 9.20-20.26), until his arrest in Jerusalem and his imprisonment in Caesarea and in Rome (Acts 20.27-28.31). He died in Rome as a martyr (1 Clement 5.7).
