ABSTRACT
Although Christianity is plainly founded on the life and teaching of Jesus, Christianity would not have survived in its present form-indeed it would possibly not have survived at all-if it had not been for the early apostle Paul. His contribution to the Christian faith is such that one present-day scholar describes him as ‘the most influential theologian of all time’ (Hooker, in Bowden 2005: 897). Despite the fact that Paul was not an immediate follower of Jesus and indeed had never met him, his impact on the emergent Christian faith was manifold. In Christian art, Paul is usually depicted as a short man, bald, and with a stoop. Although this traditional portrayal goes back to the second century, and the fourthcentury Church historian Eusebius affirms its authenticity, such representations are probably due to imagination rather than historical fact.
