Paul the Apostle

Paul the Apostle (Greek: Παῦλος Paulos; c. 5 – c. 67), originally known asSaul of Tarsus (Hebrew: שאול התרסי‎; Greek: Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς Saulos Tarseus),^[1][2] was an apostle (though not one of the Twelve Apostles) who taught the gospel of Christ to the first-century world.^[7] He is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age.^[8][9] In the mid-30s to the mid-50s, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Paul took advantage of his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizento minister to both Jewish and Roman audiences.

According to writings in the New Testament Paul, who was originally called Saul, was dedicated to the persecution of the early disciples of Jesus in the area of Jerusalem.^[10] In the narrative of the book of Acts of the Apostles (often referred to simply as Acts), while Paul was traveling on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus on a mission to "bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem", the resurrected Jesus appeared to him in a great light. He was struck blind, but after three days his sight was restored by Ananias of Damascus, and Paul began to preach that Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah and the Son of God.^[11] Approximately half of the book of Acts deals with Paul's life and works.

Fourteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul. Seven of the epistles are undisputed by scholars as being authentic, with varying degrees of argument about the remainder. Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews (which is not asserted in the Epistle itself), already doubted in the 2nd and 3rd centuries ^[12] but almost unquestioningly accepted from the 5th to the 16th centuries,^[13] is now almost universally rejected by scholars.^[14] The other six are believed by some scholars to have come from followers writing in his name, using material from Paul's surviving letters and letters written by him that no longer survive.^[7][8][15]Other scholars argue that the idea of a pseudonymous author for the disputed epistles raises many problems.^[16]

Today, Paul's epistles continue to be vital roots of the theology, worship, and pastoral life in the Catholic and Protestant traditions of the West, and the Orthodox traditions of the East.^[17] Among that of many other apostles and missionaries involved in the spread of the Christian faith,^[7] Paul's influence on Christian thought and practice has been characterized as being as "profound as it is pervasive". Augustine of Hippo developed Paul's idea that salvation is based on faith and not "works of the law". Martin Luther's interpretation ofPaul's writings influenced Luther's doctrine of sola fide.

source .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Apostle 

Saint Paul delivering the Areopagus sermon in Athens, by Raphael, 1515. This sermon addressed early issues in Christology.[62][63]

The house believed to be of Ananias of Damascus in Damascus

Bab Kisan, believed to be where Paul escaped from persecution in Damascus

Saint Paul arrested, early 1900s Bible illustration

Statue of St. Paul in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran by Pierre-Étienne Monnot

Paul Writing His Epistles, painting attributed to Valentin de Boulogne, 17th century

The Beheading of Saint Paul by Enrique Simonet, 1887

Paul the Apostle, attributed to Lucas van Leyden

Geography relevant to Paul's life, stretching from Jerusalem to Rome

The Nicene Creed at the First Council of Nicaea

Russian Orthodox icon of the Apostle Paul, 18th century (Iconostasis of Transfiguration Church, KizhiMonastery, Karelia, Russia)

Saint Paul, Byzantine ivory relief, 6th – early 7th century (Musée de Cluny)

Statue of St. Paul (1606) by Gregorio Fernández

Conversion on the Way to Damascus (1601), by Caravaggio

Caravaggio (1571–1610), The Conversion of Saint Paul, 1600