Facts about Paul the Apostle
15. Paul was from the Roman city of Tarsus, located in what is today southern Turkey. (Acts of the Apostles 21:39)
14. Tarsus, Paul’s birthplace, is at least 4,000 years old. In 41 B.C., Antony and Cleopatra held a celebrated meeting there.
13. Paul, whose original name was Saul, took the name familiar to us after his conversion to Christianity. Paul never met Jesus during his brief years of ministry. Nevertheless, he was perhaps Christianity's most important early convert and the first major missionary to preach the Christian gospel to non-Jewish people.
12. When Saul of Tarsus, who was later renamed Paul, saw the resurrected Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road, Saul converted to Christianity.
11. Saul was a Jew who was well known for persecuting Christians, but when he became a Christian his name was changed to Paul. The name "Paul" actually means "small."
10. 7 relatives of Paul is mentioned in the New Testament. They are Andronicus and Junia, Jason, Sosipater and Lucius. There was also mention of his sister and his nephew who helped him in prison.
9. At the age of fourteen Paul was sent to Jerusalem to train to be a Rabbi. His teacher was a prominent man named Gamaliel.
8. Saul met the Lord on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians in Acts chapter 9. There was a bright light from heaven that caused Saul to fall to the ground. The voice of the Lord asked Saul why Saul was persecuting Him. Jesus explained to Saul that when he persecuted the church then he was persecuting the recently risen Lord.
7. Paul was not physically impressive, nor was he a very good speaker. (1 Corinthians 2:1 and 2 Corinthians 10:10; 11:6)
6. Paul was not one of the 12 apostles. However, the New Testament records that Paul did interact with many of the original disciples, especially in Jerusalem.
5. He made three long missionary journeys throughout the Roman Empire, planting churches, preaching the gospel, and giving strength and encouragement to early Christians.
4. He must have been eating fish with scales because the Jewish dietary laws prevents from eating fish without scales.
3. Paul was a Pharisee (Acts of the Apostles 26:5) and a tentmaker (Acts of the Apostles 18:3).
2. At the start of his ministry, Paul spent much of his time in Jerusalem. Later, he traveled through Asia Minor, to Greece, and Rome.
1. Of the 27 books in the New Testament, Paul is credited as the author of 13 of them.
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