Dear Rev. Know-it-all,

The life of St. Paul confuses me. Can you make any sense of it?

Yours sincerely,

Perry Patetique

Dear Perry,

Can I make sense of the life of St. Paul? In a word “No.” It isn’t for want of trying.  Paul got into the habit of never staying in the same place for very long. All the dates I mention aren’t even probable, just possible. Here goes an attempt. Paul was probably converted about 35 AD as he travelled to Damascus to arrest Christians. After irritating people in both Damascus and Jerusalem he went to Arabia and back to Tarsus.  Some years later in perhaps 43 AD, Barnabas went to see him in Tarsus and they returned together to Antioch and Jerusalem.

Paul’s first missionary journey begins when he, Barnabas, and Barnabas’ cousin Mark leave Antioch and travel to the island of Cyprus, then on to Salamis and Paphos where Paul does spiritual battle with Elymas the sorcerer. (Acts 13:4-6) Then they sail to Perga in southern Turkey. Then it was on to Iconium, where they remained a “long time” whatever that may mean.  Paul is stoned in Lystra but survives. They retrace their steps and eventually sail back to Antioch where they remain for, yet again, “a long time.” 

Next comes the period from 50 to 60 AD, the most productive part of the life of St. Paul. He becomes the great letter writer and the vehicle for the conversion of the lands surrounding the Aegean Sea, the heart of the Greek speaking world. In about 50 AD, Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem to defend the conversion of non-Jews. This is probably 14 or 15 years after Paul’s conversion. Paul then travels to Athens, probably in 51 AD where he preached at the Aereopagus at the foot of the great acropolis in full view of the temple of Athena. His preaching bombs, so he moves on to Corinth and there preached how Christ was crucified. He stays in Corinth where he met Aquila and Priscilla, who had just come from Rome, banished along with all Jews by the emperor Claudius. It seems they had been rioting about a certain “Chrestos.” Probably they were fighting about whether Jesus was the Messiah. In Corinth he wrote first and second Thessalonians in about 52.

He teams up with Aquila and Priscilla, fellow Jews, fellow tent makers and fellow believers in Jesus. With them he crosses the Aegean Sea straight over to Ephesus. He returns to Jerusalem and then in possibly 54 AD he returns to Ephesus where he stayed for three years (Acts 20:31) probably from the fall of 54 AD to the fall of 57 AD. This is where it gets interesting.

There were probably only a few hundred Christians in Ephesus at the very most. They would have been thought of as a sub sect of Jews. Nonetheless, they upset the whole city of Ephesus with their preaching. Why? They preached with signs and wonders following. They had real spiritual power. Ephesus was a religious mess. It was a center for what we would call witchcraft. Paul was able to cast out demons and started hurting the very prosperous business of the voodoo practitioners. Worse, the followers of St. Paul were critical of idolatry and prostitution which were big business in Ephesus as they had been in Corinth. That’s why Paul seems to be critical of women exercising roles in public ministry. In effect he was saying, “Put your veils back on girls. The neighbors are getting the wrong impression.” In both Ephesus and Corinth there were thousands of temple prostitutes. To have relations with the priestesses was to have relations with the goddess, Venus, the goddess of love in the case of Corinth and Diana of the Ephesians in Ephesus. In addition, the silversmiths of Corinth made a handsome living making tourist tchotchkes, little silver copies of the great temple of Diana or the goddess herself, an odd little statue of as woman with a lot of extra appendages. (I’m trying to be delicate.)

Ephesus was a city of hundreds of thousands of people. St. Paul managed to upset the whole place by saying sex and money aren’t what life is all about. As a consequence, 30,000 people gathered in the great theater and raged, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!!!” all the while howling for St. Paul’s blood.  Paul wanted to confront them, but his friends, who included some of the city officials, hustled him out of town. This is the high point of Paul’s life as far as I am concerned. He changed the world, not simply by his letters, but by his spiritual power. He was a miracle worker, and not just a letter writer. 

We are in the same condition in the Church today. They are howling for our blood. To me this is good news. The Ephesians had no problem with the Jews. The Jews were smart enough to mind their own business. But when the power of God manifests itself in miracles and threatens the comfortable life of the world, they want to kill us. Even within the Church there are accommodationists who want us to judge not lest we be judged. I suspect that Paul would have nothing to do with the preachers of an easy religion. The fact that the whole world is upset with us is a good sign. At least there are some who still preach the upsetting Gospel that Paul preached and can back it up with the power of God.

Yours, the Rev. Know-it-all

P.S. By the way, they eventually killed Paul.