Life of Paul
The life of the Apostle Paul is a very long and complex story. Through much research and thought of an approach, I have found the best way to give an account is to actually recount the life that he led. In this paper I will attempt to give a testimony of how I perceived the life of Paul. In my view, his life consists of four parts: his life before the conversion, the actual conversion, his life through the three renowned missionary journeys, and the testimony he gives throughout. The letters he wrote through this time and the miscellaneous autobiographical information supplied in the scriptures also takes on a large amount of the concentration. The first area I would like to observe in the life of Paul is his actual life before the conversion. This Jewish Pharisee is first seen or heard of with his Hebrew name Saul (Acts 7:58; 13:9). According to The Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, Paul was born in Tarsus in Cilicia. This place of origin is located in Asia Minor or modern southern Turkey. As far as we know, he was born around ten years after Christ. This assumption is gathered since he is referred to as a 'young man' at the time of Stephen's stoning (Act 7:58). We know that Paul's father was d
This was the period when the great riot occurred in Ephesus or the temple to Artemis (1 Cor. 15:32; Rom. 16:3-4; 2 Cor. 1:8-11). Paul then sent Timothy and Erastus on ahead to Macedonia. Paul soon after sailed over to Macedonia retracing his earlier ministry through Phillipi, Thessalonica and Berea. From there he set sail stopping a various ports on the way south including Miletus where he met the elders of the Ephesian church. The last significant port on the journey was at Tyre. There the prophet Agabus warned Paul not to go to Jerusalem because his life would be in danger. The prophecy was to be fulfilled though. Paul stayed a while in Antioch before leaving for his third missionary journey. This trip took place at some time around AD 53 through AD 57 (Acts 18:23-21:16). On this trip Paul once again traveled north and west overland revisiting the churches in Galatia and Phrygia (Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia). He finally arrived in Ephesus and encountered some disciples. They had simply received the Baptism of John the Baptist, so Paul informed them of Jesus Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit, they were immediately baptized 'into the name of the Lord Jesus' and the spirit came upon them (Acts 19:1-7). In Acts 19:20 we find an accurate summarization of this ministry period. "In this way he word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.' Thomas Nelson Publishers. Nashville: 1996.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3120
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
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