He had become a disciple of the apostle Paul and later followed Paul until his martyrdom. In the late 50s Paul returned to Jerusalem with the money he had raised and a few of his Gentile converts. Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 13 are attributed to Paul, and approximately half of another, Acts of the Apostles, deals with Paul’s life and works. Years later, this site would become the current basilica in Rome, St. Paul’s, Outside-the-Walls, and the Vatican has always claimed that his body rests in a sarcophagus within the church. He was with Paul in Jerusalem, and the Jews, supposing that the apostle had brought him into the temple, raised a tumult which resulted in Paul’s imprisonment. Being struck blind on the road to Damascus has become a metaphor for sudden enlightenment and conversion. However, Paul himself indicates that he was from the area of Damascus which was in Syria (see the letter to the Galatians). He is also alluded to have been with Paul in Rome, where the apostle sent him to Ephesus, probably for the purpose of building up and encouraging the church there. Please select which sections you would like to print: Corrections? Paul’s motivations are unknown, but they seem not to have been connected to his Pharisaism. It has been dated to the mid-first century and reads "Erastus in return for his aedileship paved it at his own expense." may be the same person with Aristarchus. The world of the Book of Acts is full of persons who are related with Paul. There is a similar refrain in Paul's letter to Philemon, where a person of the same name passes on his "greetings" to Philemon (Philemon 23). He was a colleague of the Apostle Paul mentioned twice in the New Testament epistle of Colossians and once in the New Testament letter to Philemon. In the last chapter of the Book of Acts, widely attributed to Luke, we find several accounts in the first person also affirming Luke's presence in Rome including Acts 28:16: "And when we came to Rome...". Sosipater is a person mentioned in the New Testament, in Romans 16:21. Luke's presence in Rome with the Apostle Paul near the end of Paul's life was attested by 2 Timothy 4:11: "Only Luke is with me". In addition to his extensive theological contributions, St. Paul played a crucial role in the development of Christianity away from its Jewish parent. And there arose a sharp contention, so that they separated from each other; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. In the larger context (vs.17–42), Peter and the other apostles are described as being prosecuted before the Sanhedrin for continuing to preach the gospel despite the Jewish authorities having previously prohibited it. Does this mean that Jewish followers of Christ no longer had to follow the Law? Paul was a Diaspora Jew, a member of the party of the Pharisees, who experienced a revelation of the resurrected Jesus. They are mentioned six times in four different books of the New Testament, always named as a couple and never individually. "The Myth of the ‘Law-Free’ Paul Standing Between Christians and Jews. The “circumcision faction” of the Jerusalem apostles (Galatians 2:12–13), which argued that converts should undergo circumcision as a sign of accepting the covenant between God and Abraham, later broke this agreement by preaching to the Gentile converts both in Antioch (Galatians 2:12) and Galatia and insisting that they be circumcised, leading to some of Paul’s strongest invective (Galatians 1:7–9; 3:1; 5:2–12; 6:12–13). By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Barnabas ,born Joseph, was an early Christian, one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem. Priscilla and Aquila were tentmakers as was Paul. Paul’s plan was to establish communities throughout the Eastern Empire, and then stay in touch through letters or revisit them to see how they were doing.    in heaven and on earth and under the earth, Erastus, also known as Erastus of Paneas, is a person in the New Testament. Paul was a Pharisee, and claims that when it came to “the Law,” he was more zealous and knew more about the law than anyone else. Once that is accomplished, then the Jews will see the light and join (Romans 9-11). According to legend, he was Bishop in Iconium (prior to the Apostle Tertius) by his relative the Apostle Paul. Silas is thus often identified with Silvanus of the Seventy. What little is known about Paul the Pharisee reflects the character of the Pharisaic movement. His birthplace, Tarsus, was a major city in eastern Cilicia, a region that had been made part of the Roman province of Syria by the time of Paul’s adulthood. Later Christian tradition favours the view that he was executed there (1 Clement 5:1–7), perhaps as part of the executions of Christians ordered by the Roman emperor Nero following the great fire in the city in 64 ce. He is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on August 4. (Acts 9:11) Ananias objected that Saul had been persecuting "thy saints", but the Lord told him that Saul was "a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel". Priscilla and Aquila are described in the New Testament as providing a presence that strengthened the early Christian churches.