Sha'ul Ha Tarsi, otherwise known as Paul of Tarsus, is probably the most influential man in the history of Christianity, next to the carpenter of Nazareth, though it is probable that Jesus never had any plans for an institutional church and arguable that Paul is the true founder of the Christian church.
In 2002, an 8 foot long marble sarcophagus, inscribed with the words "PAULO APOSTOLO MART" ("Paul apostle martyr") was discovered during excavations around the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls on the Via Ostiensis in Rome.
On 6 December 2006 the Vatican announced it had done Carbon-14 tests on some bone fragments in the sarcophagus laid to rest in an underground chamber of the Basilica of St. Paul which confirmed that the remains were dated to the 1st century AD. The archaeologists who conducted the sampling found traces of fine purple linen with gold sequins and remains of red incense. The head of Paul is reputed to be buried elsewhere at St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome.
Otherwise known as St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, due to it being outside the walls of the Vatican City, the Basilica of St. Paul houses the remains of the apostle Paul who was beheaded by Nero in AD 65. According to tradition he was beheaded and not crucified because he was a Roman citizen and crucifixion was reserved for the enemies of Rome. Nero instigated a wave of persecutions against the early Christian church claiming as a pretext that Christians had set fire to Rome. The apostle Peter was also murdered at this time, crucified upside down.
Church historian Eusebius melodramatically states in his History of the Early Church, “When the government of Nero was now firmly established, he began to plunge into unholy pursuits, and armed himself even against the religion of the God of the universe… but with all these things this particular in the catalogue of his crimes was still wanting, that he was the first of the emperors who showed himself an enemy of the divine religion.”
According to legend, Sha'ul's body was buried outside the walls of Rome, at the second mile on the Via Ostiensis, on an estate owned by a Christian woman named Lucina. The early followers were preaching of a new kingdom which provoked fear among the Roman authorities who perceived these sentiments as a threat to the Empire.
In 64 AD, Rome experienced a devastating fire which lasted 6-7 days and damaged three quarters of the city. The people blamed Nero. The historian Suetonius claimed he set the fire for his own amusement and reported that Nero played the lyre and sang the 'Sack of Ilium' during the fires. To deflect blame, Nero arrested and murdered a few Christian leaders who then in turn implicated all Christians and a free-for-all of persecutions began.
The Roman historian Tacitus was a young boy living in Rome during the time of the persecutions and in his book Annals published a few years after the event he describes the event:
“... Nero falsely accused and executed with the most exquisite punishments those people called Christians, who were infamous for their abominations. The originator of the name, Christ, was executed as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius; and though repressed, this destructive superstition erupted again, not only through Judea, which was the origin of this evil, but also through the city of Rome…they were additionally made into sports: they were killed by dogs by having the hides of beasts attached to them, or they were nailed to crosses or set aflame, and, when the daylight passed away, they were used as nighttime lamps...”
Sha'ul was arrested around 60 AD and spent at least 2 years under house arrest in Rome before he was tried and executed. Sha'ul was beheaded in the middle of the road according to tradition. Constantine built a church at the location and in 1800 the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls was built on the spot.
Sha'ul’s career spanning 3 decades came to an inglorious end; some might say a fitting end. To be martyred and placed among the saints is a great honor in the Christian church. Sha'ul firmly established himself as the preeminent apostle. 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament are attributed to him. His letters are arguably the theological basis of Christianity.
Sha'ul was a unique man – a Roman citizen, a Greek scholar and a Jew by birth. He truly lived “outside the walls” of more than one culture. As a Jew, he was from a race of people who considered themselves set apart from their Gentile neighbors. They were the chosen people. According to the Talmud, God offered the Torah to all the nations of the earth, and the Jews were the only ones who accepted it.
As a Roman citizen he had status and protection from Rome’s barbarian neighbors – to the Romans the world was divided into the Empire, and outside the walls of the Empire, lived the barbarian hordes.
Sha'ul was born in Tarsus, in the Roman province of Cilicia It was well-known for its culture of Greek philosophy, literature and wealth. Its schools of learning rivaled and excelled even those found in Athens and Alexandria. The city’s library held 200,000 books including a huge collection of scientific works. Sha'ul grew up in a Hellenistic culture as a Jew living outside the walls of both Israel and the center of Jewish culture in Jerusalem.
As a Greek scholar he was part of an educated and wealthy intellectual elite. They were a privileged social class separated from the masses by the institutional walls of the Greek schools and universities.
Sha'ul was also celibate. He lived outside the walls of married life, a man “set apart for Christ.” In a society where large extended families were the norm, Sha'ul chose a solitary path, free of the constraints of a wife and children in order to focus more on his ministry, as he claimed a wife was a distraction. “He that is unmarried cares for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: But he that is married cares for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.”
Sha'ul was a tentmaker. He worked with his hands in a common trade to support himself and his ministry. This is an ironic contrast to the rest of his pursuits. A humble trade placed him among the working classes and in that culture and at that time in history, the working classes lived outside the walls of the aristocrats and merchants.
What can we conclude about a man with these kinds of credentials? We can say that Sha'ul Ha Tarsi had a layered upbringing which exposed him to different cultures, ideas and values. He undoubtedly had the ability to morph between cultures and social groups with ease. He more than likely was a social chameleon blessed with the talent to change the color of his skin to match his surroundings.
He seems to have been a multi-faceted and complex personality which placed him in a powerful position of social advantage; some say the perfect man for the job while others see him as a clever compromiser who took Jesus' original message of brotherly love and transformed it into a personality cult about a Jewish messiah who mystically transferred the sins of the world through his death and resurrection.
~ Mosaic of St. Paul at the Archiepiscopal Museum, Ravenna
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