Whatever happened to Paul/Saul?

[Zzyzx]

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Stories in Acts indicate that Paul/Saul went to Rome in 60 CE – after which there is no further mention of his fate in the Bible. Did he die of natural causes, was he executed, was he perhaps 'resurrected' – or did he just disappear from the scene? OR, was the fabled trip to Rome a fabrication?

It seems a bit odd that a famous personality just drops out of sight and is never mentioned again in Bible tales.

[Peds nurse]

[Replying to post 1 by Zzyzx]

I found this.

It is believed that Paul was beheaded in Rome under the rule of the emperor Nero. He was beheaded after he returned from his fifth missionary journey and was likely beheaded due to his involvement with missionary activities. ... The time in which Paul's death likely occurred was a tumultuous time for Rome.

[Zzyzx]

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I found this.

It is believed that Paul was beheaded in Rome under the rule of the emperor Nero.

I found that too PN -- notice 'It is believed' -- which indicates lack of knowledge. There are extra-biblical references from later writers . . . who may not agree with one another.

[bluethread]

Apart from Steven, the Scriptures do not record the deaths of any of the leaders of the shul of Yeshua. We have extra biblical records, but since the shul of Yeshua was not originally a zealot or aristocratic sect, expecting to find records among ancient official archives is really not reasonable. Though there was persecution, recording the hardships of specific individuals was not really the purpose of the Apostolic writings. Their purpose appears to be more philosophical than historical.

[Tired of the Nonsense]

The last we hear about Paul, at the end of Acts, he has traveled to Rome and has rented a house while waiting for his case to be heard. He has been accused of a relatively minor offence, essentially disturbing the peace. Even the Jewish leaders admit that he probably would have gotten off.

Acts 26:
[29] And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.
[30] And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that sat with them:
[31] And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds.
[32] Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar.

Living under house arrest while waiting for a hearing on a relatively minor charge does not leave the impression that Paul was a man facing a death sentence. As a Roman citizen Paul was immune from being crucified. So the tradition arose later among Christians that Paul had been beheaded in Rome. This tradition is based on no actual historical evidence. There is also a tradition, equally as unverifiable, that after being cleared of the charges in Rome, Paul journeyed to Spain to spread the Gospel.
http://johnsonspain.tripod.com/id69.html

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 5 by Tired of the Nonsense]

No, that was during his first imprisonment about 60-62.

The last we hear from Paul is in his second letter to Timothy, where he is imprisoned under much harder conditions and indicates that he knows his execution is near.

JW

[postroad]

[Replying to post 5 by Tired of the Nonsense]
I must disagree with you on this one. The fact that he appealed to Caesar indicates that he was facing the death penalty in Jerusalem. He would rather take his chances with Nero than face his peers in Jerusalem. Keep in mind that he was not telling the truth regarding his actions in the Temple. Remember his words and actions with his followers before he left for Jerusalem? He was going there to reveal a doctrine that would place him in danger of death.

Acts 21:12-14New International Version (NIV)

12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.� 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.�

[Goat]

[Replying to post 5 by Tired of the Nonsense]

No, that was during his first imprisonment about 60-62.

The last we hear from Paul is in his second letter to Timothy, where he is imprisoned under much harder conditions and indicates that he knows his execution is near.

JW

RIght now, it is widely believed that the 2 Timothy letter is a psuedographic letter, in other words, it wasn't written by Paul, but rather in Pauls name for theological reasons.

From http://earlychristianwritings.com/2timothy.html

2 Timothy is one of the three epistles known collectively as the pastorals (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus). They were not included in Marcion's canon of ten epistles assembled c. 140 CE. Against Wallace, there is no certain quotation of these epistles before Irenaeus c. 170 CE.

Norman Perrin summarises four reasons that have lead critical scholarship to regard the pastorals as inauthentic (The New Testament: An Introduction, pp. 264-5):

Vocabulary. While statistics are not always as meaningful as they may seem, of 848 words (excluding proper names) found in the Pastorals, 306 are not in the remainder of the Pauline corpus, even including the deutero-Pauline 2 Thessalonians, Colossians, and Ephesians. Of these 306 words, 175 do not occur elsewhere in the New Testament, while 211 are part of the general vocabulary of Christian writers of the second century. Indeed, the vocabulary of the Pastorals is closer to that of popular Hellenistic philosophy than it is to the vocabulary of Paul or the deutero-Pauline letters. Furthermore, the Pastorals use Pauline words ina non-Pauline sense: dikaios in Paul means "righteous" and here means "upright"; pistis, "faith," has become "the body of Christian faith"; and so on.

Literary style. Paul writes a characteristically dynamic Greek, with dramatic arguments, emotional outbursts, and the introduction of real or imaginary opponents and partners in dialogue. The Pastorals are in a quiet meditative style, far more characteristic of Hebrews or 1 Peter, or even of literary Hellenistic Greek in general, than of the Corinthian correspondence or of Romans, to say nothing of Galatians.

[JehovahsWitness]

RIght now, it is widely believed that the 2 Timothy letter is a psuedographic letter, in other words, it wasn't written by Paul, but rather in Pauls name for theological reasons.

Yet they are in the present widely accepted bible canon and contain information relevant to the topic, which is why I referred to them. Is there a problem with referring to the bible canon? I often see people refer to non-biblical writings to support their points, does something have to be written by Paul to be relevant? Acts wasn't written by Paul but it nonetheless is a book often quoted when discussing his life.

[Zzyzx]

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[Replying to post 9 by JehovahsWitness]

Of course, it doesn't make any difference who wrote what, or when it was written, or that there is false attribution, or whether it is true -- as long as it backs the story line being promoted. Right?