QUESTION:

Is there historical evidence that the apostle Paul was real?  I have come across talk on the internet saying that there is no real evidence that Paul ever existed.  I would appreciate it if you can shed some light on this. Thanks and God bless.

Answer:

Yes, there is historical evidence that Paul was a real person. He is the author of 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, Romans, etc. As far as I know, no reputable scholar denies the reality of the person Paul. He is credited by historians for being the chief architect of the spread of Christianity to the Greeks in the Roman Empire. Even hard line skeptics such as Robert Price and Bart Ehrman agree that Paul was a real person and that he wrote at least some of the books of the New Testament. Some doubt whether he wrote Ephesians and 1 and 2 Timothy, but as far as I know, no reputable scholar of any stripe denies that he wrote at least some of the books of the New Testament. The testimony of the early church is simply too strong to ignore. Writers from the late first and second century said a lot about Paul. Paul died somewhere around AD 65. We can assume people who had met him were still alive as late as AD 130, after which many of the early church writers had mentioned Paul extensively. It was the unanimous testimony of all that he founded the churches in Ephesus, Corinthians and elsewhere. In order to create a “myth” about Paul in the early church would have required a conspiracy of absolutely massive proportions. Why would the church have made up the existence of Paul? No thinking person could accept this.

If you have come across chat on the internet from people saying there is no real evidence that Paul ever existed you can assume that these people have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

John Oakes