{
  "id": "dict_004298",
  "term": "Paul",
  "slug": "paul",
  "letter": "P",
  "entry_type": "person",
  "entry_family": "historical_person_place",
  "tier": 1,
  "aliases": [
    "Paul and Barnabas's signs and wonders",
    "Paul at Lystra",
    "Paul bitten by viper",
    "Paul's Arrest & Journey to Rome",
    "Paul's arrest in Jerusalem",
    "Paul's Caesarean imprisonment",
    "Paul's Roman imprisonment",
    "Paul's voyage to Rome",
    "Paul, Conversion of"
  ],
  "short_definition": "Paul is the apostle whose conversion and teaching helped carry the gospel across the Gentile world.",
  "simple_one_line": "Paul is the apostle whose conversion and teaching helped carry the gospel across the Gentile world.",
  "tooltip_text": "The apostle to the Gentiles and major New Testament teacher.",
  "lede_intro": "Paul is the apostle whose conversion and teaching helped carry the gospel across the Gentile world. Read Paul through the concrete offices, relationships, obediences, and failures attached to that person's place in the biblical storyline.",
  "at_a_glance_definition": "Paul is the apostle whose conversion and teaching helped carry the gospel across the Gentile world and shape much of the New Testament’s doctrinal witness.",
  "at_a_glance_key_points": [
    "Paul is the apostle whose conversion, missionary labor, and letters shape the church's understanding of the gospel.",
    "He moves within Jewish, Hellenistic, and Roman settings while remaining a servant of the risen Christ.",
    "Read Paul historically as an apostle and canonically through the theology of his letters."
  ],
  "description_academic_short": "Paul is the apostle whose conversion and teaching helped carry the gospel across the Gentile world and shape much of the New Testament’s doctrinal witness. A good dictionary treatment identifies both the historical referent and the theological weight the canon places upon it.",
  "description_academic_full": "Paul is the apostle whose conversion and teaching helped carry the gospel across the Gentile world and shape much of the New Testament’s doctrinal witness. More fully, the entry should be read as part of Scripture’s unified history of creation, fall, covenant, kingdom, judgment, and redemption. Its significance is not exhausted by bare chronology or geography, because later biblical writers often recall persons, places, and events as theological signs within the unfolding canon.",
  "background_biblical_context": "Biblically, Paul emerges in Acts as persecutor turned apostle and author of letters that address churches, doctrine, ethics, mission, and suffering.",
  "background_historical_context": "Historically, Paul operates within the first-century Roman Empire, moving through synagogues, cities, and trade routes as the gospel advances among Jews and Gentiles.",
  "background_jewish_ancient_context": null,
  "key_texts_primary": [
    "Acts 9:1-19 - Paul’s conversion.",
    "Acts 13:1-3 - Paul sent on mission.",
    "Romans 1:1-6 - Paul’s apostolic identity.",
    "2 Timothy 4:6-8 - Paul’s closing testimony."
  ],
  "key_texts_secondary": [
    "Acts 22:3-21 - Paul retells his conversion and commission in Jerusalem.",
    "Acts 26:12-23 - Paul frames his calling before Agrippa as prophetic fulfillment.",
    "Galatians 1:15-17 - Paul emphasizes God's prior purpose and independent calling.",
    "1 Corinthians 15:9-10 - Paul's apostleship is rooted in grace after former persecution."
  ],
  "original_language_note": null,
  "original_language_terms": [],
  "theological_significance": "Theologically, Paul matters because his letters are a major inspired source for the church’s understanding of the gospel, justification, union with Christ, the church, and the hope of resurrection.",
  "philosophical_explanation": null,
  "interpretive_cautions": "Do not treat Paul as a flat moral example or isolate one episode from the whole canonical portrait. Read Paul in relation to covenant role, historical setting, and the larger movement of Scripture.",
  "major_views_note": null,
  "doctrinal_boundaries": null,
  "practical_significance": "Paul helps readers think missionally and doctrinally, holding together gospel truth, church planting, suffering, and the inclusion of the nations.",
  "related_entries": [
    "Covenant",
    "Israel",
    "Messiah",
    "temple"
  ],
  "see_also": [],
  "meta_description": "Paul is the apostle whose conversion and teaching helped carry the gospel across the Gentile world and shape much of the New Testament’s doctrinal witness.",
  "jsonld_description": "Paul is the apostle whose conversion and teaching helped carry the gospel across the Gentile world and shape much of the New Testament’s doctrinal witness. More fully, the entry should be read as part of Scripture’s unified history of creation, fall…",
  "source_basis": "scripture-led synthesis",
  "public_url": "/companion-bible-dictionary/bible-dictionary/paul/index.html",
  "public_url_absolute": "https://ai-bible-commentary.com/companion-bible-dictionary/bible-dictionary/paul/index.html",
  "public_json_url": "/companion-bible-dictionary/data/dictionary/paul.json",
  "public_json_url_absolute": "https://ai-bible-commentary.com/companion-bible-dictionary/data/dictionary/paul.json",
  "route_mode": "canonical",
  "canonical_id": "dict_004298",
  "canonical_term": "Paul",
  "canonical_slug": "paul",
  "authority_status": "editorial_reviewed",
  "review_state": "finalized",
  "build_lineage": {
    "workbook": "Bible_Commentary_Companion_Dictionary_Workbook_phase19_10_release_bundle_generated.xlsx",
    "renderer_family": "reconstructed_final_from_live_theme_swap_plus_earlier_polished_renderer",
    "phase": "Phase 19",
    "base_path": "/companion-bible-dictionary",
    "site_domain": "https://ai-bible-commentary.com"
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}