Who’s your favorite apostle? If you said Paul, then which Paul is your favorite? The one in Acts of the Apostles, or the one who wrote the letters? If that follow-up question doesn’t make sense, then consider these others:

Is Acts mostly a rehash of Paul's letters?

  • No. Acts presents information that's nowhere in Paul's letters:
    • Details about his conversion experience
    • His legal status as a Roman citizen
    • His pedigree as a student of Gamaliel
    • His skills as an orator and debater
    • His miraculous powers (healings, exorcisms, raising the dead)
  • Conversely, Paul's letters contain information that's missing from or even conflicts with Acts:
    • Claims about his apostolic credentials and independence
    • His interactions with the Jerusalem apostles
    • The source and content of his own gospel message
    • His opposition to the Law of Moses
    • His physical afflictions, including his "thorn in the flesh"

How strong was the friendship between Paul and Peter?

  • Acts presents Paul and Peter as the primary apostles, with parallel ministries to carry a unified gospel message across the Roman Empire.
  • The epistle Second Peter implies Peter's approval and support of Paul.
  • However, in his letter to the Galatians Paul said he publicly rebuked Peter "to his face" in front of the church in Antioch because of his stance on eating with Gentiles. Paul accused him of being a hypocrite and "self-condemned."
  • The incident in Antioch is entirely absent from Acts, and there is only one passing mention of Peter in Paul's other letters.

Did the other apostles look to Paul as their new leader?

  • Not according to Paul's letters. In them we see he became incensed when he found out that other (unnamed) apostles, whom he sarcastically called "super-apostles," were following him around and trying to convince his churches that Gentile members must be circumcised and keep the rest of the Law of Moses. Paul was insistent that his Gentile converts would lose their salvation if they placed themselves under the Law.
  • In Acts, this controversy was quickly resolved by a council meeting in Jerusalem:
    • James, not Paul, presided over the meeting and issued a decree that Gentiles don't have to be circumcised, but they must abstain from food that was sacrificed to idols and from sexual immorality.
    • Afterward, Paul gladly told his churches about the decree.
  • In Galatians, Paul talked about the same meeting but he did not mention the decree or its food restrictions.
  • In his later letters, Paul said food sacrificed to idols is a matter of personal conscience.

Bottom line: The Paul of Acts is largely Luke’s creation. The real Paul is hiding in plain sight in his own letters.

See more in the PDF, and add your comments below.

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