Paul
UPDV does not preserve the book of Acts, so the figure who in most Bibles is met first as Saul of Tarsus, the Damascus-road persecutor turned missionary, is met here almost entirely as he speaks for himself in his thirteen letters. The biographical arc — three journeys, the council at Jerusalem, the long voyage to Rome — sits offstage. What remains is Paul's own self-witness: how he names himself, what he says about his past, his sufferings, his weakness, his calling to the Gentiles, and what he expects at the end.
How Paul Names Himself
Almost every letter opens with the same self-designation. "Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, a called apostle, separated to the good news of God" (Rom 1:1). To the Corinthians, "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God" (2 Cor 1:1). To the Galatians, more pointedly, "Paul, an apostle (not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead)" (Gal 1:1). The same "apostle through the will of God" formula opens Eph 1:1, Col 1:1, and 2 Tim 1:1; 1 Tim 1:1 has it "according to the commandment of God our Savior, and Christ Jesus our hope." Titus widens it: "Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ" (Titus 1:1). The pastoral letters add the threefold ministerial title: "to which I was appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher" (2 Tim 1:11; cf. 1 Tim 2:7, "a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth"). Late, addressing Philemon, the formula softens to "Paul the aged, and now a prisoner also of Christ Jesus" (Phlm 1:9).
Two qualifications run through these self-namings. First, Paul insists his apostleship is not derivative: it is "not from men, neither through man" (Gal 1:1). Second, he insists it is unworthy: "I am the least of the apostles, who am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God" (1 Cor 15:9). He couples the two: an apostle direct from Christ, and an apostle who knows what he was before Christ. The same letter that calls him chiefest of apostles also calls him "the least."
Pedigree and Pre-Call Zeal
Paul tells the Philippians what his Jewish credentials looked like: "circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as concerning the law, a Pharisee" (Phil 3:5). He says it again in Romans, in defense of God's faithfulness to Israel: "For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin" (Rom 11:1). To the Corinthians, sarcastically matching his rivals: "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I" (2 Cor 11:22).
Of his pre-Christian zeal he is blunt. "For you⁺ have heard of my manner of life in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and made havoc of it" (Gal 1:13). "I advanced in the Jews' religion beyond many of my own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers" (Gal 1:14). To Timothy he is harsher on himself: "though I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: nevertheless I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (1 Tim 1:13). He thanks Christ "for that he counted me faithful, appointing me to [his] service" (1 Tim 1:12).
The Call and the Risen Christ
Paul does not narrate the Damascus road in UPDV's preserved corpus, but he twice points back to it. To the Corinthians: "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?" (1 Cor 9:1). And in the resurrection-witness list at the close of 1 Cor 15: "and last of all, as to the [child] untimely born, he appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed on me was not found vain; but I labored more abundantly than all of them: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Cor 15:8-10).
Galatians gives the only post-call sequence Paul tells in his own voice: "But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, [even] from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach [the good news of] him among the Gentiles; right away I did not confer with flesh and blood: neither did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me: but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and tarried with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles, except James the Lord's brother" (Gal 1:15-19). A second visit, much later: "Then after the space of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me" (Gal 2:1).
Apostle to the Gentiles
The vector of his commission is Gentile. "I speak to you⁺ who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I glorify my service" (Rom 11:13). His ministry is priestly in shape: "that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering the good news of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit" (Rom 15:16).
His pastoral method matches the call. "For though I was free from all [men], I became a slave to all, that I might gain the more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, not being myself under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law; to those who are without the law, as without the law, not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might gain those who are without the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak: I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some" (1 Cor 9:19-22). The signs of this office, he tells the Corinthians, were not absent: "Truly the signs of an apostle were worked among you⁺ in all patience, both by signs and wonders, and mighty works" (2 Cor 12:12).
Sufferings, Weakness, the Body
Paul's defense of his ministry is largely a catalogue of what it has cost him. Four such catalogues are preserved in his own voice in UPDV.
The first is to the Corinthians, on apostolic shame: "God has set forth us the apostles last of all, as men doomed to death: for we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you⁺ are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you⁺ are strong; you⁺ have glory, but we have dishonor. Even to this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and we toil, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things, even until now" (1 Cor 4:9-13).
The second is the dying-of-Jesus catalogue: "[we are] pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not to despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body" (2 Cor 4:8-10).
The third is the servants-of-God catalogue: "in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fasts" (2 Cor 6:4-5), running on through "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and [yet] possessing all things" (2 Cor 6:10).
The fourth is the longest and most concrete: "Of the Jews five times I received forty [stripes] less one. Thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; [in] journeyings often, [in] perils of rivers, [in] perils of robbers, [in] perils from [my] countrymen, [in] perils from the Gentiles, [in] perils in the city, [in] perils in the wilderness, [in] perils in the sea, [in] perils among false brothers; [in] labor and travail, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fasts often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily, anxiety for all the churches" (2 Cor 11:24-28). It ends in escape: "In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me: and through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands" (2 Cor 11:32-33).
He elsewhere names specific places: "what things befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: and out of them all the Lord delivered me" (2 Tim 3:11). To the Thessalonians he refers to Philippi: "having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as you⁺ know, at Philippi, we waxed bold in our God to speak to you⁺ the good news of God in much conflict" (1 Thess 2:2). Of an unnamed disaster he writes, "concerning our affliction which befell [us] in Asia, that we were exceedingly weighed down, beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life: yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death inside ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead" (2 Cor 1:8-9). He folds the suffering into the body itself: "From now on let no man trouble me; for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus" (Gal 6:17). He folds it into Christ's own afflictions: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your⁺ sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church" (Col 1:24).
The Thorn
Among Paul's afflictions, one is named separately. "And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted too much, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted too much" (2 Cor 12:7). The revelations themselves he reports at a deliberate distance: "I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I don't know; or whether out of the body, I don't know; God knows), such a one caught up even to the third heaven... how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter" (2 Cor 12:2-4). His response to the thorn: "Concerning this thing I implored the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you: for [my] power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me" (2 Cor 12:8-9).
The bodily infirmity surfaces again to the Galatians: "you⁺ know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the good news to you⁺ the first time: and that which was a trial to you⁺ in my flesh you⁺ did not despise, nor reject; but you⁺ received me as an angel of God, [even] as Christ Jesus" (Gal 4:13-14).
Personal Bearing and Speech
Paul's opponents at Corinth said his presence was unimpressive. He quotes them: "His letters, they say, are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account" (2 Cor 10:10). He does not quite contest it. He addresses them, "Now I Paul myself entreat you⁺ by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who in your⁺ presence am lowly among you⁺, but being absent am of good courage toward you⁺" (2 Cor 10:1). Of his speech: "though [I am] unskilled in speaking, yet [I am] not [unskilled] in knowledge" (2 Cor 11:6). Of his standing among the chiefest apostles: "I reckon that I am not a bit behind the very chiefest apostles" (2 Cor 11:5).
Working with His Own Hands
Paul declines to be supported by the churches he plants. "For you⁺ remember, brothers, our labor and travail: working night and day, that we might not burden any of you⁺, we preached to you⁺ the good news of God" (1 Thess 2:9). And again: "neither did we eat bread for nothing at any man's hand, but in labor and travail, working night and day, that we might not burden any of you⁺" (2 Thess 3:8). The 1 Cor 4 catalogue makes the same point: "we toil, working with our own hands" (1 Cor 4:12).
The Reckoning at Philippi
Philippians 3 is Paul's most concentrated reading of his own life. He grants what he could claim by Jewish pedigree — "though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh: if any other man thinks to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more" (Phil 3:4) — and writes it off: "Nevertheless what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. But on the contrary, I also count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and regard them as crap, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, [even] that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death; if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead" (Phil 3:7-11).
He is candid about being unfinished: "Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if also I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I don't count myself to have laid hold: but one thing [I do], forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:12-14). And about the others: "For many walk, of whom I told you⁺ often, and now tell you⁺ even weeping, [that they are] the enemies of the cross of Christ" (Phil 3:18). The chapter ends in joy: "Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice" (Phil 4:4).
Pastoral Affection
Paul's letters carry an unguarded affection for the congregations they address. To the Corinthians: "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you⁺ with many tears; not that you⁺ should be made sorry, but that you⁺ might know the love which I have more abundantly to you⁺" (2 Cor 2:4). To the same: "Great is my boldness of speech toward you⁺, great is my glorying on your⁺ behalf: I am filled with comfort, I overflow with joy in all our affliction" (2 Cor 7:4). For Israel: "I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers' sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Rom 9:3). To the Thessalonians, on his thwarted plans to come: "because we wanted to come to you⁺, I Paul once and again; and Satan hindered us" (1 Thess 2:18). The closing line of 1 Corinthians is one short sentence: "My love be with all of you⁺ in Christ Jesus" (1 Cor 16:24).
Persecution as Apostolic Pattern
Paul reads his own suffering as the Christian condition rather than the apostolic exception. Romans 8 piles up his own catalogue and answers it: "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Rom 8:35-37). He tells Timothy outright: "all who would live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (2 Tim 3:12). He frames his own bonds the same way: "in which I suffer hardship to bonds, as a criminal; but the word of God is not bound" (2 Tim 2:9). He is willing to be poured out: "if I am offered on the sacrifice and ministry of your⁺ faith, I joy, and rejoice with all of you⁺" (Phil 2:17). And he endures for others: "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory" (2 Tim 2:10).
At the End
Two passages near the end of 2 Timothy carry Paul's final self-summary. Of his first hearing: "At my first defense no one took my part, but all forsook me: may it not be laid to their account. But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me; that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion" (2 Tim 4:16-17). Of his expectation: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: / from now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved his appearing" (2 Tim 4:7-8). Earlier, to Timothy on the same suffering: "I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day" (2 Tim 1:12).
How Paul Is Spoken Of
Paul appears, by name, in someone else's voice exactly once in UPDV outside his own letters. Peter writes, "And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you⁺; as also in all the letters, he speaks in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unstedfast will wrest, as also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction" (2 Pet 3:15-16). Peter classes Paul's letters with "the other Scriptures." That sentence — and the thirteen letters themselves — are the whole of the Pauline witness UPDV preserves.