Paul (d. ca. a.d. 64) from 1 Corinthians 13 LINKS No links found. BIOGRAPHY Paul (d. ca. a.d. 64)Paul was born in Tarsus of Cilicia (located near the Mediterranean Sea in south-central Turkey, near Syria). As an adult, he was an important Jerusalem Pharisee (his name then was Saul), and, according to accounts in the Acts of the Apostles, he vigorously attacked (both intellectually and physically) those who proclaimed the deity of Jesus. The same source (Chapter 9) provides an account of Paul's conversion, though Paul himself never mentions it. Traveling to Damascus to arrest followers of Jesus, he experienced an intense light that blinded him, and heard a voice that declared, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." In Tarsus, his blindness was cured by Ananius, a follower of Jesus, and Paul became, arguably, the most important disciple of Jesus in the early Church—his letters (and those attributed to him) comprise a quarter of the New Testament. His attempts to preach the new Way in the synagogues of the region were rebuffed, sometimes violently, and Paul was frequently jailed. He became the apostle to the Gentiles, traveling throughout the Mediterranean region to establish churches. His epistles were addressed to those young and fragile congregations to help formulate the political, legal, and spiritual institutions of the early Church. His final arrest brought him to Rome to answer charges where, after two years of imprisonment, he died about a.d. 64.