Is St. Paul Trustworthy?

Thirteen letters in the New Testament bear St. Paul’s name, and many scholars also attribute the Letter to the Hebrews to Paul. Because he has written much, Paul has received much scrutiny. Yet, historians of various or no religious background recognize the historicity of Paul’s basic biography, namely, that he was once a Jew who zealously opposed Christianity, had a dramatic conversion to Jesus Christ—whom he viewed as the fulfillment of Judaism in restoring the kingdom of Israel—and became “the Apostle the Gentiles.”

So his basic life story, his various missionary travels and that he taught various Christian doctrines are not in dispute. What is in dispute is whether key doctrines Paul taught are true, most fundamentally the Resurrection of Jesus. As Paul himself says,

Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised;if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:12-19).

We have various resources defending the historicity of Christ’s Resurrection, including this three-part series of articles by Father Brian Harrison, O.S., on “Explaining Away the Resurrection”: Part I; Part II; and Part III.