Why is Paul considered to be a great leader in the early church?

Answer 1

All christians are told to take the gospel to others

Mat 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Mat 28:20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

Paul dedicated his life to doing this

Answer 2

A:

We can be certain that Paul's contemporaries considered Paul a great leader, even if we do not know a great deal about why they did. From his epistles we can see that it was Paul who chose to spread Christianity among the gentiles and open up the Church to the wider world. He must have spoken millions of words, but we only have some of his written communications, in which he harangued, exhorted and argued his case, often in the face of opposition from other Christian missionaries whom he labelled "false apostles" or, sarcastically, "super-apostles."

Acts of the Apostles is almost as much about Paul as it is about Peter, so this book should provide more clues about Paul. However, while Acts portrays Peter as a great and decisive leader, it seems to show Paul as bumbling and easily led, far from the great leader of the epistles. In Acts, Paul is led blind and helpless to Damascus, where he is miraculously cured of his blindness and taught the gospel. He then unwisely and unsuccessfully tried to convert the local Jews, resulting in his need to escape over the wall in a basket. Rather than Barnabas being Paul's assistant, Paul is portrayed in Acts as led and mentored by Barnabas. Unable to convert Sergius Paulus (Acts 13:11), Paul blinded Elymas (Bar-jesus), which might have been a successful ploy but hardly the way of a respected leader. Needless to say, these events are all contrary to what we find in Paul's own account. Either Acts of the Apostles is wrong, or Paul was dissembling, which in itself is not what we expect from a great leader.

We know from Paul's epistles that he was a great leader: dedicated, commanding, proactive and a truly great communicator. He brought vision and innovation to a church that seems to have been at risk of stagnating as a localised, ethnocentric religion.

Answer 3

A:

Scholars of Paul's epistles say that he was at least moderately well educated in the Greek education system, conversant with Greek tradition and philosophy, as well as able to quote widely from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures that was most accessible to a Greek-speaking audience.

Stanley E. Porter (As It is Written: Studying Paul's Use of Scripture, Paul and His Bible) says that recent rhetorical studies of Paul's letters attribute to him the ability to use a number of the stylistic characteristics that were commonly taught in the Greek grammar school curriculum. Although the epistles formed on a small part of Paul's message, he knew the contemporary conventions of letter writing but was also innovative in his use of this form.

Acts of the Apostles states that he was educated in the scriptures under the great Gamaliel in Jerusalem, although perhaps his use and knowledge of the Septuagint militates against this, as Gamaliel would have insisted on use of the original Hebrew scriptures. As Acts was written some decades after Paul's death, this information might well have been wrong.