11/07/2020
Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 13 were written by Paul (and if he wrote the book of Hebrews, that would make it 14). Paul was a former pharisee, never one of Christ's disciples, never met Christ during his lifetime, was in fact persecuting the followers of Christ when he had his conversion. We are told that the men who stoned Stephen to death deposited their clothes with a young man called Paul, so Paul was complicit, even though he didn't take part in the actual stoning. How did this guy become the author of half of the New Testament's books? Peter the leader of the Church wrote two short epistles, John the disciple Jesus loved most wrote five books, and Dr. Luke wrote two books (granted, long ones). But Paul the pharisee comes out of nowhere and writes 13 books - how?
The first clue comes from what he was before he became a Christian: he was a pharisee, meaning he was a scholar. This is in stark contrast to the disciples, most of whom were fishermen, tax collectors, and other practical, mundane jobs that did not involve intellectualism. Being a pharisee means he was highly educated on everything to do with the Mosaic law and the entire Old Testament. Paul was the guy who decisively defined the difference between Christianity and Judaism, with his inspired concept of "works vs grace", a juxtaposition of Moses's law and Christ's love. As a pharisee, Paul was accustomed to thinking deeply and long about abstract matters.
The second clue is in the ministry he was given: to preach to the gentiles. And the "gentiles", in this case meant the Greeks and the Romans, both who were highly educated societies. Paul, being a scholar, it is likely he had read widely and was conversant with the works of Greek philosophers like Plato and would therefore be able to debate ideas with a Greek audience - that's speculation on my part though. But it's highly likely considering that there was this one time when King Agrippa, listening to Paul speaking, remarked, "Paul, your great
