Socrates, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Augustus – no one would deny that these are key figures of classical antiquity. But does Saint Paul belong in this company? This book shows that Paul may not have been famous during his lifetime, but that Roman culture shaped his writings and, in the centuries following his death, he was just as transformative as Alexander. Situating Paul in his ancient Roman context finds continuity between the Jewish “Saul” and the Christian “Paul.” Rather than providing a traditional biography of the West's prototypical religious convert, this book reassesses the apostle's life by focusing on his particularly Roman discourse of authority, which provoked the challenge of rivals. Included here as part of the figure's “life story” are the often hilarious legends that remade the figure into many different Pauls. In the thinking and sensibilities of his later interpreters, Paul became the imperial hero, the sexual role model, and the object of derision, as well as a book to quote from. Paul is, therefore, a key figure of classical antiquity because of the legend he became in the eyes of his later interpreters.

This book thus covers Paul's life and his legend (literary afterlife). I start with a survey of the available primary sources, an introduction to what counts as historical evidence. Important to understand will be the commonplace usage of a pseudonym in ancient writing, which will show that not every work bearing Paul's name is authentic. After this introduction, the procedure is first to situate Paul's life in its ancient context (Chapters 1–3), then to trace the development of his legacy ultimately to the prototypical religious convert and the alleged discoverer of a human being's introspective conscience (Chapters 4–6).