While Paul wrote more of the New Testament’s works than anyone else, Luke wrote the most words. Luke’s two-volume contribution to the New Testament, known as The Gospel of Luke and The Acts of the Apostles respectively, ends with Paul imprisoned in Rome. Paul wrote some of the New Testament’s letters while in prison. Tradition holds that he, like Jesus’s original disciples (with the exception of Judas Iscariot and John), was martyred for his faith.
Paul’s Reoriented Judaism Put Him at Odds with Rome
The New Testament presents Paul as a zealous Pharisee whose religious outlook went through a radical reorientation after an encounter that he had with the risen Christ. While this event is often called Paul’s “conversion experience,” Paul saw his devotion to Jesus as a continuation of his Jewish faith. This put Paul in a difficult position with relation to most of his fellow Jews who did not recognize Jesus as God’s chosen one, or “messiah.” However, it was the Romans who would find Paul’s reinterpretation of his faith to be the most threatening.
According to Roman law, Jewish monotheism was respected insofar as it did not interfere with Rome’s imperial interests. Practically speaking, one implication of this policy meant that Jews were not required to sacrifice or burn incense to Roman deities. But once it became clear to Rome that the new Jesus-centered movement of which Paul was a part was not accepted by most Jews as an expression of their monotheistic faith, Christianity lost its legal grounding.
Nero Was the First to Systematically Persecute Christians
The New Testament book of Acts records many instances in which Christians experienced persecution. But as an imperial power, Rome routinely used cruelty to discourage dissent from any group regardless of religious affiliation. Christians were not targeted in a special way until the year 64 CE, when Nero decided to blame them for a fire that had burned nearly three quarters of the city of Rome. He commanded the brutal, public torture and execution of all of the Christians in Rome.
This horrific massacre would have occurred a few years after the events reported in the New Testament book of Acts. Acts says that Paul was imprisoned in Rome for two years, but whether or not Paul remained in prison after that time is not made clear. Some New Testament epistles attributed to Paul imply that he was released after those initial two years. It could be that he was captured again later, perhaps during Nero’s crackdown after the Great Fire in Rome, and was one of the many Christians executed during that terrible time.
What Sources Tell the Story of Paul’s Martyrdom?
Several writers from early Christianity either imply or say that Paul was killed for his faith in Rome, and some specify that his death was by beheading. The earliest of these are Clement, Ignatius of Antioch, Tertullian, and Dionysius of Corinth, all of whom lived in the second century. Another early source that claims Paul was martyred in Rome is an apocryphal account called the Acts of Paul, which also dates from the second century.
Details in this work and in other works from the genre it represents are difficult to take seriously as historically accurate. For example, in its version of the story, milk flowed from Paul’s severed neck instead of blood at his execution. Still, the basic circumstances of Paul’s death as a martyrdom in Rome are confirmed by all of the early sources available, and later Christians authors affirm this. It appears that Paul was indeed beheaded in Rome.
Did Paul and Peter Die on the Same Day?
Historians suggest that, as a Roman citizen, Paul may have had the right to execution by beheading instead of the many, far more brutal methods the Romans used on people of lesser status. Peter, by contrast, did not have Roman citizenship, and tradition records that he was crucified. It may be that they were martyred on the same day in Rome.
Dionysius of Corinth mentions these two great apostles were executed on the same day. The later apocryphal work, The Acts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, which dates to the fourth century, says that Nero himself gave the command that Paul be beheaded and Peter crucified at the same time. This work then sets the date for the church to commemorate their martyrdom together on the twenty-ninth of June.
Though few trustworthy details about the circumstances and dating of Paul’s death have survived, most historians agree that he was martyred for his faith, and that his manner of death was likely beheading.
