All language subtitles for BBC Saint Paul

This is the story of a man

who changed the hearts and minds

of the western world.

He began as the enemy of Jesus.

But after a
life-changing experience

he became his greatest champion.

This hotheaded revolutionary

was set on a path
of conflict and adversity.

And now we can reveal
new scientific evidence

that has shed light
on the state of mind

of the man known as St. Paul.

We'll investigate the life

of one of Christianity's
most brilliant tacticians.

The man who spread the new faith

into the heart of
the Roman Empire.

But yet a man who never
even met Jesus of Nazareth

The story starts here,

just outside Jerusalem

with the crucifixion of Jesus,

Jewish rebel.

It looked like the
end of the road

for the fledgling Jesus movement.

But within days
Jesus' followers were convinced

that he'd physically risen
from the dead.

Fuelled by these rumours

the Jesus movement
started to grow.

But for the Jewish authorities

talk of resurrection
was blasphemy.

It made them
all the more determined

to crush the movement
once and for all.

That's when Paul,

then known as Saul,
enters the story.

The Bible tells us
that an angry crowd of Jews

is calling for the death of
a follower of Jesus -

a man named Stephen.

Stephen had called
for the destruction

of the Jewish temple.

This was blasphemy.

And under Jewish law
punishable by death.

Executions usually took the form
of a public stoning

in quarries just
outside the town.

Throw him!

Watching the stoning of Stephen

was a zealous Jew called Saul.

He was committed to wiping out
this dangerous Christian sect

before it did any real damage.

And yet it's thanks to Saul

that the tiny Jesus movement
became a worldwide faith.

I was ahead

of most fellow Jews of my age...
So how did Saul,

sworn enemy of Jesus

become Paul his
greatest defender.

...and much more devoted

to the traditions of our... Paul
himself gives us the answers.

Uniquely amongst early
Christian figures,

Paul was an
obsessive letter writer.

As was the custom he dictated
them to faithful followers.

The letters give us an insight

into Paul's thinking
and personality.

And these in turn
can be cross-referenced

to another remarkable source.

Paul was often accompanied
in his travels

by a physician called Luke.

The same Luke who wrote
the Gospel of that name.

But Luke also made a record
of Paul's mission

in a book called The Acts
of the Apostles.

Thanks to these sources

we're able to build
an unusually rich

and intimate picture

of how Paul turned
a tiny Jewish sect

into a world religion.

Paul tells us that he worked
with his hands.

A tentmaker by profession.

But that he was also
an educated man.

He was born in the cosmopolitan
university city of Tarsus,

now in Turkey,

but then part of
the Roman Empire.

This qualified him
for Roman citizenship.

A valuable trump card
in the event of trouble.

But at this stage in his life

there's nothing to suggest

that Saul would become
a troublemaker,

never mind a Christian hero.

On the contrary,
Saul was first and foremost a Jew

who observed the Jewish laws
with great zeal.

So much so

that the Jewish authorities
hired him as a hit man

Indeed, by his own admission,

Saul was appointed
Chief Persecutor

of the followers of Jesus.

After Jesus' death,

the Christian movement
was kept alive by two men.

James, said by the Bible
to be the brother of Jesus,

and Peter, Jesus' first Disciple.

To the alarm
of the Jewish authorities,

this Jesus movement
was spreading beyond Jerusalem

to cities like Antioch
and Damascus.

They had thriving
Jewish communities

and many Jews
there were converting.

In fact it was in Antioch
where the followers of Jesus

were first called Christians.

It was Saul's job
as Chief Persecutor

to hunt these Christians down.

Perhaps Saul's most famous trip
was to Damascus,

a city 140 miles
north of Jerusalem.

The journey
would have taken a full week

and Saul would have travelled
in a group,

partly for his own protection

and partly to help him do the job
when he got there.

But on the road to Damascus
something happened.

In his letters Paul says

that he heard a voice ask:

Saul, Saul,
why do you persecute me?

It is one of the most well
known events in Christendom.

So what exactly happened?

In both the Letters
and the Acts of the Apostles

it's written that he was blinded
for three days.

When he recovered his sight Saul,

scourge of the Christians

became Paul
their most powerful champion.

The change of name

was a symbol
of that transformation

and Paul himself tells us
in his letters

what caused this change of heart.

He says that he'd met
Jesus face to face.

But what are we to make
of this today?

On the one hand there are people

who believe one can meet God.

And on the other,

there are those who say
it's all in the mind.

Now some scientists are beginning

to argue that both
views may be true.

That we may be created

or hard-wiredvfor
religious experience.

So basically what's gonna happen

is you're gonna see some words

that I show up on the screen
for about three seconds.

Talk of religious visions
is commonplace here.

But this is no church.

It's a clinic and this patient

is suffering from epilepsy.

Dr. Vias Ramachandran specialises
in the study

of these sudden seizures
of the brain.

For almost over
a century Neurologists

have been aware of the fact
that patients with seizures

often have intense
mystical experiences

and religious experiences.

They'll often say things
like they...

God is visiting them

or they're in direct
communication with God.

Or they have a sense of being one

with the entire cosmos.

And they finally see
the meaning of it all,

they understand
the nature of existence.

Of course, epilepsy is
a relatively rare condition.

And yet huge numbers of people
around the world

have had religious experiences.

Is there any evidence
from the Damascus road accounts

to suggest that
Paul was epileptic?

There are some clues.

In one letter Paul complains
of an ailment,

which could be
a reference to epilepsy.

He refers to a thorn in the flesh

that kept him
from being too proud.

And present day sufferers

give us another telling insight.

After bouts of epilepsy,

John Sharon is overwhelmed

by a feeling of moral certainty.

I am absolutely correct with
what is coming through

into my head when I'm like that.

I get the whole little Caesar
complex thing going

and I think I can just take over
and rule everything.

And that's...
that's a scary feeling.

And it's not just epileptics
who feel like this.

Paul's letters reveal
a similar conviction.

He did believe that he was right

and everyone else who disagreed
with him was wrong.

No doubt about it.

And if they disagreed with him

it was virtually always
for unworthy motives

Reducing Paul's vision of Jesus
to electric currents

in the brain
is deeply controversial.

Because it seems to take God

out of the equation.

But that's not how many
scientists see it.

Obviously if God exists

and he's interacting
with us humans,

erm, he could have put
an antenna in your brain

to be sensitive to him or her.

And it could be God's way

of manifesting himself or herself
to certain people.

Perhaps those who suffer
from temporal lobe epilepsy

have an ability that allows them
to access a spiritual dimension

that lies beyond
our physical world.

But for many Christian scholars,

epilepsy is just too simple
an explanation.

I personally think
it's quite unlikely

that Paul was an epileptic
or at least that

the thorn in the flesh

can be explained as epilepsy.

To first century Jews epilepsy

would have been something

they regarded as demon possession

and people would have...

people like Jesus tried to
cast it out of people.

We just don't know

if the Damascus road
encounter was connected

with Paul's thorn in the flesh.

We'll be looking at
alternative explanations later.

But something very real

must have happened to Paul

because from that moment on
everything changed.

Paul believed that God
through his son, Jesus,

had told him to go to Damascus

where he'd find out
what he had to do.

Still confused and blind

Paul was received there
by local Christians

and he was
welcomed into the faith

with a ritual common to all
new followers of Jesus.

Baptism

In his letters Paul says

that baptism made him realise

that he now had a new mission.

To tell the world about the Jesus
he had met.

That's easier said than done.

But the sources reveal Paul

to have been a master tactician.

After his sudden conversion

on the road to Damascus,

Paul set out on a mission

to tell the world about Jesus.

But his letters show that there
were huge obstacles in the way.

In Damascus he went to synagogues

to preach to fellow Jews.

They were an obvious target.

Like Jews in Jerusalem

they were anxiously awaiting

the arrival of a Saviour,
the Messiah.

They were in for a shock.

He is come but...

Many Jews were expecting
a military Messiah.

A rebel leader
who would champion their cause

and overthrow the Romans.

So to claim that the true Messiah

was a Galilean peasant

who died a humiliating death
was scandalous.

Not the kind of message
to win over converts easily.

But Paul had an even
more unsettling message.

Before his experience
on the Damascus road

Paul was a strict adherent
to Jewish laws.

These included avoiding pork

and keeping the Sabbath free.

But the most important law
was circumcision.

Circumcision
was the pre-eminent sign

of the Jewish peoples
covenant with God

dating back to millennia,

to the time of Abraham.

After his conversion,

Paul reversed his position.

Paul claimed that they no longer
needed to follow the laws

nor to perform circumcisions.

They were having none of it.

In Jewish eyes this was nothing
less than blasphemy.

According to the Bible,

the Jews in Damascus
were horrified by Paul's message

and they plotted to kill him.

But Paul got wind
of the murder plot.

And he escaped just in time.

Paul's mission was faltering
from the outset.

He could, of course, have gone
and tried his luck elsewhere

preaching to Jews
in other towns and cities.

But an even bigger obstacle
was looming.

One of Paul's letter reveals

that news of his mission
had reached the elders

of the Christian church back
in Jerusalem.

And it's clear that Peter
and James had grave doubts

about Paul's explosive ministry.

In particular, his attitudes
towards the Jewish laws.

I think James and Peter are both
in a difficult position.

They're living in Jerusalem.

They're living amongst
both Christian Jews,

but primarily non Christian Jews.

And they need to be seen
by their Jewish brethren

to be acting like faithful Jews.

The danger for Paul was clear.

As leaders
of the Christian movement

James and Peter had the authority

to stop Paul's mission
before it started.

In his letters Paul often writes

about the awful dilemma he faced.

He couldn't afford to
alienate Peter and James.

On the other hand, he believed

that what he was doing was right.

What Paul was really concerned

with was not so much
what Jesus did

or what Jesus said,
but who he was.

And he recognised
much more clearly

than Peter or James
or any of the others,

that Jesus
was the Messiah therefore

this is a completely new world.

None of the old religious taboos.

None of the old ways
of reaching God.

None of these had any relevance

as far as he was concerned.

Now it was Jesus
was the touchstone of salvation.

How Paul handled his relationship
with Peter and James

could make or break his mission.

The test came shortly after,
in Antioch

the city in Syria where Paul
was now based.

To Jews, anyone who
wasn't Jewish was a Gentile.

In Paul's house Jews and Gentiles

sat together at meals.

It was yet another direct
breach of Jewish law.

Soon, they had
a visit from Peter.

Paul didn't know whether Peter

would eat with
his Gentile friends.

To Paul's relief Peter
did defy the law

and sat with Gentiles
for his meals at Antioch.

But it was a short-lived victory.

In one of his letters Paul says

that Peter changed his mind.

Peter learned that news
of his transgression

had reached the Jerusalem church.

He decided he could no longer
flout the law

and eat at Paul's table
with Gentiles.

Paul was furious
and threw Peter out of Antioch.

Paul's row with Peter
reveals an uncompromising

side to his personality

that might easily
have scuppered his mission.

But there's evidence
in the acts of the Apostles

that Paul was prepared
to make compromises.

Compromises that would ensure

he could resume his mission.

Luke writes that Paul decided
to travel to Jerusalem

to meet Peter and James

and try to resolve
their differences.

Though they argued eventually,

says Luke,
they reached a compromise.

Peter and James would continue

preaching to the circumcised -
the Jews -

whilst Paul would preach
to the uncircumcised -

the Gentiles.

In return, Peter and James
asked only one thing.

The only thing they suggest is

that he should make a collection
for the saints in Jerusalem.

The poor saints in Jerusalem.

And he says in any case
I've already wanted to do that.

That's the very thing
I wanted to do.

One thing is clear. They came to
some kind of basic compromise.

They worked out a way
of living together

as Jews with different views

on things like circumcision.

The gathering of
the earliest Christian leaders,

known to history
as the Jerusalem Council,

removed the obstacles
confronting Paul.

He was free to
cast his net wider.

Opening the doors of Christianity

to the non-Jewish world.

In practice,

the world meant the Roman Empire.

From Asia Minor, modern Turkey,

and through Greece.

But the ultimate prize
was Rome itself.

The pagan capital of the Empire.

Paul had to make it there

if his mission was
to be a success.

Targeting Rome from the outset

was fraught with dangers.

If he failed there,

it could make re-launching

the mission elsewhere
well nigh impossible.

But Luke's Acts
of the Apostles suggests

that Paul devised
a more cautious strategy

aiming for the outlying provinces
of the Empire first

and only gradually closing in
on its capital.

Such a plan presumed familiarity

with the geography
of the Mediterranean

and first century maps

bore very little relation
to the real world.

But archaeological finds reveal

that maps were only rough guides.

For the journeys themselves,

first century travellers relied
on precise itineraries,

which listed the distance

and direction of
their destinations

The Acts of the Apostles
also reveals

that Paul undertook no less
than five missionary

journeys over thirty-five years.

He covered a staggering
thirteen thousand miles.

The equivalent of more than
half way round the world.

All this meant that Paul would
need to travel huge distances

over dreadfully rough
and dangerous terrain.

And like all travellers

he'd be easy prey for bandits.

But the Roman Empire
gave Paul a key advantage.

Its roads.

They were the vital communication
network of the Empire.

And he always had
his Roman citizenship.

A potential lifesaver
throughout the Empire.

One of the first stops
on Paul's missionary journey

was the Roman colony of Philippi
in modern Greece.

In the first century

it was the gateway
from east to west.

Philippi was a
tough frontier town.

Bristling with Roman troops

on the lookout for troublemakers.

Paul had to be careful.
He fitted the bill.

But that was the least
of his worries.

A daunting task lay ahead.

How could he, a Jew,

convert pagans
to an alien new faith?

Pagans have their own
rituals and beliefs.

Yet Paul had good reason
to believe he could succeed.

Many of these
cults had surprisingly

close parallels to Christianity.

The Cult of Mithras, for example,

which centred around a God who,
like Jesus,

had also conquered evil
and risen to heaven.

Its members even took part
in a ritual meal with wine,

rather like the Last Supper.

But most pagan cults
also have their drawbacks.

For one thing,
they only accepted men.

Worse still, their Gods
didn't always command respect.

In fact, historians believe

that the pagan world of the time
was ripe for conversion.

The first centuries of our era

were an age of anxiety.

People were beginning to become
a little more sophisticated.

The old gods, you know,

looked like spoiled children
in their attitudes.

Then of course to
click your fingers

and believe an emperor
is proclaimed as a god?

You know an awful lot of people

said come one, you know.

But where else
did they have to turn to.

And Paul came into that anxiety

to preach a gospel of
strength and weakness

to those people with certitude.

But as a stranger in Philippi,

Paul had to focus on
a more practical problem.

How to meet
his first potential convert,

hopefully the first of many.

The answer lay in a shop

full of fabulous purple fabrics.

The dye was made
from a tiny shellfish.

They were worth
their weight in gold.

The owner, who traded
in this opulent colour,

was a Gentile.

A Greek woman named Lydia.

Linking up with a trader
was a masterstroke.

As a businesswoman
Lydia would have

had a big network of contacts.

If he succeeded
then she could introduce Paul

to many more people.

And perhaps she took pity
on a fellow craftsman,

a tentmaker miles from home.

But perhaps Paul's smartest move

was to approach
the kind of person

that would have been excluded
from most pagan cults.

A woman.

Paul has an enormously respectful

attitude towards women.

And we can see it straight away

in his attitude towards Lydia.

I mean he accepts her
for who she is,

a very important woman
in that period,

in that culture.

She's pivotal
in the early conversions

and of course she herself

becomes a faithful believer.

Lydia's conversion
was truly ground breaking.

She was possibly the first
Christian convert in Europe.

And as Paul hoped,

she led him to other Philippians.

Amongst them, many women.

Paul's letters suggest

that he won many new converts
in Philippi.

But that success came at a price.

Brimming with confidence,

Paul couldn't stop himself

from preaching
and healing in public.

Acts which disturbed the peace

This brought him into conflict
with the authorities

who arrested him
and threw him in prison.

The Revolutionary was silenced.

His mission was grounded

almost as soon as it took off.

But the story
doesn't end in Philippi.

According to Luke an act
of God freed Paul.

An earthquake, to be precise,

burst the doors
of his prison cell.

Paul then played his trump card.

According to Roman law,

Roman citizens could only be held

on the orders of a
Roman magistrate.

Paul berated the local
magistrates for putting him,

a Roman citizen, in jail.

They had to set him free.

So, did he give up preaching

and stay out of trouble?

Don't bet on it.

What was it that drove Paul
on despite these setbacks?

We keep returning
to that encounter

on the Damascus road.

It must have been very powerful

to take him so far.

In spite of
all the setbacks Paul endured,

he was determined to press on
with his mission.

Something very powerful
must have driven him onwards.

In fact, some experts believe

that the power that drove Paul on

was geological
as well as spiritual.

They'd begun to think
that the tremor

that freed Paul from prison

wasn't the first
time an earthquake

had changed the
course of his life.

This part of the world
is something of a hot spot

for quakes and some scientists

believe this could provide
another explanation

for the mystery of
Paul's conversion

on the road to Damascus.

This is an
earthquake-monitoring bunker

at the University of Alberquerque
in New Mexico.

Here scientists discovered
that earthquakes

can produce
some astonishing effects.

It's now understood

that they can release
electro magnetic forces

similar to ball lightning.

Was Paul hit
by an earthquake light?

Luke tells us Paul was struck

by a dazzling light
which left him blind

for three days
after his Damascus experience.

I think the typical effects

would be like being struck
by lightning.

They're certainly knocked
unconscious.

When they're restored
to consciousness and breathing,

they can be blind
for several days.

Of course this
theory doesn't hold

unless there was an earthquake

on that day in Damascus.

And there's no evidence for that.

But there was a massive quak

a hundred and ninety miles
away in Antioch

in 37 AD,

the same time frame
that Paul made his journey.

If there was an earthquake
that destroyed Antioch

it would have been felt
very strongly in Damascus.

But even if Paul was caught in
an earthquake,

could an earthquake light

have triggered his sense
that he'd met Jesus.

Dr. Michael Persinger

has devised a helmet
that can be used

to mimic the effects
of earthquake lights.

The helmet uses electro
magnetic waves

to stimulate
the right temporal lobe.

The part of the brain that deals
with mystical experiences.

I was a little afraid of course

because I'd heard
that some people

have really wild
experiences in here

but I felt a presence which
was not something I expected

and a little bit
of a visual experience,

but the presence
was very memorable.

It was kind of like having
a person in the room.

These balls of light
are so energetic

that if you were close to them

they could induce seizures
within your brain

and actually produce
unconsciousness

and stimulate areas of the brain

that may produce tremendous
mystical experiences,

particularly the feeling
of a sensed presence.

An amazing eighty per cent

of those who've
tried on the helmet

have reported similar effects.

But as with the
epilepsy argument,

doesn't all this talk
of earthquake lights

take God out of
Paul's conversion?

Well, throughout
religious history,

believers have reported
encounters with God

that have coincided
with powerful, natural events.

There's actual re-connections
that take place

in the brains of
these individuals.

The brains actually re-wire.

And of course that allows
the brain to detect stimuli

that perhaps
others cannot detect.

But even
if there wasn't an earthquake,

one thing's for sure.

Paul's experience drove him on
towards even greater danger.

Three hundred miles south
of Philippi was Corinth,

one of the most infamous cities
in the Roman Empire.

The very name, Corinth,

was slang for sexual promiscuity.

In fact, Corinth's reputation

was of one big
red light district.

This city wasn't
an obvious pulpit

for a preacher like Paul.

But Paul discovered
that here too,

the pagan world was ready
to listen to his message.

Paul teamed up with a couple
of fellow tentmakers

who told him
that many people in Corinth

were fed up with its immorality.

This was too good
an opportunity to miss

and it's clear from his letters

that Paul made the most of it.

The tentmakers
agreed to help Paul

and found him a place
where he could preach

to disaffected Corinthians.

Paul's preaching fell
on eager ears in Corinth.

His impact was such he says
in his letters,

that many of the congregation

slipped into a heightened state
of prayer

called speaking in tongues.

For many Corinthians
speaking in tongues

was a sign that
they were true Christians.

Paul's preaching stood
his new communities.

But this spiritual power

was a double-edged sword.

Not everyone spoke in tongues.

And many thought it
was a dangerous distraction.

Paul had other things
to worry about though,

and other cities to visit.

But leaving the Corinthian church

in such a state of turmoil

was a decision that would
come back to haunt him.

Paul's preaching
had won him many converts

in small towns throughout
Greece and Asia Minor.

But if Christianity
was to gain real ground,

then he had to step it up a gear

and hit the big cities.

Paul headed for Ephesus,

capital of Asia Minor

and second only to Rome
in importance.

But Ephesus
was an even bigger challenge

for a missionary than Corinth.

It was home to the cult
of the pagan fertility goddess,

Artemis, an obvious target
for Paul's anger.

Once more the ensuing trouble

landed Paul in prison.

His whole mission
was in jeopardy again.

Rome seemed further away
than ever.

To make matters worse,

the Corinthian church wrote
to tell Paul of problems there.

Petty jealousies
were tearing the Church apart

and it's even been claimed

that the Jerusalem church
sent spies to Corinth

to stir up trouble amongst

the members of
Paul's congregation.

All of Paul's hard work
there was unravelling.

Under house arrest and unable
to sort the problems in person,

Paul came up with another
tactical masterstroke.

He wrote them a letter.

It's one of the most famous
letters in Christendom.

We know it today
as a passage read at weddings.

But at the time

it was a remarkable
plea for unity.

Love is not happy with evil

but is happy with the truth.

Love never gives
up and its faith,

hope and patience never fail.

Paul had a first class

university education in rhetoric.

He uses it like a master

that is a way
of presenting material,

all the tricks of the trade

in terms of convincing people,

all of that is automatic.

But Corinth wasn't the only place

from the past to come back
and haunt Paul.

As soon as he was released
from jail in Ephesus,

Paul decided to honour a promise

he'd made years earlier.

Just like the collections taken
in churches today,

Paul had been collecting money

for the work
of the Jerusalem church.

It was something that
had been agreed

with Peter and James.

But instead of sending the money,

Paul decided to deliver it
in person.

But going back to Jerusalem

was a high-risk strategy.

At stake was the entire mission
to Rome.

Upon his release
from prison in Ephesus,

Paul made his last
ever visit to Jerusalem.

It was a trip
fraught with danger.

Paul's aim was to
personally deliver

money specially collected
for the Jerusalem church.

The collection was well received

but James confessed to Paul
that he had a problem.

Many Jewish Christians
in Jerusalem

wanted him to
reject the collection.

It was tainted by Paul's
rejection of the law of Moses.

In the Acts of the Apostles

Luke says that James,

under pressure
to put Paul to the test,

asked Paul to use the collection
to pay for a traditional,

Jewish purification ritual.

A head shaving ceremony
in the temple.

This would show the people
in Jerusalem

that Paul was still a good Jew.

Paul went along with idea,

but it was a dangerous decision.

He might be recognised as the Jew

who'd preached the blasphemy

that Gentile
converts did not need

to observe the Jewish laws

The ceremony was supposed
to last a week.

The men involved
were taking a major step.

A vow to become extra holy.

It was almost like
becoming a monk.

Everything was going smoothly
until the last day.

In his account of Paul's mission,

Luke says that some people
alerted the crowd

to the presence of Paul.

His appearance in the temple
was not welcome.

Neither was his message.

Some thought he had to be stopped

There's a possibility that
a group of Judeisas,

a group of false brethren as Paul

would have called them,

have betrayed him
to the authorities.

They actually think that Paul

is so damaging to Judaism,

that it's better
to have him arrested.

To Paul's dismay,

those who called for his arrest
were fellow Jews

who believed in
Jesus the Messiah.

Paul was arrested
and sentenced to death.

His mission was in tatters.

Rome remained beyond his reach.

On the face of it,

his decision to come to Jerusalem

was a major error of judgment.

But perhaps risked all
because he knew

he still had his
trump card to play.

As a Roman citizen
he demanded the right

to have his case heard
before the Emperor.

After two years in prison,

the authorities finally agreed

and put him on a boat to Rome.

After thirty five years

travelling around
the Mediterranean,

Paul was at last in sight
of the ultimate prize -

Rome, the capital of the Empire.

But as ever, Paul's journey
was not to go smoothly.

For two weeks his ship
was battered by storms.

Within sight of the Mediterranean
island of Malta

& with their lives
in grave danger,

the crew ran their boat
onto the rocks.

This was the fourth shipwreck
Paul had survived.

They stayed in Malta
to let the winter pass

and then hitched a ride
on a grain ship

heading for Italy
the next Spring.

At last Rome was in sight.

On his arrival,
Paul was met by some

of his old friends from Corinth.

They had high hopes that

this would be greatest triumph
of Paul's mission.

Of course, he was
still under arrest

awaiting a decision on his fate.

But he could still
receive visitors

even in jail.

In his epilogue to the Acts
of the Apostles,

Luke writes that Paul
was held in prison

for at least two years,

during which time

he was still able
to preach freely.

Despite all the setbacks,

Paul had reached the heart
of the Empire after all.

But was his mission a success
or a failure?

Unfortunately
Paul's letters stop there

and Luke isn't much help either.

There's nothing in his Acts
of the Apostles

about Paul's fate.

To find out what happened,

we need to rely on
later traditions kept alive

by the Roman Church.

And they paint a grim picture.

The accepted view
is that Paul was martyred.

Executed by the
Roman authorities.

But it was after his death

that Paul's greatest
mission began.

He could never have predicted
the effect of his words

through the centuries.

And as far as we know

Paul never planned
or intended it.

Through the efforts
of friends and disciples,

Paul's letters
became missionary tools

in themselves.

Their eloquence and poetry

continued to win converts

around the Roman empire.

His mission was
a success after all.

When Paul met Jesus
on the road to Damascus,

it changed his life
and the future of Christianity.

But despite his conversion,

the earthquakes, the jailbreaks,

perhaps the greatest miracle
of Paul's story

is the sheer power
and persistence of his message.