14,760 views
Abstract Paul of Tarsus is a Jew of the diaspora and, more precisely, a Pharisee, transformed by a mysterious encounter with the risen Jesus, while he was trying to destroy the group of people who recognized in that Galilean the Messiah awaited by Israel. The information available on the life and mission of the one who has been called "apostle of the Gentiles" is very abundant, since he himself - the only Pharisee of the first century to have done so - left numerous occasional writings intended for the first Christian communities born in Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. For those who approach the texts of the New Testament, however, the first "presentation" of this passionate and provocative figure of history is the one created by Luke, in the second part of his literary work: Acts of the Apostles. The evangelist Luke, among other things, also offers numerous historical, geographical and legal data that can stimulate the historical research of believers and non-believers, inform about the relations of the Christian communities of the 80s of the first century with the Roman Empire and, for those who read these pages in the light of faith, help to recognize how the true "protagonist" of the story is the Holy Spirit. Rereading the Lucan narrative, perhaps one question will remain without a certain answer: why does the author of the story, who must have had information about the death of Paul, which occurred in Rome around 67 AD, not even mention it? Don Michele Marcato Director of the ISSR Giovanni Paolo I – Veneto Orientale (with offices in Treviso and Belluno), has taught Sacred Scripture at the Interdiocesan Theological Study of Treviso-Vittorio Veneto since 2004; Since 2009 he has been a lecturer in Sacred Scripture at the ISSR Treviso-Vittorio Veneto and since 2018 he has been a Permanent Extraordinary Lecturer in Sacred Scripture at the new ISSR Giovanni Paolo I. After obtaining a Doctorate in Biblical Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in 2012, he published two monographs on discernment and the formation of conscience and edited two other volumes; he has several scientific articles and numerous popular publications to his credit.