Whatever Happened to Paul the Apostle? by Chris White

Statue of Paul at St. Paul's in Rome

Paul the Apostle is credited with writing half of the New Testament and yet was not part of the original apostolic band that followed Jesus during His earthly ministry. The New Testament book of  Acts 9:15 makes it clear that although he was a chronological latecomer, he was a specifically chosen instrument of the Lord to bear witness of the gospel to the Gentiles.  Most of what we know about Paul’s ministry is recorded in the book of Acts as well as short self-references in many of his epistles.  Paul makes mention in Galatians that he had a long sojourn in Arabia prior to moving into official ministry.  This is most likely today’s Jordan rather than Saudi Arabia since in that time, the lands east of the Jordan river were frequently called Arabia.  In the book of Romans (ch.15),  Paul references his great journeys to preach among the Gentiles as having gone from Jerusalem to Illyricum. He also writes that he would like this congregation to help him on his way to evangelize Spain after he stops and ministers to them.  If you follow these statements with a map in front of you, it is clear that Paul had covered the eastern half of the Roman Empire and had as his ambition moving on to cover the western half.  What was unknown to Paul at the time was that he would be coming to Rome but he would be in chains when he did so.  There are many ancient testimonies that suggest Paul was released from his first imprisonment because no one showed up to testify against him and that he did make his way to Spain and possibly even Britain.  Returning to Rome after these journeys, Paul was caught in the Neronian persecution (AD 65?) of Christians and is believed to have been beheaded outside of Rome on the Appian Way.  Paul’s burial site is believed to be inside of St. Paul’s (Outside the Walls) Church in Rome.  The provenance of this is fairly undisputed since the tradition is so ancient, the Church is actually built over the old Appian Way, and because archaeologists have recovered an ancient shrine on site that actually marked  his grave.

Whatever Happened to the Apostle John? by Chris White

The Apostle John by El Greco

Among the ruins of Ephesus in modern-day Turkey is a house of Mary and a well-attested tomb of St. John.  What would this Galilean Jew be doing in Asia Minor with the Lord’s mother?  In John 19:26 Jesus places John in charge of caring for his mother and following the resurrection we read that John was one of the pillars of the Jerusalem church.  By 70 AD, Ephesus had become a huge center of Christianity and many Jerusalem Christians fled there, as did John with Mary, before the fall of the city to the Romans.  Many historians point out that there is not a shred of evidence that Mary ever lived in Ephesus and that if she did she would have been in her early to mid 90’s by this time. The house of Mary was found in the 19^th century based on the writings of Anne Catherine Emmerich, a German nun who claimed to have a vision of its location.  Emmerich had never been to Turkey or Ephesus, but apparently the foundation was found by others who read the book.  Not surprisingly the Catholic Church neither endorses  or denies the authenticity of  this site.  They just say it is a shrine that commemorates the Mother of the Lord and leave those conclusions to the hearts and minds of the visitors.  There is also a tradition that John went to Rome to assist the Apostle Peter and was also captured during the Neronian persecution and was boiled in oil.  The story further states that he miraculously escaped injury and fled back to Ephesus.   The 5^th Century Church Father Jerome shares an anecdote in his writing that when John was quite aged, he would be brought to Church every week carried on the shoulders of the young men in the body.  He would teach the same thing every week “Love one another”.  Some of the younger men complained saying “why do you teach us the same thing every week?”  “Because if you would do it, it would be enough,” he said.  All the ancient historians of the Church agree that John died of natural causes around 100 years of age.  Not widely known is that the church that once protected the grave of John (it has been destroyed by earthquakes, Muslim invasions, and the passing of time) was largely constructed from materials taken from the Temple of Diana, one of the wonders of the ancient world, that had fallen into disrepair and disuse because of the Christianization of Ephesus.  The only known remains of the Apostle John are his Gospel, Epistles, and the Book of Revelation.