Loading...I sometimes get asked (once just a few days ago) about what we can say about Paul’s death. We don’t have any historical records (i.e., historically reliable accounts), but there is one relatively early reference to it and an intriguing legend from about a century after the event, whenever and however it happened.
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The Death of Paul
July 19, 2025
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Some have speculated that Paul may actually have been martyred by Jewish Christians, an uncomfortable scenario for Christianity! Do you think that this might be one of the reasons why details of Paul’s martyrdom are not known?. Paul certainly admits to being in mortal danger from ‘false believers’ 2 Cor 11:26 (likely Jewish Christians who advocated circumcision and close adherence to the Jewish law) and a careful reading of Acts chapters 21 & 22, indeed seems to indicate that Jewish Christians were actually involved in trying to kill Paul (Acts 21:20-22, 31, Acts 35-36; Acts 22:21-22). The crowds were probably mainly Jewish Christians, because it wasn’t at the point that he mentioned his vision of Jesus on the Road to Damascus (Acts 22:8), that they became murderous, but only when he mentioned being sent to preach to the gentiles!! (Acts 22:21-22)
Ever wonder if the Greek converts to Christianity were very storybookie? After all, they were converting from the Greek god legends, which are very storybookie and dramatic indeed. Also, some of the groady, violent parts of these stories… The Greeks and Romans were coming out of rather groady stories about the gods and a rather violent culture as well.
I’ve recently found a YouTube channel that focuses on early Christianity in first-century Britain. This is actually about the first generation after Christ’s earthly life. They say that Joseph of Aramathia and perhaps even Paul traveled to Britain and that there was a major spiritual awakening there because of this.
I like these stories because they are pre-book/bible and pre-church hierarchy. It’s like they were truly living “in” Christ and the spirit of Christ, instead of living in a book, or living in a church hierarchical system.
Hello Dr.Bart Erhman
A very Intresting blog but does all of this indicate that he was killed in Rome?
That’s the tradition. I’m inclined to agree with it, but there’s not a lot of solid evidence.
St Clement: ” He taught righteousness to the whole world:”
Remark: G Campbell Morgan at end of his lecture series/books wrote [St] Paul preached to Spain., Ending there.
Another thing: I used to sweat as great drops of blood
Milk is not one of the four humors: phlegm, blood, yellow bile, black bile. Was Paul no longer a human being?
It’s a metaphor, so I’m not sure it needs to make sense scientifically (according to ancient science, that is)
I’ve always been attracted to the idea that Paul disappeared into the wilds of Hispania. Because of the paucity of sources would we be in error if we concluded that the early church simply had no idea what actually happened to Paul?
If anyone had a clear idea aobut it, they didn’t write anything about it that has survived….
I would ask of you, “who are some?” Regardless, its fascinating speculation.
Sorry, not sure what you’re asking.
I believe it was a question and comment for the first poster, Neurotheolgian. I, too, was taken aback with his opening phrase. When I hear that (some are saying/speculating) phrase anymore, what comes after doesn’t matter. I’m immediately led to disbelieve what follows. It’s always good to say out loud who the “some” is, especially today.
“And so he was set free from this world and transported up to the holy place”
Is 1 Clement the first extant mention of people going up to heaven when they die?
No, th eidea of going “up” to a higher realm at death is much older; it’s already in Plato, e.g.
“He taught righteousness to the whole world, and came to the limits of the West, bearing his witness before the rulers.”
Is there any evidence of Paul “bearing his witness before the rulers” outside of 1 Clement?
He appears on trial before Roman officials in Acts; there’s no evidence of him doing so in “the west” (i.e. in areas west of Rome on to Spain)
Bart.
What’s your thought on how in the letters of Paul the “dead” are asleep awaiting their resurrection into glorified eternal life, but by the writting of the “Acts of Paul”, death transforms one to a glorified eternal life without waiting in sleep for the return of Jesus? Is this indicative of an early change of theology of future resurrection?
It’s an intriguing issue; I deal with it at length in my book Heaven and Hell. But yup, that’s it. As the expectatoin of the imminent age fades, Christians begin to think in terms of reward/punishment after death rather than in the imminent day of judgment and the resurrection of the dead.
**“Let’s talk honestly about Zeus — not just as a myth, but as a once-revered divine figure whose worship spanned centuries. Why did it fall? Was it because people freely turned away from him? No. It was because one emperor — Theodosius I (379–395 AD) — made belief in the old gods illegal, and imposed state-sponsored Christianity by law. That’s not a spiritual awakening — that’s religious suppression.
People were punished — not for evil, not for violence, but simply for believing in Zeus and honoring sacred traditions. The government didn’t just convert temples into churches — they replaced gods by force, not faith. And when Christians call gods like Zeus ‘false idols’ or ‘demonic,’ that label didn’t come from divine revelation — it came from imperial decree.
What we see here isn’t theology — it’s politics wrapped in religion. A system of control, where people were told what to believe, or else. How is that truth? How is that divine?
Zeus’s worship thrived for over a thousand years — and then it vanished in a single generation, not because he was false, but because a government outlawed his name.
And yet, I still believe. Not because I’m forced to, but because something in me resonates with Zeus — with nature, with thunder, with power and order that predates governments and councils.
People today are quick to condemn alternative beliefs while ignoring centuries of corruption in their own traditions — whether Christian, Catholic, or Jewish. So I say this: if the fall of Zeus came at the hand of one man, I won’t let his memory die because of the pressure of millions. I stand with Zeus. Not in spite of history, but because of it.”
Dr. Ehrman,
As far as the rectitude of Paul’s famous list “of first importance,” the witnesses in 1 Cor. 15:5-8. You acknowledge an experience that was had by Peter and then even James as well, but right in between them are the 12 and the 500. Why do you dismiss these? i.e. Do you think Paul was careful about listing Peter’s experience, then Paul just listed the 12 and the 500 off of the top of his head?
I think I’ve explained all that, no? I don’t think the order in which they are listed adds credibility to the idea that 500 people right after Jesus death saw him. If so, why is there no record. Wouldn’t this have been, well, noticed?
Dr. Ehrman,
Yet the James account, just like the 500, have Paul as their only source, so why believe the one (v. 7) is trustworthy but the other (v. 6) is not? Or, is it more that as an agnostic/atheist, are you naturally critical that i.e. a group of 12, or 500, and so forth, would have really had a supernatural experience in a group setting?
Because there is nothing at all implausible about Paul going to Jerusalem to meet with the leaders there. (Plus, you find the account in the book of Acts too, whose author shows no evidence of having read the letter to the Galatians.) But it’s highly implausible that htere were 500 people who all claimed to see Jesus at one time and no other source says a thing about it, even the sources that very much try to prove that the resurrection really did happen, all of which were written *after* Paul. This is not an anti-supernatural bias. It’s a view I had when I was a Christian and was a view I first heard in a Christian theological seminary.
Dr. Ehrman,
So what about the appearance to the 12? Peter was in a great position to know and report about that…or the multiple attestation of an appearance to the 11 from the Gospels. Do you still say that there were no group experiences? How do you explain these away?
I think there were definitely stories about Jesus appearing to the 11 or 12. These were stories of group experiences. The stories come from decades later. As to lots of stories aobut Jesus that almost certainly were not historical. All the stories came from later story tellers — the resurrection stories are no more mysterious that way than any others (The Temptation in the Wilderness; Jesus Prayer in the Garden; The Raising of Lazarus; The Water to Wine; take your pick)