Only a minority of scholars would regard the Pastoral Letters (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus) as coming from Paul; they consider the letters as written in the name of Paul to address situations in Pauline churches years after the death of the Apostle.
The Acts of the Apostles, Luke’s sequel to his Gospel, supplies further information about the Apostle. Luke pays an extraordinary tribute to him by devoting to him half of the book’s lengthy description of the spread of Christianity. Because of Luke’s engaging and dramatic style, people probably know more the Paul of Acts than of the letters. Bible scholar Raymond E. Brown comments: “Paul’s own writings may be remarkably autobiographical, but the biography in Acts contributed enormously to his image.” It must, however, be remembered that Luke is not attempting to write accurate, play-by-play history but uses his researched materials to give a theological account of how Christianity moved outward from its Jewish origins to the Gentile world under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, with Paul as instrument of bringing the gospel “to the ends of the earth.”
