Bible Verses About Paul

Someone says, “His letters are weighty and powerful, but when he appears in person he is weak, and as a speaker he is nothing.”

I may not be a skilled speaker, but I do have the knowledge; anyhow, we have made this clear to you in every way and in every circumstance.

Are they Hebrew-speakers? So am I. Are they of the people of Isra’el? So am I. Are they descendants of Avraham? So am I.

Are they servants of the Messiah? (I’m talking like a madman!) I’m a better one! I’ve worked much harder, been imprisoned more often, suffered more beatings, been near death over and over.

Five times I received “forty lashes less one” from the Jews.

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.

In my many travels I have been exposed to danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the desert, danger at sea, danger from false brothers.

I have toiled and endured hardship, often not had enough sleep, been hungry and thirsty, frequently gone without food, been cold and naked.

When I was in Dalmanuta, the governor under King Aretas had the city of Dalmanuta guarded in order to arrest me;

but I was lowered in a basket through an opening in the wall and escaped his clutches.

I have to boast. There is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.

I know a man in union with the Messiah who fourteen years ago was snatched up to the third heaven; whether he was in the body or outside the body I don’t know, God knows.

And I know that such a man — whether in the body or apart from the body I don’t know, God knows —

was snatched into Gan-‘Eden and heard things that cannot be put into words, things unlawful for a human being to utter.

Therefore, to keep me from becoming overly proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from the Adversary to pound away at me, so that I wouldn’t grow conceited.

Three times I begged the Lord to take this thing away from me;

but he told me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is brought to perfection in weakness.” Therefore, I am very happy to boast about my weaknesses, in order that the Messiah’s power will rest upon me.

Yes, I am well pleased with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties endured on behalf of the Messiah; for it is when I am weak that I am strong.

From: Sha’ul, an emissary — I received my commission not from human beings or through human mediation but through Yeshua the Messiah and God the Father, who raised him from the dead — also from all the brothers with me

For you have heard about my former way of life in [traditional] Judaism — how I did my best to persecute God’s Messianic Community and destroy it;

and how, since I was more of a zealot for the traditions handed down by my forefathers than most Jews my age, I advanced in [traditional] Judaism more rapidly than they did.

But when God, who picked me out before I was born and called me by his grace, chose

to reveal his Son to me, so that I might announce him to the Gentiles, I did not consult anyone;

and I did not go up to Yerushalayim to see those who were emissaries before me. Instead, I immediately went off to Arabia and afterwards returned to Dammesek.

Not until three years later did I go up to Yerushalayim to make Kefa’s acquaintance, and I stayed with him for two weeks,