To understand Christianity, it is necessary to understand who Saul was and what his career on earth consisted of. Besides Jesus Christ, Saul was the most important figure in the history of religion and has influenced all believers to this day. His career was more of a calling, or was considered more of a lifestyle because it was his passion and it was what he loved to do. Jesus is not the founder of Christianity as we know it today. Most of the New Testament is not even about the historical Jesus while the main influence is the apostle Paul and, through the church he founded in Ephesus, a Greek convert named John. Saul never met Jesus in the flesh, he only claimed a strange vision and paganized the teachings of Jesus (who preached an enlightened form of Judaism), until he created Pauline Christianity. Because there are no known writings of Jesus, the true apostles, or anyone who actually knew him in the flesh (except perhaps James), most of what he taught is lost to never, with the possible exception of the controversial Gnostic gospels. The apostle Paul was born around 3 AD into the Jewish community of Tarsus, originally Saul. When he was born, his strict Pharisee parents devoted him to the service of God and did everything they could to raise him as a good Jew. From five to ten years old, he studied under his father, a Jewish Pharisee. His father taught him the holy scriptures and traditional writing. Saul was sent to Jerusalem around the age of ten to attend the rabbinical school of Gamaliel. Gamaliel was the most famous rabbi mentioned in the New Testament (Acts 5:34). Gamaliel soon discovered that Saul was an enthusiastic student and expected great things from him. He felt he would be an excellent leader... middle of paper ....... Modern study of Paul has attempted to move beyond the controversies and see Paul in his true context of the rise of Christianity. Paul stands out as a Jewish Christian, whose conversion experience convinced him that Christ was the universal Lord under God, the agent and ruler of God's kingdom. Paul thus maintains that through Christ every barrier is destroyed: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Paul of Tarsus was one of the greatest orators of all time, and his writings and ways of speaking are still practiced to this day by preachers and laypeople around the world. Paul went from a manual laborer to one of the most influential writers of this century and forever changed the way Jesus Christ, my Lord, would be studied and taught throughout the world..