Died c. A.D. 64–67

Paul

Worth knowing

Born in Tarsus and trained as a Pharisee, he persecuted the first Christians until the risen Jesus met him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).
His letters are the earliest Christian writings we have. 1 Thessalonians dates to about A.D. 50, within twenty years of the crucifixion.
In 1 Corinthians 15 he passes on a creed he says he had himself received, and lists the people who saw the risen Christ, adding that most of the five hundred were still alive and could be asked.
By early tradition he was beheaded in Rome under Nero. The papyri you can carry in the game are some of the oldest surviving copies of his letters.

In Scholar’s Dream, Paul has five books

P46Papyrus 46 (a Pauline codex — Romans through Hebrews)BibleSoteriology

P49Papyrus 49 (Papyrus Yale 415 — Ephesians 4:16–29; 4:31–5:13)EthicsEcclesiology

P92Papyrus 92 (Ephesians 1:11–13, 19–21; 2 Thessalonians 1:4–5, 11–12)SoteriologyChristology

P132Papyrus 132 (P. Oxy. 81 5258 — Ephesians 3:21–4:2; 4:14–16)EcclesiologyRationality

P133Papyrus 133 (P. Oxy. 81 5259 — 1 Timothy 3:13–16; 4:1–8)ChristologyEcclesiology

Paul’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Paul that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”
1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (WEB) — the passage 𝔓46 attests. The words are a creed Paul quotes rather than writes, which puts the resurrection claim earlier than any book that contains it.

How it works in the game: the move Delivered and Received

HistoryArgument · power 72 · 100% accurate

In the gamePaul is not composing here. He is handing on something he was handed — a creed already old when he wrote it down.

Learned byP46 (Lv 1)

“To this end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power;”
2 Thessalonians 1:11 (WEB) — 𝔓92 attests this passage AND Ephesians 1 on the same leaves. One scribe, two letters, one book: the object itself is the evidence that Paul was being copied as a collection by about A.D. 300.

How it works in the game: the move Counted Worthy

SpiritualityType shift

In the gamePaul stops arguing and prays for the people he is writing to. Greatly raises the user’s Contend.

Learned byP92 (Lv 30)

“God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.”
Hebrews 1:1–2 (WEB) — the passage 𝔓46 attests. 𝔓46 copies Hebrews straight in among Paul’s letters, which is the earliest physical evidence we have of how that book was filed.

How it works in the game: the move Spoken by His Son

ChristologyArgument · power 74 · 100% accurate

In the gameEvery earlier word from God was true and partial. This one is a person.

Learned byP46 (Lv 38)

Words Paul’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;”
Ephesians 4:14 (WEB) — the passage 𝔓132 attests on its second side.

How it works in the game: the move Every Wind of Doctrine

RationalityArgument · power 60 · 100% accurate

In the gameName the trick out loud — the drift, the craftiness, the practised shift of ground — and it stops working. The foe may find its Contend fallen.

Learned byP132 (Lv 1)

“…the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”
1 Timothy 3:15 (WEB, trimmed quote) — the passage 𝔓133 attests.

How it works in the game: the move Pillar and Ground

EcclesiologyArgument · power 66 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe church does not invent the truth and does not own it. It holds it up so the room can see it.

Learned byP133 (Lv 1)

“Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.”
Ephesians 4:25 (WEB) — the passage 𝔓49 attests.

How it works in the game: the move Put Away Falsehood

EthicsArgument · power 65 · 100% accurate

In the gameStop the lie first. Everything else in the argument waits on that.

Learned byP49 (Lv 1)

“In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,”
Ephesians 1:13 (WEB) — the passage 𝔓92 attests on its first surviving side.

How it works in the game: the move Sealed with the Spirit

SoteriologyArgument · power 62 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe seal is not the reader’s grip on God. It is God’s mark on the reader, and it holds — the book’s own Defend may rise.

Learned byP92 (Lv 1)

“but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ; from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies… makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.”
Ephesians 4:15–16 (WEB, trimmed quote) — the passage 𝔓132 attests. 𝔓49 attests verse 16 as well: two scraps, found separately, overlapping on one line.

How it works in the game: the move Speaking Truth in Love

EcclesiologyArgument · power 65 · 100% accurate

In the gameTruth said in love and love that tells the truth — Paul will not let a reader pick one. The whole body grows by it.

Learned byP132 (Lv 28)

“And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.”
Ephesians 4:32 (WEB) — the passage 𝔓49 attests.

How it works in the game: the move Be Kind to One Another

EthicsRestore

In the gameKindness, and then forgiveness, all through the backpack — every status effect on your team is washed away.

Learned byP49 (Lv 29)

“But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons,”
1 Timothy 4:1 (WEB) — the passage 𝔓133 attests.

How it works in the game: the move Doctrines of Demons

EcclesiologyArgument · power 64 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe warning is not that error might come. It is that it will, from inside, and on a schedule. The foe may be left DISTRACTED.

Learned byP133 (Lv 29)

“For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from God’s love, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:38–39 (WEB) — the passage 𝔓46 attests.

How it works in the game: the move Nothing Can Separate

SoteriologyArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe list is long on purpose: Paul is trying to find something that could and running out. Strikes half again as hard when the book is nearly spent.

Learned byP46 (Lv 32)

“But refuse profane and old wives’ fables. Exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things…”
1 Timothy 4:7–8 (WEB, trimmed quote) — the passage 𝔓133 attests before it breaks off.

How it works in the game: the move Train for Godliness

EthicsArgument · power 58 · 100% accurate

In the gameGodliness is trained for, the way a body is. Slow, unglamorous, and it holds — the book’s own Defend may rise.

Learned byP133 (Lv 32)

“to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
Ephesians 3:21 (WEB) — the passage 𝔓132 attests; the fragment holds a few letters of this verse and breaks off into chapter 4.

How it works in the game: the move To Him Be the Glory

SpiritualityType shift

In the gameA doxology, not an argument. The book stops defending itself and hands the glory over — and greatly raises its own Defend by doing it.

Learned byP132 (Lv 33)

“For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light… Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.”
Ephesians 5:8–11 (WEB, trimmed quote) — the passage 𝔓49 attests before it breaks off at 5:13.

How it works in the game: the move Reprove the Darkness

EthicsArgument · power 70 · 95% accurate

In the gameNot shunning the dark thing and not joining it either — dragging it into the light and naming it, which is the harder of the two.

Learned byP49 (Lv 34)

“…that working of the strength of his might which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named…”
Ephesians 1:19–21 (WEB, trimmed quote) — the passage 𝔓92 attests.

How it works in the game: the move Far Above Every Name

ChristologyArgument · power 80 · 95% accurate

In the gameThe power that raised Christ and seated him above every rule and authority — named, and then aimed.

Learned byP92 (Lv 35)

“Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and received up in glory.”
1 Timothy 3:16 (WEB) — the passage 𝔓133 attests, and 𝔓133 is the oldest surviving witness to any part of 1 Timothy.

How it works in the game: the move Revealed in the Flesh

ChristologyArgument · power 78 · 100% accurate

In the gameAn early hymn, quoted by Paul because the churches already sang it — six lines, and every one of them about the same person.

Learned byP133 (Lv 36)

Who else was alive

Paul against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 1A.D. 50A.D. 100A.D. 150A.D. 200A.D. 250A.D. 300A.D. 350A.D. 400A.D. 450

Matthew Paul John Mark Pliny the Elder Clement of Rome Ignatius An early Christian community Polycarp Claudius Ptolemy Hermas Justin Martyr Aristides Quadratus Melito Unknown authors writing under borrowed names Irenaeus The author of the Epistle to Diognetus Athenagoras Clement of Alexandria Tertullian Marcus Minucius Felix Origen Cyprian Plotinus Lactantius Eusebius Athanasius Eustathius of Sebaste Apollinaris of Laodicea Cyril of Jerusalem Epiphanius of Salamis Gregory of Nazianzus Basil of Caesarea Eunomius of Cyzicus Gregory of Nyssa Ambrose of Milan Jovinian Augustine The Macedonians Helvidius

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate61 authors sit outside this window