Paul had three sources for his teachings, as much as one can distinguish the Word of God: the Hebrew Scriptures, the Gospel teachings of Jesus Christ, and direct revelation from God prophetically. It is the latter that is necessary for the first two to be comprehensible.

Galatians 1:11-12 states: “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Paul serves as a bridge between those who saw and believed, like the Disciples, and those who have not physically seen but believe. John 20:29 records Jesus saying to Thomas: “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

In his early life, Paul rejected Jesus and was an aggressive persecutor of the Church. Through a supernatural experience—a vision of Jesus Christ—Paul became an evangelist for Christ’s Church.

Paul also bridges the orthodoxy of religion and those without understanding of Israel’s example, the Gentiles. Philippians 3:5-6 describes him as: “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

Yet, Paul goes on to say in Philippians 3:7: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” Educated in the Hebrew Scriptures and oral traditions, Paul considered this man-made education worthless. Philippians 3:8 continues: “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”

This is not to say such qualifications were useless. Paul leaned on his Roman citizenship and credentials when beneficial, as seen in Acts 22:25: “And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?” Similarly, in Acts 23:6: “But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.”

Crucially, Paul did not claim his understanding came from his birth into Israel, Roman citizenship, or academic study. There is no meaningful difference between Paul, Jesus, and the other Apostles chosen by Jesus.

Peter affirms this in 2 Peter 3:15-16: “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”