c. 5 – c. 64/67 AD · Apostle of Jesus Christ & missionary of the early church
Paul of Tarsus was a first-century Jewish follower of Jesus whose letters to early Christian communities form a large part of the New Testament. The Epistle to the Ephesians, from which this line comes, opens in his name and is traditionally counted among his prison letters, though many modern scholars regard it as written by a later disciple in Paul’s tradition. Whoever held the pen, the exhortation to kindness, tenderheartedness, and mutual forgiveness became one of the most quoted lines of Christian ethics.