Did the apostle Paul exist outside of the Bible?

Answer 1

One instance where the biblical evidence can be accepted without reservation is on the historical existence of Paul. While the books attributed to Paul could have been written pseudographically - and in fact several were - there are at least five books that computer analysis says were written by the same person. It is most improbable that one person, quite early in the history of Christianity, would write five books and attribute them to a non-existent person. Even before the use of computer analysis, scholars had already accepted that these books (and two others) rang true, whereas other epistles were clearly of later origin.

Even the fact that later epistles were written and falsely attributed to Paul, later in the first century CE, means that Paul was widely accepted to have been a historical person of some importance to the Christian faith.

There should be no doubt that Paul really did exist, even if the only evidence for him is contained in The Bible. However, the association of Paul with Saul could arguably be disputed as a literarly invention of Acts, based on another person called Saulus.

Outside the Bible, I'm not aware of any. Even the places where Paul visited and the officials whom Paul talked with are silent on Paul's alleged journey.