the apostle paul is a major component of the new testament as, canonically to the catholic church, he was the first pope and his letters giving theological advice to early roman churches are the backbone of catholic teachings. however, most biblical scholars find the epistles canonized as the pauline texts to be disjointed, and likely a mishmash of paul's writing, other authors writing as paul, and even marginalia that simply made it into the bible as paul's teachings, even if they actually contradict other things he said