Was Paul an apostle not to be messed with?

The Acts of Peter is an Apocryphal book written quite a bit later on.

I don't take it too seriously.

The sorcerer in Cyprus was made blind only temporarily, in order to demonstrate the weakness of his own "magic" compared to the power of God. It seems it was the only way to shut him up. But he wasn't left blind indefinitely.

When he faced Peter, it was out of love for the gentile (non-Jewish) believers, because Peter was caving in to the judaisers for a while. There is no mention that he faced James. In fact in the council of Acts 15, both Peter and James backed him up. (I suspect his facing of Peter was before that, but am not sure.)

However, I agree that Paul obviously was a man of strong character. Capable of much tenderness, but like a mama bear when you touched the gentile churches!

Acts was written after the temple had fallen, probably around 80 AD. Luke/Acts was attributed to a physician named Luke who is mentioned in Acts, by a bishop named Irenaeus in the 2nd century AD. Its history of Paul differs in these aspects from the history in the letters of Paul: It maintains Paul was a Roman citizen. It gives Paul supernatural abilities to heal and raise the dead. It portrays harmony between Paul and the pillars, James and Peter. It has Paul converted by an oracular vision on the road to Damascus. There is a fifteen year gap between conversion and first visit to Jerusalem. It describes Paul as a persecutor of Christians before conversion. Paul's letters mention none of these. So understanding Paul only by way of his letters presents a different Paul. It's a human and humble Paul who never mentions raising the dead or having supernatural powers; he mentions a chronic affliction (epilepsy? blindness?) and admits to being a poor speaker and calligrapher. He has his resentments (against Cretins and certain individuals) which he freely vents. As with all of the later post-temple-destruction gospel writers, the abilities of Jesus, Peter, and Paul were exaggerated to superhuman proportions. Being another human being, it's not likely that Paul had the power to do the harm that you mentioned. Most of the time, he preached longsuffering and forgiveness towards those who mistreated him.

Before Paul was a follower of Christ, he was Saul, a persecutor of the believers. I bet he never sold his guns when he converted - definitely someone not to be messed with.

I think Clint Eastwood would have played him well in a western version of a movie about Jesus. Think "Unforgiven" or "The Outlaw, Josie Wales".... maybe "High Plains Drifter".

Yes, and don't forget Paul got in Peters face and opposed him.

Galations 2:11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Paul was The Deceiver, The Liar. So called by the Essene community that ousted him. :)) He hijacked Jesus' teachings and created his own warped religion known as Paulite xianity.

Paul was a Roman governor of Tarsus, executed by Nero, as was the custom of Roman Emperors to execute those placed in power by the previous Emperor.

Paul was pretty hardcore. He got into some argument with.. who was it.. James I think, and vented angrily about it in Galatians.

paul was a guy that right up unitl he became a proponent of xtianity, hated it! then, all of the sudden, he had a "vision" showing him the way to xtianity....i think the "vision" he had was a large bag of money as a bit of a bribe so he would profess the teachings of xtianity

I think that question should be directed at the roman executioner who cut off his head.