Historically, most Christians ignored Paul (at least, we don’t have any record of any Christians appealing to him as any sort of authority) until around the early/middle of the 2nd century, when Marcion first appealed to Paul as an authority. As it turns out—since Marcion was a heretic—Acts of the Apostles was written to counter Marcion and his interpretation of Paul (see Marcion and Luke-Acts.
Marcion’s Bible was the first Christian Bible, and it’s simple happenstance of proto-Catholics modeling their Bible off of Marcion’s model (Paul-obsession, really) that Paul seems to be such an important figure.
Basically.
Historically, most Christians ignored Paul (at least, we don’t have any record of any Christians appealing to him as any sort of authority) until around the early/middle of the 2nd century, when Marcion first appealed to Paul as an authority. As it turns out—since Marcion was a heretic—Acts of the Apostles was written to counter Marcion and his interpretation of Paul (see Marcion and Luke-Acts.
Marcion’s Bible was the first Christian Bible, and it’s simple happenstance of proto-Catholics modeling their Bible off of Marcion’s model (Paul-obsession, really) that Paul seems to be such an important figure.