Possibly he was one of several non-Chalcedonian bishops who fled in 599 amidst the persecution of Domitian of Melitene, nephew of the Emperor Maurice.
He is not named by Michael the Syrian among the exiles, but the bishop of Tella is said to have returned to diocese when the persecution ceased.
His translation work is characterised by close imitation of the Greek morphology, syntax and word order.
[1] Paul of Tella is sometimes proposed as the translator of the pericope about Jesus and the woman taken in adultery, which is found in neither the later standard Syriac Bible, the Peshitta, nor in Tumo of Ḥarqel's translation of the New Testament, the Ḥarqlean Version.
[1] Besides his translations, Paul wrote at least one surviving sedro (a type of long prayer).