Paul, St. (10–67? CE)

Paul's Early Life and Conversion

Paul was born with the name “Saul” in Tarsus (now in modern Turkey) and had a strict Jewish upbringing. Little is known about Paul's early life, including the year of his birth. Like many of the Jews there, Paul inherited Roman citizenship. This explains his two names. He used his Jewish name, “Saul,” within the Jewish community and his Roman surname, “Paul,” when speaking his native tongue of Greek, the lingua franca of the Middle East at that time. Growing up in a cosmopolitan city prepared him for his special vocation of converting Gentiles.

At some point Paul became a fervent member of the Pharisees, a Jewish sect that promoted purity and strict fidelity to the law of Moses. He drew on his knowledge of the law and of rabbinic methods of interpreting repeatedly in his missionary work. He never met Jesus while in Jerusalem, but he learned enough about Jesus and his followers to regard the Christian movement as a threat to the Pharisaic Judaism that he had embraced so eagerly. It was during his travels to persecute members of the newly founded Christian movement that he underwent conversion.

The Hellenists (Greek-speaking Jews) in Jerusalem were the first to come under persecution by fellow Jews. They not only had proclaimed Jesus as the messiah, but also had claimed that Mosaic law could be disregarded because the sacrificial death of Jesus [Page 1177]superseded the teachings of the Jewish temple and its ritual sacrifices. Paul joined in the effort to eradicate the Christian movement. The Hellenist converts fled to foreign cities, while the original Aramaicspeaking group in Jerusalem kept a low profile to avoid further trouble. Paul received a commission from the chief priest to go to Damascus to help suppress Christianity. As he approached Damascus, Paul experienced a spiritual revelation and conversion. He was left convinced that Jesus was risen from the dead and exalted as Lord in heaven and that, just as the Christians claimed, his death could be understood as a sacrifice on behalf of others.

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