Paul The Apostle Part 1

Paul, Part 1.

Nearly all the material for the life of Paul is contained in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the Pauline Epistles. Paul at first was known as Saul of Tarsus before his conversion, than later was know as Paul the apostle to the Gentiles.

Acts 9:15, Jesus said to Ananias, “Go your way: for he (Paul) is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.” He was born of Jewish parents at Tarsus a Gentile city in Cilicia,

Paul wrote, Acts 21:39, “I am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city,” inheriting from his parents the rights of Roman citizenship; his father was of the tribe of Benjamin. Philippians 3:5; Saul was a Pharisee, Acts 23:6; and in,

Acts 22:28, said, “I was born a free man.”

Saul learned to use the Greek language with freedom and mastery in both speaking a writing, and had learned the trade of “tent making,” Acts 18:3. In Acts 22, he tells his countrymen at Jerusalem that though he was born in Tarsus, he had been “brought up” in Jerusalem.”

We may imagine him as a youth arriving in Jerusalem already a Hellenist speaking Greek, and familiar with the Greek version of the Scriptures; he possessing, besides knowledge of tent making, the elements of Gentile learning, — to be taught at Jerusalem “according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers,” he studying “at the feet of Gamaliel.”

Saul who was to resist so strongly the usurpations of the law had for his teacher one of the most eminent of all the doctors of the law Gamaliel. A few years after the death of Jesus, about 37 A.D. Saul became as might have been expected from his training and his temperament, a furious adversary of the sect of Christians.

Saul was a young man, Acts 7:58, when the Church experienced that sudden expansion which was connected with the ordaining of the Seven appointed to serve tables, and with the special power and inspiration of Stephen. Acts 6:9 reveals to us that the Jews of the Clician synagogue at Jerusalem were among those who disputed with Stephen, and it is natural to conclude that the young and brilliant zealot Saul was eager for debating, was conspicuous among the crowd of Jewish students who poured out of their synagogues (of which according to Talmud, there were 480 in the city,) and in the insolence of their youth and scholarship, to crush the ignorant followers of the Nazarene. Saul was with those false witnesses who cast stones at Stephen. It is written that Saul “consented unto his (Stephen’s) death.”

Saul had now become a prominent actor in the great persecution of the Christians that broke out at Jerusalem. The mysterious circumstances that led to and attended his conversion are familiar to all readers of the book of Acts. Saul had undertaken to follow up the Christian’s “unto strange cities. He naturally turned his thoughts to Damascus. What happened to him as he traveled is related to in detail three times in Acts. These three narratives are not repetitious of one another: there are differences between them.

In Acts 9:5, and in Acts 24:14, the Lord told Saul, “It is hard for you to kick against the pricks (goad).”  Some may ask, what is a goad, or prick. An ox goad is a piece of pointed iron stuck in the end of a stick; with which the ox is urged on when drawing the plough. The origin of the proverb seems to have been this; sometimes a stubborn ox kicks back against this goad and in this, he wounds himself.

We are told about the sudden light that came from heaven; followed by the voice of Jesus speaking with authority to His persecutor Saul who was than struck to the ground, blinded and overcome with fear. This was followed by the three days of suspense; the coming of Ananias as a messenger of the Lord; and finally Saul’s baptism.

These were the leading features, in the eyes of the historian, of the great event, and in these we must look for the chief importance of the conversion, never forgetting that the whole of this event was of a spiritual communication. The Lord had manifested Himself as a living person to the man Saul, and spoke to him so His words could be understood. These are the facts as declared to us in Scripture. The conversion of Paul was brought about by the Lord himself!

Phillip LaSpino  www.seekfirstwisdom.com