PAUL THE APOSTLE

speeches in Acts, whether they are a true record of what he said, and whether we may use them to determine his teaching. It is not easy to suppose that they were tal£en down verbatim as they were spolten; and St. Lulse himself was not present at all of them (e.g. Ac IS""-14i5£r. i72i!ff.). Yet the speeches agree very well with the circumstances in which they were delivered, and the diction and sentiments coincide largely with the Pauline Epistles. Lukan phrases have been found in some of them, which is natural enough; more so In the speech of Ac 22, which was spoken in Aramaic, and therefore is clearly not the Apostle's ipsissima verba, than in the Athenian speech (Ac IT™'-) which has no Lukan element. The conclusion may be that the speeches were written down, soon after they were de-livered, by a hearer — sometimes the hearer was St. Luke himself — and the notes then taken were afterwards used by the author of Acts.

ii. Sketch of St. Paul's Life. — 1. Name. — The future Apostle is first made known to us under the name Saul (Ac 75«). Being of the tribe of Benjamin (Ro ll', Ph 35), a fact of which he was proud, he doubtless was named directly or indirectly after the king whom that tribe gave to Israel. But while Saul was his Jewish name, he must, as a Roman citizen, have had three Roman names. His praenomen and nomen we do not know, but his cognomen was Paul. After the interview with the proconsul Sergius Paulus in Cyprus (Ac 13'*), the author of Acts uses no other name than this; from the outset of his mission to the Roman Empire it was fitting that he should be known by his Roman name. We must at once dismiss both the conjecture of Augustine that the Apostle on that occasion assumed the name Paul out of compliment to the proconsul, and also the suggestion that the name was personal to him-self, denoting that he was small of stature. The exist-ence of alternative names side by side, a Jewish and a Greek or Roman name, was quite a common thing among Jews of the 1st cent., e.g. John-Mark, Jesus- Justus. But here the case is different; we never read of Saul-Paul.

2. Birthplace and family. — St. Paul was not only a native but also a citizen of Tarsus, possessed of fuU civil rights in that famous University town, the capital of Cilicia (Ac 9" 21'' 22'). His family had perhaps been planted there by one of the Seleucid kings (Ramsay). They were probably Pharisees (Ac 23^; cf. 2 'Ti 1'); and Aramaic-speaking (Ph 3', though here the Apostle may be speaking of his teachers). Several indications point to the fact that the family was of some importance, and was fairly rich. It is not against this view that the Apostle himself was poor, and that he worked for his livelihood as a tent-maker, as did many Cilicians (Ac 18' 203" ; cf. 1 Co 9«, 1 Th 2S, 2 Th 38); for it is very probable that his family cast him off because of his conversion, and especially because of his attitude to the Gentiles; and moreover, it was the custom for aU Jewish boys to be taught a trade. The prosperity of the family is seen from the fact that later St. Paul clearly had money at his command. Perhaps a reconciliation had been effected; his sister's son saved his life (Ac 23"); and the whole story of the imprison-ment in Palestine and Rome and of the voyage to Italy proves that he was a prisoner of distinction. This could come only from the possession of some wealth and from family influence.

3. Roman citizenship. — Of this position St. Paul was justly proud. He was not a Roman citizen merely because he had the freedom of Tarsus, for Tarsus was not a Roman Colony; probably his father or grand-father had rendered some service to the State, and had been thus rewarded. In any case St. Paul was freeborn (Ac 22^*). He had not, like so many under Claudius, bought the citizenship through the infamous favourites of the Court. He appealed to his privilege to prevent illegal treatment at Philippi and Jerusalem

PAUL THE APOSTLE

(Ac 16" 222S). And more than once in the Epistles he alludes to citizenship, transferring the term from the earthly to the heavenly sphere — an allusion which would come home especially to the Philippians, who were so proud of their city being a Colony, and of their therefore being Roman citizens (Ac 16"- "); see Ph 1" [RVm] 3M, Eph 2", and St. Paul's speech in Ac 23' where the phrase 'I have lived' is literally 'I have exercised my citizenship.' It was no doubt this citizen-ship which gave St. Paul such an advantage as the Apostle of the Gentiles, and which inspired him with his great plan of utilizing the civilization of the Pioman State to spread the gospel along its lines of communi-cation (see artt. Acts op the Apostles, § 7, and Gala-TiANS [Ep. TO THE] § 2). It is uoteworthy that he seems to have laid much stress on evangelizing Roman Colonies like Corinth, Pisidian Antioch, Lystra, and Philippi.

4. Early life. — St. Paul was educated, no doubt, partly at Tarsus (Ac 26«), where he would be influenced by Stoic teachers (see (§ iv.), but chiefly at Jerusalem under the Pharisee Gamaliel (Ac 22' 26*; cf. 5'*^-); he did not, however, see our Lord (cf. 1 Co 9' with 15'), though he would be there in Jesus' lifetime on earth. Probably this period of education was over before our Lord's ministry began. He was brought up a strict Pharisee (Ac 23» 26', Gal 1", Ph 3'), and long after his conversion he retained a certain pride in his Jewish hirth and a great affection for his own people (Ro 4' 9' 10' 1 1', 2 Co 11^2). Though born outside Palestine, he was brought up, not as a Greek-speaking Jew or Hellenist, but as a Hebrew; for this last term denotes a difference of language and manners (Ph 3'; see Lightfoot's note). Accordingly we find him speaking Aramaic fluently (Ac 21" 222).

The result of this education, in spite of Gamaliel's liberality of thought, was to make St. Paul a zealous and bigoted Jew, determined with all the ardour of youth to uphold the traditions of his fathers. We first meet with him as a young man 'consenting unto' Stephen's death, holding the clothes of those who stoned the first martyr (Ac 7" 8'), and persecuting the Christians in Jerusalem (26'»). Thereafter he secured authority from the high priest to go to Damascus in order to arrest all the disciples, and to bring them bound to Jerusalem (9"0. — [In the following paragraphs the numbers in square brackets denote the dates a.d. as given by Ramsay. Lightfoot's dates are mostly a year or two later; Harnack's earlier. Turner's (in Hastings' DB, art. 'Chronology of NT') nearly agree with Ramsay's, except that he puts the Conversion at least two years later because of a dilBculty about Aretas (see artt. Aketas, Chronology of NT), and the Martyrdom about two years earlier].

5. Conversion [33]. — The journey to Damascus was the great turning-point of Saul's life (Ac 9"'), and is often referred to by him (Ac 22»ff- 26'2«-, 1 Co 9' 15', Ph 3' etc.). When approaching Damascus he saw a strong light, and Jesus appearing to him (so explicitly 1 Co 9'), saying, 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' The voice was unintelligible to his companions (Ac 22"), though they saw the light (i6.) and heard a sound (9'). Saul was blinded by the vision and led into Damascus, where he was instructed and baptized by one Ananias. Immediately he confesses Christ in the synagogues at Damascus (9™), and then retires into Arabia (perhaps the Sinaitic peninsula, see Lightfoot's Galatians', p. 87 ff.), doubtless for spiritual preparation (Gal 1"). He ever recognizes his conversion as being his call to Apostleship, which was neither of human origin nor received by human mediation, i.e. not through the Twelve (Gal l'- '2. n- cf. Ro V- ', 1 Co 1' 4' 9"- 15'). The Lord Himself designates his work as being among the Gentiles (Ac 9"; cf. 222' 26", Ro 11", 15", Gal 2', Eph 3*, 1 Ti 2', 2 Ti 1" AV). The question arises, therefore. What is the meaning of the laying on of hands by the prophets and teachers of Antioch (Ac 13'"-;

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