links open new window Saint Paul in Prison Rembrandt van Rijn 12x16 Gicl...

Paul. (small, little). Nearly all the original materials for the life St. Paul are contained, in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the Pauline Epistles. Paul was born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia. (It is not improbable tha, t he was born between A.D. 0 and A.D. 5). Up to the time of his going forth as an avowed preacher of Christ to the Gentiles, the apostle was known by the name of Saul. This was the Jewish name, which he received from his Jewish parents. But, though a Hebrew of the Hebrews, he was born in a Gentile city. Of his parents, we know nothing, except that his father was of the tribe of Benjamin, Phi_3:5, and a Pharisee, Act_23:6, that Paul had acquired, by some means, the Roman franchise, ("I was free born,"), Act_22:23, and that he was settled in Tarsus. At Tarsus, he must have learned to use the Greek language, with freedom and mastery, in both speaking and writing. At Tarsus, also, he learned that trade of "tent-maker," Act_18:3, at which he, afterward, occasionally wrought with his own hands. There was a goat's-hair cloth called cilicium manufactured in Cilicia, and largely used for tents: Saul's trade was probably that of making tents of this hair cloth. When St. Paul makes his defence before his countrymen at Jerusalem, Act_22:1, he tells them that, though born in Tarsus, he had been "brought up" in Jerusalem. He must therefore, have been yet a boy when was removed, in all probability, for the sake of his education, to the Holy City of his fathers. He learned, he says, "at the feet of Gamaliel." He who was to resist so stoutly the usurpations of the law had, for his teacher, one of the most eminent of all the doctors of the law. Saul was yet "a young man," Act_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. Among those who disputed with Stephen were some "of them of Cilicia." We naturally think of Saul as having been one of these, when we find him, afterward, keeping the clothes of those suborned witnesses who, according to the law, Deu_17:7, were the first to cast stones at Stephen. "Saul," says the sacred writer significantly, "was consenting unto his death."