Introduction to Paul the Apostle
The seventh chapter of the Biblical book of Acts details the account of Stephen, the first person to die for his faith in Christ. As Stephen’s executioners led him from the city to face his death, they left their cloaks with a young man named Saul. That seemingly minor detail represents our unlikely introduction to the man who is better known today as Paul the Apostle.
How could someone like Saul, a man who once sanctioned the murder of Christians, grow to become the author of the Epistle to the Romans and a minimum of twelve other New Testament books? How could someone who once “laid waste the church” became such an influential figure that one commentator has remarked, “Apart from Jesus Christ, St. Paul is the greatest figure in the history of Christianity.” (1) The answer is that Saul is someone who may best exemplify the transformative power of a genuine encounter with Christ.
Saul was born in the ancient city of Tarsus, likely during the early years of the first century. Tarsus was a prominent city in the region of Cilicia, a place that was distinguished by its commitment to higher learning. He was a man of Jewish heritage from the tribe of Benjamin who also held a Roman citizenship. Thus, he bore the Roman name Paul in addition to his birth name.
As a youth, Saul studied under a rabbi named Gamaliel, a member of the Jewish high council who was a respected leader and Old Testament scholar. In fact, Saul was so proficient in his study of the Old Testament law that he once made the following declaration: “I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors” (Galatians 1:14 CSB).
A brief passage in an apocryphal 2nd century document is the only traditional description we have of Saul’s physical appearance. That text is known as The Acts of Paul and Thecla and it describes Saul as, “…a man of little stature, thin-haired upon the head, crooked in the legs, of good state of body, with eyebrows meeting, and with nose somewhat hooked…” (2)
Saul’s zeal for the traditions of his ancestors was such that he embarked on a self-appointed quest to apprehend and incarcerate those who professed their faith in Christ. To further that objective, he sought letters of recommendation for presentation to the synagogues in the city of Damascus to facilitate the arrest of any Christians found living there.
But as he was on the way, Saul had an encounter that has influenced untold numbers of lives and continues to do so today.
Image Attribution: User:Alecmconroy, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
(1) McNeile, A. H. (1920). St. Paul: his life, letters, and Christian doctrine. Introduction, pg. IX https://archive.org/details/stpaulhislifelet0000mcne/page/n5/mode/2up
(2) Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Apocrypha of the New Testament/Acts of Paul and Thecla (1.7) – Wikisource, the free online library. (n.d.) . https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_VIII/Apocrypha_of_the_New_Testament/Acts_of_Paul_and_Thecla , quoted in Barclay, William. “Commentary on 2 Corinthians 10”. “William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible”. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dsb/2-corinthians-10.html. 1956-1959.