PAUL. The Apostle of Jesus Christ who was
specially commissioned to work among the
Gentiles. The sources from which we secure our
knowledge of his life and work are his own
Epistles and the Book of Acts. From these
it is clear that the condition of the Church
when he came to the full prosecution of
his work was one which rendered that work not
only most significant for the future development
of the Church, but most revolutionary to the
ideas which the Church's leaders entertained as
to what that development should be. These
leaders were the Apostles who had formed the
nucleus of Jesus's discipleship during His
ministry on earth. They were men of limited education, and with no great breadth of religious ideas. As a consequence their views of the necessary development of Jesus's religion practically restricted it to a reforming of Judaism in accordance with Jesus's teaching, and as this reformed Judaism went out in a new evangelism to the world, it involved the bringing of the world into this religion through the gateway of Judaism. Tn view of their Palestinian training and experience, these views were perfectly natural for the Apostles to entertain; but they were also clearly impossible for the Church to carry out, if the religion of Jesus was to realize for itself that world-wide development which the Gospels show us Jesus himself intended it should have. It was at this latter point that Paul through his work and teaching introduced into the Church new conceptions which virtually revolutionized its ideas and made possible for Christianity its development as a universal religion.
Paul's early name was Saul; he was a native
of Tarsus, in the Province of Cilicia (Acts xxi. 39), where he was born about the beginning of
the Christian Era. His parents were Jews (Acts
xxiii. 6; II. Cor. xi. 22). His early training was
doubtless that of the ordinary Jewish boy, though
it was apparently at an early age that he was
sent to Jerusalem to be educated in the
Rabbinic schools of that city, having as his teacher
in the sacred law the liberal-minded Gamaliel
(Acts xxii. 3; see ). According to his
own testimony he threw his whole heart into all
that was taught him there, becoming one of the
straitest of the sect of the Pharisees, and having
no conception beyond that of a salvation to be
obtained through a perfect performance of the
works of the Law (Gal. i. 14; Acts xxii. 3; xxvi. 4-5; Phil. iii. 4-6).
After his Rabbinic training he returned for
a while to his native city, in order to learn his
trade (Acts xviii. 3). While there he may
possibly have supplemented his Jewish education
by attendance upon the Gentile schools, for which
Tarsus was famed. From Cilicia he came back
to Jerusalem, where he became prominent in
ecclesiastical affairs, being apparently chosen
to membership in the Sanhedrin (Acts xxvi. 10). Though in Jerusalem for some time, it is not probable that he was there during the time of Jesus's ministry, for he does not seem to have ever seen the Great Teacher. He was, however, well acquainted with Jesus's Messianic claims and was clearly conscious of the opposition to Judaism which they involved. Consequently, when, after the Day of Pentecost, this new discipleship began to assume large proportions, and take to itself a definitely organized form, he shared in the bitter hostility to the movement which animated the religious leaders of the people. Into the persecution which this produced he threw himself with energy, participating practically in the death of Stephen (Acts vii. 58; viii. 1), and following up this assault with a rigor of inquisition that made him conspicuous among his fellows (Acts xxii. 4; .xxvi. 9-11; Gal. i. 13-14). In the year 34 or 35, however, while on a journey to Damascus undertaken for the purpose of searching out the disciples in that place and bringing them bound to Jerusalem, he went through the experience of a supernatural vision that brought him to his journey's end under the deep conviction of the sinfulness of the course he was pursuing (Acts ix. 1-9). Out of this state of soul he came a Christian disciple, profoundly convinced of the Messiahship of Jesus, and distinctly conscious of having received from his Master a commission to preach His religion among the nations of the earth (Acts ix. 10-18; Gal. i. 15-16).