18. Paul: Prepared to Serve
Perhaps more has been spoken and written about the man known as Saul or Paul than any other man in the Bible (certainly in the New Testament), apart from Jesus himself. Yet many Christians know little about his background before he became the "apostle to the Gentiles" and wrote the biblical epistles that bear his name.
Even Paul's name is often misunderstood. Many think he was called Saul until his conversion and Paul afterward – as a kind of confirmation of change from church-hater to church champion. But Saul and Paul were both names of this man. Many Jews in the first century – and perhaps all those living outside Judea in the wider Roman world – had two names: a Jewish name and a Greek or Latin name.
As a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin (Romans 11:1), Saul was probably named after the biblical King Saul (a man of the same tribe), and his Latin name was the closely sounding Paul (Paulus). In Acts we see he is called Saul for years after his conversion, and it is only when he embarks on his first missionary journey through the Roman world – where his Latin name would be more appropriate – that Acts begins to call him by his name Paul, and this name is then used primarily.
Paul was probably born around 5 BC to AD 5 in the city of Tarsus, the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia in southeast Asia Minor (what is today Turkey), though he was evidently raised in Jerusalem (Acts 22:3). Although of Jewish lineage, we know nothing of his family, though his nephew, his sister's son, is mentioned in Acts 23:16. His parents were undoubtedly devout as Paul calls himself a "Hebrew of the Hebrews" and says that he was circumcised according to precise Jewish custom and trained in the beliefs of the strictest Jewish sect, the Pharisees (Philippians 3:5). He was trained, in fact, by the noted teacher, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), who was himself the grandson of the great Jewish scholar Hillel the Elder. This is important not only because Paul had a "good teacher" and gained a deep understanding of the Scriptures (2 Peter 3:15-16), but also because the school of Hillel was noted for providing a broad education, probably further exposing Paul to Greek literature and philosophy. In fact, although we know from Acts that Paul could speak Hebrew, Greek may well have been his first language, and he was doubtless perfectly fluent in it.
Paul's biblical background and training not only enabled him to effectively argue matters of the law with other Jews, and to show them the prophecies of Christ in the Hebrew Bible, but also protected him on at least one occasion. Because the Pharisees rejected many of the teachings and attitudes of the ruling Sadducees and taught certain things they did not, such as the resurrection, he was able to use this situation in his defense when tried before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem:
Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead" (Acts 23:6).
Paul's zealousness for the Jewish law made him a fervent and vicious enemy of Christianity which, before his conversion, he doubtless saw as a serious heresy of traditional Judaism that needed to be destroyed. But it also made him an ideal defender and teacher of the new Faith once he was converted to it. And Paul's background in a predominantly Gentile area and broad education also played an important part in preparing him for his future role as apostle to the Gentiles.
We see Paul's non-Jewish learning on many occasions – ranging from his quotation of Cretan poets (Acts 17:28) to his ability to speak to a philosophically-minded audience in the Areopagus of Athens (Acts 17:16-34). These details must never be forgotten when assessing Paul's calling as the apostle to the Gentiles. He was not only thoroughly trained in matters of the biblical law and its promises, but also conversant enough in the intellectual world of the Gentiles to be able to convey what would have often been quite alien and unintelligible concepts to them.
Paul was not unaware of the connection between the extensive training and preparation he had been given and the task to which he was called. In his letter to the Galatians he wrote: "… God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles …" (Galatians 1:1516). This does not say that Paul was divinely predestined to become an apostle to the Gentiles despite his own will. Rather, it shows that God, foreseeing the need to reach the Gentiles, planned ahead then worked with an individual to prepare him from birth for that role – in Paul's case, by being born in a Gentile area then also getting Jewish training. Paul's words to the Galatians seem, in fact, to echo the prophecy of Jeremiah 1:5: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
We may not have been called to a great commission like the apostle Paul, but that need not mean that God does not also guide our lives in preparation for the work He gives us to do. Take time to look at your own background sometime – think about the many ways in which your experiences may have prepared you to help others. We sometimes do not realize how we ourselves may have been trained in the graduate school of providential preparation. Reflect a little on how you, too, may have been prepared for the work you have been called to do.