Paul

His Life and Teaching

McRay, John

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781441205742
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Biography

The apostle Paul and his significance for the New Testament and Christianity is a perennial topic of interest, but few evangelical surveys of his life offer a truly holistic picture of the man and his world. Now available in trade paper, John McRay's Paul explores the apostle's preconversion days, missionary travels, and theological contributions. A specialist in archaeology, the author draws on his more than forty years of teaching experience as well as knowledge gained from extensive travels to the places Paul visited. Paul is a comprehensive and readable presentation of Paul's ministry and theology that weaves together historical backgrounds, archaeological discoveries, and theological themes.

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Background and Biography

Paul once wrote that “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son” (Gal. 4:4 KJV). This means that God waited until the time was suitable before providing the Jews with their Messiah. Also included within the scope of God’s purposes was the selection of a man who would be chiefly responsible for carrying out the postresurrection commission of Jesus to the Twelve by proclaiming the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. That man was Paul of Tarsus (Gal. 1:15–16); the promise was that God would bless all the nations (Gentiles) through Abraham’s seed, the Jews (Gen. 12:1–4);[1] the commission was that the apostles should “teach all nations” (Gentiles as well as Jews) about the resurrected Lord (Matt. 28:18–20 KJV).

“I Am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia” (Acts 21:39)

Paul was born and spent his earliest years in the Diaspora, the dispersion of the Jews outside the borders of the Holy Land. He once remarked to a Roman tribune that he was “a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city” (Acts 21:39 NIV). The population of Tarsus has been estimated at a half-million.[2] The city lay on the Cydnus River, about ten miles north of the southeastern coast of Turkey (ancient Asia Minor). Tarsus impresses one with the beauty of its geography, lying in rolling hills covered with wheat fields rippling in the afternoon breeze. Near the city is an abundantly flowing river that forms delightful miniature waterfalls between verdant shores. The locals can be seen washing their carts in the midst of its shallows, while one’s imagination fancies a young Paul splashing knee-deep in water, unable to hide a childish expression of delight.

Photo 1.1. Cydnus River in Tarsus

A great international highway, connecting the west coast of Asia Minor to Syria-Palestine and points east, ran through Tarsus and on to the north through the narrow Gates of Issus in the Taurus Mountains. Tarsus was the most important city of Cilicia, which was made a province under Pompey in 67 B.C. The province consisted of a western mountainous portion, Cilicia Tracheia (“Rough Cilicia”), and an eastern level portion, Cilicia Pedias (“Flat Cilicia”). Syria, the large country to the east, became a Roman province in 64 B.C. under Pompey, and about 25 B.C., for administrative purposes, it was joined with Cilicia’s eastern portion, which included Tarsus; so throughout Paul’s lifetime, Tarsus was a part of Syria-Cilicia. Paul once spoke of going into “the regions of Syria and Cilicia” after a visit to Jerusalem (Gal. 1:21 KJV). It was not until A.D. 72 that eastern Cilicia was detached from Syria and rejoined to western Cilicia, thus forming the province of Cilicia.

Tarsus was indeed “no ordinary city.” When Julius Caesar visited the city in 47 B.C., the residents called it Juliopolis (the city of Julius) in his honor. After defeating Brutus and Cassius, leaders in the assassination of Caesar, Mark Antony spent time in Tarsus, where on one memorable occasion in 41 B.C., he had a rendezvous with Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen, who was rowed up the Cydnus River dressed as the goddess Aphrodite.

Tarsus was an important educational center in the ancient world. Strabo, a first-century geographer, wrote that its citizens were fervent in the pursuit of culture and that most of its university students were from Tarsus itself, unlike Athens and Alexandria, which drew students from throughout the empire.[3] One may assume from this that there was not as much cross-cultural activity in Tarsus as in these other university cities. Interestingly, Strabo noted that the students who left Tarsus to complete their education in other cities rarely returned to live there. Nevertheless, the city did provide Paul with a rich educational milieu in his early years. His later writings are saturated with images from the Greco-Roman world in which he lived. These images play an important role in Paul’s communication and interaction in his Jewish-Gentile environment.[4]

“I Was Born a Citizen” (Acts 22:28)

The prosperity of Tarsus was partially based on the manufacture of a material woven from goat hair and known as cilicium, the name given to the province. It was used at times in the making of tents, though not exclusively so. Paul was a tentmaker. However, the term “tentmaker” (σκηνοποιός, skēnopoios) more likely means “leatherworker” than tentmaker, and in Paul’s day most tents were made of leather.[5] We are probably unjustified in assuming that he was a weaver of tent cloth from either goat hair or linen, and the relation of his profession to the cilicium industry of Cilicia is coincidental.[6]

We do not know how Paul’s family became Roman citizens, but it is not unreasonable to postulate that Paul’s grandfather and/or great-grandfather was also a tentmaker at the time Pompey (67–64 B.C.), Julius Caesar (47 B.C.), or Mark Antony (41 B.C.) was in the area and visited Tarsus. Paul’s ancestor could well have provided one of them with tents for the Roman army, a service that might have been rewarded by a grant of citizenship.[7] The Roman franchise of citizenship could be obtained in several ways: (1) by being born a citizen, (2) by completion of military service, (3) by reward, (4) by en bloc grant, or (5) for financial considerations.[8] Paul was born a citizen (Acts 22:28; cf. 22:3).

It has been suggested that Paul’s ancestors were a part of a Jewish colony that had been settled here by the Seleucid kings of Antioch of Syria in order to strengthen their hold on Tarsus, which Antiochus IV (175–164 B.C.) renamed Antiocheia.[9] Alternately, it has been argued that the close connection between Paul’s family and the land of Judea makes descent from an old Diaspora family improbable.[10]

Whatever their origin,[11] it is clear that Paul’s father was a Roman citizen, because Paul was “born a citizen” (Acts 22:27–28).[12] Even though Cilicia-Syria had been placed under Roman administration, citizenship was not automatically conferred on its inhabitants. Even those who were granted citizenship for special service to Rome, a privilege field commanders could bestow, had to own property worth five hundred drachmae (about seventy-five dollars). Luke affirms that Paul was not only a Roman citizen but also a citizen of Tarsus (Acts 21:39). According to Dio Chrysostom,[13] in the time of the empire citizenship in Tarsus could be bought for this same amount of money, which was the income of an ordinary day laborer for two years.[14] This appears to have been the policy since the time of Augustus.

Paul used his Roman citizenship to his advantage on three occasions. The first of these was in Philippi, a city in Macedonia, where he and Silas were imprisoned unjustly (Acts 16:37). Why he allowed himself to be beaten without revealing his citizenship, which would have prevented it, we do not know. Perhaps it was because it would have been for purely personal reasons. Furthermore, Paul was trying to maintain his Jewish identity as he began his work in the synagogues. But when his very presence and ministry in Philippi were threatened by an air of disreputability, he used his citizenship to correct the impression.

The second occasion was in Jerusalem after the completion of his third missionary journey (Acts 22:25–29). The Roman officer who delivered Paul from a Jewish mob in the Court of the Gentiles at the temple had mistaken him first for an Egyptian and subsequently for a Hebrew-speaking Diaspora Jew whom he had no reason to believe was a citizen of Rome. Paul made his citizenship known as he was being prepared to receive a whipping and thus avoided the “interrogation” that would have cast an air of disrepute over him and his work.

The final occasion when Paul used his citizenship was at Caesarea, about two years later (Acts 24:27), when he stood before Festus and, by appealing to Caesar, thwarted the new Roman procurator’s plans to return Paul to the Jews in Jerusalem (Acts 25:11). This appeal, which guaranteed Paul’s right to have a hearing before the emperor, was one of the privileges of Roman citizenship and was not enjoyed by other inhabitants of the empire.

A citizen’s rights were guaranteed by the Julian law on the use of public force, a law known as lex Julia de vi publica[15] The law has been dated to the emperor Augustus in 23 B.C.[16] These rights included a fair public trial for a citizen who had been accused of a crime, protection against execution without legal formalities being conducted, and exemption from certain ignominious forms of punishment, such as crucifixion. The law would not allow any official to kill, scourge, chain, or torture a Roman citizen, or even to sentence him (“in the face of an appeal”) or prevent him from going to Rome to make his appeal there within a specified time frame. From the early second century A.D., we have a piece of correspondence from Pliny, a governor of the Roman province of Bithynia in northern Asia Minor, to the Emperor Trajan, which states that he sent citizens who were accused of a crime directly to Rome.[17] Thus, by the second century, an appeal was not even required; accusations (at least some types of them) automatically entitled one to appear in Rome.

“Saul, Who Is Also Called Paul” (Acts 13:9)

It is often mistakenly asserted that the missionary changed his name from the Hebrew Saul to the Greek Paul shortly after his conversion. In reality, Paul had both names from birth, because it was required of Roman citizens that they be registered with the tria nomina, the three names that consisted of a praenomen (forename), a nomen gentile (family name), and a cognomen (given or additional name). We only know Paul’s Roman cognomen. If we knew his family name, we might learn something more about the source of his citizenship, because a new citizen frequently took his patron’s forename and family name.[18] For example, the Roman tribune Claudiu...