SAUL – THE PHARISEE…
… Such a prominent character in the New Testament, yet we know very little about him, Saul who became Paul, the man. Now and again, he reveals titbits about his early life, but only as they relate to his ministry as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Take, for example, his pre-Christian history. We know that he was a native of Tarsus, a city outside of Israel. This meant that he was raised as a Jew in a Gentile community.
What impression did this environment make on him as a young Jew? Did his Gentile associations give him a better understanding of their culture and lifestyle, or did he develop a deep prejudice towards them for their pagan and idolatrous ways?
It seems that his parents must have been devout Jews because Saul grew up strictly Jewish and even studied in Jerusalem under Gamaliel to be a Jewish rabbi.
In his defense before the Jewish leaders and people in Jerusalem, he told them…
Acts of the Apostles 22:3 NLT
[3] “Then Paul said, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, and I was brought up and educated here in Jerusalem under Gamaliel. As his student, I was carefully trained in our Jewish laws and customs. I became very zealous to honor God in everything I did, just like all of you today.”
How did Paul’s education and training influence his understanding of the gospel? We must never dismiss this part of Paul’s early life as irrelevent, even detrimental to his grasp of the message he was to take to the world. Without his thorough knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures, the Tanach, the gospel would have had no solid foundation in the history of the Jews or in the prophetic preparation in the Tanach for the coming of Messiah.
It took the divine intervention of Jesus on the Damascus outskirts and Paul’s spiritual transformation from a fanatical Pharisee to a humble servant of the Lord, to enable him to understand what he already knew. Paul had the foundation of truth firmly embedded in his mind from early days. The Holy Spirit brought this knowledge to life in him as the supreme Teacher taught him the truth of the gospel.
If Paul spent his youth in Jerusalem under Gamaliel’s tutelage, he must have either encountered or heard of Jesus and His teaching and works. His initial reaction was just like the reaction of his fellow Pharisees. They were enraged by a mere human claiming to be God. Worse than that, He did things impossible to explain, like raising a dead man after four days in the grave!
Saul may not have been present in the crowd who yelled for Jesus’ death, but he certainly approved of the unjust condemnation and execution of Stephen, the first martyr to die for Jesus.
Acts of the Apostles 8:1 NLT
[1] “Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen….”
So, despite his violent opposition to Jesus, and his hatred for Christians since they represented the opposite of what he was taught and believed, God thoroughly prepared this man for His calling to take the gospel to the Gentiles.
So, we leave Saul, the Pharisee, the hater and persecutor of Jesus’ followers, to follow his chosen path with vigour and fervour, not knowing what lay just around the corner for him…