II. Pei-snnal History. — We purpose under this head to gather together all the information given either di- rectly or inciilentally in the Acts and Epistles concern- ing the apostle's life, relegating to a subsequent head the various disputes that have been raised on some of them.
1. Youth and Early Career. — Paul was a native of Tarsus, a city of Cilicia (Acts xxii, 3, etc.), and was of Jewish descent, of the tribe of Benjamin (Phil, iii, 5). From his father he inherited the rights of Koman citi- zenship, which had probably been earned by some of his ancestry tlir.iuL;h services rendered to the Koman State (Lard'ncr, Works, i, 228, cd, 1788, 8vo; Grotius, ad
Acta xxii, 28). The supposition that he enjoyed them in virtue of being a native of Tarsus is not well found- ed ; for though that city had been created by Augustus an urhs libera (Dion. Chrysost. ii, 36, ed. Reiske ; Pliny, Hist. Nat. V, 27), it does not follow from this that all its natives enjoyed the privilege of Koman citizenship; and besides, from Acts xxi, 39 com])ared with xxii, 24, 27, it may be inferred that, as the chief captain knew Paul to be a native of Tarsus, and yet was not aware of ]iis Roman citizenship, the latter of these was not necessarily associated with the former. From his re- ceiving the name Saul it has been supposed that he was the first-born son of his parents, and that they had long desired and often asked for such a favor from God ; that he was not their only child, however, appears from the mention made (Acts xxiii, 16) of his "sister's son." Whether Andronicus, Junia, and Herodion, whom he terms, in the Epistle to the Romans (xvi, 7, 11), o-ny- ywiiQ nov, were of the number of his blood relations, or only belonged to the same tribe with him, is a question on which learned men have taken different sides (comp. Lardner, Works, vi, 235; Estius, Comm. ad loc). (See below.)
At that time Tarsus was the rival of Athens and Alex- andria as a place of learning and jihilosophical research (Strabo, xiv, b)\ but to what extent the future "Apos- tle of the Gentiles" enjoj-ed the advantage of its schools we have no means of accurately determining. Attempts have been made to show from his writings that he was familiar with (ireek literature, and Dr. Bentley has not hesitated to affirm that "as Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, so it is manifest from tins chapter alone (Acts xxvii), if nothing else had been now extant, that Paul was a great master in all the learning of the Greeks" {Boyle Lectures, serm. iii, suh init.). An authority like that of Bentley in a question of Greek literature is not to be lightly set aside; yet on referring to the evidence in support of this opinion it will not be found to justify it. It must be allowed, how- ever, that the mere circumstance of his having spent his early years in such a city as Tarsus could not but exert a very powerful influence on the mind of such a man as Paul, in the way of sharpening his faculties, refining his tastes, and enlarging the circle of his sympathies and affections. "If even to the meanest citizen," as Eich- liorn remarks, "such a circumstance affords— unless he be by nature utterly unobservant — much information which otherwise he could not have obtained, and in consequence of this a certain activity of mind, how much greater may not its effect be supposed to have been on a great mind like that of Paul? To his birth and early residence in Tarsus may be traced the urbanity which the apostle at no time laid aside, and of which he was frequently a perfect model, many insinuating turns which he gives to his epistles, and a more skilful use of the Greek tongue than a Jew born and educated in Palestine could well have attained" {Einleit. ins N. T. iii, 5). (See below.)
But whatever uncertainty may hang over the early studies of the apostle in the department of Greek learn- ing, there can be no doubt that, being the son of a Pharisee, and destined, in all probability, from his in- fancy to the pursuits of a doctor of Jewish law, he would be carefully instructed from his earliest years in the el- ements of Rabbinical lore. It is probable also that at this time he acquired his skill in that handicraft trade by which in later years he frequently supported him- self (Acts xvii, 3 ; 1 Cor. iv, 12, etc.). This trade is de- scribed by Luke as that of a cKrji'OTroioc, a word re- garding the meaning of which there has been no small difference of opinion. (See below.) It does not follow that the family were in the necessitous condition which such manual labor commonly implies; for it was a wholesome custom among the Jews to teach everj^ child some trade, though there might be little prospect of his depending upon it for his living. See Handicraft.
When Paul made his defence before his countrvmen
PAUL
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