2. On thefamily of Paul, Jerome remarks that Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin, and the town of Gischala, in Juda?a (comp. riaxaXa, a small city in Galilee ; Jo- seph. War, ii, 20, 6 ; iv, 1, 1 ; LiJ'e, x, 38; and Reland, Palcest. p. 813), and, when this town was taken by the Romans, he emigrated with his parents to Tarsus, in Cilicia. But this is plainly contradicted by Acts xxii, 3, where Paul speaks of himself as a native of Tarsus; nor is it easy to see how Gischala could have been taken b}' the Romans during Paul's childhood, so that resi- dents judged it prudent to emigrate. A story of the Ebionites (Epiphan. Iher. xxx, xvi, 25) tells us that Paul was by birth a heathen, but became a Jew in Je- rusalem, in order to obtain the high-priest's daughter in marriage ! It is not certainly known how Paul's father obtained the right of Roman citizenship (see Becker, Rom. Alterthumsl: II, i, 89 sq.; Cellar. Dissertat. ii, 710 sq. ; Deyling, 6'i«e?•?•«^ iii, 388 sq. ; ArntzeY\, Diss, de ci- vitate Paidi, Traj. ad Rhen. 1725). Either some ances- tor, perhaps the father of Paul himself, had obtained it by great service to the state (Grotius, ad loc. ; Cellarius, ut sup. p. 726 sq.), or he had purchased it (Gronov. Ad Joseph. Decr.jyro Jud. p. 42 ; Deyling, ut sup. p. 393 sq.). T'he supposition that the whole city of Tarsus received the right from Augustus is without ground (comp. Ben- gel, on Acts xvi, 27). See Taksus. If the reading vwQ ^aptaaiov, "sow of a Pharisee," in Acts xxiii, 6, were correct, we might infer that only Paul's father had belonged to this sect ; but if, with the best manuscripts, we read, v'wg 'i}api(Tai(iJi', "son of Pharisees," it would imply that his ancestors had been Pharisees for several or many generations; and perhaps that they had been reckoned among the most aristocratic of the Jews. We know nothing further of Paul's family, save that he had a sister and a nephew, the latter living in Jerusalem (Acts xxiii, 16), and that he was not himself married (ICor. vii, 7; comp. ix, 5; and see Schmid, Z^e ^4;;o.</o?(s Uxoratis, p. 80 sq., where also the account of Clemens Alexand. in Euseb. iii, 30, is examined; esp. see Usher, Prolegom. in lynat. c. 17 ; Append, to 2d vol. Paires Apost. ed. Coteler. Cleric, p. 226 sq.). The tradition affirms that Paul led with him for some time as a com- panion the young woman Thecla, of Iconium, whom he had converted (Menolor/. Grcec. i, 66).
3. As to Paul's trade, on the word " tent-maker" {aKt]- voTToioc) we may refer to the Lexicons, to Bertholdt (v, 2698 sq.), and Schurtzflcisch {De Paullo aK7]ro7rot<{J, Leips. 1699). Luther makes it "carpet-maker;" Morus (in Act. xviii, 3) and otiicrs, "maker of mats or mat- tresses;" Michaelis {Einl. ins N. T. § 216) and Hiin-
PAUL
818
PAUL
lein (Einl. inx A". T. iii, 301), " tool-maker ;"' Olirysostotn and others, "worker in leather" {^aKvroTofioc); Hug {Jnfnxl. p. 505, Fosdick's transl.) and Eichhorn {Eiiil. ins X. T. iii, 8), " maker of tent-cloth ;" but most critics agree with our translators in rendering it " tent-mak- er" (comp. Kuiniil, Dindorf, KosenmiUler, Olshausen, Schleusner). Shepherds, travellers, and others used small tents of cloth or leather as a ]irotection against the weather, especially at night. The manufacture of them was a flourishing and protitable employment. See Tknt. Paid accordingly preferred, when opportunity offered, to support himself by laboring at this trade, rather than to live upon the gifts of the Church (Acts xviii, 3 ; 1 Cor. iv, 12 ; 1 Thess. ii, 9 ; 2 Thess. iii, 8). There was a goat"s-hair cloth called Ciliciiiin, manu- factured in Cilicia, and largely used for tents. Paul's trade was probably that of making tents of this hair- cloth.
4. As to Paul's education, there was a flourishing Greek academj' in Tarsus, and the residents were re- spected in other countries fortheir cultivation. Wheth- er and how far this circumstance influenced Paul while 3'oung cannot be determined ; probablj'^ he was A'et very 3'oung when he went to Jerusalem, and obtained his facility in the use of the Greek language and his Hellenistic education rather by his travels among the Greeks than in his native cit}'. It is not in itself prob- able that he attended a Greek school in Tarsus, nor can it be proved from his writings. He shows in them ratherthe learning of a Jewish rabbi, for which position he had been educated (Gal. i, 14), and the logical train- ing of a Pharisee (Ammon, Opiiscula, p. 63 sq.), sup- ported by a remarkable natural endowment ; and the few quotations from Greek poets which are found in his epistles and speeches (see Jerome, on fsa. 1), as in 1 Cor. XV, 33 ; Acts xvii, 28 (see Progr. hy Benner [Giess. 1753], on Tit. i, 12; Schickendanz, De (rib. a Paullo profanor. scriptis allegatis [Servest. 1764] ; Von Seelen, MedlUit. Exeg. ii, 312 sq. ; Hoftmann, De Paullo Apost. Scriptor. prof, allfginie [Tiib. 1770]), might have been picked up in the course of his travels, as the}' are merely general, and perhaps proverbial, sen- tences. So as regards the few words quoted from Aratus, we need not suppose, with Tholuck, that the apostle had read him, although this is not ver}- im- probable (Neander, i. 111); nor must we forget that Paul seems to indicate (Gal. vi, 11) that it was not easy for him to write in Greek letters (see Thalemann, De Eiuditione Paulli Juduica non Grceca [Leips. 1769] ; Michaelis, Ei7il. i, 162 sq. ; Henke, on I'aley, I/ora Paulina;, p. 469 sq. On the contrary side, Strombaeh, De Eruditione Paidli [Leips. 1708]; Schramm, De stu- penda Eruditione Paulli [Herborn, 1710] ; Mtiller, in the Biblioth. Lubec. v, 104 sq.). The active mind of tlie apostle did not remain ignorant even of the phil- osopiiical speculations of the da}'. Put b}' the phi- losophy of Paul (see Zobel, Z^e Paullo phi losopho [Alt- dorf, 1701] ; Feller, De Paullo philosopho plane divino [Viteb. 1740] ; Bieck, De Pauli philosophia, in Heu- mann's Act. Philos. xiii, 124 sq.) is not meant a formal Sj'stem or scientitic view, but simply that his mind had a philosopliical turn. In the same manner the acquaintance he betrays occasionally with the Poman law does not at all pass beyond the most common legal relations, and cannot be called jurisprudence (Kirch- niaier, Dejurisprudentia PauUina [Viteb. 1730] ; Wes- tenliurg, Opusc. Acadcm. ed. Piittmann [Leips. 1794] ; Stryck, De jurisprvd. Paul. [Halle, 1705] ; Freiesle- ben, De jurisprud. Paul. [Leij)s. 1810]). The style of Paul's Kpistles siiows tliat he had acciuired a real fa- cility in expressing himself in Greek ; and the Greek coloring which appears through all the Hebraisms of his style excludes the supposition that he conceived his letters in Hebrew (.\rama;an). Translations from the Hebrew by a foreign hand, and that, as it is ur;j;ed in excess of learned trifling, an unskilled one, Mould read quite otherwise. The Greek style of Paul rises