Paul was, in the second place, a " Tarsian, a citizen of a distinguished city" (XXI 39, IX 11). He was not merely a person born in Tarsus, owing to the accident of his family being there : he had a citizen's rights in Tarsus. We may confidently assume that Paul was careful to keep within demonstrable law and custom, when he claimed to be a Tarsian citizen in describing himself to the Tribune. According to the strict interpretation of the Roman law, the civitas superseded all other citizenship, but this theoretical exclusiveness was op- posed to the Imperial spirit ; and it is clear that Roman cives in a provincial city commonly filled the position of high-class citizens, and even had magistracies pressed upon them by general consent. Now, if Paul's family had mereiy emigrated to Tarsus from Judaea some years
32 The Origin of St. Paul. Chap. II.
before his birth, neither he nor his father would have been " Tarsia ns," but merely " residents " (incolce). It is probable, but not certain, that the family had been planted in Tarsus with full rights as part of a colony settled there by one of the Seleucid kings in order to strengthen their hold on the city. Such a re-foundation took place at Tarsus, for the name Antiocheia was given it under Antiochus IV (175-164 B.C.). The Seleucid kings seem to have had a preference for Jewish colonists in their foundations in Asia Minor. Citizenship in Tarsus might also have been presented to Paul's father or grandfather for distinguished services to the State ; but that is much less probable.
In the third place, Paul was " a Hebrew sprung from Hebrews ". The expression is a remarkable one. It is used not to a Jewish audience, but to a Greek Church {Phil. Ill 5), and it is similar to a familiar expression among the Greeks: "a priest sprung from priests" is a term commonly applied to members of the great sacerdotal families which play so important a part in the society of Asian cities. He was a Jew at least as much as he was a Tarsian and a Roman, as regards his early surroundings ; and it is obvious that the Jewish side of his nature and education proved infinitely the most important, as his character developed. But it is a too common error to ignore the other sides. Many interpreters seem to think only of his words, XXII 3, " I am a Jew born in Tarsus," and to forget that he said a few moments before, " I am a Jew, a Tarsian, a citizen of no mean city ". To the Hebrews he em- phasises his Jewish character, and his birth in Tarsus is added as an accident : but to Claudius Lysias, a
Sec. i. Paul's Nationality. 33
Greek-Roman, he emphasises his Tarsian citizenship (after having told of his Roman citizenship). Now, there is no inconsistency between these descriptions of himself. Most of us have no difficulty in understanding that a Jew at the present day may be a thoroughly patriotic English citizen, and yet equally proud of his ancient and honourable origin. In the extraordinarily mixed society of the Eastern provinces, it was the usual rule in educated society that each man had at least two nationalities and two sides to his character. If we would clearly understand the society in which Paul worked, and the mission of Rome to make the idea of cosmo- politanism and universal citizenship a practical reality — an idea that had been first conceived by the Stoic philosophy in its attempt to fuse Greek and oriental thought into a unified system — we must constantly bear in mind that double or even triple character, which was so common.
To the Hebrew of that period it was specially easy to preserve the Hebraic side of his life along with his Greek citizenship ; for the Jewish colony in a Seleucid city preserved as a body its double character. It was not merely a part of the city, whose members were citizens, but it was also recognised by the Seleucid Empire and afterwards by the Roman Empire as " the Nation of the Jews in that city ". Thus arose a strange and often puzzling complication of rights, which caused much heart-burning and jealousy among the non-Jewish citizens of the city, and which was at last terminated by the action of Vespasian in A.D. 70, when he put an end to the legal existence of a "Jewish nation," and resolved the Jews into the general population of the Empire,