THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
5; .int., XX., viii. 6); he was anterior to Paul's arrest (Acts xxi. 3S), after which Felix remained in office two full years (Acts xxiv. 27). (2) In his twenty -sixth year, that is, in the spring or summer of 64 a.d., Josephus went to Rome to attempt the release of certain priests who had been sent thither by Felix for trial before the emperor (Life, hi.; for the date, Life, i.; Ant., xii., 1, xi. 3); it is incredible that men were kept waiting for trial eight or even ten years, as they must have been if Felix was recalled before the downfall of Pallas. Festus died in office, probably in the first half of 62 a.d., since Albinus appears to have reached Palestine in September or October of that year (Josephus, Ant., XX., ix. 1-3; War, VI., v. 3; the date is fixed, if, as is probable, the feast of tabernacles mentioned in the latter passage is the same as " the festival " of Ant., XX., ix. 3). His term of office was short (Josephus, War, II., xiv. 1; Ant., XX., viii. 9—11) — an additional reason for placing the recall of Felix later than 54 or 56 a.d. With due consideration of all the data, this event must be dated either in 59, 60, or 61 a.d. The year named last is least probable, because it makes Festus rule less than one year (summer of 61-first half of 62 a.d.) — an event which Josephus would hardly have suffered to pass unnoticed. Furthermore, the clause with toi stratopedarchei is undoubtedly to be retained in Acts xxviii. 16 (cf. Zahn, Einleitung, pp. 390-391), and implies that when Paul arrived in Rome there was but one proetorian prefect, which was not the case after the death of Burrus near the beginning of 62 a.d. If Festus assumed office in the summer of 61, Paul must have reached Rome after the middle of Mar., 62; and at this time both successors of Burrus were in office. The year 60 is preferable to 59 since it makes the " many years " of Acts xxiv. 10, five and one-half instead of four and one-half, and only on the assumption that the arrest took place in 58 a.d. can II Cor. xii. 2 be made to fit in with the certain date of Acts xi. 25 (see § 2, above).
Assuming that the arrest took place at Pentecost of 58 a.d., reckoning can be carried back to the Apostolic Council at Jerusalem (q.v.) with considerable certainty, partly by the help of statements like Acts xviii. 11, xix. 8-10, xx. 3, 6, 31, and hints in the epistles (I Cor. xvi. 8; II Cor.
6. Conversion.
viii. 10, ix. 2; etc.), partly by estimating the length of time required for the events recorded and the time of year in which they occurred. Thus it appears that the Apostolic Council was held in the winter of 51-52, probably at the beginning of 52 a.d. Reckoning backward from this point and assuming that Gal. ii. 1-10, corresponds to the events of Acts xv. 1-33, and that the three years of Gal. i. 18 are not included in the fourteen years of Gal. ii. 1. it appears that Paul was converted seventeen years before the Apostolic Council — that is, in the winter of 34-35, probably near the beginning of 35 a.d. The " new chronology," which puts the conversion in the year of Jesus' death, fails to allow sufficient time for the important events of Acts i.— viii. and is inconsistent with the uniform representation of the conversion as relatively late.
2. Period before Conversion: According to his own statement, recorded in the Acts (xxii. 3; cf. ix. 11, xxi. 39), Paul was born in Tarsus. His Judaizing opponents, perhaps as early as the second century, inferred from this that his parents were heathen (Epiphanius, Hcer., XXX., xvi. 25). Modern historians surmise that he was a Hellenist. When he declares himself a " Hebrew of the Hebrews" (Phil. hi. .5; cf. II Cor. xi. 22), he does not contradict this, since what he has in mind is his ability to speak the language of the Palestinian and Syrian Jews (i.e., the current Aramaic). He was a Pharisee, descended from a line of Pharisaic ances-
tors (Acts xxiii. 6, where the reading is the " son of Pharisees," not " of a Pharisee "; cf. Phil. hi. 6- Gal. i. 13-14). Since the distinction of Pharisee and Sadducee is not heard of in the diaspora, this fact indicates that Paul's family maintained connections with the mother-land, and he appears to have had a married sister living in Jerusalem (Acts xxiii. 17). He was educated in Jerusalem in the school of Gamaliel the Elder, the grandson of Hillel (Acts xxii. 3). He inherited Roman citizenship from his father (Acts xxii. 28) and had also the rights of a citizen of Tarsus (Acts xxi. 39). Following Jewish custom, his father doubtless gave him the name of Saul when he was circumcised (Phil. hi. 5), perhaps after the first king of Israel, as the family belonged to the tribe of Benjamin (Rom. xi. 1; Phil. in. 5). As son of a Roman citizen he necessarily had also a Roman name — doubtless preenomen, nomen, and cognomen. As the cognomen was the usual designation (cf. Ca?sar, Cicero, etc.), it is not strange that it alone (Paulus) has been preserved. He was doubtless called Saul by Jews after as well as before conversion, while as a Roman and missionary to the Gentiles he was always Paul. The change from Saul to Paul in Acts xiii. 9, is perhaps due to a change in sources. Paul's personal appearance seems to have been unimposing (Acts xiv. 12; II Cor. x. 10), perhaps a consequence of the bodily affliction to which he refers in II Cor. xii. 7-10; Gal. iv. 13-14 (cf. II Cor. iv. 7-18). Whatever this affliction was — severe neurasthenia, malaria, eyetrouble, or even epilepsy (cf. Zahn, Einleitung, i. 122) — he seemed sometimes one smitten by God and beset by an evil spirit. He appears to have aged early. He never married (I Cor. vii. 7-8, ix. 5). In his student days, doubtless, according to rabbinic custom, he learned the trade by which he supported himself later (I Thess. ii. 9; II Thess. hi. 8; I Cor. iv. 12, ix. 6-8; II Cor. xi. 7-12, xii. 14-18; Acts xviii. 3, xx. 34). The Greek skenopoios (Acts xviii. 3) means a " maker of tent-material "; and Paul was a tanner rather than a weaver. The older translators and commentators knew well that the tents of Corinth and Ephesus were made of leather and uniformly classed Paul among the workers in leather. That the weaver's trade was of ill repute in Jerusalem is decisive on this point. Paul won distinction in Gamaliel's school (Gal. i. 14); and this, no doubt, led to his prominence in the execution of Stephen and brought him later the commission to persecute the -Nazarenes (Acts vii. 5S, viii. 1, 3, ix. 1-2, 14, xxii. 4-5, xxvi. 9-11). As Christian, Paul looked back upon this time with sorrow and regret (I Cor. xv. 8-9; Gal. i. 13-14; Phil. iii. 6-9; Eph. hi. 8; I Tim. i. 12-16) and appreciated the contrast between his pharisaic and his Christian piety and mode of thought; but he always recognized a connection between the two. Like the best of his people who rejected the Gospel, he was actuated by an honest striving after righteousness, a zeal for God, and an impulse to spread his own conviction and knowledge. As a Christian he was still a Pharisee (cf. Acts xxiii. 6) and a disciple of the rabbis in life, in handling of Scripture, in zeal for proselytizing (cf. Matt, xxiii. 15), and also in faith and hope. Passages like Phil. iii. 3-14; Gal. i.