NT Characters: Paul

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/paulmp3/">website</a>.</p><p><strong>Introduction</strong></p><p> </p><ul><li>Jesus and Paul are beyond question the two persons in the NT about whom we know most. Paul wrote 13 of the 27 NT documents (87 chapters, nearly as many as the 89 of the four gospels). But there is a major difference between him and Jesus.  Jesus left nothing directly to us in writing. In Paul’s case, we are able to coordinate his missionary activities (in Acts) with his writing and follow-up ministry (the letters). This affords a kind of triangulation; with such perspective the man comes to life.</li><li>In this podcast we will not be examining the letters of Paul. For that, please see the NT chapter studies…</li></ul><p><strong>Background</strong></p><ul><li>Paul was a Jew, though not from Palestine. He was a citizen of Tarsus, capital of the Roman province of Cilicia, modern southern Turkey (Acts 9:11, 21:39, 22:3).</li><li>Would have grown up speaking Greek, though fluent too in Hebrew, Aramaic, and possibly Latin.</li><li>He was trained as a rabbi under the distinguished Gamaliel (Acts 22:3).</li><li>His secular profession was tent-making (Acts 18:3; see also 9:43, 20:34-35; 2 Corinthians 5:1).</li><li>Paul was also born of the purest Jewish blood, a descendant of the patriarch Benjamin (Philippians 3:5)—at a time when few Jews would have been able to trace their descent, given the confusion of the exiles. He was named after Israel’s first king, Saul.</li><li>Paul was born a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37, 22:25-28)—when only a minority of those residing within the Roman Empire were given this privilege.</li><li>He was an intensely focused Pharisee (Acts 22:3, 23:6, 26:5; Galatians 1:13-14; Philippians 3:5. A driven man, Paul claims to have advanced beyond many of his contemporaries (Galatians 1:13-14). Certain that the Christians were dangerous heretics, he hounded them, imprisoned them, tortured and killed them (1 Timothy 1:13; 1 Corinthians