Was the Apostle Paul a Jew?

This apostle was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of pure descent, born at Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, a fact which gave to him the privilege of Roman citizenship. He was a disciple of Gamaliel and a strict Pharisee. He is first introduced to us as a young man, by name SAUL, at whose feet the witnesses who stoned Stephen laid their clothes. He became afterwards a violent persecutor of the saints, both of men and women, acting with great zeal, thinking he was doing God's service. His conversion as the effect of the Lord appearing to him was unique, and he was so completely changed that he became at once as bold for Christ as before he had been a persecutor of Christ in the persons of His saints. He immediately preached in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God. This was the distinctive point of his testimony. As the Jews sought his life at Damascus, he departed into Arabia, where doubtless he had deep exercise of heart and learnt more of the Lord.

But not only was he from the race of Israel, he also was "of the Tribe of Benjamin." And Benjamin was a very favoured tribe. Benjamin was one of the two sons of Jacob's favourite wife. He was the only child of Jacob born in the Promised Land. The first king of Israel came from the Tribe of Benjamin, and Saul of Tarsus bore his name. The "holy City," Jerusalem, was in the land of Benjamin. And the Tribe of Benjamin was the only tribe to remain loyal to Judah and the House of David, when the other tribes revolted. So it was no small honour to belong to the Tribe of Benjamin.

But Paul had more: he was "A Hebrew sprung from Hebrews." He was pure Jew. Timothy's father was a Greek: not so Saul of Tarsus: he was pure Hebrew. A man was a Jew if he traced his descent from Jacob and conformed to the religion of his fathers: but he was not counted a "Hebrew" unless he spoke the Hebrew language. (See Trench, Syn. No. 39). And Paul could hardly have spoken of himself as "A Hebrew sprung from Hebrews" were it not that his father also had these qualifications; and so he probably spoke Hebrew from his earliest childhood; and we know he spoke it fluently: and had been "taught according to the perfect manner of the law of his fathers." (Acts 22:2 & 3).

Verse 5. 'Circumcised the eighth day,' etc. He begins with what is hereditary, and therefore independent of his own choice or will. Paul was no proselyte, but a Jew both born and bred; of faultless lineage as an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, and brought lawfully within the fleshly covenant of circumcision, he was entitled unimpeachably to that relative 'advantage' which is the birthright of Israel after the flesh.4 He then passes to his proper and responsible self: 'touching the 1aw,5 a Pharisee.' To that party in its strictest form he had adhered when come to years, receiving and retaining, as in a kindly soil, the teachings of Gamaliel.6 And here we should remark that, of the contending sects of Sadducees and Pharisees, religious excellency could be found only in the latter. For they at least did outward honour to all God's words, though too often annulling them by their traditions, while the Sadducees selected at their will. Obedience was the principle of the one; of the other, mere rationalistic self-assertion. A Pharisee might be, and often was, a godly man, which a Sadducee could scarcely be. Paul 'served God' while in darkness, and was truly conscientious in his sins.7

In Acts 21:39, Paul tells the Chief Captain that he is "a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city." In Chapter 22:3, Paul tells the Jews, "I am verily a Jew, born in Tarsus." And in Acts 22:27 & 28 he tells the Chief Captain that he is a Roman, (free) born. In Sir William Ramsey's book, "St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen," he tells us some most interesting things about these three passages of Scripture. I will quote: "According to the law of his country, he (Paul) was first of all a Roman citizen. That character superseded all others before the law and in the general opinion of society; and placed him in the aristocracy of any provincial town. In the first century, when the citizenship was still closely guarded, (it) may be taken as a proof that his family was one of distinction and at least moderate wealth. …

"Paul was, in the second place, a 'Tarsian, a citizen of a distinguished city' (Acts 21:39; Acts 9:11). 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. … Roman (citizens) 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 merely emigrated to Tarsus from Judea some years before his birth, neither he nor his father would have been 'Tarsians,' but merely 'residents.'

"In the third place, Paul was 'a Hebrew sprung from Hebrews'. The expression is a remarkable one. It is not used to a Jewish audience, but to a Greek Church (Phil. 3:5), 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 … seem to think only of his words, 22:3, 'I am a Jew born in Tarsus,' and to forget that he said a moment before, 'I am a Jew, a Tarsian, a citizen of no mean city'. To the Hebrews he emphasises his Jewish character, and his birth in Tarsus is added as an accident: but to Claudius Lysias, a Greek-Roman, he emphasises his Tarsian 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. …

The author of these epistles, the Apostle Paul, was originally called Saul. He was a learned Jew of the tribe of Benjamin (Phil. 3:5) and originated from Tarsus in Cilicia (Asia Minor). He had studied the Jewish law, had sat at the feet of the Rabbi Gamaliel, and had been educated after the strictest sect of the Pharisees (Acts 22:3; 26:5) and at a very early age excelled his contemporaries in knowledge (Gal. 1:14). At the same time he was hostile, with fanatic zeal, towards Christians. At the time, the Christians grew rapidly in number. Paul persecuted them wherever he could and obtained the consent of the Jewish leaders to do so. On later occasions he remembered the time before his conversion with much sadness (1 Cor. 15:9; Gal. 1:13; 1 Tim. 1:13).

Another point, borrowed from his account of the vision later in the book, which is remarkable in connection with his career: "Separating thee," says the Lord, "from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I now send thee." This moral end of Saul separated him from both — of course from the Jews, but did not make a Gentile of him either — and united him with a glorified Christ. He was neither a Jew nor a Gentile in his spiritual standing. All his life and ministry flowed from his association with a heavenly glorified Christ.

But the conversion itself was effected by two things; first, the heavenly glory of the Man, Jesus Christ the Lord; Paul, seeing this first, and then learning that it was Jesus; and secondly, that all Christians were united in one body with Him. Paul was persecuting Jesus Himself. But thenceforward he was to be a witness both of the things he had seen, and of those in which He who had been revealed to him would yet appear unto him. He had been separated from his own people, the Jews, and from the Gentiles, to whom now he was to be sent. He was no longer a Jew, but yet had not become a Gentile. He was associated with the Lord of glory, and was sent out from Him as a witness of His glory, and of the grace that could take up an open enemy, and make him the expression and witness of the perfect grace that had converted and saved him. His mission, as God's workman, was to open the eyes of the Gentiles, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified - the whole by faith in Jesus. "By faith that is in me" (v. 18), applies more particularly to forgiveness and inheritance, though as a matter of fact, the words extend to the entire sentence. Obedient to the heavenly vision, he had preached repentance everywhere, beginning with the Jews, exhorting them to turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. Though the Jews had sought to kill him, yet by the help of God he had continued till that day, saying none other things than those which the prophets had said should happen - that Christ should suffer, rise from the dead, and shew light to the people and to the Gentiles.

The term occurs in the N.T. only in Acts 6:1 to distinguish the Greek-speaking Jews from those of Palestine, and in 2 Cor. 11:22 and Phil. 3:5 concerning the ancestors of Paul, wherein, to meet the cavilling of the Judaising teachers, he calls himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews, one who had descended without any Gentile or proselyte blood.

First, the Apostle himself was a proof that this failure of the nation does not necessarily involve that they are rejected for ever. There can be no question that Paul by birth was an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, and that there had been no greater opponent of the gospel than himself, nevertheless he is chosen for blessing.

But, though born in a Gentile city, he was "an Hebrew of the Hebrews." His father was of the tribe of Benjamin, and of the sect of the Pharisees, but settled at Tarsus. By some means he had acquired the Roman franchise, as his son could say to the chief captain, "But I was free-born." At Tarsus he learned the trade of tent-making. It was a wholesome custom among the Jews, to teach their sons some trade, though there might be little prospect of their depending upon it for their living.

When Paul made his defence before his countrymen, (Acts 22) he tells them that though born in Tarsus, he had been brought up "at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers." History speaks of Gamaliel as one of the most eminent of the doctors of the law; and from the scriptures we learn that he was moderate in his opinions, and possessed of much worldly wisdom. But the persecuting zeal of the pupil soon appears in strong contrast with the master's counsels for toleration.