Early Life And Conversion

by R. Darke, Victoria, B.C. | Category: The Life And Work Of Paul | Jan 1971

A baby's cry in a Jewish home in Tarsus, Asia Minor, heralded the birth of one whose career would affect multitudes, and literally place on the map this Gentile city. But for the birth of a child named Saul, Tarsus surely would have lapsed into obscurity, despite its fame in ancient days for commerce and culture. Instead, this Jewish boy, who was to become one of Israel's youngest leaders, encountered one day the Christ of God. The outcome was his startling conversion, and Saul of Tarsus became Paul the apostle, and by him the whole counsel of God for man was preached to both Jew and Gentile. It is through this great event that millions of Christians of the past and the present know of Tarsus, because they know of Saul.

Describing the place of Saul's birth, one historian writes, and there, close to the narrow defiles that separate Europe from Asia, in the shadow of the dazzling Tausus mountains, in a fortress town on a hill, surrounded by meadows of black earth and orange groves, in the sight of the sea, Saul was born". It was through Tarsus that the gospel was to travel westward by way of the same Cilician gates where Alexander, the world conqueror, had emerged with his columns to overcome Asia.

In Saul's time Tarsus was a cosmopolitan city with a university which rivalled those of Alexandria and Athens, and a skilfully engineered seaport. It was here that much of the wealth of Asia Minor was accumulated before it was despatched to Greece and Italy, and the vessels which brought to Asia the treasures of Europe were unloaded at its very efficient docks. One archaeologist calculated its population to be close on half a million. Later in life when he was arrested by the Romans as Paul the apostle, he made the claim, "I am a Jew, of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city" (Acts 21:39).

Saul is a Hebrew name meaning "asked for", or "wished", and his birth could have been an answer to the prayers of his parents, like that of Samuel, Israel's great prophet, whose mother said, "For this child I prayed". As in the case of the One who was to become his Lord and Master, there is little recorded in Scripture of Saul's early life. His parents were possibly Galileans who had gone to live in Tarsus for business reasons, or were colonized by a Syrian ruler. There was a Jewish community there, and it is interesting to note that among those who disputed with Stephen, before his stoning, were men of Cilicia, undoubtedly compatriots of Saul (Acts 6:9). The names of his mother and father are not given, but from his writings as an apostle we find that he was a descendant of Jacob the Patriarch, coming from the line of Benjamin, like his namesake, Israel's first king. Incidentally, Benjamin was the only son of Jacob born in the land of promise. Some scholars indicate that Saul's parents were held in high esteem by their Jewish community, and the father was a merchant perhaps connected with the manufacture of the woven cloth for the making of tents. In this way, Saul would become familiar with the trade of the tentmaker. He was thought to be an exceptional child, with a readiness to learn, and like Moses, he would be watched over tenderly by a mother who would teach him carefully the law of Jehovah. From the age of six a Jewish child begins to memorize the Scriptures, and recently I was asked by a Jewish girl of this age, "Do you know how I can prove to you that I am a Jew?" She proceeded to show me a medal on a chain around her neck, and the one side showed the Star of David, and the other had Hebrew writing. "Shall I tell you what the Hebrew says?" she asked eagerly, and she translated, "If I forget thee O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning". What a testimony! No shame here of being a Jew! What an example to Christians! And Saul, one feels, would be just as bold and as sincere. He evidently developed an enviable reputation as a young man who loved the law of the Lord, meditated in it, and sought to carry it out. He was to say later in testimony, "My manner of life then from my youth up, which was from the beginning among mine own nation and at Jerusalem, know all the Jews ... that after the straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee" (Acts 26:4,5).

That leaders are born and not made is possibly true, but their emerging is strictly in the hands of the Divine One. Characteristics marking him out as a man of destiny were manifesting themselves in Saul, and his move from Tarsus to Jerusalem-the centre of Judaism-when quite a young man, was a step which would certainly hasten this accomplishment. Evident chinks in the armour of his education, religious and otherwise, would be filled as he "sat alongside" (one rendering of "sat at the feet of") Gamaliel, the revered Jewish rabbi, who encouraged a spiritual interpretation of the Mosaic law, and the study of Greek literature. Saul's progress appeared to be rapid (Gal. 1.14). Few scholars doubt that he was appointed a member of the Sanhedrim, the Jewish Supreme Council. The fact that he was the leader of the mob which stoned Stephen-"the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul" (Acts 7:58)-that he obtained with ease authority from the chief priests to slaughter the Christians, and "when they were put to death, I gave my vote against them" (Acts 26:10), all seem to confirm this. But the unseen hand of God was moving quietly and significantly in Saul's life, and the divine Potter was shaping the clay into the vessel He had chosen (Acts 9:15). The greatest experience of his life was yet to come on the road outside Damascus, a place of the Lord's choosing, and it was to open the door of realization that he had been called through grace "before times eternal" (2 Tim. 1:9), and separated "from my mother's womb" (Gal. 1:15,16), to reveal and preach His Son. A gifted orator himself, Paul must have been deeply impressed by Stephen's Spirit-filled preaching, but resisting this pricking of the divine goad, he helped to rouse the rabble to murder Stephen. The goad must have been felt again as Stephen prayed passionately for his murderers. Yet on that very day the floodgates of his hatred and persecution towards Stephen's fellow-Christians were flung wide open by Saul, and like a ravening wolf (Gen. 49:27) he pursued them relentlessly unto foreign cities (Acts 26:11). Then followed an astonishing revelation of the mercy and grace of God toward Saul as he hastened to Damascus, propelled by hatred and blinded by rage. Divine judgement might easily have overtaken him, but instead the Lord used a dazzling light and an arresting voice asking, "Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" The proud persecutor, so recently ranting and raving, is now humbled to the dust to cry imploringly, "Who are Thou, Lord?" Immediately came an answer to fill with light the soul of this blinded bigot, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest (Acts 9:5). Then followed conviction and conversion. Conviction: that if Jesus was speaking to him from heaven, then He must have been resurrected. Conversion: a man who had been doing what he thought was right, now asks, "What shall I do, Lord?" (Acts 22:10). The young Jewish Pharisee, who had been leading others in a bold attempt to crush the disciples in the churches of God, must now submit meekly to being led by the hand into Damascus (Acts 9:8). This whole incredible scene in the life of Saul closes as it opens with a cry. When Ananias was instructed to go to the house of Judas in the street called Straight to inquire for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus, the Lord said to him, "for behold, he prayeth" (Acts 9:11). The new born babe of spiritual experience was crying to His Father in heaven. That Saul was now a child of God is confirmed by Ananias' greeting of "brother Saul" (v.17); that he was a true disciple of his new-found Master is confirmed by the words, "he arose and was baptized" (v.18).

For those of us who are in churches of God there is one important lesson to be learned from the life of Saul of Tarsus, and that is the hidden purpose of God in an individual. Naturally speaking, none would assume that a Jew, who was a confirmed Pharisee, and such a vicious opponent of the Lord and His followers, would one day become the exponent and evangelist of what he had sought to destroy. The spoken testimony and the dying prayer of Stephen unquestionably had a great effect on Saul, although the first Christian martyr would know nothing of this. We should be encouraged, therefore, not to miss opportunities in our day to speak to sinners about their souls, and to believers about the house of God, for we know not God's purpose with anyone. The story has been told of a young boy who was the only fruit of a Christian man, who was asked to resign from his responsibilities because his work had not been accompanied by any success. Yet the boy grew up to be a missionary who brought hundreds to Christ. Let us then not pass by the opportunities that come our way.

R. Darke, Victoria, B.C. | Jan 1971
The Life And Work Of Paul