God's Sovereignty in the Life of Paul

This semester I am teaching Pauline Epistles at the Bible Institute of Ohio. This morning was our first day of "real" class (going over the requirements on Wednesday didn't count). I began lecturing on Paul's background. I was somewhat struck by how God had providentially worked in Paul's life simply in his background. God had equipped him to do the work of the Gospel. As Paul himself said, "God set me apart before I was born, called me by his grace, and was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles" (Gal 1:15-16).

Here are some notes I made in my syllabus:
  • Saul was born in the city of Tarsus, in the territory of Cilicia (Acts 21:39).

  • He was born a Roman citizen (Acts 22:27); that is, his father was a Roman citizen before him. Although normally confined to freeborn natives of the city of Rome, Roman citizenship was often conferred on others. The fact that a Jewish family would receive this honor indicates that Paul’s father, grandfather, or great-grandfather must have rendered some service to the empire. Bruce suggests that their tentmaking trade may have been useful to the Roman military. Paul took advantage of his Roman citizenship on several occasions. In Philippi, he protested because the rulers of the city had beaten him without a fair trial, something they were forbidden to do to a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37). He invoked his citizenship to avoid a scourging in Jerusalem, a punishment considered worse than death (Acts 22:25). As a Roman citizen, Paul had the right to “appeal to Caesar” and take his case all the way to the emperor (Acts 25:11–12).

  • He was a devout Jew from a devout Hebrew family. This is what the phrase “an Hebrew of the Hebrews” means (Phil 3:5). He was a Jew born to a Jewish family. Not only was he a Jew in religion, he was a cultural Jew as well, speaking Hebrew (or more precisely, Aramaic), as opposed to the Hellenist (Greek-speaking) Jews. Because he was raised in Asia Minor, Paul knew Greek fluently (Acts 21:37–40). However, since he was educated in Jerusalem (Acts 22:3), he also spoke Aramaic. In addition, Paul describes himself as a Pharisee in regard to the Mosaic Law (Phil 3:5; Acts 23:6; 26:5). The Pharisees were the “right-wing conservatives” in the Judaism of that day. They were the “hard-liners,” who studied and followed the strictest interpretations of the Mosaic Law. More liberal rabbis advocated less conservative interpretations, but Paul was “blameless” when it came to following the Law (Phil 3:6). Since Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin (Rom 11:1; Phil 3:5), he probably received the name Saul because of Saul’s history as the most outstanding Benjamite in Hebrew history. His Greek name Paul was probably chosen because it sounds very similar to Saul.

It makes me wonder what things God has been preparing me for in my life. The sovereignty of God is an amazing, yet comforting doctrine.

FWIW, I have found the following books very helpful in studying the Pauline epistles.

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