St. Paul the Apostle and the beginning of the Church

114 Pages·2011·5.48 MB·English

The Catholic Community of Our Lady of Fatima
Delanson, New York
G.I.F.T. 8.5—Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Life
St. Paul the Apostle and the beginning of the Church

New Testament Scripture offers invaluable
priimary hhiistoriicall sources ffor Paull's lliiffe
through his own letters and the Acts of the
Apostles. In addition, we have several early
ttraaddittioonss aabboouutt him oouuttssiddee oof SSccrippttuuree ttoo heelpp
see into the extraordinary life of this man.

Paul was probably born shortly after Jesus, between the years 5 and 10
C.E. (All the dates associated with his life are approximate and debated by
scholars.)
Paul was not just a resident but a citizen of Tarsus, which suggests that his
family was wealthy. He also claimed Roman citizenship by birth, a status
that carried considerable prestige.
HHiiss JJeewwiisshh nnaammee wwaass "SSaauull";; "PPaauull" wwaass aa wweellll-kknnoowwnn RRoommaann ffaammiillyy
name. This arrangement was common for Jews in this period, especially
outside Palestine, who often had two names, one Greek or Roman and the
other Semitic or Jewish.

His parents were strictly observant Jews living in the city of Tarsus, the
prosperous capiitall off Ciilliiciia, a proviince off thhe Roman Empiire iin whhat iis
now Turkey. The Red ARROW shows where Tarsus is located, on the
banks of the Mediterranean sea, close to the Syrian border.

The young Saul obviously received a fine education. He could write Greek very well
and probably knew Hebrew or Aramaic (Jesus' native language) too. His writing and
preaching demonstrated impressive rhetorical skills.
In his youth, Saul studied the Jewish Scriptures, (also known as the Torah) under the
ffaammoouuss JJeewwiisshh rraabbbbii GGaammaalliieell II ((GGaammmmaa lleeeell tthhee ffiirrsstt)) tthhee EEllddeerr ooff JJeerruussaalleemm. IInn
time, this avid student came to know the sacred texts well enough to quote
extensively from them by memory, including the deuterocanonical books.
Those are the books of the Old Testament that we call the apocrypha, and they include
JJuddiithh, thhe WWiisddom off SSollomon, TTobbiit, SSiirachh, BBaruchh, andd FFiirst andd SSecondd
Maccabees. The apocrypha are included in our Catholic Bible but are not included in
the bibles of other Christian faiths.