Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/183

 PAUL (SAINT) 173 Jew (that is, a Jew born beyond the limits of Palestine), but, until his conversion, a. rigid Hebrew of the sect of the Pharisees, by pa- rentage and training as well as by personal conviction. His original and Jewish name Saul appears to have been dropped and that of Paul adopted soon after his accession to the Christian ministry; for what cause it is not possible to say, nor whether the name Paul had ever been used as one of his appella- tions before his conversion. He was born in Tarsus, the metropolis of Cilicia. The precise date of his birth is unknown, but is proximate- ly determined by the circumstance that Paul is spoken of as a young man at the time of the martyrdom of Stephen. The best chronologists place that event about A. D. 38. According- ly, Paul may be conjectured to have been born about A. D. 10. His family enjoyed the right of Roman citizenship, either as libertini (slaves honorably manumitted), or in consequence of important services rendered to the state. The traces of philosophic thought in his epistles, and his evident familiarity with the Greek poets, show that he possessed gentile as well as Jew- ish learning. According to rabbinical law and custom, which required every male Jew to be taught some manual art, he learned the trade of a tent maker, to the practice of which he was afterward indebted in part for his support. (Acts xviii. 3, xx. 34 ; 1 Cor. iv. 12.) His knowl- edge of the law and the prophets and other essentials of a Jewish education was obtained at Jerusalem under Gamaliel, the most learned rabbi of his time. Paul's first appearance in history connects itself with the martyrdom of Stephen, to which he was a party, being at that time a student at Jerusalem, and heartily devoted to the Pharisaic interest in that city. From this time he became a zealous persecu- tor of the Christian church, volunteering his services to the sanhedrim for that purpose, and holding a commission from that body to ferret out, both at Jerusalem and in *' strange cities," and bring to trial the confessors of the new faith. While bound to Damascus on one of these errands, he was converted by a vis- ion, which changed the whole course of his life, impelling him to become the apostle of the faith he had persecuted. The three accounts of the matter in the Acts (ix. 7, xxii. 9, and xxvi. 14) differ in the manner of stating what was then observed by himself and his com- panions, but all agree in their representation of the impression made on Paul himself of a voice addressing him in the name of Christ and bidding him forbear the persecution of his church. Struck with temporary blindness by the vision, he was brought to Damascus, where after three days' sojourn he recovered his sight at the hands of a disciple named Ananias and received Christian baptism. The next three years were spent in Arabia and Damascus, after which the apostle made a brief visit to Peter at Jerusalem, and then returned to his native city. Meanwhile a new centre of Christian influence had established itself at Antioch, and thither Paul went at the solicita- tion of Barnabas, who had come to Tarsus to secure his cooperation. Here he remained for a year or more, expounding and propagating the new faith. A famine which visited Judea in 45 induced the church at Antioch to send pecuniary aid to the Christians at Jerusalem, and Paul and Barnabas were deputed to con- vey the money. (Acts xi. 29, 30.) Having accomplished this mission, he returned to An- tioch, and made that city his headquarters and the starting point of his missionary tours in Asia Minor and Europe. Three distinct jour- neys from this point are recorded. The first, in which Paul was accompanied by Barnabas, and for a portion of the way by John Mark, embraced the island of Cyprus from east to west, and three of the southerly provinces of Asia Minor, viz., Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Ly- caonia. In the principal cities of these coun- tries the missionaries established Christian churches after the model of that at Jerusalem. Some time after his return to Antioch, where Paul now resumed his home ministry, the at- tempt was made by Judaizing Christians, sent from Jerusalem for that purpose, to impose the Mosaic ritual on the gentile converts. The movement was strenuously resisted by the leaders of the Antioch church, and Paul and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem to debate and arrange this difficulty with the apostles and elders in that city. This first Christian coun- cil is assigned by different authorities to dates ranging from the year 47 to the year 55. We incline with Wieseler to place it at 50. The two delegates, after a satisfactory adjustment, returned to Antioch accompanied by two mes- sengers from Jerusalem. With one of the lat- ter, Sylvanus or Silas, Paul soon after undertook his second missionary tour, having previously separated from Barnabas in consequence of a dispute between them relative to John Mark, whom Barnabas desired to take with them, but whom Paul rejected on account of his de- sertion of them at Perga in the first expedi- tion. The missionaries visited Cilicia and the regions already traversed by Paul, and the churches founded by him in Pamphylia and Lycaonia. At Lystra they were joined at Paul's solicitation by Timothy. They extend- ed their travels through the central provinces of Asia Minor, Phrygia and Galatia, then to Mysia, and so to the western coast. At Troas Paul resolved, in consequence of a dream which he interpreted as a call from God, to cross over to Europe. Accordingly the company, of which Luke, it is supposed from the use of the first person plural which occurs here for the first time in the narrative, was one, took ship at Troas, and after a short run landed at Neapolis on the Macedonian coast. They pro- ceeded thence to Philippi, where the Chris- tians came into collision with a gentile party who trafficked in divination, and who inflamed the minds of the people against Paul and Si-