the rights of a Roman citizen. He received a learned Jewish education at Jerusalem in the school
of the Pharisean Rabbi, Gamaliel, a grandson of Hillel, not remaining an entire stranger to Greek
literature, as his style, his dialectic method, his allusions to heathen religion and philosophy, and
his occasional quotations from heathen poets show. Thus, a "Hebrew of the Hebrews,"^344 yet at the
same time a native Hellenist, and a Roman citizen, be combined in himself, so to speak, the three
great nationalities of the ancient world, and was endowed with all the natural qualifications for a
universal apostleship. He could argue with the Pharisees as a son of Abraham, of the tribe of
Benjamin, and as a disciple of the renowned Gamaliel, surnamed "the Glory of the Law." He could
address the Greeks in their own beautiful tongue and with the convincing force of their logic.
Clothed with the dignity and majesty of the Roman people, he could travel safely over the whole
empire with the proud watchword: Civis Romanus sum.
This providential outfit for his future work made him for a while the most dangerous enemy
of Christianity, but after his conversion its most useful promoter. The weapons of destruction were
turned into weapons of construction. The engine was reversed, and the direction changed; but it
remained the same engine, and its power was increased under the new inspiration.
The intellectual and moral endowment of Saul was of the highest order. The sharpest thinking
was blended with the tenderest feeling, the deepest mind with the strongest will. He had Semitic
fervor, Greek versatility, and Roman energy. Whatever he was, he was with his whole soul. He
was totus in illis, a man of one idea and of one purpose, first as a Jew, then as a Christian. His
nature was martial and heroic. Fear was unknown to him—except the fear of God, which made
him fearless of man. When yet a youth, he had risen to high eminence; and had he remained a Jew,
he might have become a greater Rabbi than even Hillel or Gamaliel, as he surpassed them both in
original genius and fertility of thought.
Paul was the only scholar among the apostles. He never displays his learning, considering
it of no account as compared with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, for whom he suffered
the loss of all things,^345 but he could not conceal it, and turned it to the best use after his conversion.
Peter and John had natural genius, but no scholastic education; Paul had both, and thus became the
founder of Christian theology and philosophy.
His Education.
His training was thoroughly Jewish, rooted and grounded in the Scriptures of the Old
Covenant, and those traditions of the elders which culminated in the Talmud.^346 He knew the Hebrew
and Greek Bible almost by heart. In his argumentative epistles, when addressing Jewish converts,
he quotes from the Pentateuch, the Prophets, the Psalms, now literally, now freely, sometimes
ingeniously combining several passages or verbal reminiscences, or reading between the lines in
a manner which betrays the profound student and master of the hidden depths of the word of God,about or over thirty years of age. Philo extends the limits of νεανίας from twenty-one to twenty-eight, Xenophon to forty. Comp.
Lightfoot on Philemon, v. 9 (p. 405), and Farrar, I., 13, 14.(^344) Phil. 3:5. A Hebrew by descent and education, though a Hellenist or Jew of the dispersion by birth, Acts 22:3. Probably
his parents were Palestinians. This would explain the erroneous tradition preserved by Jerome (De vir. ill. c. 5), that Paul was
born at Giscala in Galilee (now El-Jish), and after the capture of the place by the Romans emigrated with his parents to Tarsus.
But the capture did not take place till a.d. 67.
(^345) Comp. the sublime passage, Phil. 3:8-10, and 1 Cor. 2:1, 2.
(^346) Gal. 4:14: "I made progress in Judaism beyond many of mine own age in my nation, being more exceedingly zealous for
the traditions of my fathers."
A.D. 1-100.