Footsteps #2

It has often happened that the destroyers of a creed or system have been bred and trained in the inmost bosom of the system which they were destined to shake or destroy. Huss, Jerome, and Luther had taken the Augustinian vows. Pascal had been trained a Jesuit. Wesley and Whitefield were clergymen in the church of England. Spurgeon and Ellen White were born in the decaying Methodism of Britain and America. The apostle Paul was a Jew of the Sanhedrin. (The governing body of Judaism.)

From a study of the Biblical documents, we conclude that Saul (who became Paul) was born in the same decade as Christ Himself, and it appears that he was about 7 years old when Christ was born. Saul passed his earliest years in Tarsus, the famous capital of a Roman province. Today it is an Islamic city in Turkey, 20kms from the Mediterranean, and still bears the same name. It was then a centre of commercial enterprise and political power. Saul was raised in this ‘pagan’ city but under a strict Jewish environment such that youth were not permitted to read the Song of Solomon until they were 21.

From the way he quoted the OT we know he was raised on the Septuagint (Greek) translation of the Bible. This becomes obvious from the way he freely quotes from it (often from memory,) in all his letters and speeches. He knew it so well that his sentences and thoughts are constantly moulded by its rhythm and expression.

Had Saul put the question to the Great Master, “What shall I do to be saved” and heard the reply, “Keep the commandments,“ it is certain from his own testimony that he would have been able to reply, “All these things have I kept from my youth.” He even might have added, “and very much besides.” He was a tell-me-anything-more-to do-and–I will-do-it Pharisee. Yet we trace in his epistles how bitterly he felt the hollowness of this outward obedience. Even moral obedience could not silence the voice of conscience, or satisfy the yearning of the soul. (c.f.Phil.3:4-6)

“⁴ though I myself have reasons for such confidence.