Lives of the Apostles: Paul

LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. III. PAUL. BY PROFESSOR WILLARD DONE, PRESIDENT OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS' COLLEGE, SALT LAKE CITY. In the southern part of Asia Minor was a Roman province known as Cilicia. The chief city of this province was called Tarsus. As a centre of culture and learning this city was a rival of Athens and Alexandria. From the regions round about the youth flocked to Tarsus to sit under the voices of its numerous teachers and philosophers. It -had a mixed population, one of the strongest elements being the Jews, some of those who had left Palestine and who lived in all the chief cities of the Roman empire. Some of the Jews who lived at Tarsus were Roman citizens, doubtless on account of services they had rendered the emperor. To one of these families was born a son whom the parents named Saul, the name meaning ''asked for." From this we are led to infer that he was the oldest son, and that such a gift had been eagerly hoped for by the parents. Saul was by birth, therefore, a Jew, and heir to the traditions of that race, and a free Roman citizen, entitled to all the privileges and immunities belonging to that condition. A reading of his history shows how the latter fact was of value to him in certain critical circumstances. We also know that Saul was of the sect of the Pharisees, and educated in all the ideas and prejudices of that

class. (Acts xxiii: 6; 26: 5.) We are left entirely in the dark as to the age of Saul. His early life is also unknown to us, except as it is revealed to us in occasional glimpses throughout his discourses and epistles. From these brief references we learn of his birthplace, of his being born a Pharisee and a Roman citizen, of his learning the trade of a tent-maker, and of his being taught at Jerusalem by the great Jewish teacher, Gamaliel. As to the amount of learning he acquired in Greek philosophy, we are uncertain, as the quotations and allusions of this character which appear in his talking and writing, may have been the outgrowth of a profound or a limited knowledge of this philosophy. Saul first comes into New Testament history in connection with the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. This event occurred about the year 34,A.D. Saul,we would judge from the words of the historian, took rather more than the part of merely negative consent in this tragedy, for the witnesses laid their cloaks at his feet while they were engaged in the stoning. After this, Saul drops out of notice until the account of his conversion is given. But we know that during the period of one or two years between the stoning of Stephen and his own conversion, Saul was prominent in the vast system of persecution which was instituted against the Christians throughout Palestine and Syria. It was while he was on the way to Damascus, the chief city of Syria, with a commission from the high priest to arrest all Christians and bring them bound to Jerusalem, that he was smitten with blindness and converted by the power and the voice of Jesus. (Acts 9: 1-6.) I am not one of those who believe that during this journey Paul had gradually become prepared for this conversion by his own musings on the course he was pursuing. Apparently he was just as obdurate and determined in his persecution of the Christians when he approached Damascus, as when he left Jerusalem. As a devout Jew, he considered that he was doing God's service in thus persecuting those who openly accused the Jews of having slain the Son of God. And it required the personal appearance and announcement of the resurrected Messiah, to show him that his course was wrong. All his training from youth to manhood had been such as to convince him of its rightfulness. When the voice from heaven called to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"

he had to ask the question, "Who art thou, Lord?" and received the answer, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks," before he was fully convinced of the Messiahship of Jesus. But so thoroughly was he converted then that he never doubted it from that day until he was called to lay down his life in testimony of it. Saul was led into the city of Damascus by his attendants and there, in obedience to the commandment of the Lord, Ananias came to him and laid hands on him for the restoration of his sight. Immediately afterward he was baptized. According to his own statement (Gal. 1 : 17) Saul went from Damascus to Arabia and spent the next three years there. We do not know his purpose in going to Arabia, but it may have been to prepare himself by solitary meditation, study and prayer for the great work required of him. After his sojourn in Arabia he returned to Damascus, but he met with such harsh treatment at the hands of the Jews there, that he barely escaped with his life, by being let down in a basket from the window of a house built on the wall of the city. This was the occasion of his first visit to Jerusalem after his conversion. He was looked upon at Jerusalem with a certain degree of suspicion on account of the remembrance of his bitter persecutions of the disciples. Barnabas came to his assistance and vouched for the sincerity of his conversion. Saul also allayed the fears of the disciples by publicly preaching the Messiahship of Jesus, and disputing with the unbelievers, both Jews and Greeks. This so incensed his enemies in the city that they attempted his life. The other disciples spirited him away to Csesarea and sent him thence to Tarsus, his native city, until the anger of his enemies should have abated. This event occurred about the year 38, A. D. Not long afterward Barnabas was sent down to Antioch for a ministerial purpose, and he went over to Tarsus and brought Saul back to Antioch with him. Here they established their headquarters for a year, preaching and ministering among the people. At the end of that time Saul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem with donations which had been given by the saints in Antioch for the worthy poor in Judea. Returning to Antioch shortly afterward, they two, with John, surnamed Mark, set out upon their first great

missionary journey. They first crossed over to Cyprus, and traveled through that island preaching the Gospel and doing manymighty works. It was here that Saul was first called Paul by the historian Luke. This may have been a softened form of the name Saul, or his Roman name, Saul being his Jewish one, or it may have been a surname applied to him on account of his short stature (Paulus, "little"). At any rate, he is best known to us by this title. From Cyprus they went to the southern coast of Asia Minor, traveling through those regions, preaching, exhorting, performing miracles, and suffering persecution; Paul being worshiped as a god in Lystra, and afterward stoned almost to death in the same city. During this journey, for some unknown cause, John Mark left them and went to Jerusalem. Returning through the regions where they had established churches, Paul and Barnabas confirmed them, and then sailed directly from Asia Minor to Antioch in Syria, where their headquarters were. Here they reported their missionary labors, and dwelt with the Saints for some time. About the year 53 A.D. Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem, the occasion of their visit being the dispute which had arisen regarding the circumcision of converted gentiles. Happily for the peace of the church this question was decided wisely, and then Paul and Barnabas, with Silas and Judas Barsabas, returned to Antioch. Here they remained for a time and preached the word of the Lord concerning circumcision. Paul then suggested to Barnabas that they visit the cities where they had previously established branches of the church, and they made preparations for the journey. A contention arose between them as to their companions, Barnabas desiring John Mark, his nephew, and Paul being of opinion that on account of his having deserted them previously, he was unworthy of the sacred responsibility. The dispute ended by Barnabas choosing Mark, and Paul Silas, and separating never to meet again. Paul and Silas traveled through the regions of Asia Minor where churches had been established, finding Timothy at Lystra and taking him as a companion. Passing through the western portion of Asia Minor they crossed the Hellespont into Macedonia, this being, so far as we know, the first introduction of the Gospel into Europe. At Philippi, the first city of importance visited by

them in Macedonia, occurred the well-known incidents of the conversion of Lydia, the healing of the Greek divining girl and the conversion of the jailor and his family. Here the Roman citizenship of Paul stood him in good stead, and secured for him and Silas an honorable release from the prison and escort from the city. Thessalonica and Berea were next visited, and some success was met with; but the continued enmity and opposition of the Jews forced Paul to precede the other two brethren to Athens. Here, on the Areopagus or Mars hill, he preached his famous sermon which was brought out by his seeing an altar inscribed, "To the Unknown God." Corinth, "the eye of Greece," was next visited by him, and here he gained so large a following that he remained a year and a half. Thence he crossed the Aegean sea to Ephesus, and went from there to Jerusalem, afterward returning to Antioch. This completed his second missionary journey. After a stay in Antioch, he commenced his third missionary journey passing through Galatia, Phrygia and other portions of Asia Minor, to Ephesus. Here he found certain disciples who claimed to have been baptized by a disciple of John the Baptist; but as they had not heard of the Holy Ghost, Paul doubted the validity of their claim and baptized them anew, conferring upon them the Holy Ghost. Great miracles were performed by Paul at Ephesus and a number of important events occurred there, some of the most prominent being the disgrace of the seven Jews who attempted without authority to cast out an evil spirit, and the uproar caused by the silversmiths under Demetrius. The patron goddess of Ephesus was Diana, and a great temple was erected there in her honor. The silversmiths gained great profit from the manufacture and sale of small silver shrines, supposed to be miniature copies of this temple. But as Paul was converting so many of these worshipers of Diana, the silversmiths saw that their ''craft was in danger;" therefore they raised a commotion which was quelled by the good sense of the town clerk. From Ephesus, after he had stayed there two years, Paul passed through Macedonia into Greece and back to Asia Minor, visiting the churches in those cities, for the last time. In this town he was accompanied by a number of the brethren, including Luke, the writer of the Acts of the Apostles.