Meet the Apostle Paul—Part Five
I have been compiling my notes to preach on the life and letters of the Apostle Paul at Christ’s Community Church. I will be uploading some of them in preparation.
Sometimes I will read a well-meaning Christian writer state that the Apostle was born Saul but changed his name to Paul when he became King Jesus’ ambassador to the Gentiles. That’s probably not true.
Saul/Paul was born a Roman citizen (Acts 21:39 and 22:28). This may not mean much to us as the overwhelming majority of those reading this were born a citizen of his or her native country. Yet some estimates place citizenship at less than 10% of those who inhabited the Roman Empire.
One could purchase citizenship (but it was too expensive for most) while others could earn it through an extended tenure as a solider. Those who were born citizens were so noted via official imperial documents such as the census rolls.
These citizens “had three names (tria nomina): a personal or individual name (praenomen), a name that associated one with the largest number of relatives (nomen or nomen gentilicium) and cognomen by which one was normally known.”[1] Thus, the Apostle would have been enrolled in the Roman census in Tarsus as “Saulus” (his “personal” or religious name), his family name, which we do not know and “Paulus,” his “cognomen” or “common name.”
The Apostle obviously named him “Saul” after Israel’s first “king” (not really because God was always the true king of Israel but that’s a post for another day) and “Paul” as his “Roman name.” N.T. Wright and others have long noted that while “Saulus” was a noble name among ancient Jews, it was considered “effeminate” by Roman culture.
Citizens who purchased that honor or those who earned it through battle were given a plaque or “testation”) to carry. Paul does not appear to have one but in order to “appeal to Caesar” (Acts 25:11-12), the Apostle would have had to his “tria nomina” recorded in Tarsus. Attempts to falsify citizenship in the Roman Empire carried the death penalty.
As we see in Acts, citizenship gave the citizen the right of judicial due process (Acts 22:22-30). This did not prevent mobs from viciously assaulting Saul/Paul (see 2 Cor 11:23-24) but his citizenship saved his bacon more than once and granted the Apostle’s wish of going to Rome (Acts 19:21; 28:14).
If you have been reading along so far you may see the hand of divine providence preparing the Apostle for his missionary journeys across the Roman Empire as he preached the “message of Good News.” What was this message?
That will have to await another post so tune back in.
[1] Brian M. Rapske, “Citizenship, Roman,” Dictionary of New Testament Background (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 215.