by Kent Leslie ✉️
Certain liberal bible scholars like to claim Paul was a disaffected Jew who wasn’t getting anywhere in Judaism, among the Pharisees, so he defected to the Christians. And various other ridiculous ideas. (As if you could stop being a Jew. Paul’s a descendant of Abraham. He can never not be a Jew. And he never stopped claiming to be Pharisee. [Ac 23.6, Pp 3.5])
Paul grew up in Tarsus, Cilicia (today’s Tarsus, Mersin, Türkiye). At some point he moved to Jerusalem to attend a Pharisee academy, which was the ancients’ closest equivalent to a college education. It meant following a rabbi around and asking him tons of questions, and he’d Socratically pick apart everything you said, and force you to sharpen your thinking. Yes, that’s exactly the same thing Jesus did with his students.
I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people. Basically Paul’s the class valedictorian; the furthest ahead in his age group. Speaking from experience as a former child prodigy: When you’re the littlest guy in the classroom, you tend to get labeled “the little man,” and if you own it (I didn’t), the nickname sticks. This is where I suspect Paul’s name comes from.
Who from my mother’s womb set me apart. [1.15] Paul recognized his zeal for knowledge, and ability to retain it, was God-given. That’s likely what he meant by “set apart from my mother’s womb” in verse 15: He was made to follow God. We all are, but when you’re a child prodigy it’s way more obvious.
Paul’s contemporaries knew it; his parents probably moved to Jerusalem because of it. Even as a νεανίου/neaníu, “teenager” [Ac 7.58] Paul was sitting in Sanhedrin meetings, and even being commissioned by them to go house to house and arrest Christians. [Ac 8.3] You don’t give that much responsibility to just any kid.
But look at the utter mess Paul made with these abilities when Jesus wasn’t guiding him! And that’s why Jesus had to personally intervene. Sometimes people aren’t gonna turn to him any other way.