Paul’s place of birth, his heritage, his education, and his vocation were all means by which God was molding and fashioning Paul to be the servant whom God had purposed him to be.

Paul’s life was a testimony to the gospel that he preached, so knowing something about his life helps us have a fuller and richer grasp of his message. In this article we will look at what may be said about Paul’s life before his conversion. In my book, The Life and Theology of Paul, I give special attention to Paul’s call and conversion.

We have no biography of Paul, whether from his own hand or from someone else’s. Paul’s thirteen letters and Luke’s account of the early church (Acts), however, give us a window into Paul’s pre-Christian life. The details in Acts and Paul’s letters provide the necessary context for coming to a fuller appreciation of the ministry and message of the Apostle, since many of these details have relevance for our understanding of Paul’s Christian life and Apostolic ministry. Here are a few things we know about Paul.

1. Paul was marked by “weakness.”

The New Testament does not provide a physical description of Paul. It does, however, include an indirect comment from his opponents: “For they say, ‘His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account’” (2 Cor. 10:10). Based on this caricature, Paul does not seem to have been a physically imposing person, and his rhetorical abilities were not well regarded by his opponents. An early but apocryphal second-century description of Paul describes the Apostle as “a man of little stature, thin-haired upon the head, crooked in the legs, of good state in the body, with eyebrows joining and nose somewhat hooked, full of grace.”¹

We do know that Paul undertook his Apostolic ministry in physical infirmity. He appears to have suffered some illness or debilitation when he preached in Galatia (Gal. 4:13). His listing of sufferings for Christ in 2 Corinthians 11:23–29 includes lashings, beatings, and being stoned. His body would surely have borne the marks of this brutal treatment (see Gal. 6:17). No assessment of Paul’s ministry, then, may attribute its success to the Apostle’s outward appearance. But Paul did not regard this factor as disqualifying him from his Apostolic ministry. On the contrary, he said such “weakness” was a mark of his ministry (see 2 Cor. 10:1–12:21).

2. Paul was also called Saul.

Attentive readers of the New Testament observe that early in the narrative of Acts, Luke consistently references the Apostle as “Saul.” Beginning in Acts 13:9, Luke consistently references him as “Paul.”² Why the change in name?

The change is not because “Saul” was Paul’s pre-Christian name and “Paul” was his Christian name, as is commonly thought. For a significant portion of Paul’s early Christian life, Luke refers to the Apostle as “Saul.” Luke gives us a clue concerning the shift, rather, in Acts 13:9 (“But Saul, who was also called Paul”). Paul had both a Jewish name (Saul), and a Roman name (Paul). Paul’s Jewish name reflects his descent from the tribe of Benjamin (Phil. 3:5), whose most famous son was King Saul. The name “Paul” was one of three names that he would have received under Roman naming conventions; the other two are lost to history. “Paul” was his cognomen, or personal name.³ The occasion when Paul began to use his Roman name with consistency was a crucial one. It marked the beginnings of the Apostle’s labors among largely gentile populations. In the providence of God, Paul was a man whose names facilitated his ease of movement in both Jewish and gentile circles.

3. Paul was a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin.

In Philippians 3:5, Paul remarks that he was “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.” That Paul was circumcised on the eighth day according to the Mosaic law (see Gen. 17:12) tells us at least that his father was an observant Jew. That he was likely named for King Saul suggests his father’s embrace of his own heritage as an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin. That Paul describes himself as “a Hebrew of Hebrews” tells us that Paul himself embraced his Jewish upbringing and did so with enthusiasm. For all the cultural pressures either to apostasy or to syncretism, Paul consciously remained an observant Jew.

We have already seen indications that Paul’s father was observant of the Mosaic law. We may presume that the family was faithful to worship regularly at their local synagogue and to travel regularly to Jerusalem in order to worship at the annual feasts that the Mosaic law required old covenant believers to attend. However, we do not have many specific details about Paul’s family members. We do know that Paul’s father was a Roman citizen, since Paul was born a Roman citizen and did not acquire his citizenship later in life. We do not know, however, under what circumstances or when Paul’s father came by that citizenship. In Acts 23:16 we learn that Paul had a nephew (“the son of Paul’s sister”) who presumably resided in Jerusalem. Paul, then, had at least one sibling and appears to have been on cordial terms with her.

4. Paul was single during his ministry.

Nowhere in his correspondence does Paul mention a wife or children of his own. At the time that he wrote 1 Corinthians, he was single, and that by God’s calling (1 Cor. 7:6–7).⁴ It is possible that Paul was a widower, but his marital history remains a matter of speculation.

5. Paul was a Roman citizen.

He appeals to his citizenship twice in the course of his Apostolic ministry (Acts 16:37; 22:28). In both cases, Paul invoked his citizenship because Roman officials were depriving him of rights that were his by Roman law. On another occasion, Paul invoked his right as a citizen to have his legal case transferred from the governor, Agrippa, to Emperor Nero (Acts 25:11). This transfer, Luke suggests, likely saved Paul’s life (Acts 25:3). In each instance, Paul used his citizenship to prolong his Apostolic preaching ministry and to extend its sphere.

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