S4E6: Why did Saul change his name to Paul?

Steve Walton and Tony Watkins discuss why Saul changed to Paul in the book of Acts. In the book of Acts, the apostle Paul is referred to as Saul up until chapter 13, where he begins to be referred to as Paul. Steve explains how names worked in the Roman world to shed light on this name change. He also shares about some of the research he has done in the book of Acts over several years.

Further reading:

Steve Walton, 2023, Why was “Saul” changed to “Paul”? www.logos.com/grow/hall-saul-to-paul/

Edited by Tyndale House 

Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to another

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episode of the Tyndale House podcast in our series on names.

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And in this episode, I'm delighted to be joined by Dr Steve Walton

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to talk about names in the New Testament, specifically in the book of Acts.

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Hi, Steve. Welcome. Thank you for joining us.

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Thank you. It's good to be here.

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You're a very regular visitor to Tyndale House.

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Why do you keep coming here?

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And what are you doing here?

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I first came here in 1977.

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T: That's quite a long time ago S: when I was an undergraduate,

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but I keep coming

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because I'm working on a big, long term project on the book of Acts.

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So I'm writing a major commentary for the Word Biblical Commentary,

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and that's why I keep coming,

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because you have lots of books here and they’re

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the books I need to read, and especially you've got everything,

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particularly in French and German,

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which are not generally easily accessible.

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Okay. Right.

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So where are you the rest of the time?

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Where are you based? What do you do?

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Home is Loughborough.

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I, my wife and I belong to Emmanuel Church in Loughborough,

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where she's Associate Rector and I work two days a week

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for Trinity College, Bristol, as a supervisor of doctoral students.

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So I've got about nine at the moment

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who I'm working with

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and I’m not physically in Bristol very often,

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but I don't need to be because my doctoral students are dotted all over the world.

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and we can talk on the internet.

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Yeah. Yeah. Great.

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How long have you been working on Acts?

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Well, my

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I started thinking about Acts in 1977,

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My first term at Cambridge,

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Charlie Moule set me an essay on the major theological themes of Luke.

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And that got me into considering

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how Luke and Acts go together and specifically, it got me into a debate

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about how far the portrait of Paul in Acts is

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like the portrait of Paul in the letters.

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And that was what ultimately led to my PhD project in the,

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in the 90s . . . 80s and 90s.

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And then I got asked to write a commentary.

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S: So I guess the answer is a long time T: Right

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But you've not been working on Acts the whole of that that time.

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No, no, I've written a textbook on the Gospels and Acts with David

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Wenham. I dipped my toe in the water of

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Paul, occasionally. If you work in Acts, you end up in the Gospels via Luke

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and you end up in Paul

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S: inevitably. T: Yeah.

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So I range across the New Testament because of the focus on Acts.

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And where are you in that project for writing the Word Biblical Commentary?

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You'll be seeing the first volume on Acts 1—9 in October.

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Great

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And I'm in the middle of chapter

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16 at the moment, so I'm in Philippi.

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Very good.

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And dealing with the the events that go on in Philippi

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with Lydia, the, the girl who's possessed by a demon.

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And and then Paul and Silas being thrown into prison.

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So that's where I am at this very moment.

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Great. Is it going to be two volumes or three?

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Three, I'm afraid three.

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We were planning two

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but it then became too long

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when when you said you were, volume one was 1 to 9, I was wondering.

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Yeah.

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Yeah. Okay. Where will the next break come?

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S: After 19. T: Okay. Right.

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Yeah. That makes sense.

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Yeah.

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What have been the highlights of of working on that for you?

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I think it's been a growing understanding of

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how Acts is a narrative driven by God and God's action.

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And seeing that in place after place after place in the book of Acts.

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Now, I'm far from the first to notice this.

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My friend Beverley Gaventa’s little commentary on Acts sees this brilliantly.

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She and I had noticed it independently

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and then met at a conference and said, oh, I thought I was the only one.

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Which was kind of nice.

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But that discovery, I think, has been really significant

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because some people think Acts is a book about the Holy Spirit,

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but there's actually almost no mention of the Spirit in the last 25% of Acts.

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From 21 to 28.

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S: It's really, really striking T: Right

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S: So it’s . . . T: That's interesting.

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I've, I've, because I've heard it said so many times and I've said myself many times

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that we should talk about it as the Acts of the Holy Spirit

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not the acts of the apostles, but actually

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so you're you're saying, well, I think God's a bit bigger than that.

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Yeah, I'd say it's the acts of God.

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Yeah. Right. Okay.

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Yeah. That's good, I like that. Yeah, yeah.

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Very good, very good.

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We want to talk about names, particularly as we are doing in this,

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this series of podcast episodes.

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There's a lot of people mentioned in Acts from all sorts of backgrounds.

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So there's, there's a whole range of, of names that we encounter.

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What are some of the different backgrounds,

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language groups, kinds of names that that we encounter in Acts?

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Let me, let me give you two examples.

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One is Tabitha in Acts 9 who

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dies and Peter then goes and prays and she's raised from the dead.

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She's also called Dorcas.

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And Tabitha is a good Hebrew name.

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Dorcas is a Greek name.

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The two words both mean gazelle.

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Right now, that's suggests she's somebody who's known in

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both the Hebrew speaking, Aramaic

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speaking and Greek speaking communities.

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So she's known by those two names.

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So, so she's somebody who crosses boundaries.

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Which makes sense because Western Palestine on the coast

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was a multicultural area,

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and there were a good number of Romans around there.

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Who, who would, would

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have used the Greek name for her.

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S: A second one is Simon Peter, T: Right.

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Who in, in Aramaic is called Cephas.

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Yeah.

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And he's called that in Acts 15.

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When you have the major meeting at Jerusalem to decide

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about the admission of Gentiles. Yeah.

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And that means rock. Yeah.

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Jesus has called him Petros.

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Right.

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In Greek, which comes from the word Petra, which means rock.

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So he's got this, this nickname.

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But of course, in the gospel, he proves to be far from a rock.

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But in Acts, he's learned the lesson, and

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and he becomes the rock that Jesus has said he’ll be.

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Yes. Right. Yeah, yeah.

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So is Acts 15

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the only place he’s called Cephas?

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He's called that in Galatians as well.

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Okay.

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So he's called Cephas in, in Acts, in Galatians 2.

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Yeah.

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When, when Paul visits Jerusalem. Yeah.

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And they have a bit of a

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is that when

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T: Paul and Peter are having a contretemps in Galatia?

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No, well, the first bit of Galatians

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2:1–10, there's the agreement that,

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the Jewish believers based in Jerusalem will focus on Jewish mission,

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and Paul and Silas will focus on Gentile mission.

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Yeah, but then they have the bust up

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in Antioch in 2:11 onwards.

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Right.

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Because Peter, gives way to the, the group who want to separate

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from Gentile believers and to eat separately.

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Yes, because they want to keep Jewish kosher.

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T: Yeah. S: Over their food. T: Right.

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And so those are the only places where his Aramaic version....?

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S: Yes. T: Yeah. Interesting. S: Yeah.

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And and they're both places where there's a major Jewish issue at stake.

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Do we need to circumcise men who become believers?

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Do we need to keep Jewish food laws?

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Yeah.

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So do you think it would not have worked for

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Luke in Acts 15 and, Paul in Galatians

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to have used the Greek Petros rather than Cephas?

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S: I think we . . . T: Would people not have got the point?

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Well, the meaning would have still been clear,

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but it does rather suggest that the conversations that were going on

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Yeah.

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Tended to focus on his Jewish identity.

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Okay, right.

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because that was where the debate was.

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Yeah.

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That's very interesting.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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One of the major characters in Acts of course

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most people who've read Acts will have noticed that Paul comes up

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T: quite a few times, but when we meet him, he’s Saul S: Yes.

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And some people make a very big deal over

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the fact that from Acts 13 onwards,

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once he's been to,

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Cyprus and and encountered the proconsul Sergius Paulus,

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that from that point on, he's referred to as Paul, and therefore Paul,

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Saul has changed his name and it signifies something deep and meaningful

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which I've never been entirely convinced by.

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But I had no good reasons for that.

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And and then I came across something that you’d written

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Yeah.

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which gave some, some quite solid reasons why

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S: Yeah. T: that’s not a good

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T: reading S: Well, let's T: so tell us about this.

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Well, let's start with Roman names because because that's the key to this,

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names are really significant in the ancient world.

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And, we've seen examples of people with double names

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and there are quite a number around.

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We've got evidence from at least the second century B.C.

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of people with these double names.

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And we still use them today.

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Edson Arantes

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do Nascimento is better known as Pele.

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Okay. Yeah.

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So we still we still do that too.

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So are you talking about somebody who has a given name and a nickname

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T: or . . . S: Well, more than that, because a typical Roman would have three names

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They'd have a praenomen.

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And they were often taken from a very limited list

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there were only 18, in the late Roman Republic.

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So they're often abbreviated to just the letter M means Marcus G means Gaius.

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Right.

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Then you get,

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the cognomen,

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which was the name by which people were known. Slaves

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who became citizens would often adopt that name from their master.

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I see, right

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so as a slave they’d have just had one name.

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Right.

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But when they became a citizen, they'd acquire the other

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two names, which they generally took from their liberator.

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And then you got a third

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name, which is the family name, that you receive at birth.

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So, so in my case, that would be Walton.

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That's my family name. Now that,

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that set of three names is interesting.

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We only know Paul's cognomen.

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S: Paulos, T: Right, right.

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We don't know the other two, and we wish we did.

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T:Okay, S: but T: So just, sorry can I just just go back to the three,

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the three part names.

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So there's a,

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I've mentioned Sergius Paulus already.

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Yeah.

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So it seems he comes from the Antioch of Pisidia

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T: area, where there's an inscription to an L. Sergius Paulus S: Yes

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T: So the ‘L’ is this S: Lucius.

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Lucius, abbreviated one of these limited number of

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first names, and then he's got Sergius and Paulus

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is the family name?

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So Sergius is the family name. T: Oh Sergius is the

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Okay. Right, right.

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And Paulus is his, 

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Is the name by which he's known. Yeah.

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S: So his mum would call him Paulos T: Right. Okay. Yeah.

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Now, what

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happened with Jewish people was they often had a fourth name,

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which is called the signum or the supernomen.

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And that fourth name would be the name by which they were known within the family.

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S: Now it's, it's to do T: So  this is somebody who's a Roman,

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a Jewish person who’s a Roman citizen like Paul.

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Yeah. Right.

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And it's likely, therefore, that his family name was Saul.

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Interestingly, there are two spellings of it in the New Testament.

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There's Saoul, which is the letter by letter transcription

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from the Hebrew name of King Saul in the Old Testament.

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Yeah.

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And there’s Saulos which is the Greek form of the name,

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he's only called Saoul by Jesus in the appearance on the Damascus road.

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Saoul, Saoul, why are you persecuting me?

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So that suggests Jesus speaks to him in Aramaic or Hebrew.

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Right

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Whereas the rest of the time

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He's known as Saulos

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However, Saulos

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isn't, isn't a great name sometimes,

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because the Greek word for Saulos means effeminate

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S: Or conceited T: Right

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Yeah.

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And so if you were hanging around with Greek speakers,

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you might not want to be known as Saulos because of the connotations

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that went with the name.

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So that might explain,

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There’s a scholar called Leary who wrote an article arguing

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that that might be a factor in the shift to Paulus,

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to using his, his, his Roman name.

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Okay.

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But obviously put over into Greek.

00:14:01:22 - 00:14:02:16
Right.

00:14:02:16 - 00:14:05:16
So and so are you suggesting then that,

00:14:06:16 - 00:14:10:18
Saulos is, is his or Saul is his Jewish name,

00:14:10:24 - 00:14:14:22
but he or his family also has his family name of Paulos. S: Yes.

00:14:15:05 - 00:14:16:12
It's not.

00:14:16:12 - 00:14:21:11
And the the similarity of sound is coincidental?

00:14:21:11 - 00:14:23:19
not coincidentally, but

00:14:23:19 - 00:14:26:06
T: But is S: I mean maybe his his family

00:14:26:06 - 00:14:29:14
chose the name Paolos because of that reason.

00:14:29:23 - 00:14:32:23
But the other thing is that Paolos means small.

00:14:33:06 - 00:14:36:05
Or, as we might say today, shorty.

00:14:36:05 - 00:14:37:16
T: Okay, right S: And maybe

00:14:37:16 - 00:14:39:24
S: he was a very small baby T: Right

00:14:39:24 - 00:14:41:13
When he was born. T: Yeah.

00:14:41:13 - 00:14:45:10
And therefore they said, okay, we'll call him Small, Paulos.

00:14:45:10 - 00:14:46:18
Right.

00:14:46:18 - 00:14:47:07
Which would

00:14:47:07 - 00:14:49:10
which would make a lot of sense. It's,

00:14:51:07 - 00:14:52:02
Saulos.

00:14:52:02 - 00:14:56:13
Saulos, Saoul is widely used among Jews.

00:14:57:15 - 00:15:01:07
We've got a number of uses among Diaspora Jews, T: Right,

00:15:01:14 - 00:15:05:07
in this period of that name in inscriptions.

00:15:06:15 - 00:15:10:17
But Paulos also seems to be pretty common T: right

00:15:11:09 - 00:15:14:10
among the, the Latin, Greek speaking world.

00:15:14:17 - 00:15:16:23
In Latin it would be Paulus.

00:15:16:23 - 00:15:18:10
Okay.

00:15:18:10 - 00:15:21:10
But it seems to be pretty common in that world.

00:15:22:08 - 00:15:25:08
So it's,

00:15:25:14 - 00:15:28:10
it's an example of, it’s,

00:15:28:10 - 00:15:32:01
we've got few examples of Jewish people with the name Paolos.

00:15:32:07 - 00:15:33:04
Right.

00:15:33:04 - 00:15:36:04
But is is quite common among

00:15:36:09 - 00:15:39:06
among ordinary Roman Greek people.

00:15:39:06 - 00:15:40:02
Yeah. Right.

00:15:40:02 - 00:15:44:17
So having, having come from a family in, in Tarsus

00:15:45:16 - 00:15:48:10
in Cilicia,

00:15:48:10 - 00:15:50:06
T: is that right, am I remembering correctly? S: Yeah, yeah.

00:15:50:06 - 00:15:55:02
Yeah so he's, he's not grown up in, in Jerusalem.

00:15:55:02 - 00:16:00:03
So he's growing up as, as a Roman citizen, as a, in a family of Roman citizens.

00:16:00:03 - 00:16:03:05
T: Would it be? But Jewish in that community? S: Well, you see, yeah 

00:16:03:11 - 00:16:07:03
S: He says that he he inherited the citizenship from his father. T: Of course he does, yes.

00:16:07:03 - 00:16:09:12
T: Because he didn't have to buy it. S: Yeah.

00:16:09:12 - 00:16:12:12
When he's talking with the the Tribune in Jerusalem.

00:16:12:12 - 00:16:13:12
Yeah, yeah.

00:16:13:12 - 00:16:15:15
So, so, yes.

00:16:15:15 - 00:16:17:15
He he's inherited it.

00:16:18:17 - 00:16:21:21
And possibly his father got the citizenship

00:16:21:21 - 00:16:24:21
because of services to the Empire,

00:16:25:02 - 00:16:28:19
we got a good number of examples of that happening to people.

00:16:28:19 - 00:16:29:05
Okay.

00:16:29:05 - 00:16:32:00
But the truth is, we don't really know.

00:16:32:00 - 00:16:35:00
S: We don't really know. T: Okay. Right.

00:16:35:06 - 00:16:38:06
So. So it would make sense that

00:16:38:10 - 00:16:41:13
Paul has this, this Roman name

00:16:41:13 - 00:16:45:09
structure of the three names plus his, plus his Jewish name.

00:16:46:24 - 00:16:48:13
It's a shame we don't know the other two names.

00:16:48:13 - 00:16:51:14
Isn't it? That would fill things out a little S: It is, yes

00:16:52:13 - 00:16:53:01
Yeah.

00:16:53:01 - 00:16:55:23
S: Luke just gives us the details we need to have. T: Yes.

00:16:55:23 - 00:16:58:23
T: Fair enough S: Not the ones we wish we had.

00:16:59:05 - 00:17:02:05
He's not the only biblical writer to fall into that trap.

00:17:02:20 - 00:17:03:24
S: Yes. T: Yeah,

00:17:03:24 - 00:17:05:14
Okay. That's very interesting. So.

00:17:05:14 - 00:17:07:23
So when we when we get to Acts chapter 13,

00:17:09:19 - 00:17:10:14
it's,

00:17:10:14 - 00:17:14:21
it's a shift in, there is a shift that's taking place, but it's more

00:17:14:21 - 00:17:19:04
a shift of what's useful for Paul rather than taking on a new name.

00:17:19:04 - 00:17:21:07
And a new identity.

00:17:21:07 - 00:17:24:07
Yeah. And,

00:17:25:07 - 00:17:26:10
Jerome,

00:17:26:10 - 00:17:29:16
the translator of the Latin Vulgate suggested that

00:17:30:00 - 00:17:33:20
the change was because he adopted Sergius Paulos's name.

00:17:34:05 - 00:17:37:08
and I and I greatly doubt that.

00:17:37:10 - 00:17:38:01
Okay.

00:17:38:01 - 00:17:42:12
I think it's much, much more likely he already had the name Paolos.

00:17:43:10 - 00:17:46:12
But you see that coming up a lot in in the commentaries.

00:17:46:12 - 00:17:47:19
Oh, yes. Yes.

00:17:47:19 - 00:17:51:19
And, they there are a number of people who suggest that,

00:17:52:01 - 00:17:55:14
but the probability is that he had both names from childhood.

00:17:55:16 - 00:17:57:14
Right.

00:17:57:14 - 00:18:00:14
Now, more plausibly,

00:18:00:22 - 00:18:03:12
it's to do with the role he's playing in the narrative

00:18:03:12 - 00:18:08:22
and the context in which he is, William Ramsey, suggests that,

00:18:10:09 - 00:18:11:11
when you see Paul in

00:18:11:11 - 00:18:14:23
Jewish contexts, he introduces himself as a Jew from Tarsus,

00:18:15:06 - 00:18:20:03
like in in the midst of the riot in Acts 22 when he speaks.

00:18:21:08 - 00:18:23:08
But elsewhere

00:18:23:08 - 00:18:26:08
in the course of Roman governor in Cyprus,

00:18:26:16 - 00:18:30:07
it would be much more natural to use his Roman name, Paolos.

00:18:31:14 - 00:18:34:17
And so once Paul starts to engage

00:18:34:17 - 00:18:38:24
with Gentile mission, seriously, which he does from Cyprus onwards.

00:18:38:24 - 00:18:43:17
T: Yes, right S: then the Greek name just makes a lot more sense

00:18:44:07 - 00:18:47:07
than being known as a Jew by a Jewish name.

00:18:47:07 - 00:18:50:07
Even though he's clearly proclaiming

00:18:51:00 - 00:18:54:00
S: a message is rooted in Judaism. T: Yes.

00:18:54:21 - 00:18:58:06
Now that, that's an . . . and I think there's some truth in that.

00:18:59:15 - 00:19:02:22
The . . . Barrett

00:19:02:22 - 00:19:06:22
Kingsley Barrett, in his big commentary on Acts, does,

00:19:06:23 - 00:19:11:01
looks the opposite direction to Ramsey, which is backwards from Cyprus

00:19:11:10 - 00:19:16:08
and he notices that in Saul, without exception,

00:19:16:21 - 00:19:20:18
that the use of that name occurs in the Jewish context earlier in Acts.

00:19:21:02 - 00:19:23:07
T: Right. S: So, so it's in Jerusalem.

00:19:23:07 - 00:19:25:23
It's in Damascus among the Jews there.

00:19:27:19 - 00:19:30:15
So it crops up when that's going on.

00:19:30:15 - 00:19:33:00
T: Right S: Barnabas fetches Saul,

00:19:33:00 - 00:19:36:01
T: Yes S: from Tarsus,

00:19:36:04 - 00:19:39:16
from Cilicia to go to be with him in Antioch,

00:19:39:24 - 00:19:42:19
to work with this first ever

00:19:42:19 - 00:19:45:19
Jew plus Gentile believing community.

00:19:46:08 - 00:19:48:13
So he's Saul, Saul, Saul.

00:19:48:13 - 00:19:51:13
But Barrett says, and that makes sense.

00:19:51:22 - 00:19:55:23
T: Yes it does S: And there’s, the Jewish flavour

00:19:56:04 - 00:19:59:04
of that part of Acts is really quite significant.

00:20:00:22 - 00:20:03:20
So so putting the two together,

00:20:03:20 - 00:20:06:20
you've got on the one side

00:20:06:21 - 00:20:11:10
Jewish context known by Jewish name, and it's therefore interesting

00:20:12:00 - 00:20:16:13
that in the Jerusalem meeting in Acts 15, he's call Saul again.

00:20:17:02 - 00:20:17:23
Yeah.

00:20:17:23 - 00:20:20:07
S: He just pops up a Saul. T: Yeah.

00:20:20:07 - 00:20:24:02
And you find yourself thinking, oh, he's been Paul ever since Cyprus.

00:20:24:02 - 00:20:24:09
Yeah.

00:20:24:09 - 00:20:29:01
But now and instead of his name coming first,

00:20:30:03 - 00:20:33:03
it's Barnabas and Saul in chapter 15.

00:20:33:11 - 00:20:36:18
Oh so back to how it how it is where Barnabas fetches him from

00:20:36:19 - 00:20:37:03
Yeah.

00:20:37:03 - 00:20:42:00
T: From Tarsus, oh I’ve never spotted that S: we've had Barnabas and Saul until Cyprus.

00:20:42:05 - 00:20:44:04
And then once we get onto the mainland

00:20:44:04 - 00:20:47:04
and they go to Pisidian Antioch, it's Paul and Barnabas.

00:20:47:11 - 00:20:50:11
So he he has switched to his,

00:20:50:22 - 00:20:53:22
his Roman Greek name.

00:20:54:04 - 00:20:58:09
And and he's become the senior of the two

00:20:58:09 - 00:21:01:19
because the one you name first, right, is the senior person.

00:21:02:10 - 00:21:05:16
So, so that's really interesting because back in so back

00:21:05:16 - 00:21:08:24
in Jerusalem, they still think Barnabas is the senior

00:21:09:10 - 00:21:12:10
and they call Saul by the name Saul

00:21:12:18 - 00:21:15:10
because they don't see Barnabas

00:21:15:10 - 00:21:18:04
and Saul between

00:21:18:04 - 00:21:20:19
well, the community in that part of the world

00:21:20:19 - 00:21:23:17
don't see them from the time they set off from Antioch

00:21:23:17 - 00:21:28:02
until they've been through Cyprus, Pisidian Antioch, all of that area

00:21:28:02 - 00:21:31:05
T: on the first missionary journey, and then come back. S: Yes.

00:21:31:20 - 00:21:32:15
Yeah.

00:21:32:15 - 00:21:36:05
So, so it's a really interesting set of switches.

00:21:36:12 - 00:21:37:04
S: And T: It is

00:21:38:07 - 00:21:41:09
the only bit of contribution Barnabas and Saul make

00:21:41:09 - 00:21:45:19
is to testify to what God's done through them in the journey

00:21:45:19 - 00:21:47:09
they,

00:21:47:09 - 00:21:50:13
they've had in what we call Acts 13 and 14

00:21:50:20 - 00:21:53:24
through the south of modern Turkey, through southern Galatia.

00:21:54:18 - 00:21:58:21
So it's it's in that area that it's been Paul and Barnabas.

00:21:59:10 - 00:22:00:16
But now we're back in Jerusalem.

00:22:00:16 - 00:22:02:05
It's Barnabas and Saul.

00:22:02:05 - 00:22:06:24
So but that's the last time he's called Saul in the book of Acts, apart

00:22:06:24 - 00:22:10:23
from the two reports in Acts 22 and 26

00:22:11:04 - 00:22:14:19
of the Damascus Road story, when he again says,

00:22:15:03 - 00:22:20:01
S: Jesus said to me, Saoul, Saoul, T: Yes, because then he's reporting his story.

00:22:20:01 - 00:22:22:18
He's he's not identifying himself at that point.

00:22:22:18 - 00:22:23:07
Yeah.

00:22:23:07 - 00:22:26:16
Does, this may be an impossible question to answer.

00:22:27:06 - 00:22:31:02
Does Paul become the leader early on?

00:22:31:03 - 00:22:35:07
You know, as soon as they hit the mainland or as soon as they get to Pisidian

00:22:35:07 - 00:22:39:15
Antioch, at any rate, having come from Cyprus and now its Paul

00:22:39:15 - 00:22:43:12
and Barnabas is is Paul the leader to start with?

00:22:45:04 - 00:22:46:05
Because Paul is

00:22:46:05 - 00:22:49:11
already becoming, he’s obviously growing into it,

00:22:49:11 - 00:22:52:11
but has he has he now become

00:22:52:11 - 00:22:55:19
come into the status of being the apostle to the Gentiles,

00:22:56:00 - 00:22:59:00
or is he the leader simply because he's the local boy? He's

00:23:00:02 - 00:23:03:24
T: from . . . relatively speaking, and Barnabas isn't S: Well Cilicia is way

00:23:03:24 - 00:23:07:19
S: over in the east of modern Turkey, T: sure, but it's a lot closer

00:23:07:19 - 00:23:09:02
than Barnabas’s home, isn’t it?

00:23:09:02 - 00:23:11:13
Well, yes. But well, Barnabas comes from Cyprus.

00:23:11:13 - 00:23:12:18
T: Oh of course he does. Yeah. Okay.

00:23:12:18 - 00:23:13:04
Yeah.

00:23:13:04 - 00:23:17:01
So, I mean, they're an interesting pair because I,

00:23:17:20 - 00:23:21:05
I think we owe Paul to Barnabas,

00:23:22:14 - 00:23:26:01
there, there are two incidents where where that happens.

00:23:26:01 - 00:23:30:10
One is in Acts 9 when he gets to Jerusalem for the first time,

00:23:30:21 - 00:23:36:13
and the the apostles are with good reason, highly suspicious of him,

00:23:36:21 - 00:23:40:05
because the last time they met him, he was throwing believers into jail.

00:23:41:12 - 00:23:42:15
And it's Barnabas who

00:23:42:15 - 00:23:45:23
speaks for him and commends him and they receive him.

00:23:46:08 - 00:23:51:15
And then ten years later, it's Barnabas who fetches him to

00:23:51:19 - 00:23:55:20
to Syrian Antioch and gives him the opportunity.

00:23:56:04 - 00:23:59:19
So my guess is that Barnabas has recognized

00:24:00:06 - 00:24:03:21
the gifts that Saul/Paul has

00:24:04:20 - 00:24:06:24
and knows that he can help

00:24:06:24 - 00:24:09:12
the church in Antioch.

00:24:09:12 - 00:24:12:08
And and it's interesting because when they get to Lystra

00:24:12:08 - 00:24:15:08
in Acts 14, which is this pagan city,

00:24:15:13 - 00:24:18:11
and they call Paul and Barnabas

00:24:18:11 - 00:24:21:11
by names of their gods,

00:24:21:11 - 00:24:26:04
they call Paul Hermes, Mercury because he's the speaker.

00:24:26:09 - 00:24:27:00
Right.

00:24:27:00 - 00:24:31:09
And they call Barnabas Zeus, which is actually a much more senior god.

00:24:32:04 - 00:24:35:06
So so Paul’s speaking ability

00:24:36:00 - 00:24:38:13
is the thing that gets recognized.

00:24:38:13 - 00:24:41:04
And I think it's because of the effectiveness

00:24:41:04 - 00:24:45:00
of his speaking and the effectiveness of his evangelism

00:24:45:24 - 00:24:48:15
that he he becomes the senior.

00:24:48:15 - 00:24:48:24
Right

00:24:48:24 - 00:24:52:23
He's the kind of senior church planter, you might say, in our terms.

00:24:52:23 - 00:24:54:24
Yeah.

00:24:54:24 - 00:24:57:21
Is is it possible that Barnabas is

00:24:57:21 - 00:25:01:05
is a little older than Paul and therefore they, they, they give him

00:25:01:18 - 00:25:05:04
because they presumably, they could have chosen another, Greek god

00:25:05:04 - 00:25:09:00
to, to name to, to identify with Barnabas, but they call him Zeus.

00:25:09:06 - 00:25:10:09
Is he,

00:25:10:09 - 00:25:12:18
T: Could that be because he's older than Paul? S: Possibly

00:25:12:18 - 00:25:14:02
So the messenger, Paul’s

00:25:14:02 - 00:25:17:16
the spokesperson that Barnabas is, is, is an older man.

00:25:17:22 - 00:25:20:24
S: It’s certainly possible T: But we have no way of knowing, do we? S: but the trouble is

00:25:20:24 - 00:25:24:16
It's difficult to know I mean Barnabas is a Levite.

00:25:24:18 - 00:25:25:00
Yeah.

00:25:25:00 - 00:25:28:08
And you don't start function as a Levite till you’re 30.

00:25:29:16 - 00:25:33:18
He's got land in Cyprus that he sells in Acts 4.

00:25:33:18 - 00:25:34:07
Yeah.

00:25:34:07 - 00:25:40:01
So it looks as though he's somebody who has inherited

00:25:40:19 - 00:25:43:19
and he has the power to sell.

00:25:43:20 - 00:25:46:20
So that probably puts him as a bit older.

00:25:47:01 - 00:25:52:10
Whereas Saul we know from Galatians 1 is somebody who,

00:25:53:15 - 00:25:56:06
has, has become,

00:25:56:06 - 00:25:59:06
a kind of young Turk.

00:26:00:02 - 00:26:02:12
Turk is probably not the right word to use.

00:26:02:12 - 00:26:03:04
Probably isn't.

00:26:03:04 - 00:26:08:07
But it’s . . . S: but but he's the kind of young, sparky individual.

00:26:08:07 - 00:26:08:20
Yeah.

00:26:08:20 - 00:26:11:20
So probably in his 20s,

00:26:12:04 - 00:26:16:20
which is pretty young to become a significant leader in Judaism.

00:26:16:20 - 00:26:17:06
Yeah.

00:26:17:06 - 00:26:21:17
Now, people live far shorter than we live in those days.

00:26:22:11 - 00:26:24:01
So. So it's not like

00:26:24:01 - 00:26:27:14
somebody who gets a PhD in their 20s and then changes the world.

00:26:28:23 - 00:26:33:20
But but he's the kind of person who is clearly very,

00:26:33:20 - 00:26:37:04
very significant and very, very surprisingly so he says

00:26:37:12 - 00:26:40:20
he says he excelled over all his contemporaries

00:26:40:20 - 00:26:44:03
in Galatians 1, which is really striking about him.

00:26:44:11 - 00:26:48:18
So yes, I think it's possible that Barnabas is the older man.

00:26:50:01 - 00:26:52:20
But, impossible to know for sure.

00:26:52:20 - 00:26:53:19
Yeah.

00:26:53:19 - 00:26:56:19
Anything else to say about about Paul's name?

00:26:56:19 - 00:26:57:11
Paul/Saul

00:26:58:19 - 00:26:59:20
I think

00:26:59:20 - 00:27:02:20
I think we've covered most of the things, the,

00:27:03:11 - 00:27:06:11
the shift of names is something that we do know happens

00:27:07:05 - 00:27:09:10
in Scripture.

00:27:09:10 - 00:27:13:06
So think of Abram, who becomes Abraham.

00:27:13:06 - 00:27:14:02
Yeah.

00:27:14:02 - 00:27:16:23
‘Exalted father’ to ‘father of many.’

00:27:16:23 - 00:27:20:04
And that happens with, with others.

00:27:20:04 - 00:27:23:04
Jacob, ‘heel grasper’

00:27:23:07 - 00:27:26:13
becomes ‘the one who fights with God.’

00:27:26:13 - 00:27:28:03
Israel.

00:27:28:03 - 00:27:31:23
And you can see the ‘el’ which is the name of God in that.

00:27:32:06 - 00:27:36:24
So, so that that sort of double naming is, is interesting.

00:27:37:00 - 00:27:40:00
but it doesn't look as though,

00:27:41:03 - 00:27:43:22
Saul is given the name Paul,

00:27:43:22 - 00:27:47:17
I think I think it's highly likely he’d had it from birth

00:27:49:04 - 00:27:52:04
like Tabitha,

00:27:52:08 - 00:27:55:09
or Simeon Niger in Acts 13:1.

00:27:57:01 - 00:28:00:01
Niger means black

00:28:00:09 - 00:28:02:10
So Simeon

00:28:02:10 - 00:28:05:24
is is almost certainly an African of some kind.

00:28:07:13 - 00:28:10:04
Racism of the kind we know today

00:28:10:04 - 00:28:13:04
didn't exist in the ancient world,

00:28:13:23 - 00:28:16:19
based on skin colour and,

00:28:16:19 - 00:28:19:19
black people were considered exotic,

00:28:19:20 - 00:28:23:00
but not looked down on because of their skin colour.

00:28:24:02 - 00:28:27:00
Which is really interesting. So,

00:28:27:00 - 00:28:30:00
one of the, one of the authors speaks of,

00:28:30:03 - 00:28:34:23
blameless Ethiopians, for instance, so that they can be

00:28:34:23 - 00:28:39:15
thought of quite highly, so those kind of double names are around.

00:28:40:13 - 00:28:44:10
But in Paul's case, I think the, the change,

00:28:44:10 - 00:28:49:11
the change of name is about facilitating his evangelism.

00:28:49:20 - 00:28:52:20
And that sounds to me like 1 Corinthians 9.

00:28:53:01 - 00:28:57:04
To the Jews I became as a Jew, to the Gentiles I became as a Gentile.

00:28:57:04 - 00:29:00:05
that I think that's the driver.

00:29:00:15 - 00:29:06:10
Because for Paul, the thing that matters most to him more than anything else is

00:29:06:10 - 00:29:10:13
that people hear and respond to the gospel and come to know God through Christ.

00:29:10:20 - 00:29:13:18
S: That's the driver of his life. T: Yeah.

00:29:13:18 - 00:29:16:14
And that's the focus of what he wants to do.

00:29:16:14 - 00:29:17:04
Excellent.

00:29:17:04 - 00:29:19:14
I think that's a great point to leave it, Steve, thank you so much.

00:29:19:14 - 00:29:21:17
T: That's been fascinating. S: That’s okay. Thank you.