|
|
| Line 51: |
Line 51: |
| ==What caused the shift in the name?== | | ==What caused the shift in the name?== |
|
| |
|
| Had Paul not been a Roman citizen, it would have been natural to suppose that ‘Paul’ was simply a Gentile name possessed by him from childhood alongside his Jewish name ‘Saul’; for the use of a Gentile name in addition to a Jewish, particularly one more or less like-sounding, was by New Testament times a well-established custom among Hellenistic Jews.
| | Saul is a Hebrew name. His mother probably named him after King Saul. Paul is a Greek name. Why two names? Because of the ethnic melting pot of the first century, many Jewish mothers gave their sons both Hebrew and Greek names at birth. That is probably what happened with Paul. We know that Saul was also known as Paul from Acts 13:9 as follows: |
|
| |
|
| But, since Paul was a Roman citizen, the matter is rather more complicated. It is very probable that he possessed the three names characteristic of a Roman citizen, a praenomen or personal name, a nomen or clan name and a cognomen or family name. It is probable that one of the two names given in Acts 13:9 was one of Paul’s official tria nomina, and the other a signum or supernomen, an unofficial, informal name, additional to the three official names, such as was common at this time in the east.
| | :''Then Saul, who was also called Paul...<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ac 13:9.</ref> |
|
| |
|
| ‘Saul’ in a Latinized form could have been the apostle’s cognomen, and ‘Paulus’ his signum. But it is much more likely that it was the other way round, that ‘Paulus’ was his cognomen and ‘Saul’ in its Semitic form his signum. That in his work as a missionary among the Gentiles he should have preferred to use one of his Roman names is readily understandable.
| | It is interesting to note that Saul used his Hebrew name until he began to do ministry in the part of the world that was mostly populated by Greeks. It was when he started his missionary journeys that he used the name Paul. That would have been a better point of contact between him and the Greeks. It would have helped the Greeks to know that he was not trying to make Jews out of them. That name would also be accepted by the Jews in the Greek-populated world, for most Jews in the Greek-populated world also used their Greek names. |
|
| |
|
| The complete disappearance of two of Paul’s names may seem surprising; but Paul, while ready to insist on his Roman citizenship when to do so might be to the advantage of his mission, is not likely to have emphasized it in his dealings with his fellow Christians, most of whom were of inferior worldly status, and he may well have chosen to use only one of his names in view of the fact that most of his fellow Christians only possessed one name. If only one of the tria nomina was to be used, it would naturally be the cognomen "Paul", since that was the most distinctive.<ref?C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, International Critical Commentary (London; New York: T&T Clark International, 2004), 49–50.</ref> | | The name Paul literally means little. It is possible that his mother named him Paul because he was a small baby. Some writers do describe Paul as a short man. |
|
| |
|
| Acts 13:9 makes it very clear: “But Saul, who was also called Paul, [was] filled with the Holy Spirit.” The Bible says he had both these names. Any assertion by William Branham that God changed his name from Saul to Paul is clearly false.
| | It is also possible that Saul gave himself the Greek name Paul as a self-imposed symbol of his humbleness. He saw himself as the least of the apostles and the chief of sinners (1 Corinthians 15:9; Ephesians 3:8; 1 Timothy 1:15). But those descriptions should not cause us to feel that Paul had an inferiority complex. Quite the contrary. He saw himself as someone who had been especially called by God. He saw himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus.</ref>Knofel Staton, Second Corinthians: Unlocking the Scriptures for You, Standard Bible Studies (Cincinnati, OH: Standard, 1988), 18–19. |
|
| |
|
| =Why It Matters= | | =Why It Matters= |