Hi.
Where was Paul born, and where did he grow up?
The Dutch Bible scholar Peter van ‘t Riet, author of Paul, a Hellenistic Jew? A book about Paul, aka Saul. However, what we know of Paul is from the epistles of Paul himself or from the writings of Luke. Peter van ‘t Riet wrote in chapter two of his book: Perhaps more important than the question of when Paul was born is the question of where he was born and educated. His letters contain no information of this whatsoever. The one mention that can perhaps be of some service to us is Luke’s statement that Paul was born in the city of Tarsus in Cilicia on the south coast of Asia Minor (Acts 9:11; 21:39; 22:3). Therefore, it is assumed generally that Paul first saw the light of day there.
But now we should also take into account Luke’s midrash motive for the name of this place. After all, the name ‘Tarsus’ (Greek: Tarsos) looks exactly like the place-name ‘Tarsis’ (Hebrew: Tarshish). This is the name of Tartessos in Spain, which the prophet Jonah tried to escape to in order to evade his task as an “apostle for the pagans” in Nineveh (Jonah 1:3). Some Jewish authors from the 1st century CE indeed identified the Spanish Tarsis (Tartessos) of the book of Jonah with Tarsus in Cilicia.
So Luke could have used the Cilician Tarsus for a Jonah midrash about Paul. Now Paul also gets, when called in the Acts—just like Jonah—an assignment aimed at the nations (22:14, 21). Moreover, the story in Acts 27 of the storm at sea is a typical Jonah story (compare Acts 27:14-44 with Jonah 1). In addition, Luke says that Paul arrives in Rome, the Nineveh of his days! So he has given Paul the midrash characteristics of the prophet Jonah.
The above means that we can’t derive any certainty with regard to Tarsus being Paul’s place of birth. https://www.amazon.com/dp/9076783543 Ch. 2.2. Highlights are mine.
Did Luke get his information on Paul from the story of Jonah? And the sources are from the ancient pagan and church fathers, authors such as Jerome and even Luke in the Acts of the Apostles. Who says Paul was a Greek, and the truth is that Paul came from a Greek pagan family who came from Gischala (today Jish), in Upper Galilee, on the Israel-Syrian border. One has to remember that Paul was a boaster and liar, and all the epistles attributed to Paul were all written in Greek.
What do you say about part or all of the discussion?
Coffin.
R&I ~ MJM
Jero Jones
Article URL : https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/discuss/