Who Was Saul, Before He Was Paul?
Small of stature, slender and all nerves, Saul at ten years of age showed a lively disposition for a study of the Sacred Books. A Jewish boy, educated according to the prevailing system for intellectual discipline, usually began to read the Sacred Scriptures at five years of age. At ten he studied the Law; at thirteen the Commandments. At fifteen the wisdom of the Rabbis was unfolded to him; at eighteen it was the custom to marry. Saul, not yet having reached this marriageable age, his father, a loyal Roman as well as a most devoted Hebrew, resolved to send his son from Tarsus to Jerusalem. Here, at the great Temple, the Law was explained and interpreted to Jewish youth by the most famous Rabbis of the time. At Jerusalem and at the Temple the ancient moral laws were less influenced by the current Greek thought which was speculative and compromising. The Jewish community at Tarsus, situated on the shores of the river Cydnus, maintained very good schools at or near the Synagogue. However
