We’re going to start the story today some 400 miles away from the Jordan River. The city of Tarsus was a major business center in what is now Turkey and a place where many Jewish families had settled who had fled the harsh Roman rule around Jerusalem. We’re going to start by looking at one particular Jewish family in Tarsus. It was a devout Jewish family. A son in that family would later refer to himself as “of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee.” This son, whose name was Saul, was proud of that heritage, and when he was old enough his family sent him all the way to Jerusalem to study the law, to continue his family’s proud tradition.

Saul’s family must have had some clout because Saul’s teacher was a man called Gamalie…