The life and work of St. Paul

BOYHOOD IN A HEATHEN CUT. 9
Jerome, 1 that the Apostle was born at Giscala, 2 and had been taken to
Tarsus by his parents when they left their native city, in consequence of
its devastation by the Romans. The assertion is indeed discredited because
it is mixed up with what appears to be a flagrant anachronism as to the
date at which Giscala was destroyed.* It is, however, worthy of attention.
St. Jerome, from his thorough familiarity with the Holy Land, in which
he spent so many years of his life, has preserved for us several authentic
fragments of tradition, and we may feel sure that he would not arbitrarily
have set aside a general belief founded upon a distinct statement in the
Acts of the Apostles. If in this matter pure invention had been at work,
it is almost inconceivable that any one should have singled out for distinc-
tion so insignificant a spot as Giscala, which is not once mentioned in the
Bible, and which acquired its solo notoriety from its connexion with the
zealot Judas. 4 We may, therefore, fairly assume that the tradition mentioned
by St. Jerome is so far true that the parents or grand-parents of St. Paul
had been Galilaeans, and had, from some cause or other though it cannot
have been the cause which the tradition assigned been compelled to migrate
from Giscala to the busy capital of Pagan Cilicia.
If this be the case, it helps, as St. Jerome himself points out, to explain
another difficulty. St. Paul, on every possible occasion, assumes and glories
in the title not only of "an Israelite," 6 which may be regarded as a "name
of honour," but also of "a Hebrew" "a Hebrew of the Hebrews." 8
Now certainly, in its proper and technical sense, the word " Hebrew " is
the direct opposite of " Hellenist/' 7 and St. Paul, if brought up at Tarsus,
could only strictly be regarded as a Jew of the Dispersion a Jew of that
vast body who, even when they were not ignorant of Hebrew as even the
most learned of them sometimes were still spoke Greek as their native
tongue. 8 It may, of course, be said that St. Paul uses the word Hebrew
only in its general sense, and that he meant to imply by it that he was not
a Hellenist to the same extent that, for instance, even so learned and
eminent a Jew as Philo was, who, with all his great ability, did not know
1 Jer. de Virit Ittuttr. 5
"
: De tribu Benjamin et oppido Judaeae Giscalis fuit, quo
It has been again
a Komanis capto, com parcntibus suis Tarsum Ciliciae commigravit. "
and again asserted that St. Jerome rejects or discredits this tradition in his Commentary
on Philemon (Opp. iv. 454), where he says that some understood the term "my fellowprisoner
" to mean that Epaphras had been taken captive at Giscala at the same time
as Paul, and had been settled hi Colossse. Even Neander (Planting, p. 79) follows this
current error, on the ground that Jerome says, " Quis sit Epaphras concaptivus Pauli
talem fabulam accepimus." But that/o&w/o does not here mean " fake account," as he
translates it, is sufficiently proved by the fact that St. Jerome continues, " Quod si ita
KST, possumus et Epaphram illo tempore captum suspicari, quo captus est Paulus," &c.
2
Giscala, now El-Jish, was the last place in Galilee that held out against the Romans.
(Jos. B. J. ii. 20, 6 ; iv. 2, 15.)
8 It was taken A.D. 67.
4 Jos. B. J. ii. 21, 1 ; Vit. 10. He calls It noXfcv.,.
5 John i. 47 ; Acts xiiL 16 ; Rom. ix. 4.
2 Cor. ri. 22 ; Phil. iii. 5. ^ See Ads vi 1, and infra, p. 71.
" Parentum conditionem adolescentulum Paulum secutum, et sic posse stare illud,
quod de se ipso testatur, 'Hebraei sunt? et ego,' etc., quae ilium Judaeum magia
indicant, quam Tarsensem" (Jer.).
a