the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Paul
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or The apostle. His name at the first was Saul; but, as is generally supposed, after his being made an instrument in the hand of God for the conversion of Sergius Paulus, the deputy of Paphos, (see Acts 13:7) he was called Paul. Some have indeed supposed that the change of name was made at his own conversion; but this doth not seem likely, as so long a space had taken place between that period and the time of Sergius Paulus's conversion, during all which the Holy Ghost still called him Saul. His own conversion was about the year of our Lord God 35; whereas the conversion of the deputy of Paphos did not happen until the year 45. See particularly Acts 13:2; where God the Holy Ghost called our apostle by name, Saul; and the manner of expression in which the name of Paul is first spoken of in the Scriptures, seems to imply that it was then only given to him, for afterwards we hear no more of the name of Saul. (See Acts 13:9) And some have gone so far as to say, that the Deputy himself called Paul by this name, as giving him one of his own names in token of his love for him, as Vespasian the emperor, it is well known, called Josephus Flavius, his own name, out of regard.
Concerning this great apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, it would form a place more suited for the separate volume of an history, than as an article of a mere explanatory memorandum in a Concordance, to enter into a detail of Paul's life and ministry. Pleasing as the subject in itself would be, I must suppress the gratification. Indeed a reference to the sacred word of God is much more suited for the obtaining information of Paul's history, because while attending to the memoirs of the apostle we may also gather instruction from his doctrine. It will answer all the purpose to be wished for, by way of information, concerning Paul, in a work of this kind, just to observe that from his conversion to his martyrdom we find in the apostle's history one uniform invariable course of faith and practice in the path of the gospel. And those fourteen blessed Epistles which God the Holy Ghost hath given to the church by him, will render his memory blessed to the latest ages. It should seem, from calculating the periods of Paul's life and ministry, that he was born about two years before Christ's incarnation, and suffered martyrdom under, the emperor Nero in the year 66.
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Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Paul'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/p/paul.html. London. 1828.
