Hatred of the Christians now ruled men's minds, and a charge of treason, from

which there would be no hope of acquittal, would be laid against the apostle.

Somewhere outside the city walls, along the Via Ostiensis, where now

stands the church of San Paolo fuori le mura, the apostle was led forth from

his dungeon to execution.  In the days of the Republic this would have been

effected by the lictor's axe, but under Nero, it was accomplished by the

sword.  It is not for us to follow the traditions of men as to what became of

Paul's body after his death.  He had finished his course, he had kept the

faith, he was assured that there awaited him `at that day' a crown.  We can

rejoice that what seemed most like defeat, was victory.  He was `more than

conqueror' through Christ Who loved him.

The apostle has referred to his early days, how that he was a Pharisee,

and a zealot for the traditions of his fathers, and these terms should be

understood if we are to possess a true portrait of this apostle of grace.

His entry into the pages of Scripture is not at his conversion but at the

stoning of Stephen.

The infuriated Jews who stoned Stephen for his faithfulness found a

champion for their traditions in the young man, Saul of Tarsus:

`The witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose

name was Saul.  And they stoned Stephen ... And Saul was consenting

unto his death' (Acts 7:58 to 8:1).

What sort of man was this who would consent to the death of such a

saint?  The secret of his blind cruelty was `a zeal for God, but not

according to knowledge'.  Many of the Pharisees knew that Jesus was the

Christ.  They

had said, `this is the heir, come, let us kill him'.  Paul, however, tells us

that what he did, he did `ignorantly and in unbelief ` (1 Tim. 1:13).

To the English reader, separated by centuries from the period of the

Gospels, the term `Pharisee' has taken upon itself a colouring more or less

traditional.  All Pharisees were not alike, however, even as all Scribes or

all Priests were not alike in their zeal or character.  The Talmud tells us

of seven classes of Pharisees.  It speaks of the Shechemite Pharisee, who

obeyed for self -interest; the tumbling Pharisee (nifki), who paraded

humility; the bleeding Pharisee (kinai), who, rather than risk outraging his

modesty by seeing a woman, risked a broken skull by walking with his eyes

shut; the mortar Pharisee (medukia), who covered his eyes, as with mortar,

for similar reasons; the timid Pharisee, who was actuated by motives of fear;

the tell -me -another -duty -and -I -will -do -it Pharisee; and the seventh

class, the Pharisee from love.  Saul of Tarsus was of the sixth order

enumerated above, for in Galatians 1:14 we read:

`I was going ahead (a metaphor taken from a ship at sea), in Judaism

above many of my contemporaries in mine own nation, being more

vehemently a zealot for the traditions handed down from my fathers'.

The choice of the word zelotes confirms this.  The Zelotai were a sect

which professed great attachment to the Jewish institutions, and undertook to

punish, without trial, those guilty of violating them.  It was this bigoted

or fanatical temper which moved the young man Saul to associate with the