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"I was going ahead (a metaphor taken from a ship at sea), in Judaism above many of
my co-temporaries in mine own nation, being more vehemently a zealot for the traditions
handed down from my fathers."
The choice of the word zelőtes confirms this. The Zelőtai were a sect which possessed
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 murderers of Stephen, and to personally conduct a
campaign, with the idea of exterminating the heresy of the Nazarenes. Such was the
character of the "chosen vessel" who was destined, by grace, to shake traditionalism and
legalism to their fall, and to stand alone with God, preaching "the faith which once he
destroyed" (Gal. 1: 23).
To stay here, however, would be but to give a one-sided view of the character of Saul
of Tarsus. Writing by inspiration of God, in the full light of his acceptance in the
Beloved, he says concerning his past, "Touching the righteousness which is in the law,
blameless" (Phil. 3: 6).
According to the teaching of the rabbis, there were 248 commands and 365
prohibitions of the Mosaic law, which formed part of the "Hedge of the law." These laws
and prohibitions, without exception, in letter as well as spirit, and with the almost infinite
number of inferences which were deducted from such laws, were to be obeyed. This was
the blameless righteousness of the law. The belief was current that if only one person
could attain unto this perfection for but one day, the Messiah would come, and the glory
of Israel be ensured. This hope then, together with a nature which must spend and be
spent upon that to which for time being the possessor is attached, was the force which
actuated Saul of Tarsus, and through him breathed out threatenings and slaughter.
In eight separate passages does Scripture refer to the terrible persecutions with which
Saul of Tarsus was prominently associated. It is written, "He made havoc of the church."
The word used here is that used in the LXX of Psalm 80: 13 of the uprooting by wild
boars. He dragged men and women to judgment and prison; he devastated in Jerusalem
those that called upon the name of Jesus. In the epistle to the Galatians the apostle tells
us how he persecuted the early saints beyond measure. To the Corinthians (I Cor. 15: 9),
and to the Philippians (Phil. 3: 6), he recounts with sorrow how he persecuted the
church. To the day of his death he never forgot that grace which had changed a
blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious bigot (I Tim. 1: 13), the very chief of sinners, into
the chiefest of the apostles. Truly, he "persecuted this way unto the death" (Acts 22: 4).
How fully he was permitted to enter into the sufferings and afflictions of the faith the
Scriptures amply testify. Alone, forsaken by all earthly friends, he was permitted to drain
to the dregs the bitter cup of religious persecution. Stoned and left for dead, beaten with
rods on five occasions by the order of some ruler of the synagogue, imprisoned, betrayed,
suffering the anguish of hunger, thirst, nakedness, shipwreck, and finally martyrdom, he
fulfilled the opening words of his commission, "I will show him how great things he must
suffer for My name's sake" (Acts 9: 16).