Read: Acts 9:1-27
The first mention of Saul is in Acts 7:58, at the close of the story of the death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. We are told that when the witnesses who had given testimony against Stephen were about to cast the first stone at the condemned man, they “laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.” It is further said of him that he was consenting to Stephen’s death, or taking pleasure in it. Although Saul was called a young man, he was probably a member of the Sanhedrin, Acts 26:10, and so must have been above thirty. Men were called young in those days till forty or forty-five.
Young as he was, Saul was full of zeal for the Jewish church, in which he had been trained. Earnestly believing that the followers of Christ were making a mistake, he became a chief agent in persecuting those who were known as Christians. Having received authority from the rulers, he searched far and near for the deluded people. Entering into every house, he dragged out men and women, committing them to prison.
It was perhaps after he had been engaged in the work of persecution for several months that he went to the high priest and asked for letters to the rulers of the synagogues of Damascus, authorizing him to search there for Christians and bring them away. As there were perhaps thirty or forty synagogues and not less than forty thousand Jews in Damascus, he thought he would have abundant opportunity to serve God there, by discovering those who had become adherents of “the way,” as the Christians were described. The Christians still worshipped in the synagogues. The men and women whom he discovered were to be taken to Jerusalem to be tried before the Sanhedrin, which alone could pronounce the death sentence.
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