Historical Background of Paul The Apost

Historical Background of Paul The Apostle
Letter to Philemon
Author – Apostle Paul
1. Family Heritage
Paul was born in Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, a Roman province in about 5 A.D., which is in present day southeast Turkey. Thus, he was born very close to the time that Christ was born. His circumcised name was Saul but it is believed that he was also given the name
“Paul” in his infancy to be used by him when in the Gentile world. In Greek, “Saul” is “Paul” or “Paulos”. It was usual at the time for a newly born to carry two names but in the case here,
Paul was a Roman citizen too. Paul’s father was a member of a strict sect of Jews, a Pharisee, and a member of the tribe of Benjamin, a profession that Paul would follow. Though his father was a Jew and a Roman citizen so that Paul also was a Roman citizen by birth. He was raised in Jewish faith and beliefs and as he, himself, mentioned in his letter to Philippi,
“…If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.” Philippians 3:4-6.

We do not know much about Paul’s mother,1 but one can conclude she was a strict woman molding him to a person of high “righteousness” and to be “blameless”.
2. Educational Background
The city or Tarsus was the place of a famous university that was said to have a higher reputation than universities in Athens, Greece and Alexandria, Egypt.2 Paul had his preliminary education in Tarsus. He then was sent as a teenager to Jerusalem, about 356 miles from Tarsus, to become a student of Jewish law and faith, and learned about the prophets of the Old Testament. He became a pupil of a famous rabbi at the time, Rabbi
Gamaliel I, and he spent many years in the study of the scriptures and living a righteous life without being involved in any vices that may have prevalent in the city.3 He became highly educated in the teachings of the law of the Old Testament and in languages including Greek.
3. Occupational Skills
It was clearly decided that Paul would go to school and college and follow his father’s footsteps as a Pharisee. However, according to Jewish custom, it was important, first, to learn a trade before entering such a sacred profession as a Pharisee. Paul took up the trade of

1

Paul’s own mother later became a Christian convert according to Romans 16:13.
WebBible Encyclopedia, www.christianswers.net/dictionary/paul.html.
3
WebBible Encyclopedia, supra, p. 2.
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tent making where he made goat’s haircloth or mohair from which pieces were sown together to form tents.4 Tent making was a common trade in the city of Tarsus at the time.
4. Cultural Advantages
As indicated above, Saul’s Jewish father was a Roman citizen so that Paul was a freeborn.
This would prove to be useful in his later dealings and confrontations with other Jews,5 particularly after his conversion as a Christian and Apostle for Jesus Christ, when dealing with the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem. Later on, they could not convict him of any “crimes” without, in the final instance, Paul being judged by the Roman judicial authorities and the
Roman emperor.
5. Religious Experiences
After his extensive education in Jerusalem, Saul returned to Tarsus for a while but he was back in Jerusalem after the death and resurrection of Christ. This is when he learned the of the crucifixion, “the Messiah”, and reappearance of Jesus to his disciples and experienced the growing sect of followers called the “Nazarenes”. This must have felt by Saul as an attack on the basic principals of his Jewish faith. Over about a twenty years time, Christianity grew in strength until finally, a Christian deacon in the faith, Stephen, provided a public testimony that Jesus was the Messiah and was the living God, which caused a large controversy in the city synagogues. This developed into the persecution of Stephen as well as other followers of Christ. At this time, Saul was likely a member of the Sanhedrin that had originally, in years back, condemned Jesus to death. Eventually, Stephen was stoned to death outside the city and Saul was present for this killing.6
Saul then took an active part in persecuting the Christians by rounding them up and placing them in prison. However, the faith had spread so far that Christians were scattered into other countries beyond the borders of Judah. This was driven, to a large extent, by the fear of persecution. This event, as well as other events, raised the passion of Saul to go after these
Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem where they would likely stand trail for blasphemy against the Jewish faith. Word was out that many of the Christians took refuge in
Damascus, which was about 130 miles from Jerusalem. Saul was determined to do something about their return to Jerusalem. He received written authority from the high priest of the Sanhedrin and took to the road to Damascus with his group. Just outside that city, the
Lord, Jesus Christ, confronted him and changed his life forever as a convert to Christianity and to be an Apostle of the Gospel and its truth.7 See Fig. 1 below, which is Michelangelo
Bunarroti’s painting of the Conversion of Saint Paul (A.D. 1542). The year was about A.D.
35.8 After the conversion of Paul, he went to Arabia9 for a period of time, undoubted for the study and mediation over the revelation of Jesus Christ and instruction from the Holy Spirit.
4

“Paul the Apostle”, Wikipedia.
Not in a way his father might suspect or desire of him.
6
See Acts 8:54-60 and 9:1.
7
See this incident recorded in Acts 9:3-9.
8
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Chad Brand et al., p. 1256, Holman Reference, 2003
9
Galatians 1:17.
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From A.D. 35-61, Paul performed early missionary travels in Syria and Jerusalem, First
Missionary Journey A.D. 47-48, Second Missionary Journey A.D. 50-52, and Third
Missionary journey A.D. 53-57. Paul was then arrested in Jerusalem and was sent to Rome around A.D. 61 where he was under house arrest. While there, he wrote the Letters to
Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians and Philippians.10

Fig. 1
Paul preached the Gospel beginning around A.D. 35 to about A.D. 67.11 where, from prison, he as taken and beheaded.12 At his death, Paul had written 13 epistles or letters.13

Audience – Colossae, Phrygia
1. Location
As indicated above, Paul writes the Letter to Philemon while he is in Rome during his first imprisonment there. The letter is written to Philemon who was a Christian living in Colossae.
Colossae was a city in Phrygia, a Roman province in Asia Minor and Ephesus was the capital of the province. Colossae was positioned along the bank of the river, Lycus, one of the contributories to the Meander River in what is now Southwest Turkey. Colossae was one of a “Tri-Cities”, with the other two cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis, all in the Lycus Valley.
Colossae was the smallest of the three cities. See the map in Fig. 2 below for details of the region. 14 In the fourth and third centuries B.C., Colossae was known for a dark red or purple wool, know as “Colossian wool”, although at the time of Paul’s Letters to Colossians and
10

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, supra, p.1250-1259.
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, supra, p.1260.
12
“Paul The Apostle”, Wikipedia, p. 7 and WebBible Encyclopedia, supra, p. 11.
13
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, supra, p.1254.
14
Map courtesy of Naomi Walters, Stamford Church of Christ, Stamford, CT, Website: wineskins.org.
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Philemon, this wool product manufacture and its trade was minimal if not extinct.15 Each of these three cites contained a congregation of Christian believers.16 The importance of these three cites is marked by the fact they were close to the cross-section of the major North/South and East/west roads at the time. The East/West road, known as the Persian Royal Road, went from Ephesus in the west to Chaldea (Euphrates) and further to Persia in the east17. The
North/South road was from Jerusalem, Antioch, and Tarsus in the south and from Philippi,
Troas and Ephesus in the north. It is important to note that a terrible earthquake occurred in the Lycus Valley region and the Tri-Cites were destroyed according to various historians of the time, e.g., Historian, Eusebius, who indicated that it occurred in the tenth year of Nero
A.D. 64. The churches were established before the earthquake in these three cities. It is not clear that Colossae completely recovered from the earthquake and in later centuries was abandoned but the cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis were rebuilt.18

Fig. 2
2. The people
Fig. 3 is a representation of what the town of Colossae may have looked like at the time of the first century A.D. Note that there was a wall around the city and had three gates, two gates providing access to the lower part of the city (at 6 and 7 in Fig. 3) and one gate (at 8 in
Fig. 3) providing access to the higher part of the city. As indicated in Fig. 3, gate 6 to the east was the merchant gate, gate 7 to the south was the lower gate to the lower city and gate 8 was the gate to the University section of the town as well as to the upper city. As indicated
15

Introduction to Colossians, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, www.jesuswalk.com/colossians.
Background on Colossians by J. Hampton Keathley III, Th.M. 1966 DTS, www.bible.org, p.4 (July 1, 2004)
(cf. Philemon 2 with Colossians 4:13-16).
17
Introduction to Colossians, Wilson, supra.
18
Religiously Incorrect, Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis – The Tragic earthquake of AD 60, http://religiouslyincorrect.com/Articles/TriCityAreaEarthquake.shtml. 16

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by Keathley19, most of the inhabitants of the city and surrounding area were Gentiles, as suggested by Colossians 1:12, 21, 24 and 27, but there was a fairly large population of Jews living in the area and the wool business had been very attractive to them.20 The upper city was where the wealthy people in the town lived. There is belief that Philemon lived in this upper part of town and the church met in his home.21 The leader of the church in Colossae is believed to be Epaphras and he is believed to have been trained by Paul while he was in
Ephesus for an extended period of time. Epaphras then returned to Colossae to begin a church there22.

Fig. 323
3. Time Written
The time this Letter was written is likely around A.D. 61 to A.D. 63 while Paul was in prison in Rome.24 The letter to Philemon is likely written during the same period of time that
Paul wrote the Letter to the Colossians. It was likely written and received before the earthquake that struck the “Tri-Cities”. See Section 1, Location, above.
4. Social and Spiritual Problems at the Time
As reported by Keathley III, supra, footnote 16, there were different cultural and religious elements mingled together in Colossae, which included many Jews, Romans and also Greeks.
These different cultures affected the understanding of the truth of the Gospel, particularly as it related to human works or asceticism; the Greek philosophy of dualism, which put forth that all matter was evil and only the spirit was good; Judaistic elements of circumcision as related to Jewish traditions, regulations and Jewish festivals; angelic worship; and
19

Keathley III, supra, p. 7.
Background on Colossians, Keathley, p. 4, supra.
21
The Charles F. Stanley Life Principal Bible, p. 1449.
22
Keathley III, supra, p. 7. See also Colossians 4:12: “Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bond slave of
Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.”
23
Courtesy of Denizli Hotel, Denizli, Turkey.
24
The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament, John F. Walvoord et al., Edwin C. Deibler, Book
Editor, Zondervan Publishing House, p. 769 (1983).
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Gnosticism.25 Keathley III reports in his paper at page 10 that this “Colossian heresy was an eclectic blend of Jewish legalism, Greek philosophic speculation, and oriental mysticism combined together with Christian flavor or element”. These concepts from these different cultures were intermingled with the concepts of Gospel truths that distorted their intended and true meaning. In the Letter to Colossians, written in about A.D. 61, Paul refuted these false teachings by teaching what was the truth – the character of God and His salvation for man through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
5. The Purpose of the Letter
The main purpose of the letter to Philemon was to discuss the status of the slave, Onesimus, who escaped from Philemon because he had apparently robbed his master, Philemon, and ended up in Rome. Paul met Onesimus there and led him to accept Christ as his savior. Paul then urged Onesimus to return Colossae and to Philemon. Onesimus returned to Colossae together with Tychicus, a traveling messenger for Paul, carrying Paul’s letter to Philemon.26
Paul encouraged Philemon to make a right decision about Onesimus, a new Christian, because Philemon had the right to put Onesimus to death.27 Paul wanted Philemon not to treat Onesimus with contempt but rather as a brother in Christ.28
One summation of this letter may be summarized as follows: The practice of obedience to
God is a true Christian attribute and in obedience to God, we need to take the right decision or course of action. What is your idea about a summary of this Letter to Philemon? Write your ideas down and be prepared to share them with others.

25

Keathley III, supra, pp. 6, 8-10
The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Supra, p. 769 and The Charles F. Stanley Life Principal Bible, The
Epistle of Paul The Apostle to Philemon, pp.1449-1451
27
The Charles F. Stanley Life Principal Bible, supra – One wonders what Philemon did with Onesimus when he returned. In light of the earthquake that occurred a little later in time, one wonders if either Onesimus or
Philemon survived it.
28
The Bible Knowledge Commentary, supra, Note 2. See Galatians 3:28 cited by this Commentary: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” [Emphasis supplied]
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