Day 280: Acts 21:37–22:3

“I am a Jewish man, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and educated according to the strict view of our patriarchal law” (v. 3).

Although Saul’s education in a Pharisee’s home was probably typical, his response to this instruction was certainly atypical. We might say, “He took to it like a duck to water.”

Saul was an exceptional student. Hebrew fathers were not notorious gushers, so his father probably didn’t brag on him a lot. Yet he no doubt considered the wisest approach for Saul’s future, not unlike a modern father looking for the best university for his gifted son. In the search for the best continuing Jewish education, he set his sights on Jerusalem, the homeland—the fountain of Jewish learning.

Mixed emotions must have filled the heart of the young man as he prepared for the journey to Jerusalem. Like most teenage boys, his emotions probably swung to the same extremes as his changing voice. Like any thirteen-year-old going so far from home, he was probably scared to death. Yet as a Jewish thirteen-year-old, he was considered a man. He packed his bags with articles foreign to us but common to the ancient Jew: prayer shawls, phylacteries, sacred writings, and customary clothing. He probably didn’t gaze with affection over familiar contents in his room prior to leaving. The Jew was not given to domestic decor and did not believe in images on the walls.

All his life Saul had heard about Jerusalem. His father probably made the journey often. Three annual feasts beckoned Jewish men from near and far to the city of Zion. A proper Pharisee traveled to Jerusalem for the annual Passover Feast. Saul likely stayed home and watched over the family affairs while picturing the busy streets and solemn assemblies of the sacred city. Saul probably devoured every story his father told about Jerusalem upon his arrival home. Now it was his turn.

Most assuredly, Saul’s father sought a Jewish traveling companion for his young son, someone who could provide proper supervision as the young student traveled from Tarsus to Jerusalem. As Saul boarded the boat at the docks of Tarsus, he had no idea just how familiar the nauseating heaving of a sea vessel would ultimately become to him. The boat sailed almost due south as Saul gazed at the ancient coastal cities of Sidon and Tyre in the distance. After several rather unpleasant days on board, he probably arrived at the port of Caesarea with a chronic case of sea legs. There he exchanged rubbery limbs for the peculiar soreness of riding on the back of a beast over rough country. Thirty-five miles later, he caught the first glimpses of the city set on a hill—Jerusalem, the City of David.

Young Saul’s eyes beheld a far more cosmopolitan city than had his ancestors. Just a few decades prior to Saul’s visit, Herod the Great sought the favor of the Jewish populace by rebuilding not just the temple but the entire city of Jerusalem. The desert sun danced on city walls built of Jerusalem limestone. Saul probably dismounted just before the city gate. The elders sitting at the gate looked up only long enough to notice the young traveler. No heathen was he. Noting his age, they probably nodded with approval over his father’s obvious choice of further education—a budding rabbi, no doubt.

Just inside the gate, Saul cast his eyes on the impressive fruit of Herod’s labors: a large theater, a palace, an amphitheater, a hippodrome for horse and chariot races, imposing fortified towers, and perfectly blended architecture. But all this paled in comparison to the structure on top of the hill—Herod’s temple. Herod rebuilt the temple bigger and better than its predecessor. Huge, richly ornamented white stones mounted one upon another created a lavish feast for the eyes. Young Saul witnessed one of the most magnificent buildings in the entire world.

Saul probably ran up the main street of Jerusalem to the house of the Lord. He surely conjured up pictures of King David dancing down that very street. He hurried up the many stairs to greet magnificent porches surrounding the entire enclosure. Then he walked to a wall, one that held tremendous significance for the Jew, but one that would hold far more significance for a Jew who would ultimately become the world’s most renowned missionary to the Gentiles.

When, from a prison cell in Ephesus, Paul wrote that Christ had broken down the wall that separates Jew and Gentile, the apostle was not simply referring to a figurative wall of partition. He was referring to an imposing structure he had faced on the temple grounds as an adolescent many years before. Being raised in a Gentile city, young Saul had no problem reading the notices inscribed in Greek and Latin. This literal middle wall of partition in the temple forbade access of the defiling heathen into the inner sanctuaries of the house of God. As a young man born into a position of religious privilege, he stood a little taller—chest a little broader—as he read those words. What a contrast of emotions he would feel many years later as he came to despise the prejudice of those who would not recognize the walls crumbled by the cross. To them Saul would write, “For he is our peace, who hath made both [Jew and Gentile] one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (Eph. 2:14 kjv).