WAS PAUL A CILICIAN, A NATIVE OF TARSUS? A HISTORICAL REASSESSMENT

Year 2003, Issue: 8, 87 - 108, 01.11.2003

Mark Wılson

Abstract

WAS PAUL A CILICIAN, A NATIVE OF TARSUS? A HISTORICAL REASSESSMENT

Abstract

R. Wallace and W. Williams in their recent volume The Three Worlds of
Paul of Tarsus (Tarsuslu Pavlus’un Üç Dünyas›) assert that Paul as a
citizen of Tarsus “need ever have visited the city, much less lived there.”
This, they assert, is based on the fact that ancient civic citizenship passed
through descent and not through domicile. Further, Paul’s return to Tarsus
following his conversion suggests “only that some of the family still lived
there, rather than it was Paul’s home town.” They conclude that attempts
to develop a formative Tarsian context for Paul’s character and teaching
“are built on insecure foundations.”1 This controversial claim runs counter
to most biblical and classical scholarship as it relates to the background of
the apostle Paul. In fact, as Riesner notes, “It is striking in the larger sense
how seldom this bit of Lukan information has been doubted by skeptical
scholarship.”2 If true, it would significantly diminish the historical
connection between Paul and Tarsus of Cilicia as one of its most famous
native sons. This paper will seek to reassess Paul’s connection to Tarsus
and Cilicia in light of the comments by Wallace and Williams. In responding to their claims, we will first review the relevant biblical and historical background related to Paul’s three worlds

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