jugation of Cilicia, (sixty-two years before Christ,) when the province passed from the Syrian to the Roman sway, the family were in some way brought under the favorable notice of the new lords of the eastern world, and were honored with the high privilege of Roman citizenship, an honor which could not have been imparted to any one low either in birth or wealth. The precise nature of the service performed by them, that produced such a magnificent reward, it is impossible to determine; but that this must have been the reason, it is very natural to suppose. But whatever may have been the extent of the favors enjoyed by the parents of Saul, from the kindness of their heathen rulers, they were not thereby led to neglect the institutions of their fathers,—but even in a strange land, observed the Mosaic law with peculiar strictness; for Saul himself plainly asserts that his father was a Pharisee, and therefore he must have been bound by the rigid observances of that sect, to a blameless deportment, as far as the Mosaic law required. Born of such parents, the destined apostle at his birth was made the subject of the minute Mosaic rituals. "Circumcised the eighth day," he then received the name of Saul, a name connected with some glorious and some mournful associations in the ancient Jewish history, and probably suggested to the parents on this occasion, by a reference to its signification, for Hebrew names were often thus applied, expressing some circumstance connected with the child; and in this name more particularly, some such meaning might be expected, since, historically, it must have been a word of rather evil omen. The original Hebrew means "desired," "asked for," and hence it has been rather fancifully, but not unreasonably conjectured that he was an oldest son, and particularly desired by his expecting parents, who were, like the whole Jewish race, very earnest to have a son to perpetuate their name,—a wish however, by no means peculiar to the Israelites.
The name Saul is in Hebrew, (
Hebrew characters) the regular noun from the passive Kal participle
of (Hebrew characters) (sha-al and sha-el) "ask for," "beg," "request;" and the name therefore
means "asked for," or "requested," which affords ground for Neander's curious
conjecture, above given.
Of the time of his birth nothing is definitely known, though it
is stated by some ancient authority of very doubtful character, that
he was born in the second year after Christ. All that can be said
with any probability, is, that he was born several years after Christ;
for at the time of the stoning of Stephen, (A. D. 34,) Saul was a
"young man."
