Saul to Paul: Paul’s Name Was Not Changed!

We are here in the old city of Jerusalem, and we thought it was a good place to talk about how Saul changed his name to Paul…

—except he didn’t do that. This is something that we often misunderstand in the scripture because we kind of superimpose our understanding as Christians into the Hebrew text or the writings of these Jewish men. But it’s actually very common in Israel today, and even Jewish people all throughout the world to have two names to have their Hebrew name and then their American name, or in Paul’s case, his Greek name. We have a friend, Marty Waldman, the founding rabbi at Baruch HaShem. His name is Marty, but his Hebrew name is Mordecai. Pastor Greg Stone, our Jewish pastor at Gateway Church—who we love. His name is Greg, but his Hebrew name is Isaac, Yitzchak. It’s very common. Paul never changed his name.

His name was Shaúl, Saul. It says in Acts 13:9, ‘But Saul, who was also called Paul,’ also called Paul. It was his Greek name as he was a Roman citizen. See, we have this idea that he believed in Jesus and then he changed his religion. He was no longer Jewish, but he continued to be Jewish. He says in Acts 21, ‘I am a Jewish man from Tarsus,’ Philippians 3:5, ‘Circumcised on the eighth day, the nation of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin. Hebrew of Hebrews in regard to the Torah, a Pharisee.’ See, Paul continued to live a Jewish life. He continued—Shaúl, continued to live a Jewish life, and until we understand that, we’re going to misunderstand the scriptures. So Saul continued to be Jewish, continued to live a Jewish life, and was an advocate for the Gentiles continuing to be Gentile.