Paul was probably born sometime in the first decade, and for the purposes of this blog series and my historical conjecturing I’m going to call his birth as 2 A.D. and was probably about 29 years old when we first meet him in Acts 8. But before that, let’s do some additional thinking about him.

We learned last time that Paul was a student of Rabbi Gamaliel. Gamaliel was a Pharisee and leader in the Sanhedrin. This was the Jewish ruling council comprised of 71 members of both Sadducees and Pharisees and presided over by the high priest. The council would act sort of like Congress does in the U.S., making and enforcing laws, holding hearings and making judgments about Jewish life. The disciples, or students, of various Rabbis no doubt served almost like interns working in conjunction with the Rabbis while they learned.

I bring this up because I conjecture (and it is only conjecture) that Paul was very possibly knowledgeable of the stir that Jesus was causing in the Sanhedrin and probably had discussions about Him with Gamaliel before and after Jesus’ trial. I doubt that Paul was actually in the room (traditionally known as the “Hall of Hewn Stones”) during Jesus’ trial because he was not an actual voting member of the council. If you’re interested in reading more about the possibility of Paul knowing about Jesus prior to Jesus’ death, I found a very thoughtful and interesting article (also conjecture) about this topic.

Another thing I found interesting is, according to the Jewish Virtual Library, the Sanhedrin lost its Roman authority to inflict capital punishment in about 30 A.D. This was probably the year in which Jesus was crucified and may explain why Pontius Pilate had to be involved. What I find interesting is how God worked out the timing so that Jesus’ death would be associated with BOTH Jews and Gentiles, symbolizing his atoning sacrifice on behalf of all people. At any rate, 3 years after Jesus’ resurrection, in Acts we see three instances of the Sanhedrin getting involved in the growing church.

In Acts 3 Peter healed a beggar who had been unable to walk since his birth more than 40 years earlier. Peter and John were then testifying in the Temple Court about how it was through the name of Jesus that he had been healed. They were arrested by the Temple guard (the enforcement arm of the Sanhedrin) and put in prison overnight. The next day they stood before the Council and gave testimony to Jesus’ resurrection and power to heal. The Council, being unable to deny the healing of the man simply threatened them and told them to stop invoking the name of Jesus.

The second reference to the Sanhedrin came soon after that, although the text is unclear about exactly how much time transpired. It could have been just a week or two, or it could have been a year or more. In Acts 5 Peter and an unspecified number of apostles were arrested again because of their preaching. The were put in prison, but the Holy Spirit opened the doors during the night and released them and they immediately went back to preaching. They were brought in again to face the Council and this was when Gamaliel offered his advice to not seek their deaths (I mentioned this in the first post of this series). However, their punishment this time including flogging, which was an escalation of punishment from the previous time.

At this point we still have not been introduced to Paul. He, however, comes into play in the next meeting of the Sanhedrin that Luke tells us about in Acts 6-8. At that point, Paul is probably in his late 20s and is likely gaining more responsibility and authority within the offices of the Sanhedrin as one of Gamaliel’s disciples.

This post is a little shorter, but I’m going to wait until next time to deal with the third appearance of the Sanhedrin during Stephen’s trial. We’ll find out who Stephen was, how his trial went, and finally have our first direct reference to Paul in Scripture.