Paul's education - JSS3 Christian Religious Studies Lesson Note

Paul’s father was a Pharisee, and so he must have brought up his son in the strictest observance of the Jewish religion and traditions. This explains why Paul grew up as a fanatical Pharisee. Although Tarsus was a famous centre of learning and education in the first century A.D. Paul’s father sent him to his roots in Jerusalem to be acquainted with the language, culture, norms, tradition and value systems of the Hebrew nation. More than anything else, he was sent to be trained by the great Rabbi ans scholar, Gamaliel the learned and distinguished grandson of Hillel. Under him, Paul studied the law and its rabbinical interpretations as well as much of the Greek culture which he found to be handy and most profitable in his missionary activities in life. Paul was so much indoctrinated in the Jewish religion that it became his life and its very essence. He took his religious training diligently to the extent that his formative years were dominated by his strong religious passion and convinctions of Judaism. Paul’s zealousness for his religious convictions stood him far above his equals, and this made him a Pharisee at a remarkable early age and subsequently he became admitted to the hallowed chambers of the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish religious and legislative arm of government.