The Catholic Community of Our Lady of Fatima Delanson, New York G.I.F.T. 8.5—Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Life St. Paul the Apostle and the beginning of the Church New Testament Scripture offers invaluable priimary hhiistoriicall sources ffor Paull's lliiffe through his own letters and the Acts of the Apostles. In addition, we have several early ttraaddittioonss aabboouutt him oouuttssiddee oof SSccrippttuuree ttoo heelpp see into the extraordinary life of this man. Paul was probably born shortly after Jesus, between the years 5 and 10 C.E. (All the dates associated with his life are approximate and debated by scholars.) Paul was not just a resident but a citizen of Tarsus, which suggests that his family was wealthy. He also claimed Roman citizenship by birth, a status that carried considerable prestige. HHiiss JJeewwiisshh nnaammee wwaass "SSaauull";; "PPaauull" wwaass aa wweellll-kknnoowwnn RRoommaann ffaammiillyy name. This arrangement was common for Jews in this period, especially outside Palestine, who often had two names, one Greek or Roman and the other Semitic or Jewish. His parents were strictly observant Jews living in the city of Tarsus, the prosperous capiitall off Ciilliiciia, a proviince off thhe Roman Empiire iin whhat iis now Turkey. The Red ARROW shows where Tarsus is located, on the banks of the Mediterranean sea, close to the Syrian border. The young Saul obviously received a fine education. He could write Greek very well and probably knew Hebrew or Aramaic (Jesus' native language) too. His writing and preaching demonstrated impressive rhetorical skills. In his youth, Saul studied the Jewish Scriptures, (also known as the Torah) under the ffaammoouuss JJeewwiisshh rraabbbbii GGaammaalliieell II ((GGaammmmaa lleeeell tthhee ffiirrsstt)) tthhee EEllddeerr ooff JJeerruussaalleemm. IInn time, this avid student came to know the sacred texts well enough to quote extensively from them by memory, including the deuterocanonical books. Those are the books of the Old Testament that we call the apocrypha, and they include JJuddiithh, thhe WWiisddom off SSollomon, TTobbiit, SSiirachh, BBaruchh, andd FFiirst andd SSecondd Maccabees. The apocrypha are included in our Catholic Bible but are not included in the bibles of other Christian faiths.