Saul

Three biblical figures are grouped under the name SAUL: a king of Edom whom UPDV calls Shaul, the Benjamite son of Kish whom Yahweh anointed first king of Israel, and the Pharisee of Tarsus who is more often called Paul. The umbrella thus moves from a buried genealogical note in Edom, through Israel's first failed monarchy, to the apostle who bears the same Benjamite name and writes himself into the close of the New Testament.

Shaul, King of Edom

Before Israel had any king, the line of Edomite rulers in Genesis 36 includes a Shaul of Rehoboth by the River. He receives a single sentence at his accession and another at his death: "And Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth by the River reigned in his stead. And Shaul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his stead" (Gen 36:37-38). The Chronicler repeats the notice verbatim at 1Ch 1:48-49.

A Benjamite, Son of Kish

The Benjamite Saul is introduced through his father's lineage and his own bearing: "And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a young and goodly man: and there was not among the sons of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people" (1Sa 9:2). The Chronicler later anchors him in the tribal record: "And Ner begot Kish; and Kish begot Saul; and Saul begot Jonathan, and Malchi-shua, and Abinadab, and Eshbaal" (1Ch 8:33).

Anointing and Acclamation

Samuel anoints Saul privately and asks, "Is it not that Yahweh has anointed you to be leader over his inheritance?" (1Sa 10:1). The transformation is immediate: "And it was so, that, when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day" (1Sa 10:9). At the public selection by lot, Saul has hidden himself, and the people inquire of Yahweh again: "Therefore they asked of [the Speech of] Yahweh further, Is there yet a man to come here? And Yahweh answered, Look, he has hid himself among the baggage" (1Sa 10:22). Samuel presents him, and the assembly shouts, "Do you⁺ see him whom Yahweh has chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, [Long] live the king" (1Sa 10:24). Not all are convinced: "But certain worthless fellows said, How will this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no present. But he held his peace" (1Sa 10:27). Hosea later renders the theological verdict on this whole arc of giving and removing the king: "I have given you a king in my anger, and have taken him away in my wrath" (Hos 13:11).

Usurping the Priestly Function

At Gilgal, with the Philistines pressing and Samuel delayed, Saul takes the offering into his own hands: "And Saul said, Bring the burnt-offering here to me, and the peace-offerings. And he offered the burnt-offering" (1Sa 13:9). His self-defense — "therefore I said, Now will the Philistines come down on me to Gilgal, and I haven't entreated the favor of Yahweh: I forced myself therefore, and offered the burnt-offering" (1Sa 13:12) — meets Samuel's first sentence: "And Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly; you haven't kept [the Speech of] Yahweh your God, which he commanded you: for now Yahweh would have established your kingdom on Israel forever" (1Sa 13:13).

The Amalekite Disobedience

Saul's failure to exterminate Amalek brings the second and decisive rupture. Yahweh tells Samuel, "I regretted [before my Speech] that I have set up Saul to be king; for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments" (1Sa 15:11). When Samuel arrives, Saul claims, "Blessed be you of Yahweh: I have performed the commandment of Yahweh" (1Sa 15:13), but the bleating sheep give him away (1Sa 15:14). His shifting answers — that the people, not he, spared the best — collapse under Samuel's reminder: "Though you were little in your own sight, weren't you made the head of the tribes of Israel? And Yahweh anointed you king over Israel; and Yahweh sent you on a journey, and said, Go, and completely destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Why then didn't you obey the voice [Speech] of Yahweh, but flew on the spoil, and did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh?" (1Sa 15:17-19). Saul still pleads obedience (1Sa 15:20-21), and Samuel answers with the formula the chapter is remembered for: "Does Yahweh have as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in accepting [the Speech of] Yahweh? Look, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of fortune-telling, and stubbornness is as idolatry and talismans. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has also rejected you from being king" (1Sa 15:22-23). The narrative pivots in the next chapter when Yahweh tells Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go: I will send you to Jesse the Beth-lehemite; for I have provided myself a king among his sons" (1Sa 16:1).

David in Saul's Court

David enters the court, kills Goliath, and returns to a king already shadowed by jealousy. Saul takes David in (1Sa 17:58; 1Sa 18:2), but the women's song — David's ten thousands against Saul's thousands — turns him: "And Saul was very angry, and this thing was evil in his eyes; and he said, They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom?" (1Sa 18:8). Twice he hurls the spear: "and Saul cast the spear; for he said, I will strike David even to the wall. And David avoided out of his presence twice" (1Sa 18:11). He gives Michal to David hoping she will be a snare (1Sa 18:22), then sees the deeper truth: "And Saul saw and knew that [the Speech of] Yahweh was with David; and Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him" (1Sa 18:28).

The Pursuit of David

Saul orders Jonathan and his slaves to kill David (1Sa 19:1), sends men to David's house at night (1Sa 19:11), and presses the chase across the hill country. He misses David at his own table — "David's place was empty: and Saul said to Jonathan his son, Why didn't the son of Jesse come to meat, neither yesterday, nor today?" (1Sa 20:27) — and sits in Gibeah with his spear in his hand inquiring after the fugitive (1Sa 22:6). He summons the army to besiege Keilah (1Sa 23:8) and is run twice into open country, where David could have killed him. In the cave at En-gedi, "Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe secretly" (1Sa 24:4); on the hill of Hachilah after the Ziphites betray David again (1Sa 26:1), David spares him a second time. The pursuit drives David finally into Philistine territory: "And David said in his heart, I will now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in all the borders of Israel: so I will escape out of his hand" (1Sa 27:1).

The Gibeonite Bloodguilt

A famine in the next reign uncovers a crime committed during Saul's: "And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. And Yahweh said, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites" (2Sa 21:1). The Gibeonites demand sevenfold restitution: "let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh. And the king said, I will give them" (2Sa 21:6).

En-dor and the Last Battle

With the Philistines mustered against him and Yahweh silent, Saul's fear breaks open: "And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly" (1Sa 28:5). He tells his slaves, "Seek me a woman who is mistress of a spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her" (1Sa 28:7). On Mount Gilboa the next day his armorbearer refuses to do what he asks, and Saul turns the sword on himself: "Then Saul said to his armorbearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, or else these uncircumcised will come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armorbearer would not; for he was very afraid. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it" (1Sa 31:4). David's lament closes the cycle: "And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son" (2Sa 1:17). The Chronicler adds the explicit verdict: "So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against Yahweh, because of the word of Yahweh, which he did not keep; and also for asking counsel of a spiritist, to inquire" (1Ch 10:13). A late echo from the Maccabean prayer at Beth-horon still names the line: "Blessed are you, O Savior of Israel, Who broke the violence of the mighty by the hand of your servant David, And delivered up the camp of the strangers into the hands of Jonathan the son of Saul and of his armorbearer" (1Ma 4:30).

Saul of Tarsus

The third Saul shares the Benjamite name. The apostle's pedigree statements run through both his epistles to the Romans and to the Philippians: "I say then, Did God cast off his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin" (Rom 11:1); "circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as concerning the law, a Pharisee" (Php 3:5). His former zeal he describes himself: "and I advanced in the Jews' religion beyond many of my own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers" (Gal 1:14); "though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh: if any other man thinks to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more" (Php 3:4). The earlier life of persecution is named in the same letters — "For you⁺ have heard of my manner of life in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and made havoc of it" (Gal 1:13); "though I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: nevertheless I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (1Ti 1:13); "For I am the least of the apostles, who am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God" (1Co 15:9).

Apostle of Christ Jesus

The opening line of letter after letter announces the office: "Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, a called apostle, separated to the good news of God" (Rom 1:1); "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God" (2Co 1:1; Eph 1:1; Col 1:1; 2Ti 1:1); "Paul, an apostle (not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead)" (Gal 1:1); "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and Christ Jesus our hope" (1Ti 1:1). He defends the title under challenge: "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you⁺ my work in the Lord?" (1Co 9:1); "For I reckon that I am not a bit behind the very chiefest apostles" (2Co 11:5); "Truly the signs of an apostle were worked among you⁺ in all patience, both by signs and wonders, and mighty works" (2Co 12:12). He defines the scope: "But I speak to you⁺ who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I glorify my service" (Rom 11:13); "that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering the good news of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit" (Rom 15:16). His Jerusalem visits and Antioch chronology he sets out in Galatians: "Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and tarried with him fifteen days" (Gal 1:18); "Then after the space of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me" (Gal 2:1).

Apostolic Method

Paul describes a deliberate adaptability in mission: "For though I was free from all [men], I became a slave to all, that I might gain the more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, not being myself under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law; to those who are without the law, as without the law, not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might gain those who are without the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak: I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some" (1Co 9:19-22). He insists on his own keep: "neither did we eat bread for nothing at any man's hand, but in labor and travail, working night and day, that we might not burden any of you⁺" (2Th 3:8). The pastoral tone alternates between affection — "My love be with all of you⁺ in Christ Jesus" (1Co 16:24); "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you⁺ with many tears; not that you⁺ should be made sorry, but that you⁺ might know the love which I have more abundantly to you⁺" (2Co 2:4); "Great is my boldness of speech toward you⁺, great is my glorying on your⁺ behalf: I am filled with comfort, I overflow with joy in all our affliction" (2Co 7:4) — and frustrated thwarting: "because we wanted to come to you⁺, I Paul once and again; and Satan hindered us" (1Th 2:18).

Bodily Presence and Speech

The opponents at Corinth circulate a comparison between his letters and the man: "His letters, they say, are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account" (2Co 10:10). Paul partly concedes the second half: "But though [I am] unskilled in speaking, yet [I am] not [unskilled] in knowledge; certainly, in every way we have made [this] manifest to you⁺ in all things" (2Co 11:6). The bodily weakness is nowhere romanticized — he calls his Galatian arrival an "infirmity of the flesh" through which he first preached the good news (Gal 4:13).

Sufferings, Sickness, and the Thorn

Paul itemises the persecutions when Corinth forces the issue: "Of the Jews five times I received forty [stripes] less one. Thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; [in] journeyings often, [in] perils of rivers, [in] perils of robbers, [in] perils from [my] countrymen, [in] perils from the Gentiles, [in] perils in the city, [in] perils in the wilderness, [in] perils in the sea, [in] perils among false brothers; [in] labor and travail, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fasts often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily, anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I do not burn [with distress]? If I must surely glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forevermore knows that I do not lie. In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me: and through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands" (2Co 11:24-33). He flags a near-fatal illness in Asia: "For we would not have you⁺ ignorant, brothers, concerning our affliction which befell [us] in Asia, that we were exceedingly weighed down, beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life" (2Co 1:8). He paraphrases the missionary paradox: "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and [yet] possessing all things" (2Co 6:10). And he names the thorn directly: "I must surely glory, though it is not expedient; but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I don't know; or whether out of the body, I don't know; God knows), such a one caught up even to the third heaven. And I know such a man (whether in the body, or apart from the body, I don't know; God knows), how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter" (2Co 12:1-4); "And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted too much, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted too much" (2Co 12:7).

Goal, Affection, and Final Word

Paul's accounting of his life is set as a single direction of travel: "Nevertheless what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. But on the contrary, I also count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and regard them as crap, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, [even] that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death; if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead" (Php 3:7-11); "Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if also I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I don't count myself to have laid hold: but one thing [I do], forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Php 3:12-14). His grief over apostates is in the same letter — "For many walk, of whom I told you⁺ often, and now tell you⁺ even weeping, [that they are] the enemies of the cross of Christ" (Php 3:18) — alongside the imperative he repeats: "Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice" (Php 4:4). His willingness to be cursed for Israel is set down in Romans: "For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers' sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Rom 9:3). He frames endurance as substitutionary: "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory" (2Ti 2:10). The final stocktaking in Second Timothy echoes the language of the lost first king's Carmel monument turned inside out: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: from now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved his appearing" (2Ti 4:7-8).