• Paul
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • Col. 4:10; 1 Thess. 4:2, 11; compare 1 Timothy 4:11), but he preferred to appeal to the brothers on the basis of love, entreating them by “the compassions of God” and by the “mildness and kindness of the Christ.” (Rom. 12:1; 2 Cor. 6:11-13; 8:8; 10:1; Philem. 8, 9) He was gentle and expressed tender affection for them, exhorting and consoling them like a father. (1 Thess. 2:7, 8, 11, 12) While he was entitled to receive material support from the brothers, he chose to work with his hands in order not to be an expensive burden. (Acts 20:33-35; 1 Cor. 9:18; 1 Thess. 2:6, 9) As a result, a close bond of brotherly affection existed between Paul and those to whom he ministered. The overseers of the Ephesus congregation were greatly pained and moved to tears upon learning that they might see his face no more. (Acts 20:37, 38) Paul was very much concerned about the spiritual welfare of fellow Christians and wanted to do what he could to assist them to make their heavenly calling sure. (Rom. 1:11; 15:15, 16; Col. 2:1, 2) Constantly he remembered them in his prayers (Rom. 1:8, 9; 2 Cor. 13:7; Eph. 3:14-19; Phil. 1:3-5, 9-11; Col. 1:3, 9-12; 1 Thess. 1:2, 3; 2 Thess. 1:3) and requested that they also pray for him. (Rom. 15:30-32; 2 Cor. 1:11) He drew encouragement from the faith of fellow Christians. (Rom. 1:12) On the other hand, Paul was firm for what is right, not hesitating to correct even a fellow apostle when that was necessary for the advancement of the good news.—1 Cor. 5:1-13; Gal. 2:11-14.

      NOT OF THE TWELVE

      Though having strong conviction and proofs as to his own apostleship, Paul never included himself among “the twelve.” Prior to Pentecost the Christian assembly, as a result of Peter’s Scriptural exhortation, had sought a replacement for unfaithful Judas Iscariot. Two disciples were selected as candidates, perhaps by vote of the male members of the assembly (Peter having addressed himself to the “Men, brothers” [Acts 1:16]). Then they prayed to Jehovah God (compare Acts 1:24 with 1 Samuel 16:7; Acts 15:7, 8) that He should designate which of the two he had chosen to replace the unfaithful apostle. Following their prayer they cast lots and “the lot fell upon Matthias.”—Acts 1:15-26; compare Proverbs 16:33.

      There is no reason to doubt that Matthias was God’s own choice. True, once converted, Paul became very prominent and his labors exceeded those of all the other apostles. (1 Cor. 15:9, 10) Yet there is nothing to show that Paul was personally predestinated to an apostleship so that God, in effect, refrained from acting on the prayer of the Christian assembly, held open the place vacated by Judas until Paul’s conversion, and thus made the appointment of Matthias merely an arbitrary action of the Christian assembly. To the contrary, there is sound evidence that Matthias was a divinely appointed replacement.

      At Pentecost the outpouring of holy spirit gave the apostles unique powers, inasmuch as they are the only ones shown as able to lay hands on newly baptized ones and communicate to them miraculous gifts of the spirit. (See APOSTLE [Miraculous powers].) If Matthias were not in reality God’s choice, his inability to do this would have been apparent to all. The record shows this was not the case. Luke, the writer of Acts, was Paul’s traveling companion and associate during certain missions and the book of Acts therefore undoubtedly reflects and coincides with Paul’s own view of matters. That book refers to “the twelve” as appointing the seven men who were to handle the matter of the food distribution problem. This was after Pentecost of 33 C.E. but before Paul’s conversion. Hence Matthias is here acknowledged as one of “the twelve” and he shared with the other apostles in laying hands on the seven designates.—Acts 6:1-6.

      Whose name then appears among those on the “twelve foundation stones” of the New Jerusalem of John’s vision—Matthias’ or Paul’s? (Rev. 21:2, 14) In the earlier part of this work the article on APOSTLE pointed to Paul as the more likely one. This view was based on the fact that Paul contributed so much to the Christian congregation by his ministry and particularly by his writing a large portion of the Christian Greek Scriptures (fourteen letters being attributed to him). In these respects Paul ‘outshone’ Matthias, who receives no further direct mention after Acts chapter 1.

      But sober consideration makes evident that Paul also ‘outshone’ many of the original twelve apostles, some of whom are rarely even named outside the apostolic lists. By the time that Paul was converted the Christian congregation, spiritual Israel, had been established or founded and growing for perhaps a year or even more. Then, too, Paul’s first canonical letters were evidently not written until about 50 C.E. (see THESSALONIANS, LETTERS TO THE) or as much as seventeen years after the foundation of the new nation of spiritual Israel on Pentecost of 33 C.E. These facts, plus the evidence submitted earlier in this article, thus clarify the matter. It seems reasonable, therefore, that God’s original choice, namely, Matthias, as the one to replace Judas among “the twelve apostles of the Lamb,” remained firm and unaffected by the later apostleship of Paul.

      What, then, was the purpose of Paul’s apostleship? Jesus himself stated that it was for a particular purpose—not as a replacement for Judas—but that Paul might serve as an ‘apostle [sent one] to the nations’ (Acts 9:4-6, 15), and Paul recognized this as the purpose of his apostleship. (Gal. 1:15, 16; 2:7, 8; Rom. 1:5; 1 Tim. 2:7) This being so, his apostleship was not needed to serve as a foundation when spiritual Israel was established on Pentecost, 33 C.E.

  • Peʼ
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • PEʼ

      [פ; final,ף].

      The seventeenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, also later used outside of the Hebrew Scriptures as a number to denote eighty. It is one of five Hebrew letters that have a different form when used as the final letter of a word. The name assigned to the letter means “mouth.”

      From the Hebrew peʼ comes the Greek pi, from which the Latin and English “p” is derived. The Hebrew sound corresponds to our English “p,” when it has the point (dagesh lene) in it; but without this point it is pronounced like “ph,” as in “philosophy.” This letter initiates each of the eight verses in the Hebrew text of Psalm 119:129-136.