Paul

9 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Paul \Paul\, n.
     See {Pawl}.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:



  Paul \Paul\, n.
     An Italian silver coin. See {Paolo}.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Pawl \Pawl\, n. [W. pawl a pole, a stake. Cf. {Pole} a stake.]
     (Mach.)
     A pivoted tongue, or sliding bolt, on one part of a machine,
     adapted to fall into notches, or interdental spaces, on
     another part, as a ratchet wheel, in such a manner as to
     permit motion in one direction and prevent it in the reverse,
     as in a windlass; a catch, click, or detent. See Illust. of
     {Ratchet Wheel}. [Written also {paul}, or {pall}.]
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Pawl bitt} (Naut.), a heavy timber, set abaft the windlass,
        to receive the strain of the pawls.
  
     {Pawl rim} or {Pawl ring} (Naut.), a stationary metallic ring
        surrounding the base of a capstan, having notches for the
        pawls to catch in.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Paul
       n 1: United States feminist (1885-1977) [syn: {Alice Paul}]
       2: (New Testament) a Christian missionary to the Gentiles;
          author of several Epistles in the New Testament; even
          though Paul was not present at the Last Supper he is
          considered an apostle; "Paul's name was Saul prior to his
          conversion to Christianity" [syn: {Saint Paul}, {St. Paul},
           {Apostle Paul}, {Paul the Apostle}, {Apostle of the
          Gentiles}, {Saul}, {Saul of Tarsus}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  29 Moby Thesaurus words for "Paul":
     Ambrose of Milan, Athanasius, Barnabas, Basil,
     Clement of Alexandria, Clement of Rome, Cyprian of Carthage,
     Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nyssa, Hermas, Ignatius, Irenaeus,
     Jerome, John, John Chrysostom, Justin Martyr, Lactantius Firmianus,
     Luke, Mark, Origen, Papias, Peter, Polycarp, Tertullian,
     ante-Nicene Fathers, apostle, disciple, evangelist, saint
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Paul
     =Saul (q.v.) was born about the same time as our Lord. His
     circumcision-name was Saul, and probably the name Paul was also
     given to him in infancy "for use in the Gentile world," as
     "Saul" would be his Hebrew home-name. He was a native of Tarsus,
     the capital of Cilicia, a Roman province in the south-east of
     Asia Minor. That city stood on the banks of the river Cydnus,
     which was navigable thus far; hence it became a centre of
     extensive commercial traffic with many countries along the
     shores of the Mediterranean, as well as with the countries of
     central Asia Minor. It thus became a city distinguished for the
     wealth of its inhabitants.
     
       Tarsus was also the seat of a famous university, higher in
     reputation even than the universities of Athens and Alexandria,
     the only others that then existed. Here Saul was born, and here
     he spent his youth, doubtless enjoying the best education his
     native city could afford. His father was of the straitest sect
     of the Jews, a Pharisee, of the tribe of Benjamin, of pure and
     unmixed Jewish blood (Acts 23:6; Phil. 3:5). We learn nothing
     regarding his mother; but there is reason to conclude that she
     was a pious woman, and that, like-minded with her husband, she
     exercised all a mother influence in moulding the character of
     her son, so that he could afterwards speak of himself as being,
     from his youth up, "touching the righteousness which is in the
     law, blameless" (Phil. 3:6).
     
       We read of his sister and his sister's son (Acts 23:16), and
     of other relatives (Rom. 16:7, 11, 12). Though a Jew, his father
     was a Roman citizen. How he obtained this privilege we are not
     informed. "It might be bought, or won by distinguished service
     to the state, or acquired in several other ways; at all events,
     his son was freeborn. It was a valuable privilege, and one that
     was to prove of great use to Paul, although not in the way in
     which his father might have been expected to desire him to make
     use of it." Perhaps the most natural career for the youth to
     follow was that of a merchant. "But it was decided that...he
     should go to college and become a rabbi, that is, a minister, a
     teacher, and a lawyer all in one."
     
       According to Jewish custom, however, he learned a trade before
     entering on the more direct preparation for the sacred
     profession. The trade he acquired was the making of tents from
     goats' hair cloth, a trade which was one of the commonest in
     Tarsus.
     
       His preliminary education having been completed, Saul was
     sent, when about thirteen years of age probably, to the great
     Jewish school of sacred learning at Jerusalem as a student of
     the law. Here he became a pupil of the celebrated rabbi
     Gamaliel, and here he spent many years in an elaborate study of
     the Scriptures and of the many questions concerning them with
     which the rabbis exercised themselves. During these years of
     diligent study he lived "in all good conscience," unstained by
     the vices of that great city.
     
       After the period of his student-life expired, he probably left
     Jerusalem for Tarsus, where he may have been engaged in
     connection with some synagogue for some years. But we find him
     back again at Jerusalem very soon after the death of our Lord.
     Here he now learned the particulars regarding the crucifixion,
     and the rise of the new sect of the "Nazarenes."
     
       For some two years after Pentecost, Christianity was quietly
     spreading its influence in Jerusalem. At length Stephen, one of
     the seven deacons, gave forth more public and aggressive
     testimony that Jesus was the Messiah, and this led to much
     excitement among the Jews and much disputation in their
     synagogues. Persecution arose against Stephen and the followers
     of Christ generally, in which Saul of Tarsus took a prominent
     part. He was at this time probably a member of the great
     Sanhedrin, and became the active leader in the furious
     persecution by which the rulers then sought to exterminate
     Christianity.
     
       But the object of this persecution also failed. "They that
     were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." The
     anger of the persecutor was thereby kindled into a fiercer
     flame. Hearing that fugitives had taken refuge in Damascus, he
     obtained from the chief priest letters authorizing him to
     proceed thither on his persecuting career. This was a long
     journey of about 130 miles, which would occupy perhaps six days,
     during which, with his few attendants, he steadily went onward,
     "breathing out threatenings and slaughter." But the crisis of
     his life was at hand. He had reached the last stage of his
     journey, and was within sight of Damascus. As he and his
     companions rode on, suddenly at mid-day a brilliant light shone
     round them, and Saul was laid prostrate in terror on the ground,
     a voice sounding in his ears, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
     me?" The risen Saviour was there, clothed in the vesture of his
     glorified humanity. In answer to the anxious inquiry of the
     stricken persecutor, "Who art thou, Lord?" he said, "I am Jesus
     whom thou persecutest" (Acts 9:5; 22:8; 26:15).
     
       This was the moment of his conversion, the most solemn in all
     his life. Blinded by the dazzling light (Acts 9:8), his
     companions led him into the city, where, absorbed in deep
     thought for three days, he neither ate nor drank (9:11).
     Ananias, a disciple living in Damascus, was informed by a vision
     of the change that had happened to Saul, and was sent to him to
     open his eyes and admit him by baptism into the Christian church
     (9:11-16). The whole purpose of his life was now permanently
     changed.
     
       Immediately after his conversion he retired into the solitudes
     of Arabia (Gal. 1:17), perhaps of "Sinai in Arabia," for the
     purpose, probably, of devout study and meditation on the
     marvellous revelation that had been made to him. "A veil of
     thick darkness hangs over this visit to Arabia. Of the scenes
     among which he moved, of the thoughts and occupations which
     engaged him while there, of all the circumstances of a crisis
     which must have shaped the whole tenor of his after-life,
     absolutely nothing is known. 'Immediately,' says St. Paul, 'I
     went away into Arabia.' The historian passes over the incident
     [comp. Acts 9:23 and 1 Kings 11:38, 39]. It is a mysterious
     pause, a moment of suspense, in the apostle's history, a
     breathless calm, which ushers in the tumultuous storm of his
     active missionary life." Coming back, after three years, to
     Damascus, he began to preach the gospel "boldly in the name of
     Jesus" (Acts 9:27), but was soon obliged to flee (9:25; 2 Cor.
     11:33) from the Jews and betake himself to Jerusalem. Here he
     tarried for three weeks, but was again forced to flee (Acts
     9:28, 29) from persecution. He now returned to his native Tarsus
     (Gal. 1:21), where, for probably about three years, we lose
     sight of him. The time had not yet come for his entering on his
     great life-work of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles.
     
       At length the city of Antioch, the capital of Syria, became
     the scene of great Christian activity. There the gospel gained a
     firm footing, and the cause of Christ prospered. Barnabas
     (q.v.), who had been sent from Jerusalem to superintend the work
     at Antioch, found it too much for him, and remembering Saul, he
     set out to Tarsus to seek for him. He readily responded to the
     call thus addressed to him, and came down to Antioch, which for
     "a whole year" became the scene of his labours, which were
     crowned with great success. The disciples now, for the first
     time, were called "Christians" (Acts 11:26).
     
       The church at Antioch now proposed to send out missionaries to
     the Gentiles, and Saul and Barnabas, with John Mark as their
     attendant, were chosen for this work. This was a great epoch in
     the history of the church. Now the disciples began to give
     effect to the Master's command: "Go ye into all the world, and
     preach the gospel to every creature."
     
       The three missionaries went forth on the first missionary
     tour. They sailed from Seleucia, the seaport of Antioch, across
     to Cyprus, some 80 miles to the south-west. Here at Paphos,
     Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul, was converted, and now Saul
     took the lead, and was ever afterwards called Paul. The
     missionaries now crossed to the mainland, and then proceeded 6
     or 7 miles up the river Cestrus to Perga (Acts 13:13), where
     John Mark deserted the work and returned to Jerusalem. The two
     then proceeded about 100 miles inland, passing through
     Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia. The towns mentioned in this
     tour are the Pisidian Antioch, where Paul delivered his first
     address of which we have any record (13:16-51; comp. 10:30-43),
     Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. They returned by the same route to
     see and encourage the converts they had made, and ordain elders
     in every city to watch over the churches which had been
     gathered. From Perga they sailed direct for Antioch, from which
     they had set out.
     
       After remaining "a long time", probably till A.D. 50 or 51, in
     Antioch, a great controversy broke out in the church there
     regarding the relation of the Gentiles to the Mosaic law. For
     the purpose of obtaining a settlement of this question, Paul and
     Barnabas were sent as deputies to consult the church at
     Jerusalem. The council or synod which was there held (Acts 15)
     decided against the Judaizing party; and the deputies,
     accompanied by Judas and Silas, returned to Antioch, bringing
     with them the decree of the council.
     
       After a short rest at Antioch, Paul said to Barnabas: "Let us
     go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have
     preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do." Mark
     proposed again to accompany them; but Paul refused to allow him
     to go. Barnabas was resolved to take Mark, and thus he and Paul
     had a sharp contention. They separated, and never again met.
     Paul, however, afterwards speaks with honour of Barnabas, and
     sends for Mark to come to him at Rome (Col. 4:10; 2 Tim. 4:11).
     
       Paul took with him Silas, instead of Barnabas, and began his
     second missionary journey about A.D. 51. This time he went by
     land, revisiting the churches he had already founded in Asia.
     But he longed to enter into "regions beyond," and still went
     forward through Phrygia and Galatia (16:6). Contrary to his
     intention, he was constrained to linger in Galatia (q.v.), on
     account of some bodily affliction (Gal. 4:13, 14). Bithynia, a
     populous province on the shore of the Black Sea, lay now before
     him, and he wished to enter it; but the way was shut, the Spirit
     in some manner guiding him in another direction, till he came
     down to the shores of the AEgean and arrived at Troas, on the
     north-western coast of Asia Minor (Acts 16:8). Of this long
     journey from Antioch to Troas we have no account except some
     references to it in his Epistle to the Galatians (4:13).
     
       As he waited at Troas for indications of the will of God as to
     his future movements, he saw, in the vision of the night, a man
     from the opposite shores of Macedonia standing before him, and
     heard him cry, "Come over, and help us" (Acts 16:9). Paul
     recognized in this vision a message from the Lord, and the very
     next day set sail across the Hellespont, which separated him
     from Europe, and carried the tidings of the gospel into the
     Western world. In Macedonia, churches were planted in Philippi,
     Thessalonica, and Berea. Leaving this province, Paul passed into
     Achaia, "the paradise of genius and renown." He reached Athens,
     but quitted it after, probably, a brief sojourn (17:17-31). The
     Athenians had received him with cold disdain, and he never
     visited that city again. He passed over to Corinth, the seat of
     the Roman government of Achaia, and remained there a year and a
     half, labouring with much success. While at Corinth, he wrote
     his two epistles to the church of Thessalonica, his earliest
     apostolic letters, and then sailed for Syria, that he might be
     in time to keep the feast of Pentecost at Jerusalem. He was
     accompanied by Aquila and Priscilla, whom he left at Ephesus, at
     which he touched, after a voyage of thirteen or fifteen days. He
     landed at Caesarea, and went up to Jerusalem, and having
     "saluted the church" there, and kept the feast, he left for
     Antioch, where he abode "some time" (Acts 18:20-23).
     
       He then began his third missionary tour. He journeyed by land
     in the "upper coasts" (the more eastern parts) of Asia Minor,
     and at length made his way to Ephesus, where he tarried for no
     less than three years, engaged in ceaseless Christian labour.
     "This city was at the time the Liverpool of the Mediterranean.
     It possessed a splendid harbour, in which was concentrated the
     traffic of the sea which was then the highway of the nations;
     and as Liverpool has behind her the great towns of Lancashire,
     so had Ephesus behind and around her such cities as those
     mentioned along with her in the epistles to the churches in the
     book of Revelation, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis,
     Philadelphia, and Laodicea. It was a city of vast wealth, and it
     was given over to every kind of pleasure, the fame of its
     theatres and race-course being world-wide" (Stalker's Life of
     St. Paul). Here a "great door and effectual" was opened to the
     apostle. His fellow-labourers aided him in his work, carrying
     the gospel to Colosse and Laodicea and other places which they
     could reach.
     
       Very shortly before his departure from Ephesus, the apostle
     wrote his First Epistle to the Corinthians (q.v.). The
     silversmiths, whose traffic in the little images which they made
     was in danger (see {DEMETRIUS}), organized a riot
     against Paul, and he left the city, and proceeded to Troas (2
     Cor. 2:12), whence after some time he went to meet Titus in
     Macedonia. Here, in consequence of the report Titus brought from
     Corinth, he wrote his second epistle to that church. Having
     spent probably most of the summer and autumn in Macedonia,
     visiting the churches there, specially the churches of Philippi,
     Thessalonica, and Berea, probably penetrating into the interior,
     to the shores of the Adriatic (Rom. 15:19), he then came into
     Greece, where he abode three month, spending probably the
     greater part of this time in Corinth (Acts 20:2). During his
     stay in this city he wrote his Epistle to the Galatians, and
     also the great Epistle to the Romans. At the end of the three
     months he left Achaia for Macedonia, thence crossed into Asia
     Minor, and touching at Miletus, there addressed the Ephesian
     presbyters, whom he had sent for to meet him (Acts 20:17), and
     then sailed for Tyre, finally reaching Jerusalem, probably in
     the spring of A.D. 58.
     
       While at Jerusalem, at the feast of Pentecost, he was almost
     murdered by a Jewish mob in the temple. (See TEMPLE, HEROD'S
     ŻT0003611.) Rescued from their violence by the Roman commandant,
     he was conveyed as a prisoner to Caesarea, where, from various
     causes, he was detained a prisoner for two years in Herod's
     praetorium (Acts 23:35). "Paul was not kept in close
     confinement; he had at least the range of the barracks in which
     he was detained. There we can imagine him pacing the ramparts on
     the edge of the Mediterranean, and gazing wistfully across the
     blue waters in the direction of Macedonia, Achaia, and Ephesus,
     where his spiritual children were pining for him, or perhaps
     encountering dangers in which they sorely needed his presence.
     It was a mysterious providence which thus arrested his energies
     and condemned the ardent worker to inactivity; yet we can now
     see the reason for it. Paul was needing rest. After twenty years
     of incessant evangelization, he required leisure to garner the
     harvest of experience...During these two years he wrote nothing;
     it was a time of internal mental activity and silent progress"
     (Stalker's Life of St. Paul).
     
       At the end of these two years Felix (q.v.) was succeeded in
     the governorship of Palestine by Porcius Festus, before whom the
     apostle was again heard. But judging it right at this crisis to
     claim the privilege of a Roman citizen, he appealed to the
     emperor (Acts 25:11). Such an appeal could not be disregarded,
     and Paul was at once sent on to Rome under the charge of one
     Julius, a centurion of the "Augustan cohort." After a long and
     perilous voyage, he at length reached the imperial city in the
     early spring, probably, of A.D. 61. Here he was permitted to
     occupy his own hired house, under constant military custody.
     This privilege was accorded to him, no doubt, because he was a
     Roman citizen, and as such could not be put into prison without
     a trial. The soldiers who kept guard over Paul were of course
     changed at frequent intervals, and thus he had the opportunity
     of preaching the gospel to many of them during these "two whole
     years," and with the blessed result of spreading among the
     imperial guards, and even in Caesar's household, an interest in
     the truth (Phil. 1:13). His rooms were resorted to by many
     anxious inquirers, both Jews and Gentiles (Acts 28:23, 30, 31),
     and thus his imprisonment "turned rather to the furtherance of
     the gospel," and his "hired house" became the centre of a
     gracious influence which spread over the whole city. According
     to a Jewish tradition, it was situated on the borders of the
     modern Ghetto, which has been the Jewish quarters in Rome from
     the time of Pompey to the present day. During this period the
     apostle wrote his epistles to the Colossians, Ephesians,
     Philippians, and to Philemon, and probably also to the Hebrews.
     
       This first imprisonment came at length to a close, Paul having
     been acquitted, probably because no witnesses appeared against
     him. Once more he set out on his missionary labours, probably
     visiting western and eastern Europe and Asia Minor. During this
     period of freedom he wrote his First Epistle to Timothy and his
     Epistle to Titus. The year of his release was signalized by the
     burning of Rome, which Nero saw fit to attribute to the
     Christians. A fierce persecution now broke out against the
     Christians. Paul was siezed, and once more conveyed to Rome a
     prisoner. During this imprisonment he probably wrote the Second
     Epistle to Timothy, the last he ever wrote. "There can be little
     doubt that he appered again at Nero's bar, and this time the
     charge did not break down. In all history there is not a more
     startling illustration of the irony of human life than this
     scene of Paul at the bar of Nero. On the judgment-seat, clad in
     the imperial purple, sat a man who, in a bad world, had attained
     the eminence of being the very worst and meanest being in it, a
     man stained with every crime, a man whose whole being was so
     steeped in every nameable and unnameable vice, that body and
     soul of him were, as some one said at the time, nothing but a
     compound of mud and blood; and in the prisoner's dock stood the
     best man the world possessed, his hair whitened with labours for
     the good of men and the glory of God. The trial ended: Paul was
     condemned, and delivered over to the executioner. He was led out
     of the city, with a crowd of the lowest rabble at his heels. The
     fatal spot was reached; he knelt beside the block; the
     headsman's axe gleamed in the sun and fell; and the head of the
     apostle of the world rolled down in the dust" (probably A.D.
     66), four years before the fall of Jerusalem.
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Paul, small; little
  

From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:

  Paul, ID (city, FIPS 61210)
    Location: 42.60644 N, 113.78239 W
    Population (1990): 901 (361 housing units)
    Area: 0.8 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
    Zip code(s): 83347

From U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000) [gaz-place]:

  Paul, ID -- U.S. city in Idaho
     Population (2000):    998
     Housing Units (2000): 430
     Land area (2000):     0.639989 sq. miles (1.657565 sq. km)
     Water area (2000):    0.012983 sq. miles (0.033626 sq. km)
     Total area (2000):    0.652972 sq. miles (1.691191 sq. km)
     FIPS code:            61210
     Located within:       Idaho (ID), FIPS 16
     Location:             42.606349 N, 113.783235 W
     ZIP Codes (1990):     83347
     Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
     Headwords:
      Paul, ID
      Paul