Saul vs Paul- What really happened?

Tonight I want to get a little bit "teachy", if you will, for I want to set the record straight. One of my favorite characters in the Bible is the Apostle Paul. I won't go into all my reasons for liking him now, but I do want to look at how it all started with him. First, the fallacy. I've heard many preachers tell the story of Saul, who presecuted the early Church, and one day, while on the road to Damascus, was met with a blinding light and Jesus himself confronted Saul, asking why Saul was persecuting him... Saul was blinded, led into the city, and for three days fasted until a Christ-follower named Ananias came and restored his sight. The preaching goes, that this was so life changing an event for Saul that he changed his name to Paul and became one of the greatest Apostles ever.

Wrong. The story is correct, until you get to the name-change part. That's not history, nor is it factual or Scriptural. Yes, it was a life-changing event, and yes Saul did ultimately be called Paul. But here's the scoop...

We need to go back to the beginning, to the Roman conquest of Israel. You see, when Rome would conquer a country, or a people, they would take many of those people and disperse them throughout the Roman Empire. The thinking was that, if dispersed, it would be more difficult for people to re-band together to rise up against Rome. So many Israelites were dispersed. Paul's parents were "Jews of the Diaspora", or "Jews of the Dispersion" if you will, and were dispersed to the city of Tarsus, in the Empire, where Paul was born. The Roman custom of the day was that a child have two names, (ie. Julius Cesear, Cesear Augustus, Mark Anthony),much as we do today. Because they lived in the Empire Paul's parents gave him two names; Saul Paulus, or Saul Paul. In Israel the custom was to just give a first name, and designate who you were by your parents (ie. John, son of Zebedee). When Paul came to Israel to persecute the Church he adopted the practice of using his first name, Saul, as was the custom. Later, When he left Israel and headed back out into the Empire he resumed using his surname, Paul, as was the custom...

If you read Acts you will see that after his confrontation on the road he was still called Saul. Indeed, he stayed in the city "many days" teaching and preaching as "Saul", and then spent a year teaching with Barnabas, again called Saul. It wasn't until chosen to go out into the Empitre with Barnabas, probably some two years after his conversion, that we see the name shift. On the Island of Crete, the first stop on Paul's first missonary journey, they landed as "Barnabas and Saul" and left "Paul and his companions". So that's the story. Perhaps not as exciting as preachers have made it out to be, but it's accurate, and it's the truth. Check it out for yourself- the story is much more facinating than my dry history lesson... Food for thought...