Others have supposed that he simply chose a name better known in the wider non-Jewish world, shared even by the governor in the present story. Like most Roman citizens, Saul/Paul would have had more than one name, and it is quite possible that he already possessed the name “Paul” and simply switched within available options. It is worth noting as well, however, that in Aristophanes, known to most schoolboys in the Greek world, the word saulos was an adjective meaning “mincing,” as of a man walking in an exaggeratedly effeminate fashion. One can understand Paul’s not wishing to sport that label
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