Two Names, One Man

Witness Seven in the investigation Spoken in Hebrew — back to the case.

The Claim

Pulpits teach that Saul of Tarsus received a new name when he was saved: “From Saul to Paul.” Some add that he chose Paulus, meaning “small,” as an act of humility. Neither idea comes from Luke. Scripture records a man who carried two names from birth, one Hebrew and one Roman, and a writer who used whichever fit the setting.

No Renaming on the Road

When Yahuah renames a man, Scripture says so, gives the new name, and usually gives the reason: Abram to Abraham (Genesis 17:5), Jacob to Israel (Genesis 32:28). Acts 9 has no speaker, no declaration, and no new name. Ananias greets him as “Brother Saul” (Acts 9:17), and Luke keeps calling him Saul for more than a decade of believing service (Acts 9:22, 26; 11:30; 13:1–2). Then, at Paphos:

ACTS 13:9 — KJV

Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) … set his eyes on him.

The Greek reads Saulos de, ho kai Paulos — “Saul, the one also Paul.” Ho kai is the ordinary formula for a man known by a second name. It does not say renamed. It says also.

Saoul and Saulos

The Greek text of Acts keeps two forms of the name. Luke’s own narration uses Saulos (G4569), the name with a Greek ending. But wherever someone speaks to him directly in his own tongue — the voice on the road (Acts 9:4; 22:7; 26:14) and Ananias (Acts 9:17; 22:13) — the text keeps Saoul (G4549), the bare Hebrew Sha’ul (H7586, “asked”). The risen Messiah never once addresses him as Paul. Witness Eight takes up what that voice reveals about the speech of heaven.

Why Paul at Paphos

Luke’s usage changes before Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul of Cyprus (Acts 13:7), where the mission turns outward to the Roman world. Paulos (G3972) is the Latin family name Paulus in Greek letters. Paul was born a Roman citizen (Acts 22:28), and a citizen of Jewish birth commonly carried a Latin name beside his Hebrew one. Saul of Benjamin carried Paulus for his dealings with Rome, and signed his letters to Roman cities with the name that world knew.

Where the Renaming Came From

The renaming story came from the Latin church fathers, more than three centuries after Acts. Jerome guessed that Saul took Paulus as a trophy of the proconsul’s conversion, while admitting that no Scripture records why. Augustine added that paulus means “little.” Both guesses assume a change Luke never records. “From Saul to Paul” is a sermon built on a parenthesis.

The Same Pattern Across the Assembly

Saul is not an exception. The writers repeatedly give a man’s Hebrew name and then a second name for the Greek or Roman reader:

• Joses, called Barnabas (Acts 4:36) — the Hebrew Yoseph with an Aramaic surname built on bar, “son,” which Luke interprets as “son of consolation.”

• Simeon, called Niger (Acts 13:1) — the Hebrew Shim’on with the Latin Niger, “black.” The same verse lists Manaen, the Hebrew Menachem, and ends with Saul, still called Saul.

• Thomas, called Didymus (John 11:16; 20:24; 21:2) — Thomas is the Hebrew ta’om (H8380), “twin” (Genesis 25:24), and Didymos is the Greek word for twin. John gives one word twice, once in the disciple’s tongue and once in the reader’s.

• Cephas, “which is by interpretation, A stone” (John 1:42); Tabitha, “which by interpretation is called Dorcas” (Acts 9:36); John, whose surname was Mark (Acts 12:12).

The Interpreted Title

The formula “which is, being interpreted” means the writer has stopped to translate. The most consequential instance is not a name but a title:

JOHN 1:41 — KJV

We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.

Messias (G3323) is the Hebrew Mashiach (H4899), “anointed”; Christos is the Greek word chosen to translate it. The disciples found the Mashiach, and John rendered it for Greek readers. A Greek author writing for Greeks has nothing to interpret. These texts keep stopping to translate because Hebrew is underneath them.

The Name That Is Coming

Scripture does promise a new name, but not on the Damascus road, and not by a translator’s hand:

REVELATION 2:17 — KJV

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

That name will need no interpreter.

One of eight witnesses in a single case. Two Names, One Man is the testimony of the names — the Hebrew names the writers kept and glossed for Greek readers, never replaced. The eight together make the case framed in the hub study, Spoken in Hebrew.