October 16: Acts 8-14

Not terribly insightful, but something I learned tonight is sorting out the "Name Game" of some of the "characters" of Acts.

John/Mark: John was his Jewish name and Mark was his Greek name. Like many people of the time, he used one or the other, depending on who he was dealing with. The man Barnabas and Saul took with them in Acts 12:25 is the "Mark" who wrote the second book of the New Testament (not the "John" who wrote the fourth). This man was Baranabas' cousin and son of the Mary who hosted church meetings in Acts 12:12.

Saul/Paul: Saul was his Jewish name and Paul was his Graeco-Roman name. When he was persecuting Christians, his Jewish name is used. Some say this name meant "great one" in Hebrew, which accurately described his ego at the time. Following the mention of both names in Acts 13:9, he is called Paul through the rest of the book of Acts. He used his Greek name in his missions, maybe because he often talked of being God's missionary to the Gentiles, maybe because some say the name Paul infers "little humble one" in Greek and he chose to use the name that reflected his changed heart (or even his stature). I had always thought that his name changed during his conversion on the road to Damascus, that it was a direct quote from God, like when God said to Simon "you are Peter, an on this rock I will build my church" in Matthew 16:18. But I can find no such evidence that the conversion dictated the conversion from "Saul" to "Paul". It was a conversion of his heart, not his name, as far as I can tell.

Can anyone shed more light on this?