Who changed Shaul’s name to “Paul”?
Question: Who changed Shaul’s name to “Paul”?
Answer: Wherever we find in the Scripture that a name was given, we always find the reason and who did it, i.e. Elohim and His messengers, the patriarchs and even King Nebuchadnezzar who changed the names of Daniel and his companions.
We find the same pattern in the Apostolic Writings, i.e. giving the names of Yochanan (aka John the Baptist) and Yeshua the Messiah.
However, who changed the name of Apostle Shaul to the foreign name “Paul”? As a matter of fact, no one. The real name of the apostle is Shaul and there is no indication whatsoever that someone or the apostle himself changed this beautiful Hebrew name (Shaul, desired) to “Paul” (Greek, Pavlos).
In Christendom it is believed that the apostle’s name was changed after “the conversion” to Christianity on the road to Damascus, but who changed it, because we see no reference at all. Moreover, even after “the conversion”, Yeshua Himself continued to call him “Shaul”.
And neither Shaul nor the other apostles called themselves Christians. In Acts, Luke recorded that the first believers in Yeshua called themselves “Nazarenes” and their congregation “The Way” since their Messiah said, “I am the Way!”
The only reference of change we find is in Acts 13:9 KJV: “Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) …”, which by all means appears to be an interpolation into the text, but not by the author of Acts, Luke.
The change of the original Hebrew names with foreign substitutes is a part of the overall change of the Scripture to look more “Gentile”, i.e. Isaiah and Jesus, and Joshua and Jesus. While these “names” have nothing in common, in Hebrew Yeshayahu and Yehoshua have the same meaning “Yehovah saves” and the names of Mosheh’s disciple and the Messiah are actually one and the same: Yehoshua. Read more in the article “His Name is Yehoshua“. And the Creator’s Name is merely unknown to the Christians.
Also, Anglo-Saxon names such as James and Jude replaced the Hebrew names Ya’akov and Yehudah of Yeshua’s brothers. But, had the English translators needed to transliterate them, they would have used the common transliterations “Jacob” and “Judah”. But then the Messiah of Israel would have looked very “Jewish”.
So, who change the name of the apostles and all other names in the Scripture, but those who wanted to change the Scripture to make it look more and more “Gentile” and less and less Hebraic? Hence, to replace Israel with “the Church” and Messiah with “Christ” was just a step away.