The Completion of King Saul in Acts

Abstract

The thesis of this article is that Acts’ account of Paul is intended to subsume and revise the story of King Saul to show that spiritual transformation is only possible after Jesus. This objective is achieved by three means: Paul’s name change from Saul to Paul (Acts 13.9), an allusion to a doublet in Samuel (1 Sam. 24 and 26; cf. Acts 9, 22, 26) and the narrative’s treatment of Saul’s reign (Acts 13.21-22). King Saul in the book of Acts, contrary to the predominant view (Augustine; S. Chapman; R. Pervo), does not prefigure the rejection of Jesus but serves as a crucial illustration of the limits of rejuvenation in the time before Christ.

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