Saul was a Pharisee, which means he was a teacher of the Jewish law and a religious leader for the people of Israel. He trained under a famous rabbi of his time, the respected and learned Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). He was born into the powerful tribe of Benjamin, spoke Hebrew as a first language, and according to his own testimony, was “faultless” in his observance of the law. We do not know if he ever met Jesus personally during Jesus’ earthly ministry, or if he was even in Israel during the time of Christ. He was born in what was known as the Diaspora (the dispersion of Jews outside Israel), in the city of Tarsus, and came to Jerusalem to train and be educated, probably as a teenager.