Ecrasez L'infame

Hi.

I've got a vague memory in some god-forsaken attic of my brain that Paul of Tarsus had a sister, and that it was for her wedding that he went to Jerusalem as a young man. Don't know whether this was in Apocrypha, oral tradition, scholarly deduction or just something Dan Brown made up while on drugs - whichever, I can't find it anywhere in any of the usual places. Has anyone heard anything like that? Or, more generally - anything about Paul's family? (Rufus and his mother?)

I'm interested in traditions - not biographical facts as such (of which I suspect there aren't any). What is possible, rather than what is certain.

Thanks

Robert

Toto

Acts 23:16 refers to the son of Paul's sister in Jerusalem. This implies that she was married, so there was undoubtedly a wedding, and Paul must have attended - but that's as far as one can go.

Ecrasez L'infame

Uh-huh, think before you post: I've just noticed Acts 23:16 is "the son of the sister" in Gk, not "nephew" as my crappy CEV has it. That seems to be the blood-sense of "sister". So according to Acts the sister exists, she had a grown but still young son of credibility, and therefore she was married over twenty years earlier... possibly AD 35? That makes her born after AD 15. That seems a bit late - usually Paul is taken to be born around the turn of the era, and 10-15 or more years between siblings seems too much in those days. Having said that, I myself am inclined to take Paul being a "young man" at the death of Stephen seriously - which maybe makes his birth as late as AD 10, and fits in better.

Edit: Sorry, Toto - our posts crossed.

Gamera

Some scholars speculate (based on his apparent unpleasant view of marriage and his social status) that Paul was married, but was divorced. I believe you'll find this in Wilson's Paul, the Mind of the Apostle, or Pollock's
The Apostle: A Life of Paul, which isn't very scholarly.

JEST2ASK

Who is Rufus ?

MortalWombat

He's the guy from San Dimas in 2688 who went back in time to help Bill and Ted stay on the correct path.

gstafleu

To complicate things, sister was often used in the non sibling sense. E.g.
Now what is sneakily translated as "believing wife" here is in Greek αδελφην γυναικα, "sister as wife." So maybe if Paul went to his sisters wedding, it was his own .

BTW, re another thread, these "the Lord's brothers" (οι αδελφοι του κυριου) are probably not all Jesus siblings but brethern of James, the brother of the Lord (ο αδελφοs του κυριου).