I’m reading the book of Acts right now with an eye toward studying Paul: his movements and his teachings according to Luke. I’ll carry this along for the first little bit here in 2025. For the purposes of clarity, I will use the name “Paul” when writing about this figure, although Luke uses the name “Saul” in these early chapters.

Then they cast [Stephen] out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

Acts 7:58, 8:1-4

This is how we are first introduced to Paul in Luke’s narrative. He is present at the stoning of Stephen, which appears to be an act of mob violence. The Sanhedrin could not carry out the death sentence, as in the case of Jesus — which is why He was sent before Pilate for Roman sentencing.

This means that Stephen’s death was basically a lynching.

And Paul approved.

As N.T. Wright has noted, Paul was a young man of considerable zeal. This might be one of his most pronounced lifelong qualities.

We know from Paul’s own testimony in Acts 22:20 that this event had a profound effect on him.

Unlike his teacher, Gamaliel, Paul refused to seek compromise in matters of spiritual fidelity. If the old order was to be preserved, this new group must die, along with their claims of a resurrected Messiah.

When it says that Paul sought to ravage the church, the word is literally “destroy.” Some speculate that Paul was part of the Freedman’s Synagogue mentioned in Acts 6:9, those who argued against Stephen yet failed to best his Spirit-inspired wisdom. In Acts 6:11, we see that these men secretly persuaded some to make false accusations against Stephen. If this was the case, it would be easy to imagine the same “secret persuaders” inciting the mob to stone Stephen later.

The Greek word used to describe Paul’s ravaging of the church is used in the LXX (the Greek translation of the OT) to speak of wild beasts (such as lions and bears) tearing at raw flesh. This is the vigor with which Paul terrorizes the church. He caused so much persecution that the church is said to have experienced “peace” at his conversion (Acts 9:31).

But we’re a long way from there at the outset of Acts 8. Believers scatter in fear because of Paul’s murderous threats.

But Acts 8:4 reveals God’s divine sovereignty: Those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word.

Even as Paul acts to take the lives of believers, his actions serve to further the mission of God, the mission to which Jesus will later call him: the spread of the gospel. This is not to say that God “caused” the deaths of these believers or the hardship of those whose lives were disrupted, only that we should see His redemptive hand at work. The word describing the dispersal of these believers (diaspiero) comes from the Greek word for “seed.” These believers were scattered as seed, but even scattered seeds grow.

Ironically, the persecution of these believers only led to further increase.

Still, this picture of Paul is a somber, bloodthirsty one: breaking and entering into people’s homes to arrest those he considers to be heretical. Zealous, indeed.

But in order for this seed to grow and bear God’s intended fruit, it must — like all seeds — be buried.