[SeekAndFind]

I did not say Jesus changed Saul’s name to Paul.

I think Saul is his Hebrew name, while Paul is his Latin name which he uses for Gentiles in the Roman Empire.

Paul is from the Roman family name Paulus, which meant “small” or “humble” in Latin.

Saul on the other hand is from the Hebrew name Sha’ul which meant “asked for” or “prayed for”.

[Jvette]

I thought i may have misread the post. Sorry

[Verginius Rufus]

Paulus was a long-established cognomen in the patrician family of the Aemilii, though usually spelled Paullus with two L's. One Lucius Aemilius Paullus was killed in 216 at the battle of Cannae while consul for the second time.

Paul mentions some of his own relatives in Romans 16: Andronikos, Iounias, Herodion. The first two were Christians before he was, and were his fellow-prisoners. There is some uncertainty about the second name--a few manuscripts read "Ioulian" which would be the accusative of Julia. I suppose it could be either a man's name (Iounias = Junias) or a woman's name (Junia).

It would be interesting to know Paul's full Roman name--it might give a clue as to when his family acquired Roman citizenship. If his nomen was Junius, then it could mean an ancestor was rewarded with Roman citizenship by Marcus Junius Brutus, the tyrannicide, but that would be sheer speculation. If his nomen was Julius, the family could have been citizenship by Julius Caesar or by Augustus.