Although Paul became the apostle to the Gentiles, he never forgot his Jewish heritage and refers to this in many ways in his letters. In Philippians 3:5-6, he says this of his early life: 'I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pureblooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee, and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault.'

The foundations of his theological understanding were firmly laid in the faith of the devout Jew, in the belief that there was one holy and righteous God, who had chosen Israel to be his special people and who had revealed his will to his people in the Law and, through the prophets, had promised them a Messiah. The language he used in his letters continually reflected this early background. However, his early life in the immigrant Jewish community of Tarsus prepared him for his future work among the Gentiles. He spoke Greek and read the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures, as can be seen from many references to these in his letters. He knew what life was like outside Palestine. When meeting with the different peoples who were all given the name 'Gentil his great task was of interpretation for them of what Jesus Christ done for them, in their Gentile situation. Paul did not try, like some the Jerusalem Christians, first to turn the Gentiles into Jews before t became Christians; but his debt to Judaism remained and provided foundation on which his later great insights developed.