Galatians 1:14

St Paul was always in earnest. In the acquisition of Rabbinic lore he outstripped most of those of his own age, not merely his fellow-disciples at Tarsus, and in the school of Gamaliel at Jerusalem (Acts 22:3), but in his own nation generally.

zealous Lit. a zealot (Acts 21:20). St Paul by birth and by early education was associated with the extreme party of the Pharisees, who were marked by their bigoted adherence to the traditional interpretations of the Old Testament, as distinct from the written text.

traditions of my fathers By -traditions" we must understand religious teaching and precept handed down orally from father to son, whether ultimately committed to writing or not. The word occurs twelve times in the N. T. and is always used in the Gospelsin a disparaging sense. Compare for example Matthew 15:6; Matthew 15:9; Mark 7:9; so Colossians 2:8.

In 1 Corinthians 11:2 (where it is rendered -ordinances") and in 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 2 Thessalonians 3:6, it refers to oral directions given by St Paul, of which some (as that contained in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2) were temporary and special, others subsequently embodied in writing.

Here St Paul is referring to the traditions which were held and transmitted by the -most straitest sect" of the Jewish religion (Acts 26:5). Similarly St Peter, addressing the Jews of the dispersion, who had embraced Christianity, reminds them that they had been redeemed from their vain manner of life, handed down by tradition from their fathers (1 Peter 1:18).