Philippians 3:5

Philippians 3:5. circumcised the eighth day, thus observing the outward ordinance at the very earliest moment that the law prescribes it. The parents of such a child must have been zealous for the law, and careful that their son should be made fully a partaker of the Abrahamic covenant,

of the stock of Israel. He mentions this that it may be clear that not only he but his parents were Jews. He was not of a father or mother who had come into the privileges of the chosen race as proselytes.

of the tribe of Benjamin. One of the two tribes which remained faithful to David's house, and therefore worthy of high estimation among the nation who looked back to David with so much pride.

a Hebrew of the Hebrews. By this he would mark the purity of his descent. All his race were Hebrews. He was born in Tarsus, away from the Holy Land, but there was no intermixture of other blood in his veins. We can judge that this was likely to be so when we find the son sent to study in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel. Only those persons who were very proud of and careful for the strict Jewish character of all belonging to them, would have sought to have their son placed under such a teacher away from their own home. We can see also how learned the apostle was in all that concerned his own people,

as touching the law, a Pharisee. He explains this (Acts 22:3) as ‘taught according to the strictness of the law of the fathers,' and again (Acts 26:5) tells us that his was the ‘most straitest sect of the Jewish religion.' And thus far he has spoken only of those distinctions as a Jew, which depended on others. His birth, family, and education were not in his own hands, but yet he could point to them as each one marking him for a privileged member of the chosen people. He now goes on to tell that his former zeal for Judaism did not disgrace such parentage and training.