PAUL, A WARRIOR OF THE LAW.

This Jewish Pharisee is first encountered in the Book of Acts under his Hebrew name Saul (Acts 7).
He was born in Tarsus in Cilicia which was in Asia Minor (modern Turkey), and raised inside the home of a very devout Jewish family from the Tribe of Benjamin. Paul's father was a Jew but must have been given Roman citizenship, for paul later made use of the fact he was a Roman citizen by birth and therefore had the right to be tried under the Roman rights. (Acts 22).
According to the Jewish way of life, every teacher, including the highly educated religious leaders, were expected to have a trade to work at. Paul had also been taught a craft by his father. He was a tent maker (Acts 18), and from time to time mention is made of how he worked to support himself. (1Cor.4; 2Thess.3; etc). There is ample evidence in these and other passages that Paul worked as much as he could, only because he did not want to be a burden or impose any burden on those among whom he wished to proclaim an absolutely "Free Gospel."(1 Cor.9). He propably sought to avoid being regarded as just another roaming teacher, given the way that traveling teachers and philosophers did in his time, often expecting people to support them with food and finances.
Paul was so zealous for the Law of God that he traveled to Jerusalem in his early teenage years, to study the Law under a famous teacher called Gamaliel. Paul later spoke to Jewish leaders of that time: "Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers an was just as zealous for God as any of you are today." (Acts 22).
Paul, now being a highly educated religious person that received a careful instruction in the Jewish law at a very early age, also having been taught to be fluent in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, and having such a universally acceptable trade that let him travel widely without any financial problem, decided to join the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were one of the 3 Jewish groups, along with the Saducees and Essenes, that were on scene when Paul was growing up. The name was applied to a movement which grew out of the Maccabean era composed of religious leaders and students of the Law who tried to create an elaborate system of oral legislation and interpretation of the Scripture to enable the faithful Jew to obey and apply God's commandments, ordinances and statutes in every area of life. Originally pious reformers, they were generally well-respected by the less zealous Jews. They viewed Rome as an illegitimate, oppressive government which blocked Israel from receiving her divinely ordained blessing of freedom and peace in their land. Later the Talmudic tradition described 7 classes of Pharisees, according to the motivation for their behavior, and only one of the seven is said to act out of Love.
Paul is referred to as a "young man" at the time of Stephen's stoning, and, for a spiritual reason, he is first noted in Acts, watching people's clothing as the crowds stoned Stephen to death for his faith and commitment to Christ, and his desire to promote the Good News. Saul was there, and because of his adherence to the Mosaic Law, he was seen as one giving approval to Stephen's death. (Acts 7).
Stephen was deeply involved in the whole church growth movement, particularly in the expansion of the church from Jerusalem to Antioch (Acts 6-12). His message was accompanied by forceful demonstrations of the power of God which enabled him to perform "great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. His message also arouse opposition from conservative Jewish sources who were suspicious of the new Christian movement and jealous of Stephen's evident "wisdom of the Spirit." They instigated a campaign to convict Stephen of serious charges of blasphemy against Moses and against God. Mobilizing the crowd against him by utilizing the evidence of false witnesses, they secured his arrest by twisting his glowing testimony for Christ into something sinister and hostile to Mosaic authority.
Stephen's speech to the council is a remarkable review of Jewish history and a bold defense of the Chriatian Faith before his accusers.