No. 2. >> Thank you very much. The insights to the early days of the New Testament are extremely intriguing. Would you be willing to say a little more about the personality of Paul? >>DR. ARTHUR A. JUST, JR.: David, thank you for that. Because I think we sometimes forget that the apostles were real people. That they had personalities. That they were just like us. They had various aspects to their being that are really represented in the New Testament if you read it carefully and if you kind of read between the lines. One of the things that is very clear in our culture today with the DaVinci Code and the document now on Judas is there were other documents written in the first and second centuries about the church. Many of which are not accepted by the church. What is in our canon is what the church felt was what God wanted us to have as the inerrant rent Word of God. But that doesn't mean that some of these documents don't reflect a certain level of truth and reality. One of the things that's important to recognize about the ancient world is that a person's appearance oftentimes was an indicator to them of a person's character. For example, if somebody had a large hooked nose, that was considered a mark of shrewdness. Or if somebody was bald, what I like to say folically challenged, that person was considered wise. Or if a person was of small stature, they were considered weak. Now, there are various things in which you can read in the First Century about outward appearance that indicates a certain kind of character. Now, if you look at the ancient world, especially the Roman world, look at the statuary. Look at the athletic contests. There was a picture in the Roman world of what kind of the perfect human specimen was like. These were very well built men. Men who clearly were handsome in appearance. And these were considered almost gods. Paul was not a great human specimen. We believe that he was a short man. He was bald supposedly according to the documents that talk about Paul outside the New Testament. He had a hook nose. He had a very thin neck. And a very large head. A large head indicated great intelligence. And he had large bulging eyes. He was very small in stature. And this in many ways is the most significant thing. And we actually can sense this from Paul, especially if you read the letters to the Corinthians. Paul's voice was not a winsome voice. It was not a voice that attracted people. It was a very high pitched voice. Very shrill. So it didn't have that kind of mellifluous sort of sound you would expect from somebody on public radio, for example. So when somebody saw Paul, they were not impressed necessary. Although, they saw him as a wise, shrewd intelligent man. Which he was. So when Paul walked into a church or walked into a city, people were not immediately struck by his appearance. This is important. When Paul talks about the superlative apostles -- and there were many people who were traveling around the ancient world trying to attract people to their position -- Paul did not immediately attract people by his outward appearance. And yet here is the key: There was something about Paul. There was something about his character. There was something about his passion for the Gospel. There was something about his confession, his conviction of the truth, that attracted people to him. And not only attracted people to him. But attracted them in such a way that they became fiercely loyal to him. so that they would follow him even into death just as Paul followed our Lord into death. I think Paul's voice actually was an advantage. I don't know if you realize this but if you have a very deep voice it's hard for you in a crowd or with a lot of outside noise to be heard. But a very high pitched voice is a voice that can carry. And Paul's voice carried. And people actually were attracted to him even despite his voice. The other thing about Paul -- and this is very important -- is that Paul would not have been considered in our culture to be a nice guy. Paul was a hard man. Paul took no prisoners when it came to the truth. And he was courageous enough to even get into the face of the apostle Peter as we're going to see in Galatians 2 if the truth was being compromised. Paul did not compromise on the truth. And he had such courage of conviction that he was able to withstand any kind of persecution or beating. He was able to stand up to anybody who challenged the truth of the Gospel. Now, that courage is rare. I think you do see it in Peter. And I'm going to point that out when we talk about the Book of Acts. And I think you see it in such people like Luther. But God raises up great men and women in the course of history in order to promote the preaching of the Gospel and its spread throughout the world. Certainly in the First Century there is no more significant figure than the Apostle Paul. In his character, his personality, his courage, his passion, his desire that the Gospel be spread even beyond Israel to the Gentiles is one of the reasons why many of us are here today. There would be no Gentile church if it were not for the Apostle Paul. And almost all Christians today do not have Jewish roots. We are all Gentiles in a sense. And we owe our presence in the great Christian church because of the Apostle Paul.