Lucius[1] Sergius Paulus or Paullus was a Proconsul of Cyprus under Claudius (1st century AD). He appears in Acts 13:6-12, where in Paphos, Paul, accompanied by Barnabas and John Mark, overcame the attempts of Bar-Jesus (Elymas) "to turn the proconsul away from the faith" and converted Sergius to Christianity.
Archaeology
A boundary stone of Claudius mentioning Sergius was discovered at Rome in 1887.[2] It records the appointment (AD 47) of the Curators of the banks and the channel of the river Tiber, one of whom was Sergius. Since Paul's journey to Cyprus is usually dated to the first half of the 40s (and some scholars date his visit even earlier), it is thought Sergius may have first served three years as Proconsul at Cyprus, then returned to Rome, where he was appointed curator of the Tiber.[3] Another inscription was discovered in 1887 at Soli, Cyprus, by Luigi Palma di Cesnola which mentions a proconsul Paulus.[4] This inscription was dated to the middle of the 1st century by D.G. Hogarth.[5]Terence Mitford noted that based on epigraphic grounds the inscription cannot be dated earlier than this and is probably considerably later.[6] As he is not greeted in Paul's Epistle to the Romans, it is possible he died before it was written.[2]
Context
Writing in the 4th century, Jerome speculated that Saul of Tarsus had been renamed Paul (Paulus) because he had converted Sergius Paulus to Christianity:
"For as Scipio assumed the name of Africanus for himself when Africa was subjugated...so also Saulus, who was sent to preach to the nations, brought back from the initial spoils of the church, the proconsul Sergius Paulus, the trophy of his victory, and he raised a standard so that he was called Paulus."[7]
^"In passing, it may be noted that it is far from certain that the Sergius Paulus of the Acts bore the praenomen Lucius. One L. Sergius Paulus was under Claudius curator alvei Tiberis and therefore an ex-consul (Dessau, 5926). That he is to be identified with the proconsul of Cyprus is at best a conjecture, now somewhat weakened by Myres' reading of IGR iii, 935." T. B. Mitford, "Notes on Some Published Inscriptions of Roman Cyprus"Annals of the British School at Athens, 42 (1947), p. 206 n. 22
^However, Jack P. Lewis, Historical Backgrounds of Bible History (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1971), 153, suggests that Sergius held the curatorship of the Tiber before going to Cyprus.
^di Cesnola, Luigi Palma (1877). Cyprus: It's Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples. John Murray. p. 229.
^Hogarth, D.G. (1889). Devia Cypria. Henry Frowde. p. 115.