Question:

Did Saul /Paul ever kill anyone when he was in pursuit of Christians or did he just have them jailed before his conversion?

Answer:

To be honest, I am not sure why it would matter whether he did or did not actually kill any individuals.  What I can say for sure is that he did approve of the arrest and killing of Christians.  I know this because Acts 7:60 mentions this fact.  Paul pursued disciples all the way to Damascus, with the intent of jailing them and probably of killing them (Acts 9:1 which mentions “murderous threats”).  We can assume that this was not his first involvement in arresting believers and we can assume that, although he may not ever have been the one to actually throw stones, he was a ringleader behind people being killed.  My thought on this is that it is fairly likely that such a highly important teacher and pharisee as Paul probably would not get his hands “dirty” actually killing people.   It is more likely that he saw to the deed happening and let others do it for him.  Like I already said, whether he did the actual killing or only instigated or approved of it does not seem to matter all that much for us.  Paul considered himself “the worst of sinners.”  We can assume that his violent attacks on disciples of Jesus (whether he actually did the violent acts or not) were part of the  reason Paul felt he was “the worst of sinners.”

John Oakes