Did the Apostle Paul participate in sports?

I don't think there is any evidence either way. In fact, depending on what his "thorn in the flesh" actually was, and when he received it, he may have been unable to do so.

 

The ISBE has a nicely done article about Paul that never mentions any athletic endeavors.

 

Paul uses a lot of athletic metaphors, but he also uses an equal amount of construction metaphors---and before I forget, he has not a few military metaphors.

 

...also the use of these mataphors does not mean he partook in these activities. He could have only been a huge sports fan...which makes me like him even more

 

I tend to agree. Paul was no doubt an eclectic fellow.

 

Though he may not have participated in sports as we know them, he was careful of his body.
This statement was regarding his physical body:
"I keep my body under subjection."

1 Timothy 4:8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
--There is an obvious comparison here. The emphasis is on Godliness. However he is not saying that there is no profit to bodily exercise, just in comparison to Godliness it is little, but there is profit in it.

In light of that Paul must have exercised his body.

Having said that, he probably got more exercise than us all with the missionary journeys that he went on crossing hundreds of miles by land mostly walking, no doubt.

 

My new personal verse for the new year... :laugh:

 

I agree that Paul would have been a fit fellow, given those missionary journeys, and then, all the misfortunes to his physical body that he endured and survived (2 Cor 11).

 

Are you sending a message, Webdog? :smilewinkgrin:

 

To be stoned, left for dead, and then get up and continue on as if nothing had happened--I don't think I could do that.

 

Paul, indeed, was a tough brother and no doubt physically fit.

 

Yes, the apostle Paul participated in sports.

He was a runner and a boxer.
1Cr 9:26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:

He was a walker.
Rom 13:13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

He was competative and tenacious.
Phl 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

He was humble.
Eph 3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

He was a WINNER!
2Ti 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith:



Yes, Paul was a sportsman par excellence!

 

If he did, I bet he was a sore loser. He didn't take failure well. He and I might have killed each other over a game of horseshoes or chess.

 

Good stuff, Amy. You have definitely made your case. :thumbs:

 

Since sporting events were in the honor and worship of the gods, we know the Hebrews abstained, and it's hardly fitting than an Apostle of Christ would have been a patron.