Paul was a Jewish apostle to the Gentiles. He often self-identified with his "fellow Jews" (Rom 11:14), his "kinsmen according to the flesh (Rom 9:3). He was a "descendant of Abraham" (Rom 11:1; cf. 2 Cor 11:22), "a Hebrew of Hebrews" (Phil 3:5). Being a Pharisee (a group that numbered relatively few), Paul might have viewed himself as even more Jewish than the elders in Jerusalem. - John P. Harrigan, Extending Mercy to the Gentiles. p.193