Born Saul of the tribe of Benjamin about the same time as The Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, Paul was approximately the same age as Jesus.
SAUL OF TARSUS
Paul was a Jew from Tarsus an important city that had a strategic mountainous military position that grew to about 500,000 people that was part of the silk route - ACTS 21:39.
PAUL'S PEDIGREE
Paul referred to himself as a Hebrew son of Hebrews (meaning both sides of the family were Hebrew and was raised in a true Hebrew subculture based on the Torah and the Talmud tradition), an Israelite and a seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin with dual citizenship with Rome - 2 Corinthians 11:22, Romans 11:1, Philippians 3:3-5, Acts 22:25-29.
Ironically this very Jewish Jew was called to be an Apostle to the Gentiles - Galatians Chapter 2.
EDUCATION
Paul was able to speak, read and write Hebrew. Probably spoke Greek, Aramaic and most definitely Hebrew. He had almost all the Old Testament memorized and because he grew up in Tarsus he was also familiarized with the days leading Philosophers.
HOUSE OF THE BOOK
Jewish education was the very first public education which happened around the 5th or 6th BC. In the first century Hebrew children were taught at the age of 5 or 6. They had classes 5 days a week. The goal at this stage was called Bet Sefer (House of the book) to read, write and memorize the Torah (The first five books of Moses called the Pentateuch) by the age of 10. Those who excelled were invited into Stage two which was called Bet Talmud.
HOUSE OF THE LEARNING
Bet Talmud (House of Learning) Which lasted about five years (from 11 to about 15 years of age) main focus was to memorize, question and answered with a question to not just prove they know the text but to show they understood what was memorized. Those who excelled at this stage were invited to the next level - Bet Midrash.
HOUSE OF STUDY
Bet Midrash (House of Study), this is an apprenticeship phase to become a Rabbi, and the study of the Tanakh, which consist of the Torah (the Law), Nevi'im (the Prophets), and the Ketuvim (the writings). It is actually an acronym derived from the names of the three divisions or sections of the Hebrew Bible - The Pentateuch, The Prophets and the Writings.
In Jewish culture it was considered to be a great honor to be invited to be a disciple of a rabbi. By this stage the rabbi put the candidate through a grueling exam that took several days even sometimes a week, to be accepted and hear the Jewish idiom - FOLLOW ME.
In Paul's day there were two great teachers called "Rabban" (Our master/teacher in contemporary terms - a grand master ) They were Gamaliel who taught tolerance and Shammai who was more of a strict fundamentalist that Paul would gravitate toward right before his conversion but Paul "sat at the feet of Gamaliel" the grandson of Hillel, a renowned, Jewish teacher who established one of the two main schools of thought in 1st century Pharisaic Judaism. SEE Acts 22:3.