St Paul Paul Creator of Christianity?
Some time around 36 CE a zealous young man was on the road to Damascus.
He was set on hunting down and persecuting a new sect of Jewish people who were following the teachings of an executed criminal called Jesus. In a flash of miraculous light, however, his life and the history of Christianity was changed forever. This man was Saul of Tarsus, better known today as St Paul the Apostle.
The Book of Acts in the New Testament tells us that at the moment of his conversion Saul was “still breathing out threats against the Lord’s disciples.” Armed with letters from the high priest in Jerusalem he was travelling to Damascus to hunt for followers of Jesus in the synagogues there. Then “suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’”
Saul got up, blinded by his vision, and went to Damascus. After being divinely healed he was transformed from being one of the principle enemies of the Christians into one of its fiercest proselytisers. The conversion of St Paul was the original road to Damascus moment and after the resurrection of Jesus may have been
