After leaving the church, I’ve always found Saul/Paul’s conversion story a bit suspect. So you mean to tell me that you’re just out on the road one day, going from town to town persecuting Jesus-cultists, and a beam of light from heaven strikes you and tell you that what you actually need to do is join the Jesus-cultists, but spend the rest of your life assiduously walking back every radical thing they believe? Suuuure. I think maybe ol’ Saul just saw a movement with a power vacuum at the top and thought he should be one to fill it.
Well the character “Jesus” is so clearly a continuation / rewrite of solar deity characters I think Paul must have had some task to “sell” it, but who/why/how I can’t speculate.
After leaving the church, I’ve always found Saul/Paul’s conversion story a bit suspect. So you mean to tell me that you’re just out on the road one day, going from town to town persecuting Jesus-cultists, and a beam of light from heaven strikes you and tell you that what you actually need to do is join the Jesus-cultists, but spend the rest of your life assiduously walking back every radical thing they believe? Suuuure. I think maybe ol’ Saul just saw a movement with a power vacuum at the top and thought he should be one to fill it.
Well the character “Jesus” is so clearly a continuation / rewrite of solar deity characters I think Paul must have had some task to “sell” it, but who/why/how I can’t speculate.