Biblical history · Acts & Early Church
Saul's Conversion on the Damascus Road
c. AD 34-35 Traditional dating
The church's chief persecutor is confronted by the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and becomes its most tireless missionary.
The event
Saul of Tarsus - a zealous Pharisee trained under the respected rabbi Gamaliel, and already notorious for dragging Christians out of their homes and off to prison - obtained letters from the high priest authorizing him to hunt down followers of "the Way" in the synagogues of Damascus (Acts 9:1-2). On the road there, a light from heaven flashed around him, he fell to the ground, and heard a voice: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" When Saul asked who was speaking, the answer came back: "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting" (Acts 9:4-5). Blinded by the encounter, Saul was led by the hand into the city.
For three days he neither ate nor drank, until a disciple named Ananias, obeying a direct vision from the Lord despite his understandable fear of Saul's reputation, laid hands on him, restored his sight, and baptized him. Saul immediately began proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God in the very synagogues he had come to purge of Christians, astonishing everyone who had heard of his reputation (Acts 9:19-22). Paul himself would later describe this encounter not as a gradual change of mind but as a direct, personal appearance of the risen Christ, placing it in the same category as the resurrection appearances to the other apostles (1 Corinthians 15:8; Galatians 1:15-16).
Whatever the precise year, the church has always recognized this moment as one of the most consequential in its history: the man who set out to destroy the church became the apostle who would plant it across the Roman world.
Dating
The exact year depends on unresolved questions about the length of Paul's subsequent stay in Arabia and Damascus (Galatians 1:17-18) and its alignment with the reign of the Nabatean king Aretas IV (2 Corinthians 11:32). Evangelical estimates generally range from the early to mid-30s AD.
Scripture references
- Acts 9:1-19
- Galatians 1:11-17
- 1 Corinthians 15:8
Further reading
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