The Upside-Down Pilgrimage: Saul’s Journey to Damascus

Saul of Tarsus did not intend to be a pilgrim when he set off to go from Jerusalem to Damascus. Indeed, why would any pilgrim make that journey? Pilgrims went to Jerusalem, not away from it. No: Saul, of course, intended to make other people into pilgrims, whether they wanted it or not. He was going to Damascus, a journey of about 150 miles as the road goes, as a matter of religious and zealous duty. He knew that in Damascus there were some Jews who had given their allegiance to a strange new teaching that was threatening, as he saw it, the very essence of Judaism.

…But of course…