There is so much depth that highlights
can only hint at. Paul’s pre-conversion zeal was based on the examples of
Phinehas (Numbers 25:7-9) and Elijah (1 Kings 18:40). Psalm 106:30-31 says that
Phinehas’ slaying of the brazenly apostate Israelite was reckoned to him as
righteousness. Wright points to the
likelihood that young Saul took these to mean that the slaying of unrepentant
backsliding Jews was how to deal with early Christians. (Acts 7:58). This was
the mindset of Saul when confronted by Christ on the Damascus road.
Considering Paul’s life in
chronological order, pulling the Acts and the epistles together, gives us clues
to Paul’s interior life, and to events not reported by Luke. The author expends
considerable effort on events in Ephesus not recorded by Luke, in which Paul
experienced such grievous trials that he despaired of life. The evidence comes
from Paul’s own words. The impact on Paul’s outlook on life, ministry, and
writing style suggests that this was a significant event. He learned a new
aspect of walking with Jesus: His faithfulness in the darkest trials, and being
so weak that he had no strength of his own, and was totally dependent on the
Lord.
It is hard for us to grasp how hard it
was for Jews of Paul’s time to accept the idea of a crucified Messiah. Paul
could not, until he met Him. When he preached to Jews, he emphasized continuity
with the history, prophecy, and promises of the Jewish scriptures. But it was a
hard sell to convince Jews, who expected a conquering hero to set the world
right by force, that God had worked more powerfully in Jesus by defeating evil
spiritual powers through His crucifixion and resurrection. Paul preached that
they needed to experience that power personally, and when writing to churches,
reminded them of their own experience with Christ.
The impact of Paul’s life is hard to
overestimate. He personally travelled to innumerable cities, preached Christ,
established churches, and demonstrated by his own life how a Christian lives.
And then he wrote letters that have shown two millennia of believers not only
the doctrines of the church, but also how to think about faith, religion, and
life in a holistic framework. If nothing else, N. T. Wright’s biography awakens
the reader with an appreciation of all that God did through Paul, in
fulfillment of Acts 9:16.