Saul / Paul And A Midlife Crisis

[HoustonHorn]

I've had this thought running through my head for the past few days and wanted to get some opinions on it. And if my theology is off, please correct it. I'm going off memory of Sunday school lessons.

 

Saul who opressed Christians, became Paul who helped spread Christianity. This guy is one of the Christian "success stories". The thinking is that if somebody as bad as Saul can convert to Christianity then Jesus is willing to accept anybody.

 

First problem, and not directly to my question. Why, if Saul was so strongly converted from his bad ways, would he change his name? It seems that it would be stronger testimony if other people who knew of him as Saul could see the conversion. This is probably something mentioned in the Bible in one of those verses that I never got to.

 

What I'm picturing is a middle-aged man who has been opressing a group of people his whole life. Saul's midlife crisis hits and since he can't go out and buy a Corvette he looks internally to see what his life has been. He decides that he's been a bad person and goes out and becomes "Christian".

 

Ok, so that probably happens to a lot of people. What I have a problem with is that this guy is credited with writing much of the Bible. Picture Saddam Hussein writing an autobiography. Compare that to an Kurd writing Hussein's biography. They would certainly portray him in different views. It seems that the same thing would happen with Paul writing books of the Bible. He would write in such a way that he would look better. It's human nature. We tend to overlook our flaws and magnify our positive attributes.

 

Or, Saul and Paul could be two different people

[All Gods Fail]

Interesting ideas, HoustonHorn. Saul/Paul as 2 different people - I like it!

 

Need lots of convincing evidence, tho.

[DanInPA]

I don't know how credible this author (Dr. Michael Conley) is, but his essay is interesting:

 

Is it possible that Paul, John and Ignatius were contemporaries?