oa De bekering van Paulus

*Dit artikel vormt een bewerkte versie van een college uit een reeks interdisciplinaire colleges over ‘bekering en godsdienstpolitiek’ gehouden aan de faculteit der Godgeleerdheid van de Universiteit Leiden in het najaar van 1998.

In the letters of Paul and in the book of Acts it is told that the apostle Paul once experienced an important change in his life, usually called his conversion. Both Luke and Paul consider this change primarily as a call from God (or Jesus Christ) to become an apostle, like the prophets of old who were called by God to proclaim his message. For the author of Acts this conversion was an important event in the history of the early Church: it paved the way for missionary activities among the Gentiles. Paul himself hardly ever speaks about his conversion. When he meets people who question his apostleship, he sometimes refers to Jesus Christ’s appearance to him and to the task that was assigned him by the Lord, viz. to proclaim the Gospel to all people, in particular to the Gentiles.