SAUL THE CONVERT

The period occupied by the events described in the preceding chapter extended over some eighteen months. In the interval Saul had, after his recovery from the shock of his conversion, retired for a brief period to the Arabian desert. Here he adjusted his old beliefs to the new light vouchsafed to him on the Damascus road. The result of his conversion was to set at the disposal of the Church a force differing entirely in character from anything it had previously possessed. Hitherto the direction of the new movement had lain with unlearned and ignorant men, or at best with men whose only learning lay within the limits of the traditional Judaism of Palestine. For a brief period indeed Stephen had endeavoured to put forward an interpretation of the new revelation which might make it universal and not merely local in its scope; but he had never held a recognized position as a teacher of the new sect, and his activities had been too shortlived to modify the general outlook of Palestinian Christianity. Nor had his somewhat irresponsible interpretation of the Jewish Scriptures been of such a kind as to provide a solid basis for the development of the new creed. In Saul the Church had found a champion who could combine the orthodox learning of Judaism with the wisdom of the Gentile as it was understood by the Hellenist.