Paul 1.7

A trip to from Antioch to Jerusalem by foot would take over two weeks. So after some deliberation, we decided to go by boat along the coast. We found a grain ship on its way back to Alexandria and paid the captain to allow us to come on board. This route would also allow us more anonymity than if we traveled by foot down the coast or inland through Damascus.

After fourteen years, I doubted that the Arabs were still looking for my arrest in the area of Damascus, but wisdom still urged caution. Christ had first revealed himself to me when I was on my way there from Jerusalem. After Stephen was dead, a significant number of Greek-speaking believers founded a strong assembly of the Way there. The Sanhedrin wanted to arrest some of them for various reasons. Some of them were stirring up rebellion in Judea, teaching that Christ was going to return to destroy Herod's temple and all the "sons of darkness" associated with it. The Sadducees watched this type of zealot very carefully.

Meanwhile, many Pharisees believed that the Jesus sect was only increasing God's wrath against Israel with this "foolish talk" that God had allowed His Messiah to be crucified. Gamaliel, being the grandson of the great Pharisee Hillel, predictably urged us to let God take care of it. But I found myself more and more drawn to the School of Shammai, who wanted to take action. Their school seemed more and more in the ascendency those days, and I thought it more to my political advantage to join them in their cause.