DeConick A.D

118
PAUL AND GNOSTIC DOGMA
he describes as a transcendent moment when he knew the Messiah Jesus
as his lord (Philippians 3:8).
This direct knowledge of God was so potent for Paul that he came
to regard everything about his former life in Judaism as skubalon . When
the traditional English translations of Philippians 3:8 render this word as
“rubbish,” they hide the true impact of Paul’s remark. Skubalon is the
Greek word for “crap” or “shit.” Paul’s use of the word in this letter is
intentionally offensive and vulgar. It is a transgressive move for Paul when
he pitches his previous life as a Jew as nothing more to him now than shit
(see Gala tians 2:18).
Paul considered himself a changed man, not just by a matter of degree
but entirely. Communicating the gnosis (knowledge) of Jesus the Messiah
as YHWH’s manifestation becomes his life’s passion and obsession. His
life as a Pharisee and constable for the high priest collapses, and in its place
he hits the road as an extreme Jesus devotee, working as both a preacher
and a tent maker. Paul was convinced that he had been chosen by God,
even before he was born, to receive the revelation of Jesus the Messiah
and to proclaim this knowledge to the non-Jews (Galatians 1:15–16).
According to Luke’s account of Paul’s revelation in Acts, the vision
was so blinding that Paul had to be led by the hand the rest of the way to
Damascus. For three days he could not see or eat or drink. He eventually
ended up in the company of a disciple of the Wayfarers hiding in Damascus,
Ananias, who cured his blindness, baptized him in Jesus’ name, and
fed him (Acts 9:17–19).
Paul is instructed about nascent Christianity from the point of view of
the non-Jewish faction, which was questioning the validity and necessity
of the Jewish law. He also is taught an early creed, “that Christ died for
our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was
raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures” (1 Corinthians
15:3–4).
Paul tags along with the Jesus devotees to the synagogues, for worship,
but then makes a point of talking to those attending the synagogue
about Jesus the Messiah. Paul was publicly vocal about his convictions. So
transgressive was his message that he soon found himself in conflict with
the Jewish community in Damascus—so much conflict that he had to be
sneaked out of the city, lowered in a basket through a hole in the city wall
to avoid arrest and execution (Acts 9:19–25; 2 Corinthians 11:32–33).