PREFACE

Years have already passed by and memory is failing earlier than I thought. It might be that my brain is not big enough to record everything I have lived, experienced and seen. Better to write it down before I lose recollection of them.

I never saw Jesus of Nazareth but I am one of his witnesses. My name is Saulus from Tarsus, the same Mediterranean city where Mark Anthony and Cleopatra fell in love. Even though my family is Jewish, from the tribe of Benjamin (and I am circumcised) I am a Roman citizen. My parents used to live in Gischala on the northeastern slopes of Mount Hebron and I recall the white color of that fertile soil tied to my childhood memories. My parents always considered education in high respect and sent me to study Halakha and Jewish Philosophy at The House of Hillel in Jerusalem. I boarded there. I was educated as a Pharisee under Gamaliel, the Elder, a leader authority in the Sanhedrin at the time and grandson of Hillel, the Elder. While at the House of Hillel I also learned the art of tentmaker that helped me gain my living wherever I went.

Well, that’s a very short paragraph about myself. I am not the main character of this recollection but Jesus of Nazareth, the so-called Messiah.

I never had the chance to meet him personally. On the contrary, I was glad I never met him. I felt outrageously furious for what his disciples were doing around the small villages in Israel. Preaching his teachings and what they called “the good news” somehow clashed with my education and beliefs. I had to put an end to all this nonsense! I began to persecute, send to jail, and even put to death to his followers (a)

But then, something happened at noon, on a bright sunny morning, on my way to Damascus, following a lead regarding some of these new preachers, having letters from the Temple Authorities in order to get them arrested and punished. I saw a light, brighter than the sun, above my head. I was blinded by the light and heard a voice... I know our minds might play tricks on ourselves at times… I know for sure I didn’t have a visual delusion, I just heard “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”… I fell to the ground and it was difficult to rise myself up, because all of a sudden I felt extremely tired. There was no strength left in me.

I didn’t know what to think after this experience, it really shook my mind and turned my world upside down. After many days of pondering and reflecting on what happened I decided that I had to know better who this man called Jesus was. The following 14 years I devoted myself to researching his life. I met with almost everyone who knew, lived, and traveled with him. I heard of his deeds and words, and I’m writing about them before my mind distorts them and make the account bigger than what it really was, or it may also be possible that I shrink it and it lose its value.

Here it is. You will be the judge