Paul's Conversion Experience and His Post-Conversion View of and Relationship with Judaism

Investigates the nature of Paul's Damascus-road experience through close exegesis of his own letters (Galatians 1, 1 Corinthians 9 and 15) alongside Luke's threefold narrative in Acts, and asks whether "conversion" is the right category for what happened to him. Surveying the biblical vocabulary of turning (epistrepho, metanoeo) and calling (kaleo), the article argues that Paul never abandoned Judaism or his ancestral faith in the God of Israel; rather, his encounter with the risen Christ reoriented his understanding of Jesus's identity and his own vocation as apostle to the Gentiles. Paul's critique of Torah-centered exclusivism is thus read as an intra-Jewish reconfiguration rather than a rejection of Judaism, with Christ-faith presented as its fulfillment.