Bulletin for Biblical Research (BBR) 2002.1
Bulletin for Biblical Research 12.1 (2002) 47-66 [© 2002 Institute for Biblical Research]
Paul in Arabia
MARTIN HENGEL
TÜBINGEN UNIVERSITY
The few hints of Paul's time in Arabia (or Nabatea) are much more impor-
tant than is suggested by the scant attention they typically receive in NT
scholarship. Careful consideration of all factors leads to the conclusion that
Paul's stay in Arabia was somewhat longer than is usually thought and re-
sulted in successful missionary activity. However, this activity also pro-
voked vigorous opposition on the part of synagogue authorities, as well as
state authorities.
Key Words: Paul in Arabia, Nabatea, Aretas, Christian mission, synagogue
For most Romans and Greeks, the inhabitants of Arabia were, in ac-
cordance with the topic of this lecture series, indeed a "marginal so-
ciety or group" on the periphery of the eastern Mediterranean, and
a group that was, in addition, exotic and had acquired legendary
wealth through trading in spices. For Horace, for example, the divitiae
Arabum are proverbial:1 "Land and sea provide Arabs and Indians on
the remotest edge (of the world) with luxurious treasures."2 For Paul
and his fellow Jews in the eastern part of the empire, the Arabs were
certainly not a marginal society, because here Rome was not the
center or hub of the world; Jerusalem was.3 Rather, the inhabitants
Author's note: A German version of this paper, "Paulus in Arabien," appeared in H.-P.
Muller and E Siegert (eds.), Antike Randgesellschaften und Randgruppen im östlichen Mit-
telmeerraum (Münsteraner Judaistische Studien 5; Münster, 2000) 137-57. Portions of the
paper summarize several chapters from M. Hengel and A. M. Schwemer, Paulus zwi-
schen Damaskus und Antiochien: Die unbekannten Jahre des Apostels, with a contribution
by Ernst Axel Knauf (WUNT 108; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998) 60ff., 80ff., 174-213.
I thank Robert Wenning for his valuable references, and I thank Jens Zimmermann
and Craig Evans for translating and editing the paper for the BBR.
1. Epist. 1.7.36.
2. Epist. 1.6.5-7: quid censes munera terrae/quid maris extremos Arabas ditantis et In-
dos/ludicra (. . .)? For a translation, see the edition by H. Färber, Horaz: Sämtliche Werke
(Munich: Heimeran, 1967) 151.
3. On this, see M. Hengel, "Jerusalem als jüdische und hellenistische Stadt," in Ju-
daica, Hellenistica et Christiana: Kleine Schriften II (WUNT 109; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck,
1998) 115-56.
48 Bulletin for Biblical Research 12.1
of Arabia were the nearest neighbors, situated, so to speak, right on
their doorstep.
1. "ARABS" AND "NABATEANS"
During the early time of the emperors, the term "Arabs" designated
mostly the mighty and self-assured nation of the Nabateans, which
back then dominated a large area extending from Hauran to the
northern Hedjaz (from the 33d to about the 27th degree of latitude),
and in AD 1 shared a border with Judea that stretched from the
southern Negev over the Dead Sea to the Hauran,4 interrupted only
intermittently by cities of the Decapolis, such as Philadelphia/Am-
man and Gerasa/Jerash. Because of this proximity, conflicts per-
sisted from the Maccabean period to the Jewish War. Alexander
Jannaeus, Herod the Great, and Herod Antipas conducted wars
against them with varying success; and in the Roman wars against
the Jews, the Arab—that is, the Nabatean troops—are said to have
been particularly cruel.5
Conversely, there were manifold, even intimate, positive politi-
cal, economic, and personal connections. The following are some ex-
amples of these connections: Herod's mother, Doris, was a Nabatean.
Herod's sister Salome would have liked to marry the Nabatean vice-
roy Syllaeus but failed to achieve her desire because he did not want
to conform to the Jewish way of life.6 The marriage of his son Herod
Antipas to a Nabatean princess resulted in a political conflict because
of the tetrarch's unfaithfulness.7 The high priest's slave who was
present at Gethsemane (named Malchus according to John 18:10) has
a Nabatean name. The Archives of the Jewess Babatha and Salome
Komaze, both of whom were from the Nabatean village Maoza at
the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, also demonstrate the close eco-
nomic ties between Jews and Nabateans. In the Bar Kochba revolt in
AD 132-135, the Jewish rebels received support from the Nabateans,
because the latter disagreed with the conversion of their relatively
independent realm into the Roman Province Arabia by Trajan in AD
106. The new name demonstrates how clearly their territory was
identified with Arabia.
4. See the contribution by R. Wenning, "Die Nabatäer—fremd und fromm: Re-
ligiöses Verhalten einer früharabischen Gesellschaft," in Müller and Siegert (eds.),
Antike Randgesellschaften und Randgruppen im östlichen Mittelmeerraum, 116-36, and the
references to other literature on the subject there.
5. Josephus, J.W. 2.68-70, 76; 3.68; 5.551, 556.
6. Josephus, Ant. 16.220-226, 322; 17.10, 54.
7. Hengel and Schwemer, Paulus, 182-83.
HENGEL: Paul in Arabia 49
The Nabateans first appear as a power on the historical scene in
the early Diadochean period as a nomadic tribe that controlled the
trade routes to the Persian Gulf and Southern Arabia. This was the
source of their wealth and political influence, which spread from
their politico-religious center in the Hellenistic–Early Roman period
to other tribes. Already by the end of the third century BC, they are
reported to have corresponded in Aramaic, although they spoke an
Arab dialect. As a rule, later inscriptions are also composed in Ara-
maic. We learn of one Aretas, a Nabatean ruler, with the title "tyran-
nos of the Arabs," at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt (2 Macc
5:8); and a "king of the Arabs," with the same name as the opponent
of Alexander Jannaeus, appears after 100 BC. In about 63 BC, about
the same time as the Jews, the Nabateans were subjugated by the
military power of Pompey. At the time of Augustus they appear in
Strabo as a peace-loving, mostly settled people of high culture and
extensive trade connections that extend from the Persian Gulf to
Italy; their masterful irrigation systems allowed them to farm the
desert, and their king resided in the magnificently expanded capital
of Petra as splendidly as Herod in Jerusalem. At that time not a few
Greeks and Romans lived in the Nabatean capital.
The Nabateans reached a political and cultural climax under
Aretas IV (9 BC-AD 39/40), whose Hepithet rahiem ‘ammeh, "the one
who loves his people," indicates a national pride ostensibly different
from other eastern client kings, whose national pride is reflected in
surnames such as Philorōmaios ("friend of Romans") or Philhellēn
("friend of Greeks"). Under the rule of Aretas IV not only the capital,
Petra, reached its zenith but also the kingdom's second-most im-
portant city, Hegra, which was located in the northern Hedjaz about
500 km southeast of the capital.
This picture of a flourishing communal spirit can certainly stand
some correction, however. As Ernst Axel Knauf notes:
Nothing would be more misleading than to imagine the Nabatean
kingdom as a state functioning according to Western conceptions of
the "state." The Nabateans were "a Bedouin tribe which possessed
enough money to acquire some external characteristics of Hellenis-
tic state appearance, without really changing its inner character of
a leading tribe in the Arab tribal federation. . . . 'Dominion' under
these circumstances was more a construct of personal loyalties than
a structure enforced by administrative means of power."8
In contrast to other Semitic neighbors, such as the Phoenician inhab-
itants of the coastal plains, the Itureans in the mountains of Leba-
non, or the Damascenes, the Arabs were to the Jews a rather "close"
8. E. A. Knauf, "Die Arabienreise des Apostels Paulus," in ibid., 467-68.
50 Bulletin for Biblical Research 12.1
relation, because like themselves they descended from Abraham, the
"father of many nations" (Gen 17:5). According to the Genesis ac-
count, they counted as descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's oldest
son by the Egyptian slave Hagar. For the sake of Isaac, the "son of
promise," Sarah, Abraham's legitimate wife, demanded that Ishmael
and his mother, Hagar, be driven away by Abraham, but they were
then rescued miraculously by God in the desert. Gen 21:20 states
laconically: "and [Ishmael] settled in the desert and became an
archer." Only a few verses earlier, God concludes his command to
Abraham, the reticent father, to fulfill Sarah's desire for Isaac's sake
with the hopeful sentence: "I will make a nation of the son of the
slave woman also, because he is your offspring" (Gen 21:13).
And Ishmael did in fact, analogous to Isaac's son Jacob, produce
twelve sons—that is, twelve tribes. According to Gen 25:31, Ishmael's
firstborn was Nebaioth, which in the LXX according to older vocal-
ization appears as Nabajoth. Even if no etymological and historical
connection exists between Nebajoth and their own proper name
Nabtu (with tet and waw), the LXX translators around 270 BC and
Josephus in the first century AD, even more so, viewed Ishmael's old-
est son as the progenitor of the Nabateans. That is why, according to
Josephus, the entire territory from the Euphrates to the Red Sea is
called "Nabatene." With a play on words, he adds an etymological
explanation: the twelve sons of Ishmael gave "the people of the
ARABS its name, because of their Arete (virtue) and the fame of
Abramos" (AR and AB).9
Another characteristic also linked Jews and Arabs. Both prac-
ticed the custom of circumcision. Herodotus, who had not yet men-
tioned the Jews, testified that the Arabs practiced it. According to
Genesis, Ishmael is circumcised by Abraham at age thirteen; Isaac,
already on the eighth day after his birth.10 This allows Philo to de-
scribe Hagar and Ishmael as exemplary proselytes.11
After the even more closely related Idumeans (who lived between
Judea and Nabatea and who were descendants of Esau, Jacob's twin
brother and Abraham's grandson) had corporately converted to Ju-
daism, after their subjugation by John Hyrcanus, and proved them-
selves to be nationalistic-thinking Jews in the Bar-Kochba rebellion,
the Jews probably expected their neighbors and relatives, the Nabate-
ans, to convert to the true God of Zion and his law. In the depiction
of the nations' eschatological pilgrimage in Isaiah 60, the Arabian tribes
9. Josephus, Ant. 1.220-21; cf. Hengel and Schwemer, Paulus, 190.
10. Gen 17:23; 20:4; cf. Hengel and Schwemer, Paulus, 191-92. Josephus particu-
larly stresses this observation.
11. Philo, Abr. 247-54; Hengel and Schwemer, Paulus, 112 n. 445; 190-91 n. 774.
HENGEL: Paul in Arabia 51
are listed paradigmatically first, as bringing all their riches to Zion.
The climax at the end (v. 7) then reads: "The rams of Nebaioth [Tar-
gum: the Nabateans] are ready to serve you; they shall come up with
acceptance on my altar." In LXX Isa 42:11 the "citizens of Petra" are
called joyfully to honor God "from the mountaintops" (Targum: the
inhabitants of the Arabian Desert).
Even if Arabia was not a marginalized territory for Paul the Jew,
and the Nabateans not a marginal society, the topic "Paul in Arabia"
itself is certainly a marginal topic in the New Testament, which has
hardly been worthy of closer inspection because one supposedly
lacked the ability to gain much knowledge about it or because it was
not a theologically relevant topic. In reality, however, scholars have
simply not thought enough about this topic. For one's "theological"
understanding of the apostle, it seems merely to be a rather distract-
ing ephemeral and insignificant factum. It does not belong among the
fashionable New Testament topics. In actuality, however, we are deal-
ing with a longer time in a decisive part of Paul's life immediately
after his conversion—this former persecutor of Christians. After all,
Paul himself mentions Arabia three times—two times directly and
once indirectly.
2. PAUL'S OWN TESTIMONY
The most important testimony is found in the autobiographical ac-
count of Gal 1:15-18:
But when God . . . was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that
I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh
and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles
before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damas-
cus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas.
That is, the journey into the realm of the Nabateans occurred as the
first undertaking after the conversion, which took place at the same
time as Paul's calling to the office of an apostle of Jesus Christ.
The second text is also found in Galatians (4:26). Here Paul pro-
ceeds from a comparison between Isaac, Abraham's legitimate son by
the free woman Sarah, and Ishmael, his son by the maidservant
Hagar. Paul's argument that Hagar represents the Mosaic covenant,
which leads to slavery under the law, contains the following geo-
graphical reference: "The [word] Hagar, however, refers to Mount Sinai."
Here Paul moves the mountain of the covenant into the Nabatean
empire.
The third text, 2 Cor 11:32-33, recounts a biographical episode
from the earliest time of the apostle: "At Damascus, the governor under
52 Bulletin for Biblical Research 12.1
King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was
let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped his
hands."
2.1. Let us begin with the last text because its mention of the Na-
batean king's name offers a solid connection between Paul's biogra-
phy and world history; it is the only time a contemporary ruler is
mentioned in the Pauline Epistles. Paul was not interested in political
potentates and their power schemes. Aretas IV died AD 39/40, and
his long reign of almost fifty years made him the foremost Nabatean
emperor. Of no other emperor do we possess so many inscriptions
and coins.12 Paul's adventurous escape from Damascus must have oc-
curred before Arestas's death, but the date may be ascertained with
even greater accuracy. Most likely, the escape concludes Paul's second
stay in Damascus, as evinced in Gal 1:17, and occurred after his re-
turn from the Nabatean Arabia before his visit to Peter in Jerusa-
lem.13 The Jerusalem journey, in turn, took place "three years" (that
is, two to three years) after Paul's conversion, which would be about
AD 33, if we consider the ancient custom of sometimes calculating the
beginning of a new year as an entire year. One year more or less does
not really matter here. Paul's escape from Damascus concludes the
first part of the apostle's life as a Christian, a phase whose importance
for his biography and his teaching cannot be estimated too highly.
Unfortunately, we know only very little about this part of Paul's life,
but close examination may enable us to proceed yet a little further.
New Testament research demands painstaking and detailed work.
But first another remark concerning the "ethnarch of King
Aretas" will be helpful. This title and the fact that no city coins with
the emperor's image have survived from Damascus between AD 34
and 62 have led to the conclusion that the city was then under Na-
batean rule and that the ethnarch had been the king's governor. This
theory is even to this day explained by the fact that the emperor
Caligula, after his inauguration on March AD 37, ceded Damascus to
the Nabatean king. One version of this theory is Bowerstock's as-
sumption that Aretas took possession of the Damascus region after
the death of Herod's son Philip in AD 33/34, but had to relinquish it
upon learning of the Romans' impending military intervention in AD
36/37.14 However, the one is as improbable as the latter. The Romans
would have never ceded the world-renowned metropolis of southern
12. E. Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (3 vols.; rev.
G. Vermes, E Millar, and M. Black; Edinburgh: T. &. T. Clark, 1973-87) 1.581-83.
13. Hengel and Schwemer, Paulus, 209-13.
14. G.. W. Bowersock, Roman Arabia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1963) 68-69.
HENGEL: Paul in Arabia 53
Syria, a city so rich in tradition and a member of the Decapolis, to a
barbarian king. Nor are the gaps in minting coins convincing evi-
dence, for the same gap is found in other Syrian cities, because coins
were sometimes minted in advance, for future circulation. Nor does
the title "ethnarch," which Paul used, indicate a military commander
(one would, rather, expect the term strathgo/j); rather, it refers to the
leader of an ethnic group. The Alexandrian Jews, for example, had
such an ethnarch up to the time of Augustus. Knauf thus suspects
justly that "ethnarch" refers to a kind of Nabatean general consul—
one could also say a sheikh—who led the Nabatean minorities in the
city, which simultaneously functioned as a trade colony. The Jews
also constituted a considerable ethnic group in Damascus (according
to Josephus, it numbered over ten thousand men), which, as Luke
correctly reports, possessed several synagogues.15 A military com-
mander could have also arrested Paul in the city and would not have
limited himself to the guarding of the city—that is, the guarding of
the city gates from the outside.
Luke also reports the apostle's dramatic escape, but he blames it
on the persecution by the Jews. He speaks as little about the ethnarch
of the Nabatean king as about the apostle's preceding journey to Ara-
bia. Luke rarely shows interest in the details of Paul's early life.
It is a reasonable assumption that the ethnarch's attack is con-
nected to Paul's earlier trip, as indicated in Galatians. After the death
of Philip, his realm, which extended from the Lake of Gennesaret to
the far east in Hauran and which separated most of the city district
of Damascus from the Nabatean realm, was annexed by Tiberius to
the Roman province of Syria. The ambitious Aretas, however, tried to
gain dominion over this extensive territory, an attempt that led to a
conflict in the area of the Gaulanitis, which bordered on Galilee, with
Philip's brother, Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee and Perea. An-
tipas was defeated, whereupon he appealed to the emperor for mili-
tary intervention, a request answered in AD 36/37 by Vitellius, the
governor of Syria. Before actual fighting began, however, Vitellius's
campaign ended abruptly with the death of Tiberius on 16 March
AD 37. Paul's journey to the Nabateans must have occurred precisely
during this tension-laden time; it would therefore make good sense
if the ambitious and suspicious ruler eventually became alert to the
unpleasant workings of this strange messianic Jew and notified his
ethnarch in Damascus to capture this notorious troublemaker. In this
case, not so much the Jews (as reported by Luke) as the previous
troubles of his trip to Arabia would be the reason for his escape that
15. Knauf, "Die Arabienreise des Apostels Paulus," 465-71; Acts 9:2, 20.
54 Bulletin for Biblical Research 12.1
resulted eventually, as Paul himself reports, in his two-week visit to
Cephas/Peter in Jerusalem.
2.2. The second text, Gal 4:26, allows us to assume that Paul was
well acquainted with "Arabia's geography according to salvation his-
tory"—referring to the Nabatean realm. Hartmut Gese has indicated
that in Persian and Hellenistic–Early Roman times, Mount Sinai was
thought to be not on the peninsula named after it, but southeast of
the Gulf of Aqaba, in the Midian area (LXX: Madia/m; Josephus: Ma-
dianh/), in the volcanic mountainous regions of the northern Hedjaz.
In relative proximity lies Hegra/Hagra (Aramaic: hiagrā; Arabic:
el hieğr), the second-most important Nabatean city, which flourished
especially under Aretas IV and which, as attested by inscriptions,
possessed a large Jewish community. The Targums identify the šur in
Genesis and Exodus always as egra and, in agreement with Jewish
and later Arab tradition, hold that Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael set-
tled in this area. The metropolis Petra, in contrast, was identified
with Kadesh, the main Israelite base during its exile in the desert.
The rather strange formulation in Gal 4:25, "the word Hagar,
however, points to Mount Sinai in Arabia," indicates that Paul knew
about this Jewish tradition and therefore connected the name Hagar
with the city Hegra/Hagra, located in the immediate proximity of
the Sinai mountains. The equation of Hegra/Hagra and the correla-
tive Abraham and Sinai traditional accounts may well be connected
to local Jewish legends from this area, which increase the prestige of
the Jewish communities in this area. Gese's well-founded assumption
provides further evidence:
That Paul knew about the Jewish Hagar tradition associated with
Hegra, points perhaps to his longer stay in Arabia (Gal 1:17), i.e., in
the Nabatean area south of Damascus. Paul must have known that
[Mount] Sinai is located near Hegra.16
2.3. Based on our findings so far, we may now turn to the most
important text, namely Paul's journey according to Gal 1:17. One pre-
amble: Galatians 1 and 2 contained something like the apostolic his-
tory in nuce, even if an abridged one, which makes the text hard to
understand because it presupposes that the Galatian believers had
already been informed earlier, by Paul himself, about the reported
facts and had also received contrary information from the Judaizers.
The oath-like affirmation (1:20) allows us to assume that Paul had
been accused of lying and that his letter proceeds from polemical and
16. H. Gese, Vom Sinai zum Zion: Alttestamentliche Beiträge zur biblischen
Theologie (BEvT 64; Munich: Chr. Kaiser, 1974) 49-62, here 61.
HENGEL: Paul in Arabia 55
apologetic motivations. In those places where he clearly deviates
from Luke's account, Paul's account should be given preference; how-
ever, this does not mean that Luke's account in Acts 9 is completely
worthless, as radical historical criticism likes to assume. On the con-
trary, I consider the congruence of Paul and Luke (Acts 9-15) as quite
astounding, if one gives due consideration to their different perspec-
tives and the time span of about 25-30 years that lies between Acts
and the letter to the Galatians. It is crucial to see that Luke did not
utilize Paul's letters, which were probably unknown to him.
Allow me briefly to sketch the dramatic events that preceded the
apostle's trip to Arabia. It is about AD 33. The young, ambitious phar-
isaic scribal student Shaul/Paul, together with like-minded zealots
from the Greek-speaking synagogues, had persecuted the Jewish-
Christian "Hellenists" in Jerusalem and driven them from the holy
city. Upon a report concerning the activities of these fugitive Christian
Jews in Damascus, he began his journey to Damascus with recom-
mendations to the Jewish congregation there, and then encountered
close to the city the Christ-vision that so profoundly altered his life
and thought. In Damascus he was baptized by Ananias, joined the
small local Christian congregation in statu nascendi and, to the aston-
ishment of the Jews, proclaimed his newly-found convictions in the
city's synagogues. Josephus provides an interesting detail concerning
the Damascene Jews that is of foundational importance for our un-
derstanding of the earliest Jewish-Christian missions outside of Pal-
estine. According to him, at the beginning of the Jewish War in AD 66,
the Damascenes herded more than 10,000 Jewish men into the Gym-
nasium and executed them on suspicion of rebellion. They kept this
mass murder from their own women because they had, with few ex-
ceptions, converted to Judaism.17 While Josephus certainly exagger-
ates here, his note makes nonetheless evident that the synagogue's
emphasis on the word in its worship services, which was an innova-
tion in the ancient world and possessed an almost "philosophical
character," had a certain attractiveness for pagan men and women.
What Josephus tells us about Damascus may also be valid for
other Syrian cities. We encounter here the phenomenon of the "God-
fearing ones" or sympathizers, who were attracted by the monothe-
istic-ethical proclamation of the Jews. The pagans mentioned by Paul
in his later letters are predominantly such God-fearing persons. They
joined the new messianic end-time message of salvation because it
promised them complete equality before God and in salvation. About
twenty years later, Paul writes to the Galatians: "There is neither Jew
17. Josephus, J.W. 2.560-61; cf. 7.368; Hengel and Schwemer, Paulus, 82ff.
56 Bulletin for Biblical Research 12.1
nor Gentile, neither slave nor master, neither man nor woman be-
cause you are all one in Jesus Christ" (Gal 3:28).
Already the Hellenists, who had been driven from Jerusalem,
had attended to these "God-fearers." They were concerned for the
eschatological gathering of God's people in the name of the Messiah
Jesus, who had been crucified and elevated to Godhood, in whom the
prophet's prophecies had been fulfilled. Part of this fulfillment was
the nations' conversion to the one true God. This conviction must
have been particularly strong in Paul, the former zealot for the law,
who had received this revolutionary insight in his Christ-encounter
in Damascus, that now, with the beginning of the new era, only the
crucified and risen Messiah Jesus of Nazareth, rather than the ful-
fillment of Torah's commandments, was the true path of salvation.
Paul was confronted by the phenomenon of these God-fearing pa-
gans at his very first appearance in the Damascene synagogues, be-
cause, according to Josephus's account, they made up a fairly large
part of the attending worshipers, a part containing not only women
but also, even if in smaller numbers, men. The sentence in Gal 5:11,
"But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being per-
secuted?" refers not to the apostle's missionary activity in the years
after his conversion but rather to the former pharisaic scribe in the
Greek-speaking congregations of Jerusalem's synagogues.18
The converted former persecutor was persecuted from the begin-
ning. His clear testimony in Gal 1:15-17 ("When God was pleased to
reveal his son to me so that I may proclaim him to the pagans") does
not allow us—contrary to Luke's imprecise reporting of this aspect,
where the first missionary pagan initiative is ascribed to Peter in
Caesarea Act 10—to grant Paul his status as missionary to the pagans
only at a much later point in time. He encountered the Gentile prob-
lem already in Damascus in the form of the numerous God-fearers.
Similar reasoning applies to the basic elements of Paul's new
message, the gospel, which, according to Gal 1:12, he had not re-
ceived from man but from "a revelation of Jesus Christ." These basic
elements must have existed in nuce from the very beginning and
were determined by his conversion experience, in which Christ re-
vealed himself to the former persecutor as the only foundation and
mediator of salvation. In other words, the main contours of Paul's
teaching are not products of years of development but they originate
in new insight that revolutionized his entire life. This does not mean,
18. Compare M. Hengel (with R. Deines), "Der vorchristliche Paulus," in Paulus
und das antike Judentum (ed. M. Hengel and U. Heckel; WUNT 58; Tübingen: Mohr [ Sie-
beck], 1991) 177-293, here 261-62, 289ff. For an English translation of my essay, see The
Pre-Christian Paul (London: SCM / Philadelphia: Trinity, 1991).
HENGEL: Paul in Arabia 57
of course, that he paid exclusive attention to the Gentiles from the
very beginning. Roughly 24 years later he insists in Rom 1:16 that the
gospel was first for the Jews and then for the Greeks. Yet, despite this
"first for the Jews," which he upholds throughout his entire mission-
ary work right up to Rome, he had always regarded himself—con-
trary to all other fellow missionaries—as an "apostle to all nations"
(Rom 11:13). The seed of this self-understanding was planted in the
Damascus event and emerged--in my opinion from the very first—
in his law-critiquing proclamation that dismantled the obstacles to sal-
vation that existed between Jews and God-fearing pagans.
One should not, of course, speak of a law-free preaching of the
apostle, since God's righteous and holy law—summarized in the first
command and in the command to love one's neighbor—remained in
effect as an expression of God's demanding will over his creatures;
the law revealed man in his egotistic being as a sinner who is subject
to God's wrath. Any attempt to obtain salvation by way of the law
through one's own works was misguided from the start and only led
to self-glorification. The law's abiding value and necessity for salva-
tion thus lay in its diagnostic ability to reveal man's deadly sickness.
One should not associate Paul with the gnostic antinomianism that
occurred much later; a wide gulf separates Paul and Marcion, who
completely misunderstood the former. Admittedly, at this early time
Paul had not yet conceptually fully developed his teaching on law
and justification by faith alone or his conception of being in Christ,
which takes the place of being under the law; but the basic direction
had been fully present in the "miracle of Damascus."
Certainly, the newly converted preacher remained only a short
time in Damascus. Also he claims that he did not consult anyone con-
cerning the actual content of his gospel revealed to him by Christ,
even though he probably had already received in Damascus basic
data concerning Jesus' passion and resurrection (see 1 Cor 15: 1-8
and 11:23-25). His gospel, which according to Gal 2:2 he proclaimed
to the nations and which he presented fifteen years after his calling
at the apostolic council in Jerusalem to the "pillars," was, contrary to
claims by others, not dependent on corroboration from a third
party--nor from the small Christian congregation in Damascus and
especially not from the apostles in Jerusalem (Gal 1:17). Paul could
not visit Jerusalem as a former persecutor and current apostate in the
eyes of his former friends; his life would have been threatened there.
For this reason he only stayed, or rather almost hid himself, with Pe-
ter for two weeks during a later visit, after "three years," and he did
not become acquainted with any other apostle besides James, the
Lord's brother. Instead, he rather hastily departed from Damascus
without great delay, eu)qe/wj, to Arabia, the country of the Nabateans.
58 Bulletin for Biblical Research 12.1
3. PAUL AMONG THE NABATEANS
At this point three closely connected questions pose themselves:
1. Why did Paul depart so hurriedly from Damascus?
2. What did he do among the Nabateans?
3. Why did he go just to them?
3.1. The first question is more easily answered, with the reason-
able assumption that Paul left so quickly because things were getting
too hot there. While Luke, who redacted several respectable tradi-
tions concerning Paul in Damascus, conceals the Arabian journey
and has Paul heading for Jerusalem after a longer stay, which ends
with the escape through the city walls, he does report Paul's perse-
cution by the Jews. It is understandable that the appearance in the
Damascus synagogue of Paul, the "overturned" Pharisee, created
trouble. His open profession of faith in Jesus as Messiah and son of
God (Acts 9:20, 22) was contrary to what the people had expected of
him. Most of the synagogue penalties that Paul received—five times
according to 2 Cor 11:24—probably occurred in the self-assertive
synagogues of the Syrian region from Arabia to Taurus during the
fifteen years prior to the Apostolic Council. The Syrian synagogues'
proximity to Eretz Israel encouraged stricter observance of the law,
in contrast to the synagogues further away in Alexandria, Ephesus,
or Rome. Luke says nothing about Paul's suffering abuse at the hands
of these more distant synagogues.
After what I assume to be a longer stay in Nabatean Arabia,19
Paul returned to Damascus (Gal 1:17c: "I returned to Damascus") be-
cause things had calmed down and probably also because he had
gained friends in the faith there. This return also renders improbable
the assumption that tensions had ensued with the still-very-young
congregation in statu nascendi. It is much more likely that Paul's ef-
forts were not in vain. According to Acts 9:25, his "disciples"—a
strange expression by Luke, who normally talks only about Jesus'
disciples--helped him escape through the wall.
3.2. The second question regarding Paul's activity among the Na-
bateans can also be answered with reference to v. 16, immediately
preceding the journey to Arabia: Paul had been called, "in order that
I might preach him among the Gentiles." Thus, already in Arabia
19. On this point I have to correct my former assumption (see "Der vorchristliche
Paulus," 278) that the stay was probably not very long. During a short stay Paul would
probably not have clashed with King Aretas and his Ethnarch in Damascus. The con-
flict with the Nabatean representative in Damascus is best explained by a longer mis-
sionary activity in Nabatean Arabia. See below, §3.6.
HENGEL: Paul in Arabia 59
Paul proclaimed by himself the message which he claims to have re-
ceived "through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal 1:12). The common
assumption—I only name the historian Eduard Meyer—that Paul
"withdrew into the solitude of Arabia" in order "to gain inner clar-
ity," misses the point,20 since he could have accomplished that in the
barren isolation of the city area of the Damascus oasis, which ex-
tended in the west to the crest of the Antilebanon and in the east far
into the desert. Paul clearly differentiates between Damascus and
Arabia and, unlike the evangelists in writing about John the Baptist
and Jesus' temptation, ei)j th_n e!rhmon, he went not "into the desert"
but ei)j )Arabi/an. As in his later extensive missionary trips, he must
have sought out the synagogues there, which probably existed in all-
important Nabatean cities (especially in Petra), and perhaps he ad-
vanced as far as Hegra. That no synagogues have been proved to exist
in this area—except in Gerasa, which belongs to the Decapolis-
means nothing. In Syria, for example, the accidental nature of our
sources and the archaeological findings allow for only a few syna-
gogues, yet Josephus tells us that it possessed the greatest Diaspora
of the Roman Empire.21 Moreover, the synagogues of pre-Rabbinic
times were simple meeting rooms without cultic decorations. Even
where Eretz Israel is concerned, their existence is hardly archaeolog-
ically ascertainable with any degree of certainty.
Besides Jews, Paul would have found quite a few Gentile sym-
pathizers in the synagogues, a group that he probably targeted most
of all; apparently they were particularly attracted to his proclama-
tion. The earliest "pagan-Christians" are such "God-fearers" on the
margin of the synagogue.22 A Nabatean Dušara worshiper on the
Agora of Petra would have hardly understood Paul's Jewish-Messi-
anic message and its concomitant scriptural evidence, which Paul
considered quite important from the very beginning in his discussion
with his Jewish dialogue partners. Such a one would have been rather
offended by such a strange proclamation.
Paul's hasty start to his missionary work, which lacked elaborate
preparations, had two reasons. First, he understood himself to be an
a)po/stoloj )Ihsou= Xristou=, "a messenger of Jesus Christ," although he
knew very well that this mission was a "late birth" compared to the
Jerusalem apostles (1 Cor 15:8). This task is inseparably connected to
his Christ-vision and did not develop slowly and gradually. His
"conversion" was also his calling. Paul did not claim after many years
20. E. Meyer, Ursprung and Anfänge des Christentums III (Stuttgart and Berlin:
Cotta, 7923) 345; cf. Hengel and Schwemer, Paulus, 101-32.
21. Josephus, J.W. 7.43; see also Philo, Leg. 245; cf. Hengel and Schwemer, Paulus,
82-83, 292.
22. Hengel and Schwemer, Paulus, 101-32.
60 Bulletin for Biblical Research 12.1
suddenly to be an apostle of Jesus Christ but became one because he
had seen the risen one, as had the other apostles.
In addition, time was pressing. The period of time that the cruci-
fied and risen Lord had granted Israel and the Gentiles elected in Is-
rael was short. Paul believed this after his conversion, certainly for
several decades, as seen in Rom 13:12 or Phil 4:5. In the beginnings of
the early church, after the completely surprising appearances of the
risen Christ and the enthusiastic experience of the eschatological gift
of the Holy Spirit, the expectation of the return of the Lord, who had
been exalted at God's right hand, was particularly intensive and pos-
sessed a character of apocalyptic realism. One expected that the Lord
and judge would return to Jerusalem to begin his rule over his people
and all the nations. It was thus urgently required to gather Israel's
elect and all those whose faith in the true God marked them as "first-
fruits" from among the nations. Already Jesus, whose work had
ended only a few years before, had summoned to repentance tax col-
lectors, sinners, and the lost, and had even occasionally included
Gentiles and Samaritans. It was now important to continue this work
on his behalf. The mission of the Kyrios thus brooked no delay.
A different question is the detailed development of Pauline the-
ology, which we know only from the seven authentic letters, written
approximately 17-27 years later, between AD 50 and 60. Here it seems
to me that certain foundational insights, especially concerning his so-
teriology, the salvific meaning of Christ's death, the convicting and
therefore diagnostic effect of the law, and justification by faith alone
without the precondition of having fulfilled the law, were developed
rather rapidly by Paul. Without such foundations this former zealot
for the law could have never approached the God-fearing Gentiles
with such self-confidence. After all, precisely these foundational ele-
ments formed the content of his gospel that he had received from no
one other than Christ himself, so that he did not have to consult with
anyone, least of all with the Jerusalem apostles.
3.3. The third question, why Paul chose the Nabatean realm rather
than another location, is the most difficult one to answer. It does not
seem logical that, viewed from Damascus, he turned south, while his
later missionary activity was concentrated in the north and west.
After all, Spain was his last destination. Why did he not immediately
depart in that direction, toward the Phoenician cities Tyre and Sidon,
toward Emesa and Apamea in the north, or to Palmyra in the north-
east? Why did he not immediately target the provincial capital of
Antioch?
Now, the first Christian mission in the beginning years of the
church focused entirely on Eretz Israel. The expelled Hellenists crossed
HENGEL: Paul in Arabia 61
the border first, and did so rather hesitatingly. In Luke's account this
happens paradigmatically through Philip, who goes to the heretical
Samaritans and the predominantly Gentile inhabitants of the former
Philistia, that is, the Phoenician coastal plain. Damascus too was
reached in this way and probably also the cities of the Decapolis in the
eastern Jordanian territory, as well as the principal Phoenician cities,
Ptolemais, Tyre, and Sidon. In these locations one may have even
found occasionally members of the Jesus movement who would have
known him from his activity in Galilee, for the Jewish population in
these merchant cities had always been relatively large.
The fervent expectation of Christ's return, however, prevented at
least geographically, extensive mission plans; a world mission was in
no way envisioned at this point. Rather, one expected (as did the
prophets) the return of the Diaspora and the nations' pilgrimage to
Zion at the time of the Messiah's second advent. The transprovincial
mission, beyond the Taurus in Asia Minor, Rome, and Greece, began
only in the 40s and 50s. For this reason it may be possible that Paul
chose the Nabatean realm because he believed that no missionaries
of the new Messianic movement, for example those among the ex-
pelled Hellenists from Jerusalem, could have possibly worked this
area before him. In Rom 15:20 he emphasizes later that he deems it
important "to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been
named, lest I build on another man's foundation."
On the other hand, according to contemporary opinion, not only
Syria but also Arabia belonged to the promised land of Abraham and
to King David's greater kingdom, and therefore to the coming Messi-
anic kingdom. According to the Genesis Apocryphon of Qumran, Abra-
ham travels once around the territory promised to him: he moves
from the mouth of the Nile to the north of the Mediterranean coast
along the Taurus, from there to the east up to the Euphrates, then fol-
lows the river downward to the Persian Gulf and then circles Arabia
to return to his point of departure. According to the description of the
Davidic world kingdom by the Jewish historian Eupolemos in the sec-
ond century BC, the royal progenitor of the Messiah conquers all of
Syria up to Commagene in the north and to the Nabateans in the
south. This conquered area comprises about the same territory as that
to which early Christian missionary activity was limited in approxi-
mately its first fifteen years.23
23. Ibid., 188-89. For further discussion of the geographical dimensions of early
mission and ideas about the boundaries of restored, eschatological Israel, see M. Bock-
muehl, 'Antioch and James the Just," in James the just and Christian Origins (ed. B. D.
Chilton and C. A. Evans; NovTSup 98; Leiden: Brill, 1999) 155-98; as well as my own
study, " )Ioudai/a in the Geographical List of Acts 2:9-11 and Syria as 'Greater Judea,"
BBR 10 (2000) 161-80.
62 Bulletin for Biblical Research 12.1
A further argument was the prophetic promise (such as, for ex-
ample, Jer 12:14-17) to the "neighbors of Israel," who "learn the way
of my people and shall swear by my name." The Nabateans, however,
were the nearest neighbors to the east and the south, and not only the
closest neighbors but also the closest of kin, sons of Abraham like Israel
itself. Was not, therefore, Abraham's promise true for them, above all
other nations, that through his seed, that is, through the Messiah
Jesus of Nazareth, many nations were to be blessed?
We should remind ourselves one more time that Nabajoth, whom
Josephus regards as the progenitor, was Ishmael's firstborn and was,
just like Jacob /Israel, Abraham's grandson. The Abrahamic tradition
was alive in the Nabatean realm not only among the Jews who had
settled there but also in Damascus, where according to Nicolaus of
Damascus (philosophical advisor to King Herod and greatest histo-
rian of the Augustan period), Abraham had once reigned as king.24
Apparently, the divinely sanctioned "father of many nations" and
messenger of God's promise was greatly revered in Damascene and
Nabatean synagogues of Arabia, and efforts had probably been un-
dertaken to make his authority known to the God-fearing pagan
"relatives" whenever possible.
In the Nabatean realm, as in southern Syria, there existed a la-
tent tendency to worship the highest God of the heavens. Albrecht
Alt has collected the "God of the fathers" inscriptions for Nabatea
and southern Syria, in which the God of a tribe was venerated as the
highest deity but was not limited to local boundaries.25 Among other
things we find the title "Lord of the World" in Hegra for Dusares,
in Palmyra for Baalshamim, the old Semitic God of the sky, in the
Genesis Apocryphon for the God of Abraham and also in the Enoch
fragments of Qumran, and later almost stereotypically as the most
common Jewish address to God in prayer. In Hegra we encounter in-
scriptions such as "the God of our Lord Aretas," which is reminiscent
of the Pauline formula "the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ,"
or about the god "who separated day from night," a formula which
is echoed in the Jewish Havdala prayer. In Palmyra a great number of
inscriptions even feature the invocation of an anonymous most high
God, "whose name be praised forever." The one true God of Abraham
was not far away from this.26
In this context, should Paul, in light of "the revelation of Jesus
Christ," not have thought about the new salvation-historical mean-
24. Hengel and Schwemer, Paulus, 87.
25. A. Alt, Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte des Volkes Israel (3 vols.; Munich: Beck,
1953-59) 1.1-78.
26. Hengel and Schwemer, Paulus, 194-207.
HENGEL: Paul in Arabia 63
ing of "our physical ancestor" (Rom 4:1)? Was not this Abraham, who
had turned from Chaldaean polytheism to the true faith in the one
God and who had left his home country according to this God's com-
mand, of great significance for all God-fearing pagans? Did not this
Abraham, whom God had already proclaimed justified on the basis
of his faith in God's promise even before his circumcision (Rom 4:1-
12), have to become the father of all who believe, and did not all who
believed in the Messianic savior, whether they were Jews, Arabs, or
other "pagans" have to become his "spiritual sons"? The question
concerning the true Abrahamic kinship had already been contro-
versial in John the Baptist's sermon of repentance (Matt 3:9 = Luke
3:8) and played an important role in the proclamation of Jesus (Matt
8:11-12; Luke 13:16, 28; 16:19-30; 19:9). For Paul, this question was
probably already considered among the physical descendants of
Abraham in Arabia.
3.4. Another point must be added to this: According to Gen 21:4,
Abraham circumcised his son Isaac on the eighth day and thus it be-
came Jewish custom; Paul refers to this command in his own case
(Phil 3:5). And, according to Gen 17:23-27, Abraham is said to have
circumcised Ishmael in his thirtenth year. According to Josephus, cir-
cumcision was valid for all Arabs, for which he could already cite
Herodotus as a witness. Thus the question, which later led to con-
flicts in Antioch, in Galatia, and also in other mission congregations,
did not have to burden Paul's mission in the Nabatean cities. On the
contrary, Paul could understand the fact that pagans also practiced
the ritual of circumcision as indication that this ritual—as shown by
Abraham's own example—lost its salvific significance when con-
trasted to faith and was reduced to a mere outward sign. Only the
circumcision of the heart through faith in Jesus Christ was decisive.
It was particularly the pattern of Abraham's late circumcision at 99
years of age and Ishmael's at thirteen years (Genesis 17) that dem-
onstrated that the true event of salvation occurred much earlier in
the justification of the patriarch on the basis of his obedience by faith
(Gen 15:6), for which circumcision merely served as "a seal for righ-
teousness by faith."
Although the Epistle to the Romans is the apostle's last great
letter, written 20 years after his missionary endeavors in "Arabia,"
Paul does not use it to present new ideas but crucial foundational
thoughts of his theology, which are ultimately rooted in the revela-
tion of Jesus Christ at his calling, which in turn determines the con-
tent of his gospel. This Jewish scribe, well advanced in the study of
scriptures, must have thought quite early about the relationship be-
tween the Abrahamic promise and sonship, Christ's salvific act, the
64 Bulletin for Biblical Research 12.1
justification of the ungodly, and the meaning of the reception of the
Torah at Sinai. It is probable that he formulated his thinking when he
read the traditions where Abraham and his sons were particularly
remembered and where "Sinai" stood most concretely before his
mind's eye. Did he not already have to confront this question during
his stay in Arabia? It seems thus particularly unlikely that he should
have "proclaimed circumcision" there (Gal 5:11).27
Just as the main development of early Christian Christology oc-
curred in the stormy first years of the church's beginnings, as a result
of the revolutionary first appearance of the risen Christ and the re-
ception of the Spirit, both of which were connected to the great com-
mission, so also the basic outlines of Pauline theology were formed
relatively quickly. Paul, the first Christian scribe and teacher whom
we really know, was a sharp and precise thinker, and it would be
wrong to assume that in the beginning of his missionary activity he
for any length of time "ran aimlessly" and "fought like a man beating
the air" (1 Cor 9:26). Even his opponents did not accuse him, the
"apostle of the pagans," of changing his theological views several
times according to the fashion of the times (a practice favored by to-
day's theologians). The Lord's return was near, and thus one did not
have to please current trends at any cost.
3.5. To say that Paul worked as a solitary missionary in the Na-
batean realm requires two other presuppositions: first, he was able to
support himself. He was probably already back then a tentmaker, as
Luke acknowledges in Acts 18:1-3. That means he did not learn this
profession, as has sometimes been supposed, later in Damascus or
Tarsus. His trade, which he could pursue easily since it was not de-
pendent on a specific location, was of incalculable advantage to him as
a missionary, if compared to Galilean fishermen like Peter, Andrew,
James and John, who depended on the support of congregations
(1 Cor 9:4-7). Also unlike them, Paul did not have to care for a family,
an extremely important pre-condition for his missionary work.
Since Aramaic (with some Arabic coloring) was spoken in the
Nabatean realm, and Aramaic was certainly also the predominant
language in the synagogues there, one has to assume that Paul was
also able to speak Aramaic well—a fact those scholars like to deny
who keep the pre-Christian Paul away from Jerusalem and who want
to turn him into a pure Hellenist. Paul probably learned Aramaic at
the latest during his student years in Jersualem.28
27. Ibid., Paulus, 190-92.
28. Ibid., Paulus, 193-94.
HENGEL: Paul in Arabia 65
3.6. We can only estimate the length of Paul's missionary activity
in "Arabia." If it had been a short, insignificant stay, he would not have
needed to mention it. In that case, his conflict with Aretas's represen-
tative would have been difficult to understand as well. Presumably he
was already suspect to him when he returned from the Nabatean ter-
ritory. That he did in fact stay in Arabia for a longer period of time is
also indicated by his return to Damascus: at the least he stayed in Ara-
bia until the commotion (which his about-face and the consequent in-
dignation of his opponents had caused) had subsided.
Moreover, missionary activity takes time. Paul could easily have
worked one or even two years in this manner. The three years be-
tween his conversion and the visit to Jerusalem (Gal 1:18) are a rela-
tively imprecise measure of time for us, since Paul might well have
counted the incomplete years as full ones. What is decisive, however,
is that he had his first missionary experiences in Arabia and Damas-
cus over a longer period of time, during which he also constructed
the theological foundation of his message. These first years must have
been of foundational importance to him.
When Philip the Tetrarch and son of Herod died around the win-
ter of AD 33/34, King Aretas directed his covetous glance more and
more toward Philip's territory, so that an armed conflict with Herod
Antipas ensued around AD 35/36. This conflict may have been a rea-
son for Paul's departure from the Nabatean empire. A Jewish prophet
of entirely new eschatological teachings about the crucified Messiah,
who, risen from the dead, is about to return to establish his kingdom
and sit in judgment, must have seemed like a dangerous political en-
thusiast to the king, who was suspicious of Jewish claims to power;
and through the ethnarch of the Nabatean trade colony, the king's
arm extended even to Damascus.
We do not know whether Paul's missionary activity in "Arabia"
was unsuccessful. One should not jump to hasty conclusions based on
his silence on this issue, since he is equally silent concerning his en-
tire work of fourteen years in Syria and Cilicia following his visit to
Jerusalem. We cannot even learn from him that he comes from Tarsus
or that he had the Hebrew name Shā’ûl. Only Luke tells us these
facts. In 1 Cor 15:10 Paul does say, however, with a certain pride:
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me
was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them,
though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.
These lines indicate that he was an extraordinarily successful mis-
sionary, and nothing speaks against including in this statement his
effectiveness in Nabatean Arabia and Damascus. Nor should one
preclude the possibility that he revisited Damascus and Petra during
66 Bulletin for Biblical Research 12.1
his long activity in Syria, just as he later revisited the congregations
in the west and around the Aegean, and in some cases did so several
times. According to Acts, Paul seems also to have been known in Si-
don, Tyrus Ptolemais, that is, in the Phoenician port cities. Appar-
ently, in his capacity as missionary in the time prior to the Apostolic
Council in Jerusalem, Paul traveled—probably mostly in the com-
pany of Barnabas—throughout all of Syria and Cilicia (Gal 1:21).
4. CONCLUSION
We thus possess only one direct and two indirect indications of
Paul's sojourn in the Nabatean realm; for this reason scholars have
tended to suppress the question concerning the meaning and con-
tent of his stay in this area—as, by the way, has been the case for a
long time with regard to the question concerning the pre-Christian
Paul. The still young NT discipline is subject to fashionable research
topics in a special way, and fashion-oriented research blinds us with
respect to phenomena that are presently not in vogue. Perhaps my
thoughts have shown that it is profitable to think especially about
the first beginnings of Paul's missionary proclamation outside of
Eretz Israel and therefore to non-Jews, or more precisely, to the Na-
batean kinsmen.
To adopt the language of this lecture series: we have tried to depict
how a complete outsider and recent convert to a Messianic-enthusi-
astic sect, who as a Jew was a member of a people who were a foreign
body in the Roman empire, in a "marginal society" between desert,
cultivated land, and sea—the Nabatean realm—how he appeared in
public for the first time and immediately caused offense. Without an-
ticipating this himself, he lit a blaze that developed into a continually
growing wildfire that finally reached the Orient and Europe and that
influenced the particular course of our European history.
The picture of a wildfire also reminds one of the stormy mission-
ary successes, which emanated from an Arabian 600 years later in the
southern Hedjaz. Paul's work, of course, happened—to borrow a
phrase from Augustine's Confession: sine vi humana, sed verbo--
"without human force but by the word of God." "God's word" was for
the apostle the gospel, the "word of the cross" (1 Cor. 1:18), which
was revealed to him by Christ himself near Damascus, and of which
he was "not ashamed . . . it is the power of God for salvation to every
one who has faith."29 In this exclusive tie to the word of the gospel
that was entrusted to him—"without human power"—lies even for
us today the greatness of the person and the truth of the message of
the outsider Paul.
29. Rom 1:16 (my confirmation verse).