t Antioch,
Paul replied, and these are well stocked with fish, of a quality
inferior, however, to those he used to catch in the lake of Gennesaret,
but still fish for which there is some sale. He and John own some boats
and they ply up and down the marshes, and draw up a living in their
nets, a poor and uncertain living I believe it to be, for they are often
about telling stories to the faithful of our Lord Jesus Christ, who pay
them for their recitals. One is always with them, a woman called Rachel.
It is said that she poisoned a rival at a wedding, a girl called Ruth
whom Jesus raised from the dead. Ruth went to her husband, but Rachel
followed Jesus of Nazareth.... Thou'rt a Galilean, Paul said, and know
these stories better than I.

As they walked on together, Paul's thoughts returned to the miracle of
his apostleship, received, he said, by me from Jesus Christ our Lord
himself on the road to Damascus. Thy brethren have doubtless related the
story to thee how in my journey from Jerusalem to Damascus, full of
wrath to kill and to punish the saints, I was blinded by a great light
from the skies, and out of a cloud Jesus Christ our Lord spoke to me:
Paul! Paul! he cried, why persecutest thou me? Ever since I have
preached that there is but one Mediator between God and man--Christ
Jesus our Lord, and if I ran out whilst thou wast telling thy story,
crying, he is mad, he is mad! it was because it seemed to me that thou
wert speaking by order of the Jews who would ensnare and entrap me or
for some other reason. None may divine men's desire of soul, unless an
evil spirit has descended into thee I may not divine any reason for thy
story. There is some mistake that none would regret more than thou, for
thou wouldst hear the truth from me this day, thereby gaining
everlasting life. Why dost thou not answer me, Jesus? Because thou'rt
waiting to hear from me the words that our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to
me? My brethren have told it to me, Jesus answered. And thou believest
it not? Paul cried. I believe, Jesus answered, that the Jesus that spake
to thee out of a cloud never lived in the flesh; he was a Lord Jesus
Christ of thy own imagining, and I believe, too, that if we had met in
Galilee thou wouldst not have heeded me, and thou wouldst have done
well, for in Galilee I was but a seeker; go thou and seek and be not
always satisfied with what first comes to thy hand.

These words provoked a great rage in Paul, and believing Je