According to Paul's narrative he was a liar, thief, murdered, and overall scumbag. At one time he was a bestiarius, slaughtering animals in the arenas. Then he became head of the local Committee to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice and hunted down and executed the misguided folks in The Way cult. While he was on a bounty trip to Damascus to round up some more victims he suffered heat stroke and started hallucinating about a guy he called Jesus who could help him by starting a propaganda campaign.
So after recuperating he went to Arabia for three years to get his big lie together and when he returned he flimflammed the local locals of The Way cult with his Jesus son of God story. He traveled far and wide in the Middle East area spreading his new religion and wrote stories about his exploits. Later on his disciples wrote the back story to explain why the Jesus character was worthy of being worshipped.
And the rest is history.
So after recuperating he went to Arabia for three years to get his big lie together and when he returned he flimflammed the local locals of The Way cult with his Jesus son of God story. He traveled far and wide in the Middle East area spreading his new religion and wrote stories about his exploits. Later on his disciples wrote the back story to explain why the Jesus character was worthy of being worshipped.
And the rest is history.
