Word: jerusalems
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...first of the many escapes that make Paul's life something of a Biblical thriller. Under cover of darkness, he was smuggled into a room with a window in the city's outer wall and then let down in a basket to make his way safely to Jerusalem and his first meeting with Peter and James. Soon he returned to his home town, Tarsus, where he stayed for about a decade until Barnabas brought him to Antioch and the real beginning of his career...
Paul's sudden conversion from persecutor to apostle of the persecuted faith has prompted New Testament scholars to some elaborate detective work and guessing games. Some believe that Paul spent most of his early career not in Jerusalem at all but in Damascus itself, hence could not have taken part in the stoning of Stephen or known Jesus. The emphasis on Jerusalem, suggests Professor John Knox of Union Theological Seminary, may have been provided by Physician Luke who may have innocently doctored both the Acts and his Gospel to present Christianity as a continuation of the mainstream of Judaism...
...this first journey, Paul returned to Jerusalem to take up an issue -seemingly technical but in fact momentous-that was to define Christianity's course for all time...
Neither Jew nor Greek. Superficially, the first Christians seemed to be a sect of Judaism. Under the leadership of James, the brother of Jesus, the community in Jerusalem waited quietly for the end of the world, worshiping and sacrificing in the Temple, observing the fast and feast days and the stringencies of the Torah. Most of their converts were Jews; as for the Gentiles, it was understood that no man could be a Christian without first being a Jew-which meant circumcision and obedience to the dietary laws...
...settle the question with the Apostles once and for all, Paul set off for Jerusalem. Whatever his arguments were, Paul represents them as completely victorious. When James, Peter and John (who, says Paul disparagingly, "seemed to be pillars") "perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision...