Conversion of Paul the Apostle

The Conversion of Paul the Apostle, was, according to the New Testament, an event in the life of Paul the Apostle that led him to cease persecuting early Christians and to become a follower of Jesus. It is normally dated to AD 33–36. The phrases Pauline conversion, Damascene conversion and Damascus Christophany, and road to Damascus allude to this event.

New Testament description

In the New Testament, Paul's conversion experience is discussed in both Paul's own letters and in the Acts of the Apostles. According to both sources, Paul was not a follower of Jesus and did not know him before Jesus' crucifixion. Paul's conversion occurred after Jesus' crucifixion. The accounts of Paul's conversion experience describe it as miraculous, supernatural, or otherwise revelatory in nature.

Paul's life before conversion

Before his conversion, Paul, then known as Saul, was a "zealous" Pharisee who "intensely persecuted" the followers of Jesus. Some scholars argue that Paul was a member of the "Zealot" party. Says Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians:

To Damascus

To Damascus (Swedish: Till Damaskus), also known as The Road to Damascus, is a trilogy of plays by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg. The first two parts were published in 1898, with the third following in 1904. It has been described as "Strindberg's most complex play" and as "his greatest play," due to its "synthesis of a wide variety of myths, symbols and ideas with a profound spiritual analysis in a new dramatic form."

Writing process

Strindberg began writing Part 1 in January 1898 in France and by 8 March he had completed the manuscript. This marked the first time that Strindberg had written drama in five years. "If you find it good," he wrote to Gustaf af Geijerstam, "chuck it in at the theatre. If you find it impossible, hide it away." At this time, he considered the first part to be complete in itself; he did not originally intend to follow it with two sequels. He began writing Part 2 during the summer of 1898 in Lund and had completed it by the middle of July. The first two parts were published in a single volume in October 1898. Strindberg arranged for a copy to be sent to Henrik Ibsen, describing him as "the Master, from whom he learned much." Strindberg began to write Part 3 in January 1901. It was published in April 1904.

Road to ...

Road to ... refers to a series of seven comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. They are also often referred to as the "Road" pictures or the "Road" series. The movies were a combination of adventure, comedy, romance, and music. The minimal plot often took a back seat to gags, many of them supposedly ad-libbed by Crosby and Hope during filming.

Films in the series

Each film is not simply a comedic film, but a satire of some of the popular film genres of the day, including jungle, Arabian nights, Alaskan adventure, and high seas. The final film not only comes much later, but involves a newer genre; Hong Kong spoofs the spy films of the sixties.

In 1977, an eighth Road to ... movie was planned, titled Road to the Fountain of Youth; however, Crosby died that year of a heart attack.

In 1947, Astor Pictures released a compilation film of several of Crosby's Educational Pictures short subjects called The Road to Hollywood to evoke the series.

Road to... (Family Guy)

The "Road to..." episodes, also known as the Family Guy Road shows, are a series of episodes in the animated series Family Guy. They are a parody of the seven Road to... comedy films, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour.

These episodes involve baby, Stewie Griffin and anthropomorphic dog, Brian in some foreign, supernatural or science fiction location not familiar to the show's normal location in Quahog, Rhode Island. The first, titled "Road to Rhode Island", aired on May 30, 2000, as a part of the second season. The episodes are known for featuring elaborate musical numbers, similar to the original films. As of 2013, there are seven Road to episodes, mirroring the Bing Crosby count of movies.

The Road to episodes contain several signature elements, including a special version of the opening sequence, custom musical cues and musical numbers, and parodies of science fiction and fantasy films. Many of the episodes are popular among television critics, and have been nominated for several awards. In 2000, "Road to Rhode Island" was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award in the "Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour)" category. In 2009, "Road to Germany", along with two other episodes from the seventh season, were nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award in the "Outstanding Comedy Series" category, the first time in 48 years multiple episodes of one animated series were nominated for the same award.

Damascus

Damascus (Arabic: دمشق‎ Dimashq IPA: [ˈdiːmaːʃq]) is the capital and the second-largest city of Syria after Aleppo. It is commonly known in Syria as ash-Sham (Arabic: الشام‎ ash-Shām) and nicknamed as the City of Jasmine (Arabic: مدينة الياسمين‎ Madīnat al-Yāsmīn). In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major cultural and religious center of the Levant. The city has an estimated population of 1,711,000 as of 2009.

Located in southwestern Syria, Damascus is the center of a large metropolitan area of 2.6 million people (2004). Geographically embedded on the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range 80 kilometres (50 mi) inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau 680 metres (2,230 ft) above sea-level, Damascus experiences a semi-arid climate because of the rain shadow effect. The Barada River flows through Damascus.

First settled in the second millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad. Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. During Ottoman rule, the city decayed while maintaining a certain cultural prestige. Today, it is the seat of the central government and all of the government ministries.

Damascus (disambiguation)

Damascus is the capital of Syria. It may also refer to:

Places

North America

Canada

United States

Damascus (horse)

Damascus (April 14, 1964 – August 8, 1995) was a Thoroughbred race horse sired by Sword Dancer (1959's Horse of the Year) out of Kerala (by My Babu) foaled at the Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1967, he won the Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes*, Jockey Club Gold Cup*, Wood Memorial, Travers Stakes, Dwyer Stakes (closing from 12 lengths back and spotting the runner up 16 pounds), and Woodward Stakes and was named Horse of the Year and champion three-year-old colt, plus he shared the champion handicap male honors with Buckpasser. Also in 1967, Damascus finished third in the 1967 Kentucky Derby. A high-strung horse, he was enervated by the humidity and spooked by the crowd noise, so he was thereafter given a stable pony to calm him. During the same year, top horses Dr. Fager and Buckpasser were also competing. In Blood-Horse magazine's top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Buckpasser ranks 14th and Dr. Fager ranks 6th. In a race many consider the "Race of the Century," Damascus won the 1967 Woodward by 10 lengths over both of these horses after his connections, as well as those of Buckpasser, used stablemates to set a blistering pace, thus weakening Dr. Fager. Damascus himself ranks number 16 in the Blood Horse listing.