I had a very long thread for tonight about my thoughts on St. Paul & how he relates to Eve. He’s a fascinating figure who was viewed very differently in his time than he is nowadays by his own church. It’s problematic, though, & difficult to discuss in social media bites.

So I’ll just briefly discuss his impact on the show, & my story. Paul changed the world with his message of unconditional love, & used his own forgiveness by Christ as proof of it. He was a formidable intellect who could argue with the best minds of his day.

In Greece, they called him The Messenger, because they believed he was Hermes, the messenger of the gods. He enjoyed Greek theatre, & even quoted Euripides in his letters. Only half of his letters were actually written by him, & there were alterations in later years to conform with less tolerant views, so it’s hard to pin down Paul’s views exactly, but today’s scholars regard him as much more progressive than history depicts. Women were church leaders in his day: they hosted his meetings (much like the pic above) & funded them, since they also ran the households & kept the books. 

When he baptized new converts, he would say: “For there is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” To the extent that he counseled obedience to Roman traditions, which he despised, it’s only because he believed he was the last generation. Had he known we’d be reading his words, he’d have written an official document for public consumption, & no doubt would be known as even more radical than he was. 

Paul was a disruptive force when he came to town; like Ghandi, he was a sweet old man who could undermine the authority of the establishment, & he spent a lot of time in jail as a result. 

His career began after his conversion, & after he recovered from the blindness of seeing Christ. He traveled to Cyprus, where he met a sorcerer named Elymas. Facing off against him, Paul blinded him, & won the local leader to his side. It was at that moment that Saul took on the name of Paul, from Latin, meaning “Small”, an ironic term, given his stature in history. I combined this story with the myth of Proteus to illustrate Eve’s taking on of the public role of the Messenger of Eli. Tomorrow I’ll look at how I think the Elijians can both preserve & expand #Xena’s story in a revival, & how pacifism plays a role in an action tv show.