But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.
18 Then after three years,
18 Then after three years,
Note the alternatives before Paul: to go up to Jerusalem, or to go (down?) to Arabia.
Isn't this an act of deliberate self-sacrifice, of emptying himself?
If Paul had to become an Alter Christus as effect of the his becoming one who has "seen" Christ, wasn't the his going to Arabia the immediate effect of this his imitatio Christi?
Just as the Son descended in the lower heavens in deliberate obedience to Father, so Paul descended in the Arabia to imitate deliberately the Son in his humility.
This Jesus imitated by Paul in this act of spoliation of himself (by going to Arabia) seems really a celestial mythological Jesus:
| Jesus | Paul |
| descended to lower heavens (under the earth) | descended to Arabia (under Jerusalem) |
| ascended to upper heavens (above the earth) | ascended to Damascus (above Jerusalem) |
| he will appear on the earth before James and Peter the first time | met Peter and James the first time in Jerusalem |
This Jesus/Paul seems to be the Just of Window, insofar he gave up the richness, etc.
So Paul claimed that he, just as Jesus, was seen the first time by James and Peter only after, and not before, the his drama of Death and resurrection.
This would identify the place of the crucifixion in the lower heavens, the equivalent of "Arabia" for Paul.