The Damascus Road [with Straight Street and Via Maris]
“…so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.”
If the Emmaus Road is a metaphor for a gradual experience of revelation, the Damascus Road is revelation at its most visceral and primal.
Its importance comes into focus in the 9th chapter of The Acts of the Apostles:
Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ The men who were travelling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ He answered, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ The Lord said to him, ‘Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.
So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored.
In order to fulfill his mission to hunt and persecute the Nazarenes, it was necessary for Saul to make the long and arduous trip to Damascus, which was 150-180 miles from Jerusalem on the common road. On foot, the trip would take about two weeks. The journey’s end, however, was a city that was arguably the most advanced and beautiful of the age.
Damascus of the 1st century could boast of a public lighting system, sophisticated sanitation, lush public gardens, and well-organized and maintained commercial sections.
Additionally, a Greek architect had designed a grid system for the streets, including the one known as Straight Street that served as the main artery connecting the various marketplaces and routes of transit. A Main Street, in other words.
In fact, the Damascus Road, after some intertwining with other highways, directly becomes “the street called straight” once a traveler enters into the walls of the city.
Instead of being one, integrated highway, the Damascus Road was a collection of existing routes, including the Jerusalem/Jericho Road of which we’re familiar, serving as the demanding introduction to the journey.
From Jericho, the traveler would turn north onto the Beth-Shean Road that followed the Jordan River towards Tiberius. Crossing the Jordan just before the Sea of Galilee, travelers would proceed to Caesarea Philippi and merge with the pride of Rome’s Levantine highway system: Via Maris, or “The Road Along the Sea”.
The Via Maris was another of those ancient trade routes that pre-dated many of the 1st century A.D. cultures, in use from the Bronze Age of the 34th century B.C. In scripture, it makes its first appearance in Isaiah 9:1, composed in the 8th century B.C.
When upgraded to match the rest of the Roman highway system, Via Maris had to meet certain standards. The materials were selected to be sturdy, but low maintenance and resistant to the extremes of weather. The width, between 8 to 16 feet, was designed to easily accommodate two-way cart traffic and pedestrians. The paths were as straight and flat as the terrain would permit. In the urban areas only foot traffic was permitted in order to reduce accidents and attrition.
It was fortunate, or providential, that St. Paul’s conversion took place closer to Damascus than to Jerusalem, as it was far easier to transport an afflicted person on Via Maris than on the Jerusalem/Jericho road. As Damascus embraced a broad and diverse collection of cultures, despite its distance from Jerusalem it was not difficult to find Christians, as with Ananias.
(An aside: It’s possible that Paul could have traveled northwest out of Jerusalem on a trade route to Via Maris, although it was often crowded with commercial traffic and the way was not the most direct, adding days to the journey.)
The moment captured in Acts 9 is spectacular enough that it has its own feast day on the Christian calendar [January 25] and the Damascus Road has become a metaphor for sudden and provocatively re-orienting conversion in settings both sacred and secular. The common encyclopedic definition is “an experience that completely changes the way that you think about something.”
Yeah, that’s a bit of an understatement.
The Emmaus Road experience was with two pilgrims, already familiar with and sympathetic to Christianity, as Jesus deepens their knowledge with further teaching. It is a gradual process, perhaps the one with which most of us are familiar as we make our measured way towards deeper truth.
The Damascus Road experience physically, mentally, and emotionally disrupts us. It often accompanies circumstances of tragedy or utter loss of control. It certainly brings us to a new perspective.
While the more peaceful Emmaus experience empowered two faithful Christians, it is the turbulent, disruptive Damascus experience that gives us a saint.
O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul you have caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we pray, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show ourselves thankful to you by following his holy teaching; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.