I was reading up on the early years of Christianity and noticed that Paul seems to be one of the most important early figures of Christianity and was crucial in the spreading of Christianity to the "Gentiles".
His importance seems to be the fact that he was a known persecutor of Christians but I've yet to find any more info on what exactly he did to persecute Christians.
So I guess my questions are:
Is there any info on the early life of Paul concerning his role in persecuting Christians?
Was he a devout Jew or a even a zealot in the sense of being an "extremist"? What were his religious views pre conversion?
What do we know about how and why he converted to Christianity?
How did the early Christian church come to accept Paul and view him as a central figure in the religion? It seems quite difficult to suddenly transform from a feared persecutor of Christians to a revered figure in the religion.
Thanks in advance and I hope I haven't asked a question that is frequently asked. I looked at the FAQ and did a quick search but didn't really find anything about the subject on this subreddit.
Hopefully someone can provide a more thorough answer, but you might want to check out the FAQ entry on /r/AcademicBiblical - What do we know about Paul and the Apostles? - users /u/Gadarn and /u/koine_lingua provide some good information there.
The topic of "what exactly do we know?" regarding the lives of the apostles and first-century Christianity is super interesting. Short answer: not much, but there's a lot of interesting possibilities!