 before his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus, wrote in Philippians chapter 3, Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.