Christians.270 A crucified individual could not, then, be the Messiah. Paul’s fundamental opposition to the early Christian movement would melt away in the face of the risen, vindicated Crucified One. Perhaps already from the Damascus road Paul began to see the curse of Jesus Christ as necessary in God’s plan to take away the Law’s curse of humanity.271 Such a scenario for Paul’s conversion, unfortunately, must remain exceedingly tentative and may not actually be the case. The best evidence for the