In short, Paul’s conversion experience is not the entrance to his thought. Paul is preoccupied by his call to the apostolate and gospel as service to the world, not by his conversion experience. Therefore, he patterns his call after that of Jeremiah, who like Paul was “appointed … a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5; cf. Gal. 1:15–16); and he uses not the language of conversion but the language of the prophetic call. Paul’s interpretation of his conversion experience concentrates on its function