Welcome back to part two our three-part series (see part one here) featuring excerpts from Chapter 1 of Nero and Paul by Kathie Lee Gifford and Dr. Bryan Litfin. In our first installment, we entered the grim reality of the Carcer, where the apostle Paul, though imprisoned, received a visit that brought him the tools to send messages of hope into the world.
Now, left alone in the encroaching darkness, Paul's mind travels back to a time before his transformation—a time when his passion for God took a very different, and much darker, form. This excerpt explores the haunting memories that shaped the man who would change the world.
Memories of Persecution
Why had he persecuted the followers of the Way? He could picture each of them so clearly: how James, the Lord’s brother, would preach the Torah from the temple’s steps; how Mary, the Lord’s mother, would offer tender memories of her Son; how Peter, the Lord’s leading disciple, would explain the contours of the gospel. They all offended me so terribly. Zeal for the Lord’s house consumed me—but I did not yet understand!
The Significance of Zeal
The term zeal was an important one for Paul. It had defined his life before he met Yeshua. “I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.” Paul’s Greek word was zelotes, describing a person with great concern for the Torah and the temple. A party of especially devoted men had started calling themselves “Zealots.” In fact, even one of Yeshua’s own disciples was known as Simon the Zealot to distinguish him from Simon Peter. His devotion to God’s Word was intense, uncompromising, and very sincere.
Sometimes, the excessive zeal of these men could erupt into violence. They believed God alone, not any human figure, should be their ruler and Lord. Earlier that summer, some Zealots in Jerusalem had taken a leading role in riots that had broken out when a Roman governor had stolen money from the temple treasury—an act to which the Zealots objected, since that money belonged to God. In the mayhem, several imperial soldiers were lynched, then the Romans retaliated with crucifixions. The violence quickly spiraled
into outright rebellion against Rome. From the dark confines inside the prison walls, Paul now wondered whether the war was still continuing in Jerusalem.
Though he wasn’t a member of the Zealots, the same kind of zealous spirit animated him, leading him to persecute the movement called the Way. Later, he explained himself to his Israelite brethren like this: “I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city [Jerusalem] at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today.”
Likewise, he explained to the Philippians that if anyone should have put confidence in having intense zeal for the Torah, it was him. He was “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Although Paul later considered his persecution of the church to be a terrible sin, before his conversion he thought he was doing God’s work. If zeal for the divine law required pruning some dead branches off Israel’s tree—the supposed heretics who had accepted the false prophet named Yeshua—he didn’t mind serving as the pruning shears in the hands of the Lord.
The First Branch Snipped: Stephen
As Paul’s mind sifted the painful memories from his persecuting days, he recalled that the first branch to be snipped from Israel’s vine by his misguided shears was a holy man named Stephen who had been debating the Jews in Jerusalem, trying to show the true meaning of God’s Torah and the temple. Stephen announced that everything came together in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. But false witnesses slandered Stephen, forcing him to defend himself against charges of blasphemy before the Jewish council called the Sanhedrin. “Are these accusations true?” the high priest had asked him. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Stephen replied by proclaiming the story of Israel.
Stephen’s account began with the Jewish patriarch Abraham. God called him from his distant home to the promised land of Israel—an inheritance intended for his innumerable offspring. Yet Abraham’s grandson Jacob found himself forced to immigrate to Egypt because of a famine. For four hundred years, his descendants, the Israelites, endured harsh slavery in that country, until God raised up Moses as a deliverer. After God revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush, Moses drew courage and led God’s people out of Egypt. During their wilderness sojourn, they worshiped at their movable tabernacle. But once they had entered the promised land, a mere tent no longer sufficed to house the Lord’s holy presence. Eventually, King David decided to build a permanent dwelling place for the God of Jacob. Yet it was his son Solomon who achieved it.
So far, Stephen’s explanation had provided a perfectly acceptable narrative to the Jewish leaders of the Sanhedrin. It was their own story, the biblical story, the one they knew and loved. But things took a sudden dangerous turn...
Looking Ahead
In the final part of our series, we will witness Stephen's courageous stand before the Sanhedrin, a proclamation that would seal his fate and place Saul of Tarsus at the scene of a brutal martyrdom—an event that would echo through his life and ministry forever.
Taken from Nero and Paul: How the Gospel of Grace Defeated the Ruler of Rome by Kathie Lee Gifford and Dr. Byan Litfin. Copyright © 2026. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing.
About the Authors
Kathie Lee Gifford’s four-time Emmy Award winning career has spanned television, film, recordings, Broadway, cabaret, and commercials. She has authored numerous books, including her most recent book, The God of the Way, and five New York Times bestselling books, including The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi and It's Never Too Late. She is also an actress, singer, songwriter, playwright, producer, and director.
Dr. Bryan Litfin grew up in Dallas, TX; Oxford, England; and Memphis, TN. He earned a degree in print journalism from the University of Tennessee, a master's degree in historical theology at Dallas Seminary, and a Ph.D. in the field of ancient church history at the University of Virginia. The author of four nonfiction books and six novels, Dr. Litfin now works as Professor of Bible and Theology at Rawlings School of Divinity at Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA.