What brought St. Paul close to God?

A:

Acts of the Apostles tells how Paul was blinded by a light, fell down and heard the voice of Jesus saying, "It hurts you to kick against the goad[or 'pricks']" (Acts 25:14), leading to his conversion. That this is also a quotation from the ancient play known as the Bacchae by Euripides (d. 406 BCE) must cast some doubt on its historicity. The scene has multiple parallels to the play and peculiarly has Jesus quote a Greek proverb to Paul while speaking Aramaic ("in the Hebrew language"). Paul was then taken, blind and helpless to Damascus, where he was taught the gospel.

There is another clear parallel between the story of Paul's release from prison and the Bacchae so, taken together, they are good evidence that the source of both this and the conversion account was a play, not actual events. Paul himself never mentions either episode, so we are left to speculate that Paul began to admire the Christians for their stoicism in the face of persecution, and chose to join them.