"... Bowker suggests that Paul in the “perfectly ordinary process of merkabah contemplation reflected the voice of commission to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 2.” Whereas Ezekiel was told to go not to strangers but the house of Israel, Paul became convinced that it was not the Christians who were the rebellious people but the Jews who had commissioned him. What may have happened is that Ezekiel 1–2 offered a coherent context for the sudden reversal of his beliefs. Ezekiel 2 took on a dramatic new meaning. Bowker notes that Ezekiel 2:1, 3 is quoted in part in Acts 26:16. The lack of explicit reference to the merkabah in the testimonies about Paul is the result of the fact that Saul’s occupation at the time of the vision paled into insignificance compared with the transformative effects of the vision itself. Though visions were often regarded with suspicion, these were part of rabbinic orthodoxy, a form of “higher education,” to be undertaken only by the very well trained (as stated in the Mishnah) ..."