Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world — still inhabited from before the time of Abraham until today. It was the capital of Aram (Syria) throughout the Old Testament and a center of the Aramean kingdoms that repeatedly warred with Israel. Eliezer, Abraham's servant, was "of Damascus" (Genesis 15:2). Naaman, the Syrian general cured of leprosy, served the king of Damascus. Elisha prophesied against Damascus and was visited there by Hazael. Isaiah prophesied its destruction (Isaiah 17). But Damascus is most famous in the New Testament for what happened on the road approaching it. Saul of Tarsus, a young Pharisee and violent persecutor of the church, was traveling to Damascus with letters from the high priest authorizing him to arrest Christians. Near the city, "suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?' And he said, 'Who are You, Lord?' Then the Lord said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting'" (Acts 9:3-5). Saul was struck blind, led into Damascus, and stayed at the house of a man named Judas on Straight Street. Three days later, a disciple named Ananias was sent by God to restore his sight and baptize him. The man who entered Damascus to destroy the church left Damascus as the apostle Paul, who would carry the gospel to the ends of the empire. The "Damascus road" became the English expression for any sudden and dramatic conversion — one of the many linguistic gifts Christianity gave to Western culture.