ACC ~ 1 Timothy 1 v13b

I ACTED IGNORANTLY. CHRYSOSTOM: Why then did other Jews not obtain mercy? Because what they did, they did not ignorantly but willfully, well knowing what they did. … Thus their love of power was everywhere an obstacle in their way. When they admitted that no one can forgive sins but God alone and Christ immediately did that very thing—forgive sin—which they had confessed to be a sign of divinity, this could not be a case of ignorance. But did Paul act out of such ignorance? … Paul did not act, as some other Jews did, from the love of power, but from zeal. For what was the motive of his journey to Damascus? He thought the doctrine pernicious and was afraid that the preaching of it would spread everywhere. … It is for this he condemns himself, saying, “I am not fit to be called an apostle.” It is for this he confesses his ignorance, which was a consequence of his disbelief. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 3.

WHY THE PERSECUTOR WAS CHOSEN TO WRITE SO MANY LETTERS. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: At this point in my discourse I confess my amazement at the wise dispensation of the Holy Spirit, in limiting the epistles of the others to a small number but granting grace to Paul, the former persecutor, to write fourteen. For it was not as though Peter and John were less than Paul that he withheld the gift in their case—God forbid!—but that his doctrine might be beyond question, he gave the grace to the former enemy and persecutor to write more, that thus we might all be confirmed in our faith. Indeed, all were astonished at Paul and said, “Is not this he who used to make havoc” previously “and who has come here for the purpose of taking us in bonds to Jerusalem?” Do not be astonished, Paul says, “I know that ‘it is hard for me to kick against the goad.’ I know that ‘I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God,’ but ‘I acted ignorantly.’ For I considered the preaching of Christ to be the destruction of the law, for I did not know that he came ‘to fulfill the law, not to destroy it.’But ’the grace of our Lord has abounded beyond measure in me.’” CATECHETICAL LECTURES 10.18.

1 Tim