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Abstract
This thesis will examine the accounts of heavenly ascents in The Book of Watchers and 2 Enoch as examples of Jewish Merkabah mysticism and explore the light they shed on the nature of both Paul's Damascus Road Experience and his "visions and revelations of the Lord" of which he speaks in 2 Corinthians 12. Taken as a continuation of Paul's own Merkabah praxis, these events contributed significantly to Paul's understanding about God's plan of salvation and his own role in it.