alternatehistory.com

There's a lot of dispute about what happened to St. Paul after his "Damascus Road" experience. According to the Lukan account in Acts, he went to Jerusalem shortly after recovering his sight; however, St. Paul himself only speaks of his conversion once: in second Corinthians, and then he refers to it at a distance (occuring to someone else), and in Galatians he mentions that from Damascus, he went into Arabia.

In 2 Corinthians, he makes a further remark about the then King of Nabataea waiting outside the gates of Damascus to arrest him, but he escaped out of a window in the city's wall in a basket. Now, it's unlikely that the king of Nabataea wanted to arrest him for meditating quietly in the Arabian desert, most probably, he was preaching the Gospel. Nabataea's king (that St Paul mentions in Corinthians, Aretas IV Philopater) was on poor terms with Rome, but meddled in Judaea by dint of being their most powerful neighbor.

So, what if in his stay in Arabia, he successfully converts the king and the royal family? If Nabataea becomes Christian, or at least Christian friendly, what effect might this have on Arabia's future?
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