# road to Damascus

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/road-to-damascus
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

An important point in someone's life where a great change, or reversal, of ideas or beliefs occurs.

## Examples

- His change of heart was a real road to Damascus moment.
- After years of ignoring environmental issues, her trip to the rainforest was a road to Damascus that changed her career path.
- The philosopher described his sudden rejection of his earlier theories as a road to Damascus, marking a complete transformation in his intellectual life.

## Origin

The phrase comes from Acts 9:1-19. Saul of Tarsus, a zealous persecutor of the early Christians, is travelling to Damascus to arrest more of them when a blinding light stops him on the road and a voice asks why he is persecuting it. Struck sightless, he is led into the city, and days later his sight and his allegiance are both restored. The persecutor becomes Paul, the movement's most tireless advocate. The reversal could hardly be sharper: a man sets out to destroy a cause and arrives converted to it. What English took from the story is the suddenness and completeness of the turnaround, a change of conviction so total it amounts to becoming a different person. A road-to-Damascus moment now means a sudden, dramatic conversion or reversal of belief, a point at which someone abruptly comes to see things the opposite way. It need not be religious; it applies to any abrupt, wholesale change of mind.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.