Did St Paul Get Jesus Right? (eBook)

CHAPTER 3

How Paul Got Jesus… or How Jesus Got Paul: The Evidence on Paul’s Conversion

Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus is surely the most famous religious conversion of all time. And there is no doubt that it was a hugely formative event in Paul’s life and thinking. Was it this event that persuaded Paul of Jesus’ divinity, and was Paul then the person who introduced this idea to the Christian church?

To answer these questions, it is necessary to review what happened at Paul’s conversion.

Sources of information: how do we know about Paul’s conversion?

The main sources of information about what happened on the Damascus road are the book of Acts and Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Acts is a history of the earliest days of the Christian church; we do not know for certain who wrote it, but it is quite clear from its opening words (about “my first volume”) and its dedication that it was written by the same person who wrote Luke’s Gospel.1 That person has been identified from at least the second century AD with Luke, a companion of Paul (referred to as “Luke the doctor” in Paul’s letter to the Colossians).2

Some people are not sure about the identification. But what makes it seem thoroughly likely is the fact that the author of Acts drops into the first person – “we did” this and that – about half-way through his book, when he is describing Paul’s travels. Up to that point the author has said “they did” this and that, but then he switches to “we”. It has been suggested that he starts using someone else’s diary, or that the shift is just to add a dramatic quality to the story. But easily the most obvious explanation is that the author was there and was indeed a companion of Paul.3

The fact that more than half of Acts is about Paul and his travels lends weight to this view, as does the author’s detailed knowledge of the geography of the Mediterranean world. Scholars have shown that in describing Paul’s travels the author of Acts gets the routes right – not so easy in a world without atlases or the internet. And he gets details to do with individual places right, such as the names of local officials.

So the case for Luke being the author of Acts is extremely strong. If it is correct, then this means that we have an account of Paul’s conversion from a first-century writer. He had first-hand knowledge of Paul and, moreover, declares his intention to write a well-researched and reliable account of things.

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is another very early account of Paul’s conversion, probably written in the late AD 40s, though some people place it later, in the 50s. Either way it is an early account – Jesus was crucified about AD 30, and Paul’s conversion was probably a couple of years later. Furthermore it is direct testimony, since there is no reasonable doubt that this fiery and emotional letter was written by Paul himself to churches that he founded in Galatia – part of modern Turkey.

The fact that Galatians was written by Paul, and indeed that Acts was written by a friend of Paul, does not necessarily mean that these accounts of Paul’s conversion are trustworthy. Both writers could be putting a particular spin on what happened. But there is good reason to doubt that, since Paul hardly comes out of either account with great credit.

So what seems to have happened?

Paul’s background

Paul came from a devoutly Jewish family who lived in Tarsus in south Turkey; the family were from the tribe of Benjamin, which is probably why Paul’s first name was Saul (this was the name of the first Jewish king, who was also from that tribe). Saul is a Hebrew name. But it was normal for Jewish families living outside Palestine in areas where Greek was used to give their children a Roman or Greek name too; in this case it was Paulus (in Latin) or Paulos (in Greek) – Paul. The family seem to have had some standing in their local non-Jewish community, having been granted Roman citizenship – a relatively unusual privilege for people living outside Italy. So Paul grew up in two cultures and speaking several languages fluently, probably including Aramaic (the common language of the Jews), Hebrew (the ancient language of the Jews), Greek, and some Latin.

His family sent the young Saul to Jerusalem to be given a good Jewish education in a Pharisaic school. Acts says that he studied under the leading rabbi Gamaliel. The Pharisees were a relatively small but influential group of Jews who were rigorously committed to upholding the Jewish way of life and religion. The Jews were politically, militarily, and economically dominated by the mighty, wealthy and often glamorous Romans, and they were very sensitive to the religious and moral threat represented by their super-power overlords. The Pharisees were something like the orthodox Muslims in the Middle East today in their desire to maintain their religious traditions and religious purity. Some were more liberal, some more fundamentalist. Paul was a “zealous” Pharisee as a student, who was brilliant, very religious, and outdid his class-mates in his commitment to the cause.4

It was this that led to his becoming one of the archenemies of the Christian movement. This movement was very young. Its founder, Jesus, had come into conflict with the Pharisees because he was liberal (as the Pharisees saw it). He did not follow their strict interpretation of the law on issues such as keeping the Jewish Sabbath, and he mixed with the kind of ordinary sinful people from whom the Pharisees tried to keep separate. (The name “Pharisee” probably means “separatist”.)

Jesus was now dead, crucified by the Romans. But his followers, far from giving up, were announcing that he had come to life again and that he was the messiah, whom all good Jews were awaiting. The movement was gaining a lot of support, in Jerusalem itself and beyond, to the distress of the Jewish authorities. Their attempts to suppress it, including by arresting and killing some of its leaders, were singularly unsuccessful. It was in this context that the student Paul began to get involved, and in due course he became one of the most violent and feared opponents of the Christians.

We know something of the viciousness of religious fundamentalists in our world, not least in the Middle East. They feel justified in taking drastic action against what they see as error and against those who are propounding it. So Paul says of himself: “I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it.”5 Luke’s account is that he was “ravaging the church, going into house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.”6 Acts gives the impression that he was a major factor in causing Christians to flee from Jerusalem. And then he went in pursuit, getting authorization from the religious authorities in Jerusalem to go to Damascus, in Syria, where some of the Christians had gone, and to bring them forcibly to Jerusalem for whatever fate might await them.

His extraordinary conversion

It was in the context of this brutal mission that Paul had his famous “Damascus road” conversion. As Luke describes the event it seems as though:

• Paul experienced “a light from heaven”, which left him temporarily blind.
• He collapsed on the ground.
• He heard – or thought he heard – a voice saying “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He then identified the voice as that of Jesus, who told him to go on into Damascus.
• He did so, and his sight was restored by one of the Christians in Damascus, called Ananias. Paul began his new life as a Christian, getting baptized and beginning to preach on the Christian side.7

This is a plausible enough account...