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The Damascus Road Conversion of St. Paul: Fact or Fiction?

Thursday, December 17, 2015 6:51

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(Before It's News)

Muslims are often quick to dismiss the letters of the apostle Paul. In a previous blog post, I showed why there is good reason to think that Paul’s message was largely consistent with the message of the Jerusalem church, and why this presents a problem for Muslims. Here, I want to present another reason why Muslims need to start taking Paul more seriously. In this blog post, I want to examine the historical evidence bearing on Paul’s conversion experience. What transformed the Pharisee Saul of Tarsus — a persecutor of Christians — into the great apostle Paul, arguably the greatest evangelist who ever lived? Did Paul really come to believe that he had a vision on the road to Damascus that he interpreted to be Jesus Himself? If so, then what best explains the origins of this belief? It is these questions that concern us in the present article.

The Acts of the Apostles contains a report concerning Paul’s conversion. In Acts 9:1-19, we read the following:

But Saul, 2 and asked him for letters 3 4 And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, 6 But 7 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Paul Himself in his own words gives us some clues about his conversion experience. For example, in Galatians 1:11-16, we read,

11 For 12 13 For you have heard of 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely 15 But when he 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

In this text, it is noteworthy that no mention is made of the locality of Paul’s conversion. A casual expression at the end of verse 17, apparently brought in for a different purpose, indicates that it was at Damascus (“…and returned again to Damascus”), consistent with the account in Acts (where Paul reportedly encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and subsequently met with Ananias in Damascus, where he received the Holy Spirit). This is a phenomenon that the great apologist William Paley called “undesignedness”, where two independent accounts interlock in a manner that is unexpected if one were copied from the other or both from a common source. This gains further support from 2 Corinthians 11:32-33, in which Paul gives us an historical detail also recorded by Acts 9:

32 At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, 33 but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.

Here is the parallel account in Acts 9:23-25:

23 24 but their 25 but his disciples took him by night and Notice that Paul’s own account in his second epistle to Corinth gives us more information than does Luke’s account in Acts. Luke doesn’t tell us that it was the governor under King Aretas who wished to seize Paul. This suggests that he is not relying on Acts as his source. It seems also unlikely that Luke was relying on Paul’s epistle in order to construct a consistent narrative. For example, the sufferings of Paul which are listed in verses 21-29 of the same chapter cannot be reconstructed from Acts. Furthermore, Titus — who is mentioned prominently in the epistle (see 2 Corinthians 2:13; 7:6,13,14; 8:6,16,23; 12:18) — is not mentioned in Acts at all.

Furthermore, the text in Acts 9:19-22 tells us that,

For 20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, 21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who 22 But Saul This is consistent with our text in Galatians (1:16-17). Both accounts indicate that Paul preached the gospel immediately upon his commissioning.

A further text, that is important for our purposes here, is 1 Corinthians 15:8-10, in which Paul tells us,

8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, 9 For 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.

Paul thus himself claims to have had an encounter with the risen Christ. He asserts that he was the very last individual to whom Jesus appeared. This is consistent with our account in Acts. What is the meaning of the phrase “as to one untimely born”? Presumably it refers to the fact that Paul had not encountered Jesus when he was on earth, but only encountered the risen Christ after His ascension into heaven. Again, this is very consistent with our account in Acts. Paul also gives his own testimony to the fact that at one time he used to persecute Christians. This raises the question as to what brought about his conversion from someone who was zealous for hunting down and killing Christians to someone who was zealous for serving the Lord Jesus Christ whom he had once persecuted. It seems very clear to me that Paul was sincere in his belief that he had personally encountered the raised Christ and that he had been commissioned by Jesus Himself to the office of apostleship. How do I know he was sincere? By the extent to which he was willing so suffer for the name of Christ. He had nothing obvious to gain by abandoning his faith (for which he was extremely zealous) and starting a new religion; and he had everything to lose.

Clement, the first century bishop of Rome, who almost certainly was personally acquainted with Paul, writes in his letter to the Corinthians towards the close of the first century (1st Clement 5):

And Paul, because of jealousy and contention, has become the very type of endurance rewarded. He was in bonds seven times, he was exiled, he was stoned. He preached in the East and in the West, winning a noble reputation for his faith. He taught righteousness to all the world; and after reaching the furthest limits of the West, and bearing his testimony before kings and rulers, he passed out of this world and was received into the holy places. In him we have one of the greatest of all examples of endurance.

Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke — a companion of Paul — also tells us of many of Paul’s sufferings for the name of Christ. Paul himself, in his own words, describes those persecutions in 2 Corinthians 11:

But whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that. 22 Are they Hebrews? 23 Are they 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 25 Three times I was 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, 27 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for 29 What could have compelled the apostle Paul to give up his former commitment to Judaism and his prominent position within the Jewish community, and endure so much suffering and hardship for the name of Christ? Taken together, the evidence outlined above provides compelling reason to think that Paul really did experience a vision of Christ on the road to Damascus. Paul sincerely interpreted this to be a real and genuine commissioning by Jesus Himself to the office of apostleship. Paul, in his letters, gives every impression of being a man of sober-mindedness, and of first-class intellect. He most certainly was not stupid. These facts, taken together, ought to give one pause for thought before one casually dismisses the apostle Paul.

Source: http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2015/12/the-damascus-road-conversion-of-st-paul.html

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