The Apostle Paul is the most well-documented eyewitness in the New Testament who saw a post-resurrection Jesus. He is also the most unlikely of converts, given his pre-Christian standing as a Pharisee and persecutor of the early church. The contrast between Saul of Tarsus [Paul’s pre-Christian name was Saul] and Paul the Christian is so sharp that even skeptics of the resurrection will grant Paul truthfully thought he had seen a physically resurrected Christ.
Paul before he met Christ
Saul of Tarsus [Paul] was a hardcore persecutor of the early Church. Paul’s own writing and that of Luke [Acts] show that during the first two years of the church, Paul participated in the murder and imprisonment of Jesus’ followers.
Luke, the author of Acts, records Paul’s reaction to the murder of the Christian Stephen, writing, “But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.” (Acts 8:3) In Acts 9:1-2, it is written that “Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way [the Christian Church], whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.”
Such was the reputation of Paul that three years after his conversion, the Jerusalem apostles were uneasy to meet him, “And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe he was a disciple.” (Acts 9:26) Paul himself affirms his earliest intentions toward Christians in Galatians 1:13, saying, “For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.”
In the words of Muhammad Ali, Paul was a “bad man.”
Evidence for Paul’s conversion
How did Paul go from chief persecutor of Christianity to chief missionary to the Gentiles? New Testament scholar Dr. Mike Licona offers three sources that show why Paul made such a radical change in worldview.[1] Luke reports in Acts that Paul was on his way to Damascus to terrorize and incarcerate some Christians when suddenly “a light from heaven flashed around him,” and the risen Jesus spoke to him. (Acts 9:3-20) Jesus commanded him to get up and go into Damascus, where he sent a man named Ananias to minister and instruct Paul in his new mission. This is the original Damascus Road experience. Paul also gives his own accounts that he met the risen Jesus in 1 Corinthians 9:1 and 1 Corinthians 15:8.
Scholars widely confirm that Paul converted to Christianity around two years after the death of Jesus. Paul describes his first trip to Jerusalem, the one where the apostles were afraid to meet him, in his letter to the Galatians dating it three years post-conversion, saying, “Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas [Peter] and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles – only James, the Lord’s brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.” (Gal. 1:18-20).
Paul’s conversion account in 1 Corinthians 15:8 is an addendum to an oral creed called the kerygma.[2] Scholars date the kerygma, 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, to no later than five years after the resurrection based on Paul’s testimony. Jesus is thought to have died in either A.D. 30 or A.D. 33, which would put Paul’s conversion in either A.D. 32 or 35 and his Jerusalem trip in either A.D. 35 or 38. Somewhere in this three-year window between his conversion and meeting with Peter, scholars contend that Paul learned the creed we see in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8:
“3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas [Peter], and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born”
Based on this evidence, we can conclude that Paul believed he had encountered a physically risen Jesus. But why should we believe him? Wouldn’t there have to be someone of some authority who could vouch for Paul’s authenticity as an official Apostle who met the risen Christ?
Paul writes about his validation in Galatians 2 during a meeting with the Apostles Peter, John, and James, the brother of Jesus. It seems after 14 years of preaching the Gospel, Paul wanted to double-check that what he was preaching was the same as Peter, John, James. After reporting what he had been preaching, Paul writes in Galatians 2:9, “James, Cephas [Peter] and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me.” In other words, Paul told the three highest-ranking leaders of the early church about 1 Corinthians 15:8, and they approved.
Peter also corroborates Paul’s accounts in 2 Peter 3:15-16, saying, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
Peter puts Paul’s letters on the same platform as divinely inspired Scripture! Remember, Peter is a Jew, and the New Testament had not been compiled yet. Hence, the comparison of Paul’s writings is to the Old Testament. Peter could not be giving Paul a higher recommendation.
Persecution as evidence for Paul’s testimony
The New Testament gives 15 accounts of Paul suffering persecution due to preaching the Gospel. None of the 15 is more eye-opening than 1 Corinthians 11:24-28, “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”
Let’s put Paul’s sufferings in context to our 21st-century horizon. He was whipped on five occasions for a total of 195 lashes. Think about that! Would a man who was preaching a lie or unsure if he had just imagined Jesus be willing to endure that kind of torture? Certainly not. Then consider the other occasions when he was beaten with rods, stoned to the point of death, imprisoned many times, and shipwrecked on multiple occasions.
Paul submitted himself to a life of torture, imprisonment, poverty, hard labor, and constant concern for those he had cared for spiritually. Did he do that for a lie? He certainly did not do it for power or financial gain. Physical health and long life are out of the question since Paul was beheaded because he believed in Christ in Rome during the mid-’60s.
What should we make of it all?
So why endure all Paul endured? There can be only one answer; Paul met Christ, who radically changed Paul’s life from a man full of hate to a man willing to pour out his life to share the Gospel. As Paul says in Acts 20:24, “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”
What conclusion can we reasonably draw from Paul’s account of meeting Jesus, his ministry, willingness to suffer persecution, validation by the Apostles, and martyrdom? Did Paul simply respond to a hallucination of Jesus? Or did Paul meet a resurrected Jesus?
While a hallucination theory could explain Paul’s Damascus Road experience it is not reasonable to conclude that he would have been willing to endure the life he did for a vision. On the other hand, if Paul had really met Jesus his life and ministry are easily explained. Therefore, the most reasonable conclusion is that Paul encountered a resurrected Christ on his way to Damascus and we should view Paul’s testimony as a historical fact.
For more background on the kerygma [1 Cor. 15:3-8] check out Luke Allison’s post The Content of the Gospel
To catch up on this series go here — Historical Jesus Series
[1] Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus, page 374.
[2] Idib.
