Claims designed to bring Paul "on side" with the team of disciples:
– Paul experienced an epiphany on the road to Damascus? (Acts 9.3-8; Acts 22.6-11; Acts 26.12-18).
Although
Acts repeats this tale three times (and each time rather differently!) the classic encounter with the risen Christ has no place in Paul's own epistles. Paul speaks of a "
revelation of the Son" but notably avoids giving any details of when or where. Paul stresses, if anything, his being "
chosen while in the womb" (Galatians 1.15,16) – which rather detracts from any later encounter.
Paul
does write (oddly, using the third person) of an "out of body" experience, though it bears nothing in common with the Damascene road show:
"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago – whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows – such a one was caught up to the third heaven ... he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter."
– 2 Corinthians 12.2-4.
Inspiration for the "Damascus connection" quite probably came from the yarn about Elijah in the book of Kings. The prophet orchestrates the murder of rival priests and, similarly, Paul "
wastes the church." Elijah receives an epiphany in the desert and so, too, does Paul. And God's instruction to Elijah? "
The Lord said to him, 'Go back ... to the Desert of Damascus.' " (1 Kings 19.15). Paul, of course, is led into Damascus.
When Paul does write of Damascus it is not about the king of heaven but of
King Aretas and an attempt to arrest him (2 Corinthians 11.32).
But as a "team building" yarn the Damascene road anecdote allows an early Christian – Ananias
*– to intercede with the apostles on behalf of Paul and off they go to Jerusalem to meet the rest of the gang. Paul himself says he went to Arabia and emphasizes that he
saw no one.
As a nice little touch, when the blinded "Saul" waits out his three days in Damascus before Ananias delivers the Holy Spirit, he stays at the house of a
Judas (Acts 9.11), a name symbolic of the entire Jewish race, of course – just like his namesake
Judas Iscariot.
– Paul took the edict from James on food prohibitions to the Gentiles?
"And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me ... my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God. But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood." – Acts 15.13-20.
In
Romans Paul writes that he is "
persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself" (Romans 14.14) – and he makes no reference here to any apostle called James! An idol, says Paul, is "
nothing in the world" (1 Corinthians 8.4) and food offered to an idol is certainly not defiled. But Paul
is concerned that an insouciant attitude will have an adverse effect on "weak" Christians and so he cautions the "strong" brethren to restrain themselves when necessary.
Manifestly, Paul's policy owes nothing to any edict from James on food prohibitions but is sheer
pragmatism.
– Paul went to Jerusalem with famine relief?
Another curious yarn from
Acts involves prophets from Jerusalem visiting Antioch. One of them, Agabus by name, predicts famine. Even though Agabus says specifically that the famine will be "world-wide" the brethren of Antioch decide to raise gifts for the brothers of Judaea, to be delivered by Paul and Barnabas.
"Barnabas ... found Saul and brought him to Antioch ... Some prophets came down from Jerusalem ... One of them, named Agabus ... through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. This happened during the reign of Claudius. The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul." – Acts 11.25-30.
Why the partiality – were those to be struck by famine in Syria itself of no concern?
But of course there
was no famine
"spread over the entire Roman world." Roman historians regularly attest to
localized droughts and food shortages in various provinces of the empire, a different matter entirely. The soothsayer Agabus is wrong about the famine, as he is later in
Acts when he predicts Paul will be "
bound by his own belt and handed over to the Gentiles by the Jews" (
Acts 21.10). When
Luke writes that particular part of the fable he has the Jews try to
kill Paul and his hero is
rescued by Roman soldiers!
But the most damning comment about "famine relief" comes from Paul himself – he says not a word! In fact, Paul got into raising money "for the saints" from his earliest mission:
"Now concerning the collection for the saints: you should follow the directions I gave to the churches of Galatia. On the first day of the week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come." – 1 Corinthians 16.1-4.
Later, in
Romans, the collection is to be for the "poor among the saints":
"But now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem." – Romans 15.25-26.
The missionary who supposedly travelled the world
knows nothing of any universal famine – and his fund-raising has a rather more personal motive. As he rationalizes to the Corinthians:
"If we have sown spiritual goods among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits?"
– 1 Corinthians 9.11.
It is worth noting that neither Paul (
nor any of the other epistle writers for that matter)
ever mentions the disciples of Jesus. Paul identifies Peter and James
NOT as disciples of Jesus but as
apostles like himself.
Disciple implies a guru to follow,
apostle does not.