THE APOSTLE PAUL

Saul's hatred for this movement, started by Jesus of Nazareth some years earlier, was unbounded.  This movement seemed to stand against virtually everything he stood for.  Saul had been born into a family of Pharisees (the most rigorous observers of the ancient Jewish Law) and had been raised to become a Pharisee leader, having been sent off at an early age to Jerusalem to study under the great rabbi, Gamaliel.  There Saul had been fully instructed in the ancient Law of Moses and in the great interpretations and commentaries on that Law that highly respected teachers had passed on within the Jewish community generation after generation.

This was a great legacy that he had immersed himself in.  The Law and the commentaries were not just useful rules for the Jewish community to live by.  They had long formed the very heart and soul of the Jewish community and stood as a symbolic reminder that the Jews were the sacred remnant of God's covenant people set apart from the pagan Gentile world for well over a thousand years.

This community had survived with its identity intact through Babylonian, Greek and now Roman dominion--because it had the Law to remind it of its sacred origins and special standing in history before God.  The Jewish community had survived with its identity intact through a horrible destruction of its temple in Jerusalem (the one build by Solomon) and through the dispersion of its people throughout Babylonian, Greek and Roman empires--because it had the Law to remind it that whereever the Jews lived, they still constituted a single people, a united people under the Law.

Paul reports:

"I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees" (Acts 23:6).

(I was) "circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee." (Phil. 3:5)

"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city [Jerusalem], educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God" (Acts 22:3)

"I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers." (Gal. 1:14)

B. Young Saul persecutes the church

'Lord,. . . these men know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.' (Acts 22:19-20)

But Jesus's movement had refused to die away.  It appeared as if hysteria had overtaken his followers--who were claiming that Jesus had risen from death and had subsequently appeared personally to many of them on numerous occasions. In fact, it seemed that his death had produced the strange result of greater fervency than ever among his followers.

So the threat to Judaism appeared only to have been intensified by Jesus' death.  Now Saul found himself prominently among the ranks of those determined to put an end to this danger to his Jewish community--at whatever cost.  If more blood had to flow to put an end to this threat, then let that blood be on his hands!

What was it exactly that this Jesus had said or done that had Judaism so stirred up?  The list was long.

It perhaps had started with Jesus's insolent behavior in the company of respected teachers and scholars.  Jesus had challenged their interpretations of the Law and the traditional commentaries on the Law that their profession or party had so long preserved and passed on.

Jesus had even challenged the moral and spiritual authority of Moses himself, the ancient architect of Judaism, by demanding of Jesus's own followers even higher standards of holiness before God than the Law itself required.

Moreover Jesus had mocked the sacred Law of Moses again and again, especially in one of its most key points: the holiness of the Sabbath rest.  It seemingly had been on the holy Sabbath that Jesus had typically chosen to perform his most dramatic works, miraculous healings, "works" on the very day that the faithful Jew was to respect as a day of total rest.

Jesus was just as disregarding of the cleanliness and dietary regulations of the Law, claiming that it was not the cleanliness of the hands or the purity of the food eaten but the cleanliness and purity of the heart that mattered to a person.

And there were those strange and ominous threats to the integrity of the Jewish community that Jesus had uttered before many hearers, particularly the hardly veiled threat that Jesus would destroy the Jerusalem temple--and rebuild it in three days!

These were shocking words and actions.  But most scandalous of all, Jesus seemed to have claimed for himself equality with God by accepting the title "Son of God" and calling God "Father."

Saul personally felt the full measure of the outrage running through his orthodox community over this menace that refused to go away.  It was this outrage that led him to join in the brutal action against the Way of Jesus Christ--to the point of participating in the arrest, imprisonment and even death of members of the Way.

Indeed, so strong was his desire that this abomination within Judaism be erased from its midst that he himself had sought of his own iniative the authorization of the high priest and Council of elders in Jerusalem to undertake his deadly mission to Damascus. Thus it was that Saul was at this point heading for Damascus with murder in his heart.

So violent was this shift that it came to him as a great flash of light that encircled him, threw him to the ground and left him temporarily blinded.  And in this defenseless state a great voice challenged him: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"  Yielding to the one he now recognized as "Lord," Saul was instructed to continue to Damascus and await events.

From that moment on, for the rest of his life, Saul would live awaitingly for events to be unfolded by his Lord.  Thus in surrendering to Jesus, he took up a radically different kind of "paradigm": one which required him to live not by the anticipations of his great rational mind--but by the mystical promptings found in and through his great faith in the transcendent Lord.

Biblical References to Saul's/Paul's Conversion

Saul [at about age 30?] was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples--and went to the high priest and asked for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem (Acts 9:1-2)

As he came near to Damascus, he was blinded by a bright light from heaven flashing around him. He fell to the ground. His companions saw the light, but did not understand the voice nor see anyone speaking to him: "Saul, Saul, Why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9: 3-4 and 22:6-9)

The voice identifies himself as "Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting." Saul asks: what shall I do, Lord? Jesus' answer: "Get up and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do."

So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded him. For three days he was blind--and did not eat or drink anything. (Acts 9:5-9)

Then the Lord spoke to Ananias: "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight." (Acts 9:11-12)

But Ananias answered that he had heard many reports about this man and all the harm he had done to the saints in Jerusalem, had how he had come to Damascus with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who caledl on the name of the Lord. (Acts 9:13-14)

But the Lord answered Ananias: "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." (Acts 9:15-16)

So Ananias went to Saul and placed his hands on him saying: "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."  And immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again.  He got up and was baptized--and after taking some food he regained his strength. (Acs 9:17-19)

Saul remained several days with the disciples in Damascus--then began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God.  All who heard were astonished--recognizing him as the one who had come to Damascus to hunt down followers of Christ.  Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews by proving that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 9:19b-22)

B. Saul to Arabia, to Damascus, to Jerusalem, to Tarsus [AD 38-43?]

"But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. (Gal. 1:15-17) ["Arabia": the Nabatean kingdom in the Transjordan, reaching from Damascus to the Suez.]

Here in Damascus Paul began to preach the gospel, the Good News--how God himself had brought the world out of its captivity to sin in paying a once-and-forever blood-price with the death on the Roman cross of his divine Son, Jesus of Nazareth.  Needless to say, this did not cheer the hearts of devout Jews, seeing this once fervent opponent of this despised sect now speaking out loudly in its defense--calling the people to repentance and belief in Jesus as Messiah and Lord.

"After many days had gone by," (3 years, in about AD 38? Gal 1:18) the Jews in Damascus conspired to kill him.  But Saul learned their plan to kill him at the city gates--and was lowered by his followers at night in a basket through an opening in the town wall. (Acts 9:23-25)

When Saul came to Jerusalem "he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple." (Act 9:26) But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, telling them how the Lord had spoken to Saul and how in Damascus Saul had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. (Acts 9:27-30)

Paul himself later tells it this way: "I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles--only James, the Lord's brother." (Gal. 1:18-19)

Saul talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him. (Acts 9:29)  In his own words: (Acts 22:17-21): "When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking: 'Quick,' he said to me, 'Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.' . . . 'Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'" When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. (Acts 9:30)

C. Saul with Barnabas in Antioch [AD 43-46?]

Then the Jerusalem church, hearing of the work of God in Antioch, sent Barnabas to Antioch to encourage the saints there in their work.  Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to bring Paul back with him to Antioch. There for a whole year Barnabas and Saul taught the people in the church--where they were first called "Christians." (Acts 11:22-26)

"During this time," (???) some prophets, including Agabus, came from Jerusalem to Antioch, predicting that a great famine would spread over the entire Roman world.  [This happened during the reign of Claudius.]  The disciples in Antioch decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea, sending their gifts to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. [AD 43 or 44?] (Acts 11:27-30)

And he did so with amazingly great sympathy and love for these Greeks.  The evidence seems to indicate that Paul did not berate them for their Greek beliefs--for living within a Greek paradigm.  Rather, Paul seemed to operate sympathetically within the Greek paradigm, not denouncing their beliefs but showing them how the very hopes and vision for life that were at the heart of their Greek beliefs were fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Paul, though himself an intellectual, seemed to be led by the Spirit of his Lord to work with the more common classes of Greeks--most of whom were heavily steeped in the Greek mysteries of Dionysus.

Rather than attack this Dionysian paradigm which had at its heart a profound reverence for a man-god who descended into the heart of Hades, there to unbind human souls captive to the powers of the underworld, Paul turned this paradigm to the use of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Was not Jesus the true Dionysus--not one of ancient memory, but one recently given the world by God and thus a very present, not ancient, reality?

Truly Paul had broken quite radically from his old paradigm.  Jewish Law and tradition played no part in his ministry to the Greeks.  In fact, convinced that such loyalties drew hearts away from the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul now fought almost as hard against the Law as he had once defended it.

Further, his projection of Jesus as the Lord of the cross and resurrection led him away from presenting Jesus as a teacher or prophet--something that was a major point of interest to the Jewish mindset.  In his letters, preserved by the Christian church as the mainstay of its New Testament scripture, there is little mention of any of the historical aspects of Jesus' life aside from the events of death and resurrection, so total was his focus on the "Dionysian" features of Christ.

Truly, he had left his Jewish paradigm behind him and had taken up the Greek paradigm in his ministry.

There was no question in their mind that a follower of Jesus was also a part of the Jewish community--entered through circumcision and maintained in good standing through full obedience to the Law.  To be sure, they were willing to open the community to the Gentiles--but provided that they became part of the Jewish covenantal community.

Paul's ministry to the Greeks, which by-passed entirely requirements of full-fledged entry into the Jewish "paradigm," eventually put Paul in contention with this Jerusalem party.  Thus Paul was called to Jerusalem to defend his position.

The result seems to have been that there was some willingness within the Jerusalem party to admit that Gentiles could be brought into the faith without having to pass through Judaism.  But it was very difficult getting consistent agreement.  The appeal of the Jewish paradigm was so strong that there was a tendency for Jewish Christians to fall back into Jewish habits when dealing with Gentile Christians.

But Paul persisted in his belief that faith in Jesus Christ alone--especially in the atoning work of Christ's cross and the promise through him of the resurrection--was the only requirement for the Christian; this alone was what God expected of the faithful.

This, of course, worked against Paul in the synagogues throughout the Greek world, where initially the greatest potential for converts to the Way seemed to lie.  His well-known stand against the requirements of the Law constantly got him in trouble in the synagogues.  Eventually Paul had to set up independent centers of Christian worship.  Thus Christianity began to have its own paradigm, one more Greek than Jewish.

In the end it was just this determination of Paul's to work within the Greek paradigm that kept Christianity from becoming just one of the many Jewish sects that abounded within Judaism in those years.  When, later in the first century, the temple was destroyed and the Jewish population forceably removed from Jerusalem, Christianity--no longer closely tied to Judaism--was little affected.  By that time it was widely spread throughout the Roman empire and by no means dependent on events in Jerusalem; it was now a very cosmopolitan religion.  The Spirit of the One who had encountered Paul on the road to Damascus had seen to that!

With Barnabas, Paul was chosen in Antioch to move ahead with the work of God (Acts 13:1-3) to Cyprus where he blinded the sorcerer Elymas in front of the Roman proconsul. There Paul also preached salvation history in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch (Central Asia Minor) (culminating in the atonement of and justification by faith in Jesus Christ)

The second Sabbath the Jewish leaders stirred up vehement opposition--even as he announced his mission to the Gentiles (Acts 13:44-48). Subsequently he was expelled from Pisidian Antioch and went to the synagogue in nearby Iconium (Acts 14:1), but had to flee to nearby Lystra (Lyconia).

There Paul healed a man crippled in his feet from birth. But the Lystrians saw them as gods-- stirring up much controversy. Then Jews came from Iconium and turned the people against Paul: stoning him--and leaving him for dead.

But Paul revived--and moved on to Derbe and then retraced his steps to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, preaching as he went. Eventually Paul and Barnabas returned to Syrian Antioch, from which they had begun their journey (Acts 14:26).

As they traveled through Phoenecia, they told the story of how the Gentiles had been converted.  In coming to Jerusalem they were welcomed by the church, apostles and elders--to whom they reported everything that God had done through them.  But some of the believers from the Pharisee party opposed them with the position that the Gentiles must be circumcised and be required to obey the Law of Moses.

The apostles and elders met to consider the question. After much discussion Peter arose to remind them of how God had demonstrated his acceptance of the Gentiles by giving the Holy Spirit to them, making no distinction between Jew and Gentile, purifying their hearts by faith. Why then place on the Gentiles a yoke that neither the Jewish believers nor their ancestors had been able to bear?  We believe it is through grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved, just as they are. (Acts 15:6-11)

The whole assembly listened in silence as Barnabas and Paul told about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. (Acts 15:12) Then James spoke, quoting Amos (9:11-12), to the effect that they should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who were turning to God.  The only reqirements they should meet should be few: to abstain from drinking blood, from eating food polluted by idols or killed by strangulation and from sexual immorality. (Acts 15:13-20)

The apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to follow the advice of James--and wrote a letter to that effect, dispatching Judas (Barsabbas) and Silas to accompany Barnabas and Paul back to Antioch as testimonies to the authority of the letter.  The church received them and their message with gladness.  Eventually Judas and Silas returned to Jerusalem and Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch preaching the word of the Lord (Acts 15:22-35)

Lystra.  When he came to Lystra, Paul asked young Timothy to accompany them--and to be circumcized (though his mother was Jewish, his father was a Greek) before they departed, in order to appease the Jews.  Then they continued on, reading the Jerusalem decree. (Acts 16:1-5)

Philippi.  But the Spirit forbade them to speak the word in Asia (Phrygia and Galatia) and in Bithynia.  In Troas Paul had a vision of a Macedonian calling him to help them there.  And so to Macedonia, Philippi in particular, they went.  There Lydia, a God-fearing seller of purple fabrics, was baptized. (Acts 16:6-15)

Furor over the cleansing of the diviner.   But an incident erupted when Paul cast out the spirit of divination of a slave-girl, enraging her masters. These had Paul and Silas beaten by rods and then imprisoned in chains.

But at midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, an earthquake struck the prison, opening the doors and unfastening their chains.  The jailer was about to commit suicide, when he asked for, and received from Paul, the message of salvation and baptism (he and all his household).  The magistrates decided the next day to free Paul anyway--but were horrified when they found out that Paul and Silas were Romans.  But Paul and Silas moved on, thus calming the fears of the authorities. (Acts 16:16-40)

Thessalonica.  Paul and Silas moved on to Thessalonica where at the synagogue some of the Jews and many of the God-fearing Greeks, including a number of leading women, were persuaded by their words.  But other Jews stirred up a mob and marched on the house of Jason, whom they accused of harboring Paul and Silas, dragging him before the authorities and exacting from him a pledge before releasing him. (Acts 17:1-9)

Berea.  The brothers helped Paul and Silas slip away by night to Berea.  There his reception at the synagogue was friendlier and he stayed on with them discussing Scripture daily, bringing a number of them to belief.  But Jews from Thessalonica came to Berea and there stirred up another mob.  Paul thus left--though Silas and Timothy remained behind briefly. (Acts 17:10-14)

Athens.  Paul came to Athens, sent for Silas and Timothy, and while waiting for them to arrive, began not only to speak in the synagogues, but to engage the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in the market places.  They brought him to the Areopagus to have him explain this new religion (they were a people given to great interest in "new" things).

Paul used the "statue to an unknown god" as his opening to explain the nature of the one true God, creator of both the universe and us, who are his offspring.  God has now called us to repent and has fixed the time of his righteous judgment of us--through a man he has appointed, giving proof to all by raising him from the dead.

But hearing of a man being raised from the dead, some of the Athenians sneered; yet others indicated an interest in pursuing the matter further at a later time.  Some even joined him in belief: Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris and others. (Acts 17:15-34)

Corinth.  From Athens Paul went to Corinth, staying with Aquila (and his wife Priscilla), a fellow tent-maker who had with all Jews been banished from Rome by the emperor.  Paul worked with him--and on the Sabbath went to the synagogues to try to persuade the Jews and Greeks.  But when Timothy and Silas arrived Paul then devoted himself entirely to the word.

However finding the Jews resistant, Paul announced that he would go instead to the Gentiles.  He moved to the house of Titius Justus, whose house was next to the synagogue; Crispus, leader of the synagogue came to belief as did many of the Corinthians.  Paul thus settled in there for a year and a half. (Acts 18:1-11)

But finally the Jews rose up against Paul and brought him before Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia, charging him with false religion.  But Gallio disclaimed jurisdiction over this religious matter and sent them away.  But they then seized Sosthenes, leader of the synagogue, and beat him (though Gallio still remained unmoved).  Nonetheless, Paul remained in Corinth "many days longer."  Finally, Paul left Corinth, sailing for Syria with Priscilla and Aquila. (Acts 18:12-18)

Back to Antioch.  And they came to Ephesus--and he left them there. But he promised that he would return if God willed it. Then he sailed on to Caesarea, and from there went on to Jerusalem and then Antioch. (Acts 18:19-22).