Happy holidays!

I've got a lot going on right now. See you after the New Year!

Paul's early life and mission as found in Acts, part 3

Now we will look at Paul's account of his conversion as related by the author of Acts, in Acts 22. He  is speaking to a crowd of Jews who are upset with him, in Aramaic:
-He tells them he is a Jew (Check).
-He is from Tarsus of Cilicia (Epistles- no mention, Acts  7 through 9- yes) *1
-He was brought up in Jerusalem (Epistles-no mention, Acts 7 through 9- no mention)
-He was taught the law at the feet of Gamaliel (Epistles- no mention, Acts 7 through 9-  no mention)*2
-He was zealous and persecuted the church (Epistles- yes, Acts 7 through 9- yes)
-He arrested men and women and threw them into prison ( Epistles- no, Acts 7 through 9- yes)
-He got letters from the high priest and council to go after believers in Damascus (Epistles - no, Acts 7 through 9- yes)
-On the road to Damascus a bright light flashed around him (Epistles- no, Acts 7 through 9. - yes)
-This happened at noon (Not previously mentioned)
-He fell to the ground and heard a voice (Epistles- no, Acts 7-9 yes)
-The words of the voice recorded here and in Acts 9 are basically the same. No Surprise, same author.
-Paul is blinded and led by the hand to Damascus (Epistles - no, Acts 9 - yes)
-Ananias stood beside Paul and recovered his sight. In Acts 9, he placed his hands on him. (Not in the epistles.)
-This time Ananias tells Paul his mission and orders him to be baptized "for the remission of his sins." This phrase was not used in Acts 9. Paul does not mention his baptism in Galatians. Also there is no mention here of Paul not eating and drinking for three days, as in Acts 9.
-After that he returned to Jerusalem, according to Acts 22:17, leaving out the preaching in Damascus and the narrow escape from there mentioned in Acts 9. This also eliminates the trip to Arabia found in Galatians.
-When he returned to Jerusalem, he was visited in the temple by another revelation of  Jesus, telling him to leave immediately because his testimony would not be accepted. There is no mention of the visit with only Peter and James as mentioned in Galatians. Plus there is no mention of Barnabas bringing him to the disciples and the preaching he did in Jerusalem as mentioned in Acts 9.

*1. Cilicia is mentioned in Galatians, even though Tarsus isn't. Paul supposedly travelled in that region after he left Peter and James in Jerusalem.

*2. Gamaliel is mentioned in Acts 5:33-39 as a Pharisee and teacher of the law. He was against persecuting the followers of Jesus. So why did Saul?

Also we are not told how many years after Jesus died that Saul's event occurred on the road to Damascus. If Saul grew up in Jerusalem, how is it that he never saw or heard Jesus in the flesh?

Paul's early life and mission as found in Acts, part 2

*We are at Acts 9:17.Both Saul (Paul) and Ananias have had visions about each other. Now Ananias goes to the house where Saul is staying. He put his hands on Saul. He identified the lord who appeared to Saul on the road as Jesus and says Jesus sent him to help Saul gain his sight back and be filled with the Holy Spirit, whatever that means. Scales fell off Saul's eyes. He got up and was baptized. It doesn't say why he was baptized. Today, it is generally assumed that it was to join the church, but notice that he ate right afterward. I looked at the Interlinear reference for the original word "baptized" in this passage. I found that the exact same word was used in Luke 11:38 (Supposedly written by the same author) to denote a tradition of ceremonial washing before eating!

*Next we are told Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus and immediately began to preach about Jesus in the synagogues. This is in direct contrast to what he says in Galatians 1:15. There he says that after his revelation  he did not consult anyone but went immediately to Arabia and returned to Damascus later. Galatians also has Paul going to Jerusalem three years later. In Acts, he appears to go to Jerusalem right after Damascus. He never goes to Arabia. In Galatians, Paul sees only Peter and James, none of the other apostles. In Acts, Barnabas takes Paul to meet the apostles in Jerusalem and he preaches about Jesus in the city. Because of his preaching, Acts says an attempt is made on Paul's life in both Damascus and Jerusalem. Galatians does not mention that. Acts says other believers helped Paul escape by taking him to Caesarea and sending him off to Tarsus. (They sent him home.) Galatians says that Paul went to Syria and Cilicia, it never mentions Tarsus. In Galatians, Paul states, "I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in christ." This is a direct contradiction to the events recorded in Acts 9.

*When we get to Galatians 2, we will see Paul going to Jerusalem with Barnabas...fourteen years later! Let's take a look at the timelines so far.

Galatians:
Persecuting the church
Revelation in unknown place, told to preach Jesus to the Gentiles
Trip to Arabia
Return to Damascus no people or events mentioned
Three years later, Trip to Jerusalem to meet Peter and James and no one else, for fifteen days
Trip to Syria and Cilicia
Fourteen years later, trip to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus in response to a revelation.

Acts:
Stoning of Stephen
Persecuting the church
Road to Damascus with bright light and voice
In Damascus with Ananias and disciples of Jesus
Ananias and Paul recieve visions. Ananias is told that Saul will preach  Jesus to the Gentiles.
Caused trouble with his preaching, foiled a conspiracy to kill him, escaped
Trip to Jerusalem to join the disciples there
Barnabas takes him to meet the apostles
Caused trouble with his preaching, foiled a conspiracy to kill him, escaped
Sent to Tarsus by the disciples

Paul's early life and mission as found in Acts, Part 1

*Now we will see what the author of Acts has to say about Paul's early life and conversion. We do not know who the author of Acts is, but whoever he is, he was not an eyewitness to the events we will cover. Acts had to have been written after 63 C.E. The book of Acts is written as though the narrator is omnicient. The author does not claim to have recieved his knowledge of the events from God. Nor does he claim to be inspired by the Holy Spirit.

*Acts 7:58-9:  First we see Saul (supposedly Paul's original Jewish name, which Paul does not mention in the epistles.)  watching and giving approval to the stoning of Stephen, a disciple of Jesus. This is not mentioned in Paul's letters, but that is understandable. However, He does say he persecuted the church. In 8:3, we see Paul trying to destroy the church by dragging its adherents off to prison. In chapter 9, Paul asks the high priest for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to "The Way, " men or women, he could take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. Pause.

*One thing that stands out to me so far is that the disciples were called members of The Way and they were meeting in synagogues. This means they were probably Jews and still considered themselves Jews. They had not separated themselves from the Jewish faith. The Way was not a separate religion. Also interesting is the fact that many Eastern religions had philosophies or practices called the way or the path,  including Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Shinto. I wouldn't be surprised if that concept was a component of most ancient religions, but I'm not going to look them all up.

*In Acts 9, as Saul is travelling to Damascus, a light from heaven (How did he know it was from heaven? My first thought is to wonder if this is a description of being struck by lightening. Some people think it sounds like he had an epileptic siezure.) flashed around him, he fell to the ground and heard a voice say,"Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" He answered the voice and said,"who are you, lord?" You want to be polite and respectful to disembodied voices that come with flashes of light, but how would Saul know if the owner of the voice was good or evil? The voice then said it was Jesus, whom Saul was persecuting. How does he know it's not a demon playing a trick on him? He was to get up, go into the city and he would be told what to do. Men travelling with Saul heard the sound but did not see anyone. It is not clear if they heard words or just noises. Saul got up from the ground but could not see, so he had to be led to Damascus by the hand. For three days he was blind and did not eat or drink anything. The Bible just loves three day stretches. Saul would have been pretty weak after three days of no food or drink. None of this is mentioned in the epistles.

*In Damscus there was a disciple called Ananias. The lord (God or Jesus?) called to him in a vision. How did he know it was the lord? We must take the author's word for it. The author must take the word of the person who told him. If Ananias existed, someone had to take his word for it. Ananias is not mentioned in Paul's epistles. God (or Jesus?) gives Ananias specific instructions about how to find a man from Tarsus named Saul. He was told that Saul was also having a vision of Ananias coming to heal his blindness by placing his hands on him. Paul never mentions he is from Tarsus in the epistles.

*Ananias speaks back to his vision, saying he has heard of the damage Saul has done to the people who are calling on the lord's name. Oh, I guess it is supposed to be Jesus, whom christians would have us believe is actually God in the flesh. But a vision doesn't have flesh, so how could a person distinguish between God and Jesus? Anyway, this lord tells Ananias that he has chosen Saul to carry the lord's name before the Gentiles, their kings, and the people of Israel. As an added bonus, he gets to suffer for the name.

I've run out of room. To be continued...