*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...
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