Paul's early life and mission as found in Acts, part 4

Welcome to the new year! 2017 marks my 3rd anniversary as a nonbeliever. Now let's get back to the story of Paul,  his conversion, and commission. The last place we will look before we return to Galations is Acts 26. There Paul is supposedly on trial before King Agrippa in Ceasarea, and gets to speak on his own behalf.

*Paul starts out in verse 4 saying all the Jews know about him and the way he has lived since he was a child in his own country. The country is not named. It is interesting to note that, just as with Jesus, there are no contemporary extrabiblical Jewish accounts of Paul from the time he was living, not from any of the spots he supposedly travelled to either. Paul also says:

1. He was a pharisee- not found elsewhere in Acts or Galatians, but mentioned in Philippians 3.
2. He persecuted followers of Jesus of Nazareth, in Jerusalem and other places, on the authority of the chief priests- found in Acts 9 and 22, no details given in Galatians.
3. On the road to Damascus he saw a bright light, fell to the ground, and heard a voice- found in all the Acts accounts but not in the epistles. This is the only account that says the voice spoke in Aramaic.
4. The voice claimed to be Jesus- in all the Acts accounts but not found in the epistles.
5. The voice gave him his mission to go to the Jews and Gentiles and open their eyes so they can recieve forgiveness of sins and sanctification by faith in Jesus. Nowhere else was this speech given by the disembodied voice on the road to Damascus. In the other Acts accounts Paul was told to go to Damascus where he would be told what to do.
6. He preached in Damascus then Jerusalem and all Judea- no mention of Arabia, Tarsus, or other locations in the gentile world, where he supposedly conducted missionary journeys. No mention of any events in the decades of time that passed between his conversion and this trial.
7. He claims his preaching was no more than what the prophets and Moses said would happen- that the christ would suffer and as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and the Gentiles.  Well, in the gospels others rose from the dead, came out of their graves, and walked around Jerusalem, before Jesus did. Didn't Jesus raise a few people from the dead as well? Also the books of the bible attributed to moses say nothing about a suffering christ being raised from the dead. Some of the books of the prophets do have references to a person who will be a light to the Jews and Gentiles, namely Isaiah. Like most prophesies, they are cryptic and open to interpretation.

*There is no mention of Paul's temporary blindness in this account.

We will continue on with Galatians next.