Luke vs. Paul – Truth or Confusion

If the Bible can be proved to be in error, what would be our authority for truth about God? Unless we have certain truth about God, all we could have concerning an unseen God would be pure conjecture. Isn’t that so? It would be something like—your guess is as good as mine. Who could authoritatively tell us what God is really like, and who could prove that the false prophet is… well, false? I’ve been reading various websites that concern themselves with disproving the word of God by presuming contradictions in Paul’s conversion either within Luke’s three accounts of the event or between Acts 9 and Paul’s letters, especially Galatians. I thought it would be fun if we dwelt upon these things for a few blog-posts.

 

Paul’s Vision on the Road to Damascus

In recent years textual criticism has placed in doubt in the minds of some what actually took place on the road to Damascus. In a short essay (found HERE) John Dominic Crossan has taken issue with Paul’s vision of Jesus as recorded in Acts – where it took place, how long Paul was away from Jerusalem and who threatened Paul’s life in Damascus that he was saved by the brethren secretly letting him down through a window in the city wall under the cover of night to make his escape to Jerusalem (Acts 9:25).

 

Was Paul Converted or Called?

Luke treats Paul’s Damascus road experience as a very important event in his thesis, mentioning it three times. First, he describes the event as part of an historical narrative concerning the spreading of the Kingdom of God (Acts 9). However, later he has Paul recall the event, describing what occurred in his own words to the Jews at Jerusalem, including the Jewish authorities (Acts 22). Finally, Luke has Paul recall the event before King Agrippa, while other important authorities listened, including the Roman governor, Festus (Acts 26).

 

Three Blind Nights

I find it interesting that Paul was blind for three days and nights after he had a vision of Jesus. He was blinded by a light so bright that even at noon the light of the sun paled by comparison. Though all those with Paul were cast to the ground at the flash of the light, only Paul seems to have been blinded thereby. An equally interesting event occurred in the life of Jonah, the prophet. He was told by the Lord to go to Nineveh, a gentile city, and preach repentance toward God to those gentiles, but instead Jonah fled to Tarshish (or Tarsus), the city where Saul, the Apostle to the gentiles, was born. Jonah, too, spent three days and nights of deathly blindness but in the belly of the great fish.

 

The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb

I wonder how often, if ever, that we think of the prospect of coming into fellowship with one who hurt us badly. Most often, I suspect, we would simply seek to avoid such a person. People who seem to live to or at least enjoy hurting those who trust in Jesus are too often simply written off as unreachable, and perhaps unforgivable. Certainly, it would be very difficult to forgive such a one under normal circumstances who had beaten or killed a friend or a loved one, especially a harmless, gentle friend or loved one. Yet, as the Scripture keeps telling us, the thoughts of God are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9); yes, the depth and height of his wisdom is beyond our full comprehension (Romans 11:33).

 

The Wrath of Saul

From the beginning the Jewish people held the Jesus Movement in high esteem. Although many didn’t fully embrace the Gospel, the Apostles and early believers were not only regarded as harmless to the Jewish faith, but what they preached was part of that faith, just as the sects of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes were so held.

 

Saul and the Persecution

If Luke was not among those believers who were persecuted and had to leave Jerusalem, he could not have witnessed Stephen’s death. However, it would not be inconsistent with his explanation in Luke 1:1-4 that he could have researched his material concerning the events surrounding Stephen’s death and the persecution that followed. These things may very well have been supplied by Philip, who had ultimately settled in Caesarea after fleeing Jerusalem.

 

Saul’s Conversion & the Body of Christ

Saul was a zealous persecutor of Messianic believers, but I don’t think he persecuted the Church for more than six or seven months, or from the mid 7th month of 34 CE to cir. 1^st month of 35 CE. Therefore, the reigning high priest would have been Caiaphas and from him Saul would have sought papers of extradition (Acts 9:1-2) in order to arrest Messianic believers at Damascus and bring them before the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem for judgment.

 

The Ethiopian Eunuch and the Body of Christ

Luke has Philip joining an Ethiopian on a road near Gaza, south of Jerusalem. The man was returning from worshiping at Jerusalem, probably after one of its Holy Day seasons, which, in this case, would probably be Passover of 35 CE. (accounting for a six-month ministry for Philip in Samaria).

 

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

The Angel of the Lord appeared to Philip in the Samaritan village as he was ending his ministry there and told him to go south toward Gaza (Acts 8:26). The Apostles had returned to Jerusalem, but Philip was a hunted man, perhaps not by name but because of his faith and how he interpreted that faith. He was more liberal in his faith than the Apostles, who had adopted a more conservative stance of preaching the Gospel. Both expressions of the Messianic faith were used by Jesus to spread the Gospel. Philip could no longer preach openly in Jerusalem during the Holy Days when pilgrims from all over the Empire visited Jerusalem, but the Apostles were still able to do so.

 

The Samaritan Pentecost

When Philip preached in Samaria the people listened, believed the Gospel and were baptized (Acts 8:5-7, 12). However, Luke tells us that, when Peter and John learned of the Samaritan’s repentance and came to the Samaritan village where Philip was preaching (Acts 8:14), they found the new believers had not received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:16)! Why would this be so? Was anything lacking in Philip’s preaching?

 

Simon the Great One!

While Philip preached the Gospel in a Samaritan village, a man named Simon is said to have believed and was baptized (Acts 8:13). What is interesting is that Philip’s works among the believing Samaritans is contrasted with this man’s works before Philip arrived. Philip did miracles, drove out evil spirits and healed the people (Acts 8:6-7), while Simon used sorcery and bewitched the people (Acts 8:9). Philip preached Christ, but Simon preached himself as a great one. The Greek word megas (G3173) means great one and is the root from which the 2^nd century church fathers derived Simon’s other name, Magus.

 

Samaria Believes!

At long last the word of God is going out to the nations as promised by Jesus in Acts 1:8, but probably not as originally expected by the Apostles. Instead, the Gospel explodes outwardly in the form of evangelism brought on by persecution. It wasn’t planned—at least not by the Church. Nevertheless, the prophecy was fulfilled as the King of the Kingdom of God reached out to embrace the uttermost parts of the earth, beginning with Samaria and bringing all under his authority.

 

The Samaritan ~ The Great Pretender

Even if a persecution did not follow the death of Stephen, the Gospel would have had to break out of the haven at Jerusalem where it was nurtured by the Spirit of God since Pentecost. The Jewish religious authorities, in killing Stephen, had officially rejected Jesus as the Messiah and the Kingdom of God whereby the believer is the bearer of the Shekinah Presence of God and considered thereby to be the Third Temple of God built by the Messiah. Having rejected this, they set up the abomination that eventually made Jerusalem and its Temple a desolation.

 

The Reluctant Evangelists

Our ancient ancestors were not that much different from us? For about three and one-half years the disciples had been witnesses at Jerusalem, the capital of Judaism. Miracles were done in the name of Jesus and the Gospel was preached and believed in power. Thousands were baptized into the Kingdom of God and most of these travelled home to various parts of the Empire taking the Gospel with them. Nevertheless, the power behind the Gospel seemed to build up pressure at the capital like waters behind a damn of clay. Something had to occur sooner or later, and finally it did.