Saint Paul, conversion or rapture?

Pierre Féderlé M.Afr.

Sources (reliable or not)

We can first of all ask ourselves where our sources of information originate.
They come primarily from St. Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, written between 80
and 90, (although not always reliable), and from the letters of St. Paul, written
between 20 to 30 years before Acts. It is clear that the 13 letters were not all
written by him [only seven letters are ordinarily acknowledged as his by the
majority of scholars (1 Th, 1 & 2 Co, Ga, Ph, Rm and Phm), and the six others
are called the ‘disputed letters’ (2 Th, Col, Ep, 1 Tm and Tt), although they are close or resemble
the other letters, but composed in the years 70-100, therefore after Paul’s death.] By contrast, there
is unanimity today in asserting that the Letter to the Hebrews, though inserted into the New
Testament after the Letter to Philemon, is not Paul’s. He certainly wrote other letters, some of
which are lost or occasionally integrated into known letters; (he wrote at least 4 letters to the
Corinthians and we have only 2 of them). We also gather information about Paul and his home
environment in the Jewish Antiquities of Joseph Flavius, a 1st century Jewish historian (not always
reliable), and from Strabo, a geographer-historian, also 1st century. Clement of Rome (end of the
1st century) speaks in his letter about Paul’s death, as does Eusebius of Caesarea, a Greek Christian
writer (265-340). There is also information from Suetonius a Latin biographer (70-128), from Justin
Marcus, a Christian apologist, (100-165), from Epiphanius of Salamis (315-403), and from the
Gospel of Judas in the Codex Tchacos (end of the 3rd century), discovered in 1970, but restored
only in 2006. Even St. Jerome, (347-420) can give us some indications. Archaeology helps us to
know the environment in Paul’s time, a description of the towns, the dwellings, the places of prayer
along with the various pagan cults. Finally, new methods of literary analysis (in particular the
narrative analysis method) enables us to understand his life, theology, spirituality and apostolic
strategy better. Indeed, we have more information on Paul than on Jesus. Nevertheless, this
knowledge is quite limited as a whole. We are sometimes reduced to making approximations or
hypotheses, or even remaining in ignorance about what happened or was written.

Presenting Paul

Paul is sometimes presented as the founder of Christianity or the theologian of

Jesus’ message. He is also called a misogynist. He is accused of being opposed
to interreligious dialogue, since he asserts that only the baptised will be saved.
He is further rebuked for being a collaborator with the establishment in
requesting slaves to be obedient to their masters. He is accused of lacking
humility and of having an unfortunate character, as Mark splits from Paul and he
separates from Barnabas, a long-time friend, though he was the head of the
mission in Paul’s first missionary journey. He lacked diplomacy and respect
towards authority, especially in relation to Peter. Ultimately, we ask the same
question: ‘Did Paul and Jesus proclaim the same religion?’ What is the latest on
this? What should we believe?

Paul presents himself as, ‘a Jew and a citizen of the well-known city of Tarsus in Cilicia.’ (Ac
21,39). He is a contemporary of Jesus, who is older than Paul by some ten years. Year 8 of our era
as the year of his birth is an approximate choice, give or take 5 or 10 years, bearing in mind that
Jesus was born at least 6 years before the date indicated in our current calendar.

A perfect Jew

He presents himself as a perfect Jew and he will remain so until the end of his life. He stresses his
Pharisaic origins: ‘I was born of the race of Israel and of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of
Hebrew parents, and I was circumcised when I was eight days old. As for the Law, I was a
Pharisee;’ (Ph 3,5). He belongs to a devout and educated family, (unlike the 12 Apostles, presented
as ‘uneducated laymen’ in Ac 4,13). He was taught by Gamaliel, a rabbi who was the most liberal
and respected master of his time. Pharisees, who were not in fact very numerous in his time, (6,000)
were popular, respected, very well versed in the Bible, but inflexible on moral issues and gradually
became less liked by the people.

Tarsus, his home town, a renowned centre for education and philosophy, surpassing the reputation
of Athens and Alexandria, numbered around 300,000 inhabitants, but today is a town in Turkey
with only 100,000 inhabitants. However, Jerusalem was the city of his university studies. Gifted
with high intelligence, he received sound training as a jurist, which today would make him a good
barrister. He acquired an encyclopaedic teaching and linguistic knowledge. Ac 26,24: ‘He had
reached this point in his defence when Festus shouted out, ‘Paul, you are out of your mind; all that
learning of yours is driving you mad.’ Indeed, Saul was gifted for languages and spoke Hebrew,
Aramaic, and Greek, the universal international language, the Greek of the Koinè (New Testament
Greek), in use throughout the Empire. He knew the Greek poets and acquired some rudimentary
knowledge of medicine. (Ac 28,8-10: during the stopover in Malta he helped to treat the sick) and
he was acquainted with sport, (cf. his allusions to races, striving to win, etc.,), as well as with the
army. Paul was an urban dweller, a man of legal acumen, stadium sports and military discipline. He
blended reason with imagination, analysis and synthesis. He delved into all the most fundamental
human questions that preoccupy humankind: our origins, destiny, sin and evil, the universe, time,
history, grace and freedom, suffering and death, social and family life. However, he was not a
theorist, although he knew Greek rhetoric, nor strictly speaking, a theologian. There is no pre-
existing plan in his writing that responds in the heat of the moment merely to the problems of his
communities. Jesus, by contrast, was a countryman. He provided images from nature in his parables
and allegories: the field, the vineyard, the farm labourer, the flock.

Paul Roman citizen

Paul had the privilege of being a Roman citizen by birth, inheriting this honourable distinction
earned by one of his ancestors, probably his grandfather. It was a title acquired either as head of the
Jewish community that took part in one of the civil wars, where Tarsus played an important role in
the battle and victory of Octavian at Actium in 31BC, or he would have received the title given to
rich families, textile manufacturers or captains of industry, who had contributed to the town’s
prosperity. The Jews were very numerous in the diaspora (around ten million, as against only one
million at Jerusalem and in Palestine.) Some communities existed from the 9th century BC, but
others came into existence in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, as a place for deporting prisoners of
war. This was the case of Paul’s family, according to St. Jerome in his treatise ‘Of illustrious
men.’). These were probably re-sold as slaves, which would explain the numerous allusions to
slavery: slaves to sin, slave of God, (Rm 6,6,17), as well as the request for the liberation of
Onesimus, a slave, ‘not as a slave any more, but something much better than a slave, a dear brother;
especially dear to me,’ Phm 1,16). On the other hand, in Eph 6,5, ‘Slaves, be obedient to the men
who are called your masters in this world.’ It is not considered good theology by many people.
However, we can excuse him in a way by stating that he could not attack the social problem of his
time where there were two slaves for every freeman. He simply meant to teach that within the
Christian community, belonging to Christ transformed the master-slave relationship into a fraternal
bond.

What were the privileges granted by citizenship? Above all, one became an authentic Roman
citizen. They had the right to wear the white toga, vote in elections, be dispensed from certain types
of corporal punishment and to have a right to appeal, to be judged by an imperial tribunal, (Ac
25,10-12). In sentencing for the death penalty, crucifixion is replaced by decapitation, (which was
the case for Paul.) There are also duties: taxes, military service, worship of the Imperial deities,
although there were often exemptions for Jews. Shaoul was a Hebrew name meaning ‘desired’, ‘he
who is asked of God’, (in Greek, it is pronounced Saoulos). He had at least one sister, according to
Luke, but we do not know the family name. Paulus would be his Roman name (or Paulos in
Hellenised Latin). The custom of the double name, Hebrew and Roman, was usual.

If his parents were rich textile merchants (import-export), which seems likely, it enabled Paul in the
course of his journeys to have good relations with other textile merchants and craftsmen. These
included Lydia, a woman in the purple-dye trade, weavers at Corinth and dyers and wool merchants
at Ephesus. He himself practiced the trade of tentmaker, (Ac 18,3). However, it was more likely to
be weaving very rough material in Cilician goats’ hair, (cf. the cilice [hair-shirt] penitents used in
the past!) He always showed the highest esteem for manual work. He himself was a salaried worker
to avoid being a burden to the communities through which he passed, (except at Philippi, as he was
in prison.)

Was Paul married?

It is not impossible, and even quite likely. How do we know? Rabbis never appreciated celibacy,
even today, and those who contravened this are rare. If he were a member of the Jerusalem
Sanhedrin, (Luke suggests this in speaking of Paul’s ‘duty’ Ac 26,9-10), he would have to be
married, since celibates were not admitted to this high office. By contrast, in 53-54, aged 45,
writing the 1st Letter to the Corinthians from Ephesus, he is clearly ‘not married’, (1 Co 7,7-8)
when he makes a brief apologia for celibacy, without necessarily making a model of it that would
be imposed on everyone. ‘Not married’ can mean that his wife had already died and he would
therefore be a widower, or that his wife remained in his village, or even that his wife had left him,
breaking up the marriage. The three solutions are possible, but none is certain.

Portrait of Paul

Paul often mentions an illness, a sick body (Ga 4,13). Elsewhere, he says he was given a ‘thorn in
the flesh’, (2 Co 12,7-9). This expression has often been explained as an illness and a hundred or so
hypotheses have been proposed. In fact, it most likely means the enemies of Israel, adversaries or
rivals, who dispute his preaching. He has been pictured as small and puny because of the term
(‘born when no one expected it’), (1 Co 15,8), which is actually a spiritual image. There is a single
physical description of him in the Acts of Paul and Thecla (an apocryphal document written around
165AD, containing certain heresies… Thecla baptising the lion that was going to devour her…) He
was a man of short stature, bald-headed, bow-legged, energetic, whose eyebrows met in the middle,
slightly hook-nosed, full of charm, as at times he appeared like a man, at other times he looked like
an angel.’ (The same description exists for Augustus or Heracles: short stature, bow-legged,
eyebrows meeting.) The same document records that the men chased him from their villages,
because all the women flocked to him. It is clear that he would have needed a strong constitution to
endure all his journeys and ill-treatment. (Mark, much younger than Paul, left him during the first
missionary journey, tired, exhausted, or due to Paul’s difficult character. Barnabas also split with
Paul later.) Paul, ever discreet, had to defend himself and justify himself, responding to accusations
made during the third missionary journey (a journey not mentioned in Luke-Acts.) This is what he
says in 2 Co 11,23-28: ‘I have been sent to prison more often, and whipped many times more, often
almost to death. Five times I had the thirty-nine lashes from the Jews; three times I have been
beaten with sticks; once I was stoned; three times I have been shipwrecked.’ This does not include
other dangers mentioned in other texts, where there is definitely no hint of exaggeration to be
inferred.

Paul’s vocation, conversion or rapture

We have four accounts of this event on the road to Damascus, normally presented as a conversion.
Quite arbitrarily, it is currently situated at Daraya in the north of Syria. Luke give 3 accounts of it
with lots of information, but written 30 years later. Certain sites had changed and edifying
presentations deserve to be treated with caution, to grasp its historical value. Paul is modest and
understated on what happened. He states having seen ‘the Lord’, (1 Co 9,2 and 15,8), as a revelation
(Ga 1,16 and 2,2), and claims the title of Apostle by assimilating this apparition of the Risen One to
that of the Apostles. Luke distinguishes this revelation from the Easter apparitions and the vocation
peculiar to Paul from the testimony of the Apostles.

The Damascus vocation (or rapture) is the turning point in Paul’s life. Why did he go to Damascus?
In Acts 26, 10, Luke suggests that Paul sat on the Sanhedrin to judge Christians and take part in
death sentences. It is not sure. Pontius Pilate would not have allowed such summary executions and
the Sanhedrin had no power of jurisdiction outside Judea. Paul is not the head of a commando unit
or an officially mandated tracker. In Ga 1,22, he himself says, ‘I was still not known by sight to the
churches of Christ in Judea.’ Paul is instead active in regions where Hellenists took refuge and
began to preach. His official role on the way to Damascus would have been restricted to messenger,
informing the synagogues of the danger Hellenist converts to Christianity represented. Those who
contravened the directives of the Jewish authorities were punished by 39 baton blows. Paul would
later describe this action as persecution (Ph 3,5-6: ‘as for working for religion, I was a persecutor of
the Church.’) He only meant he was zealous for God, active and passionate.

Damascus was an Easter experience, where Paul received his prophetic mission. In Ga 1,15-17, he
reviews this in terms of Jeremiah’s vocation (Jer 1,5), the Prophet who suffered the most and also
the vocation of Isaiah 49, 1-3, the Suffering Servant, two Prophets from whom Jesus took
inspiration for his own spirituality.) He thinks of himself as a true witness to the living and Risen
Christ, to the same extent as the other Apostles. It was a mystical experience, a rapture, a new
creation. We can only speak of conversion if we understand the event as an inner light that changes
his heart, his outlook, his life’s course and not about passing from one religion to another: (the
break with Judaism is not yet in force at this time.) Paul never disowned his membership of the
Jewish people.

Paul discovered the Living One, Jesus, the Just One, who bore humanity’s sin and death. From now
on, everything is grace, everything is a free gift and humanity is freed from the law, from death and
sin. Of ourselves, we merit nothing. Moreover, this living Christ is present in the hearts of all, Jew
and pagan, in whoever welcomes him in faith. God makes a new creature of everyone. Paul
discovers the gratuitousness of God’s love. Everyone has to make a place in his or her heart (a
disowning, a dispossession, a detachment, a self-emptying) to become a disciple of Christ (Ph 3, 4 -
16), to possess Christ now, to become a Christian.

This revelation transformed him into a missionary [‘so that I might preach the Good News about
him to the pagans.’ Ga 1,16]. Paul is charged with a mission; he is an envoy and sent to the pagans
on behalf of the nations. Universality is one of the prime characteristics of Paul’s mission. He is the
first and greatest missionary. (to be continued)

Recent bibliography on Saint Paul

(This bibliography in French will be continued in the next issue of Petit Echo, where there will also
be an English bibliography prepared by Guy Theunis, Jerusalem.)

Badiou Alain : Saint Paul, la fondation de !’universalisme, PUF 1997

Baslez Marie-Françoise, Saint Paul, artisan d’un monde chrétien, Fayard 2008

Becker Jürgen, Paul, l’apôtre des nations, Cerf/Mediaspaul 1995

Bony Paul, Saint Paul… tout simplement, Ed. de l’Atelier - Publications Chemins de Dialogue 2008

Burnet Régis, Paul, Desclée de Brouwer (DDB) 2000

Collectif, Paul le converti, apôtre ou apostat, Bayard 2003

Collectif, Paul, une théologie en construction, Labor et Fides 2004

Cothenet Etienne, Petite vie de saint Paul, DDB 2004

Debergé Pierre, Saint Paul, Source de vie 2005

Decaux Alain, L’avorton de Dieu, une vie de saint Paul, DDB 2005

Emériau Jean, Guide des voyages de saint Paul, DDB 2007

Guillet Jacques, Paul, l’apôtre des nations, Bayard 2002

Legasse Simon, Paul apôtre, Cerf 2000

Legrand Lucien, L’apôtre des nations ? Paul et la stratégie missionnaire des Églises apostoliques,
Cerf 2001

Le Monde de la Bible, Paul de Tarse, le voyageur du christianisme (Hors série, printemps 2008)

Marguerat Daniel, Paul de Tarse, un homme aux prises avec Dieu, Moulin 1999

Murphy O’Connor Jerome, Histoire de Paul de Tarse, Cerf 2004

Poucouta Paulin, Paul, notre ancêtre, Presses de l’UCAC, 2001