2 in On Theology of Paul 2 in 4

MEANING OF PAUL’S CONVERSION

Write short note on conversion of Paul (2000)

Explain the impact of Paul’s experience on the Damascus road upon his life and theology.  How much did this experience influence Paul’s Gentile mission? Explain. (2004)

There are two  sources that speak of Paul’s conversion: the Letters (Gal. 1: 11-24; 1 Cor. 9: 1; 15: 8, 10; 2 Cor. 4: 4-6; Phil. 3: 7-8, 12) and the Acts (9: 1-19; 22: 1-21; 26: 1-32). The former must be treated as the primary and the latter as the secondary source.  Acts 9 is Luke’s own narrative, while chapters 22 and 26 the event is described in the context of Paul’s speeches; the first before a hostile Jewish crowd at the Temple in Jerusalem and the second before the Roman governor Festus and the royal couple Agrippa and Bernice.  How much of historical value is to be attributed to the texts in Acts is a hotly debated issue.  While we admit that Luke has employed the historical data in function of his own particular theology, we cannot certainly deny them all historical value.  At the same time, primary importance needs to be given to Paul’s own statements in his letters.

Authors offer various dates for Paul’s conversion.  To Bornkamn it took place around AD 32.  Dahl would assign it to the early 30s, only a couple of years after Christ’s death. Fitzmyer relates it to Stephen’s martyrdom and hence about 36 AD.  For our purpose we assume that it took place at some times between AD. 30–37.

Looking ahead at both the Acts and the letters of Paul we could say, with J. Muck, that they agree on the following details about the conversion of the apostle to the Gentiles:  “(a) Paul was totally unprepared for the experience of (b) a direct and sudden intervention of the risen Jesus through which (c) the former a persecutor turned to Christ and (d) received his apostolic call and commission.

(a) Paul was totally unprepared for this experience. “When Paul set out for Damascus, he was not tortured by a troubled conscience, as the young monk Luther was.  It was not the conversion of a pertinent sinner.  He was fully convinced of his action in favour of the Law (Gal. 1: 13-14) and the salvation that would come to him from his zeal.

(b) It happened through a sudden and a direct intervention of the risen Jesus.  The Damascus event was a sovereign act of God by which God overtook Paul even against his will and overcame in a starling and unforeseen way this man who was a persecutor of Christ and the Church.  “The most striking thing about Paul’s conversion is its suddenness and unprepared-ness.  Both Acts and Paul’s letters agree in this.”  The hunter has been hunted down.

(c) With sovereign authority the exalted Lord made the persecutor into his witness, into a disciple.  It was an encounter that changed Paul the Pharisee into Paul the apostle. Thus the early Church’s most powerful adversary is brought into the Christian camp.

One of the elements of this experience on the road to Damascus is the light from heaven. It is a supernatural phenomenon which indicates divinity or kabod Yahweh.  This same glory shines on the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4: 6) i.e., Jesus of Nazareth is divine.  So Paul falls to the ground, blinded by all else save the paramount vision, the vision of Christ as the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2: 8).

To Paul it was purely God’s grace: “Christ Jesus made me his own” (Phil. 3: 12).  “He was not converted to a system of Christian thought or to a completely organized tradition.  Paul was converted to Christ rather than to Christianity.”

(d) Finally, the risen Lord entrusted Paul with a mission.  God tells reluctant Ananias to go to meet Paul, for “he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel” (Acts 9: 15; cf. 13: 47; 18: 6; 22: 21; 26: 17,23).  He is given a revelation of Christ that he might preach him among the Gentiles (Gal. 1: 15-16).

The call of Paul (Gal. 1: 15-16) evokes the inaugural call of the prophets, in particular that of Jeremiah (1: 4-5) and the Servant of Yahweh (Is. 49: 1).  It was a prophetic experience, a prophetic call and a commission to go forth and preach the gospel.  He did, therefore, traverse the civilized world of the time as the Apostle to the Nations.

Luke is silent on Paul’s call to be an apostle on a par with the Twelve.  From Damascus he is brought back to Jerusalem. Only then, in the temple and by means of fresh vision, is he given his vocation (Acts 22: 17-21).  Thus, Acts makes his missionary works in the gentile world originate in Jerusalem.  Then onwards he carries out his great work, not as an apostle, but as the authorized representative of the one apostolic church.

In his letters we find Paul speaking surprisingly seldom about his conversion and call to be an apostle.  But when he does speak, he does not mince words.  “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil. 3: 7).  It is perhaps “the most decisive statement about his life.”  Or again: “I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus” (Gal. 1; 16-17).  It is a defense of his gospel and apostleship against the Judaizers. The truth of his gospel for the Gentiles and the divine origin of his commission are quite inseparable: “The form the two sides of the one coin bearing the impress of the authority of the one divine will.”  Here Paul is contesting and demolishing the connection between the gospel and the Jewish tradition. In 1 Cor. 15: 8, he refers to himself being constituted an apostle through the appearance that the Risen Lord granted him.

The Damascus event is an experience he never forgot in his life.  It was an experience in which he encountered the Risen Lord (1 Cor. 9: 1) who made him his slave (Gal. 1: 10). As such there exists a perfect harmony between him and the gospel of his Master. Even his theology bears the distinct stamp of the above encounter.