Conversion of Paul the Apostle

The conversion of Paul the Apostle (also the Pauline conversion, Damascene conversion, Damascus Christophany and The Road to Damascus event), was, according to the New Testament, an event in the life of Paul the Apostle that led him to cease persecuting early Christians and to become a follower of Jesus. It is normally dated to AD 33–36.[1][2][3] Since his birth is estimated at 5 AD, he would have been somewhere around the age of 28–31 at his conversion.

The New Testament accounts

Paul's conversion experience is discussed in both the Pauline epistles and in the Acts of the Apostles. According to both sources, Paul was not a follower of Jesus and did not know him before his crucifixion. Paul's conversion occurred after Jesus's crucifixion. The accounts of Paul's conversion experience describe it as miraculous, supernatural, or otherwise revelatory in nature.

Before conversion

Before his conversion, Paul, also known as Saul, was "a Pharisee of Pharisees", who "intensely persecuted" the followers of Jesus. Says Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians: "For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers." (Galatians 1:13–14), NIV

Paul also discusses his pre-conversion life in his Epistle to the Philippians,[3:4–6] and his participation in the stoning of Stephen is described in Acts 7:57–8:3.

Pauline epistles

In the Pauline epistles, the description of the conversion experience is brief. The First Epistle to the Corinthians[9:1][15:3–8] describes Paul as having seen the risen Christ:

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

— 1 Cor. 15:3–8, NIV

The Epistle to the Galatians chapter 1 also describes his conversion as a divine revelation, with Jesus appearing to Paul.

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. ...But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being.

— Galatians 1:11–16, NIV

Acts of the Apostles

Acts of the Apostles discusses Paul's conversion experience at three different points in the text, in far more detail than in the accounts in Paul's letters. The Book of Acts says that Paul was on his way from Jerusalem to Syrian Damascus with a mandate issued by the High Priest to seek out and arrest followers of Jesus, with the intention of returning them to Jerusalem as prisoners for questioning and possible execution.[4] The journey is interrupted when Paul sees a blinding light, and communicates directly with a divine voice.

Acts 9 tells the story as a third-person narrative:

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

"Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked.

"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Paul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

— Acts 9:3–9, NIV
Ananias Restoring the Sight of St. Paul (c.1631) by Pietro da Cortona.

The account continues with a description of Ananias of Damascus receiving a divine revelation instructing him to visit Saul at the house of Judas on the Street Called Straight and there lay hands on him to restore his sight (the house of Judas is traditionally believed to have been near the west end of the street).[5] Ananias is initially reluctant, having heard about Saul's persecution, but obeys the divine command:

Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

— Acts 9:13–19, NIV
Paul on trial before Agrippa (Acts 26), as pictured by Nikolai Bodarevsky, 1875.

Acts' second telling of Paul's conversion occurs in a speech Paul gives when he is arrested in Jerusalem.[Acts 22:6–21] Paul addresses the crowd and tells them of his conversion, with a description essentially the same as that in Acts 9, but with slight differences. For example, Acts 9:7 notes that Paul's companions did not see who he was speaking to, while Acts 22:9 indicates that they did share in seeing the light (see also Differences between the accounts, below). This speech was most likely originally in Aramaic[6] (see also Aramaic of Jesus), with the passage here being a Greek translation and summary. The speech is clearly tailored for its Jewish audience, with stress being placed in Acts 22:12 on Ananias's good reputation among Jews in Damascus, rather than on his Christianity.[6]

Acts' third discussion of Paul's conversion occurs when Paul addresses King Agrippa, defending himself against the accusations of antinomianism that have been made against him.[Acts 26:12–18] This account is briefer than the others. The speech here is again tailored for its audience, emphasizing what a Roman ruler would understand: the need to obey a heavenly vision,[Acts 26:19] and reassuring Agrippa that Christians were not a secret society.[7][Acts 26:26]

Differences between the accounts

A contradiction in the details of the account of Paul's revelatory vision given in Acts has been the subject of some debate.[8] Whereas Acts 9:7 states that Paul's travelling companions heard the voice, Acts 22:9 states that they did not. Traditional readings and modern biblical scholarship both see a discrepancy between these passages, but modern Conservative Evangelical commentators, who hold to the doctrine of the inerrancy of scripture, argue that the contradiction can be explained. The difficulty is clear in the King James Version (KJV), the classical Protestant translation:

And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. (Acts 9:7)
And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. (Acts 22:9)

Likewise, the Catholic New American Bible (NAB) presents a blunt contradiction:

The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, for they heard the voice but could see no one. (Acts 9:7)
My companions saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me. (Acts 22:9)

However this is ironed out in the Evangelical New International Version (NIV):

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. (Acts 9:7)
My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. (Acts 22:9)

Fundamentalist commentators like Richard Longenecker argue that first century readers might have understood the two passages to mean that everybody heard the sound of the voice, but "only Paul understood the articulated words."[9][10] However, critics of the NIV, New Living Translation, and similar versions contend that the smoothing out of the contradiction is deliberately misleading.[11]

The debate revolves around two Greek words. The noun φωνῆ (phōnē - the source of the English word "telephone") means "voice, utterance, report, faculty of speech", but can also be translated "sound" when referring to an inanimate object.[12] The verb ἀκούω (akouō - the source of the English word "acoustics") usually means "hear", but has a secondary meaning "understand", which is how most translations render it in 1 Cor. 14:2 for example.[13] Resolving the contradiction involves translating φωνῆ and ἀκούω in Acts 9:7 as "hear" and "sound" respectively, but translating the same words in Acts 22:9 as "understand" and "voice". Critics doubt if the same author recounting the same story in much the same words in different parts of the same text would have used the same two key terms with such strikingly different meanings.[11] However the alternative is that the author of Acts made a careless slip, and Evangelical theology cannot allow this.

Evangelicals point out that in Acts 9:7, ἀκούω appears in a participle construction with a genitive (ἀκούοντες μὲν τῆς φωνῆς), and in Acts 22:9 as a finite verb with an accusative object (φωνὴν οὐκ ἤκουσαν). Evangelical author Nigel Turner suggests the use of the accusative indicates hearing with understanding.[14] More commonly, it is asserted that the genitive is used when a person is heard, the accusative for a thing, which goes in the same direction but yields a far weaker argument.[15][16] New Testament scholar Daniel B. Wallace finds this argument based on case inconclusive,[17] and even Evangelical scholars like F. F. Bruce are dubious.[18]

Theological implications
The Conversion of Saint Paul, a 1600 painting by the Italian artist Caravaggio.

The conversion of Paul, in spite of his attempts to completely eradicate Christianity, is seen as evidence of the power of Divine Grace, with "no fall so deep that grace cannot descend to it"[19] and "no height so lofty that grace cannot lift the sinner to it."[19] It also demonstrates "God's power to use everything, even the hostile persecutor, to achieve the divine purpose."[20]

There is no evidence to suggest that Paul arrived on the road to Damascus already with a single, solid, coherent scheme that could form the framework of his mature theology. Instead, the conversion, and the associated understanding of the significance of the resurrection of the crucified Jesus, caused him to rethink from the ground up everything he had ever believed in, from his own identity to his understanding of Second Temple Judaism and who God really was.[21]

The transforming effect of Paul's conversion influenced the clear antithesis he saw "between righteousness based on the law,"[22] which he had sought in his former life; and "righteousness based on the death of Christ,"[22] which he describes, for example, in the Epistle to the Galatians.[22]

Based on Paul's testimony in Galatians 1 and the accounts in Acts (Acts 9, 22, 26), where it is specifically mentioned that Paul was tasked to be a witness to the Gentiles, it could be interpreted that what happened on the road to Damascus was not just a conversion from first-century Judaism to a faith centred on Jesus Christ, but also a commissioning of Paul as an Apostle to the Gentiles—although in Paul's mind they both amounted to the same thing.[23]

Alternative explanations

The Acts of the Apostles says that Paul's conversion experience was an encounter with the resurrected Christ. Alternative explanations have been proposed, including sun stroke and seizure. In 1987, D. Landsborough published an article in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry,[24] in which he stated that Paul's conversion experience, with the bright light, loss of normal bodily posture, a message of strong religious content, and his subsequent blindness, suggested "an attack of [temporal lobe epilepsy], perhaps ending in a convulsion ... The blindness which followed may have been post-ictal."[24]

This conclusion was challenged in the same journal by James R. Brorson and Kathleen Brewer,[25] who stated that this hypothesis failed to explain why Paul's companions heard a voice (Acts 9:7), saw a light,[Acts 22:9] or fell to the ground.[Acts 26:14] Furthermore, no lack of awareness of blindness (a characteristic of cortical blindness) was reported in Acts, nor is there any indication of memory loss. Additionally, Paul's blindness remitted in sudden fashion, rather than the gradual resolution typical of post-ictal states, and no mention is made of epileptic convulsions; indeed such convulsions may, in Paul's time, have been interpreted as a sign of demonic influence, unlikely in someone accepted as a religious leader.[25]

A 2012 paper in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences suggested that Paul’s conversion experience might be understood as involving psychogenic events. This occurring in the overall context of Paul’s other auditory and visual experiences that the authors propose may have been caused by mood disorder associated psychotic spectrum symptoms.[26]

Cultural references
La conversion de Saint Paul by Luca Giordano (1690), Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy.

Art

The conversion of Paul has been depicted by many artists, including Albrecht Dürer, Francisco Camilo, Giovanni Bellini, Fra Angelico, Fra Bartolomeo, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, William Blake, Luca Giordano, Sante Peranda, and Juan Antonio de Frías y Escalante. Michelangelo's The Conversion of Saul is housed in the Cappella Paolina of the Vatican Palace.

The Renaissance Italian master Caravaggio painted two works depicting the event: The Conversion of Saint Paul and Conversion on the Way to Damascus. Peter Paul Rubens also produced several works on the theme.[27]

Literature

Chapter seventeen of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man includes a literary device related to the Saul to Paul conversion: "'You start Saul, and end up Paul,' my grandfather had often said. 'When you're a youngun, you Saul, but let life whup your head a bit and you starts to trying to be Paul – though you still Sauls around on the side.'"

Paul's conversion is the subject of the medieval play The Digby Conversion of Saint Paul.

Music

The conversion of Paul is the main term of argument of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's oratorio Paulus (St. Paul), MWV A 14 / Op. 36] (1833–36). It is also subject of the choral motet Saule, Saule, quid me persequeris by Giaches de Wert (1535–1596). It is also the focus of an eight part mixed choir a cappella piece (The Conversion of Saul) composed by Z. Randall Stroope.

From the conversion of Paul, we get the metaphorical reference to the "Road to Damascus" that has come to refer to a sudden or radical conversion of thought or a change of heart or mind even in matters outside of a Christian context. For example, Australian politician Tony Abbott was described as having been "on his own road to Damascus" after pledging increased mental health funding,[28] and a New Zealand drug dealer turned police officer was likewise described as taking "the first step on the road to Damascus."[29] In science fiction, the book Road to Damascus is based on a sudden political conversion of a self-aware tank, Unit SOL-0045, "Sonny," a Mark XX Bolo, on the battlefield.[30]

In "-30-", the finale episode of The Wire, Norman Wilson tells Mayor Tommy Carcetti the Jimmy McNulty/Lester Freamon "serial killer" hoax is the mayor's "road to Damascus" moment and likens the detectives' fabrication of a serial killer, which allows them to successfully fund and achieve their actual investigative goals, to Carcetti's adoption of popular campaign platforms he doesn't really care about in order to achieve his actual political agenda. Similar parallel can be drawn to the compromises and decisions made by other entities who've taken shortcuts or otherwise "juked" the data to achieve their ends, such as the Baltimore Sun's managing editors in their pursuit of a Pulitzer Prize.[31][32][33] [34]

In Episode 3, Season 4 of Downton Abbey, Lady Grantham referred to Lord Grantham’s change of heart towards his daughter Edith’s boyfriend as a Damascene Conversion.

Feast day

The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle is a feast celebrated during the liturgical year on January 25, recounting the conversion. This feast is celebrated in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches. This feast is at the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an international Christian ecumenical observance that began in 1908, which is an octave (an eight-day observance) spanning from January 18 (observed in Anglican and Lutheran tradition as the Confession of Peter, and in the pre-1961 Roman Catholic Church as the feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Rome) to January 25.[35] In rural England, the day functioned much like groundhog day does in the modern-day United States. Supposed prophecies ranged from fine days predicting good harvests, to clouds and mists signifying pestilence and war in the coming months.[36]

The collect in the Roman Missal is:

O God, who taught the whole world
through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Paul,
draw us, we pray, nearer to you
through the example of him whose conversion we celebrate today,
and so make us witnesses to your truth in the world.[37]

See also
On Paul's conversion
On the Feast day

References
  1. Bromiley, Geoffrey William (1979). International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: A-D (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (W.B.Eerdmans)). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 689. ISBN 0-8028-3781-6.
  2. Barnett, Paul (2002). Jesus, the Rise of Early Christianity: A History of New Testament Times. InterVarsity Press. p. 21. ISBN 0-8308-2699-8.
  3. L. Niswonger, Richard (1993). New Testament History. Zondervan Publishing Company. p. 200. ISBN 0-310-31201-9.
  4. Acts 9:2
  5. John Phillips, Exploring Acts: An expository commentary, Kregel Academic, 2001, ISBN 0-8254-3490-4, p. 179.
  6. C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles: Introduction and commentary on Acts XV-XXVIII, Continuum, 2004, ISBN 0-567-08395-0, pp. 1029–1031.
  7. Charles H. Talbert, Reading Acts: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Smyth & Helwys, 2005, ISBN 1-57312-277-7, pp 208–209.
  8. Ben Witherington, The Acts of the Apostles: A socio-rhetorical commentary, Eerdmans, 1998, ISBN 0-8028-4501-0, pp. 312–13.
  9. Richard N. Longenecker, The Ministry and Message of Paul, Zondervan, 1971, ISBN 0-310-28341-8, p. 32.
  10. For example, R. C. H. Lenski, Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles 1–14, Volume 1, 1944 (reprinted 2008 by Augsburg Fortress, ISBN 0-8066-8075-X), p. 356; or the Ignatius Catholic study Bible on Acts 9:7.
  11. Mike Davis, The Atheist's Bible Companion to the New Testament: A Comprehensive Guide to Christian Bible Contradictions. Denver: Outskirts Press, Inc., 2009, pp 169–70.
  12. Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon: φωνή
  13. Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon: ἀκούω
  14. Nigel Turner, Grammatical Insights Into the New Testament, Continuum, 2004, ISBN 0-567-08198-2, pp. 87–90.
  15. J. W. Wenham, The Elements of New Testament Greek, Cambridge, 1991, p. 203.
  16. Herbert Weir Smyth and Gordon M. Messing, Greek Grammar, 2nd ed., Harvard University Press, 1956, ISBN 0-674-36250-0, p. 323.
  17. Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament, Zondervan, 1997, ISBN 0-310-21895-0, p. 313.
  18. Frederick Fyvie Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles: The Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary, 2nd ed, Eerdmans, 1990, ISBN 0-8028-0966-9, p. 236.
  19. Johann Peter Lange (ed.), A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: critical, doctrinal, and homiletical, Volume 8, Scribner, 1868, p. 24.
  20. Jean Marie Hiesberger, The Catholic Bible, Personal Study Edition: New American Bible, Oxford University Press US, 2007, ISBN 0-19-528926-9, p. 341.
  21. Wright, N.T. (2015). The Paul Debate. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press. p. 80.
  22. G. Walter Hansen, "Paul's Conversion and His Ethic of Freedom in Galatians," in The Road from Damascus: The impact of Paul's conversion on his life, thought, and ministry, Richard N. Longenecker (ed.), Eerdmans, 1997, ISBN 0-8028-4191-0, pp. 213–37 (quotes on p. 214).
  23. Dunn, James D. G. (2008). "Paul's Conversion: A Light to Twentieth Century Disputes". The New Perspective on Paul. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Erdmans Publishing Company. pp. 347–365.
  24. D. Landsborough, "St. Paul and Temporal Lobe Epilepsy," J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1987; 50; 659–64:
  25. J.R. Brorson and K. Brewer, "Matters arising: St Paul and temporal lobe epilepsy," J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1988; 51; 886–87:
  26. Murray, ED.; Cunningham, MG; Price, BH. (2012). "The role of psychotic disorders in religious history considered". J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neuroscience. 24 (4): 410–26. doi:10.1176/appi.neuropsych.11090214. PMID 23224447.
  27. Gosudarstvennyĭ Ėrmitazh, Peter Paul Rubens, a touch of brilliance: oil sketches and related works from the State Hermitage Museum and the Courtauld Institute Gallery, Prestel, 2003.
  28. Mental health experts praise Abbott's spending pledge, ABC News, Thu Jul 1, 2010 12:04am AEST, accessed 3 July 2010.
  29. Savage, Jared (3 July 2010). "Drug dealer hired as police officer". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
  30. "The Road to Damascus by John Ringo and Linda Evans – WebScription Ebook". www.baen.com. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  31. Franich, Darren (March 9, 2018). "The bitter resonance of The Wire's fake news plotline, a decade later". EW.
  32. Tobias, Scott (March 9, 2008). "The Wire: '-30-". AV Club.
  33. Sepinwall, Alan (March 10, 2008). "Sepinwall on TV: 'The Wire' ends". Star-Ledger.
  34. Johnston, Andrew (March 11, 2008). "The Wire Recap: Season 5, Episode 10, '-30-'". Slant.
  35. Exciting holiness: collects and readings for the festivals by B. Tristam ISBN 1-85311-479-0 Canterbury Press 2003 pages 54–55
  36. Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain (2 ed.). Great Britain: Reader's Digest Association Ltd. 1977. p. 23. ISBN 9780276000393.
  37. Roman Missal

Further reading
  • Richard N. Longenecker (ed.), The Road from Damascus: The impact of Paul's conversion on his life, thought, and ministry, Eerdmans, 1997, ISBN 0-8028-4191-0, 253 pages.
  • Thomas Martone, The theme of the conversion of Paul in Italian paintings from the early Christian period to the high Renaissance, Garland Pub., 1985, ISBN 0-8240-6882-3, 254 pages.
  • Landsborough, D. (1987), "St Paul and temporal lobe epilepsy", Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 50 (6): 659–664, doi:10.1136/jnnp.50.6.659, PMC 1032067, PMID 3302109
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