Paul: The Spy Who Pretended to be Jesus' Apostle

It must be remembered that Paul never met Jesus. His description of his “conversion” is quite sparse, mentioned or alluded to in just three of his letters:

Paul argued that his gospel was the authentic "gospel of Christ" and that "another gospel" (that of James, Peter, and John) was false. His letter to the Galatians contains his argument supporting "Justification/salvation by faith, not by works." However, the Gospel of James (2:14-17) proclaimed: "What does it profit…if a man says he has faith, but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, `Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has not works, is dead." The teachings of Jesus, as described by the gospel writers, agreed with James.

I Corinthians 9:1: "Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?"


I Corinthians 15:3-8: "For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me."



Galatians 1:11-17: "For I would have you know…that the gospel which was preached by me is not man's gospel, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it…so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, 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 into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus."


Luke, however, filled in many of the blanks Paul failed to mention in any of his letters to the churches. The problem is, Luke told three versions of Paul’s claimed conversion, and none of the three agree on the details:

Paul admitted he had persecuted those who followed Jesus, although he never revealed that he had done so under another name, Saul. If not for Luke, we would not be aware that he had ever been called Saul. If not for Luke's important information about his birth name, Paul could never have been associated with the Saulus whom the Jewish historian Josephus accused of participating in the stoning death of James, Jesus' brother, c. 62, long after

Paul's claimed conversion on the road to Damascus. Josephus' Saulus was the grandson of Salome (Saulome?), sister of King Herod the Great. (Josephus, Antiquities, Book 20.9.1-4; www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-20.htm.)



Did James, Peter, and the authentic Apostles accept Paul as "one of them," or did they accuse him of lying? Did their followers accept him as "an authority on the gospel of the Nazarenes," or did they reject his teachings? The answers to these questions can be found in the letters attributed to Paul:

[link to www.thenazareneway.com]

Last Edited by Motion & Rest on 05/24/2011 03:01 PM