Paul often presents himself as an apostle on the strength of personal experience and the direct revelation he claims to have received. He states that the gospel he brought came from no man but was received through the revelation of Jesus Christ.1 The statement raises a serious question.
If the revelation was real, why do the disciples who received the teaching of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam ʿalayhi al-salām, peace be upon him directly never refer to Paul? Disciples such as Peter and Barnabas often disputed Paul’s approach as contrary to the law. The tension between Paul and Peter over obedience to the Torah reflects a basic difference in their apostolic method.
Jesus often warned that no one should set himself up as absolute spiritual leader, and insisted that all his followers are equal as brethren.2 Paul declared himself a preacher, an apostle and a teacher, a statement that reflects his effort to build personal authority.3
When we examine the content of Paul’s letters, we find claims of apparitions, mystical encounters and unseen experiences that form the basis of his “apostleship”. These narratives are full of contradiction and vagueness, and they lack any witness from a reliable external source. Some appear only in Paul’s own letters, without confirmation in the gospels or in Acts.
The five hundred witnesses
Among the most suspect is his note in 1 Corinthians that the risen Jesus supposedly appeared to “more than five hundred at once”:
6ἔπειτα ὤφθη ἐπάνω πεντακοσίοις ἀδελφοῖς ἐφάπαξ, ἐξ ὧν οἱ πλείονες μένουσιν ἕως ἄρτι, τινὲς δὲ ἐκοιμήθησαν·
6After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.4
Prima facie, a claim of five hundred witnesses shifts the burden to the doubter; on inspection it names none. The statement finds no support in any canonical gospel. Mark, Matthew, Luke and John are silent about this mass appearance. So is Acts, which should have recorded so important an event if it happened; instead it plainly mentions only about 120 disciples gathered after the crucifixion.5
More doubtful still, Paul names none of the “500 witnesses.” By adding that “some are fallen asleep,” he seems to head off any further inquiry into the testimony.
Stranger yet, none of the other early followers of al-Masīḥ, Peter, James or any other disciple, ever refers to the event, in any recorded writing or speech. The absence of any repetition or support for the claim in any early Christian source suggests that Paul may have invented the story to strengthen the argument for the resurrection at the center of his new teaching.
The claim of an appearance to 500 is the plainest example of how the post-crucifixion narrative in Paul’s writings rests on rhetorical invention in support of his theological agenda.6 It reflects Paul’s tendency to add mystical and dramatic elements with no empirical basis, the modus operandi of the “personal revelations” he so often claimed.
Satan as an angel of light
Beyond the claim of a crowd of unnamed witnesses, Paul also presents a personal unseen experience as the chief basis of his “apostleship”. As discussed earlier, Paul, then known as Saul, set out for Damascus to hunt more followers of Jesus Christ.
On the way he claimed to have “met” ʿĪsā ibn Maryam through an experience from the sky in the form of a “bright shining light.” After it he is said to have declared his repentance and professed himself a chosen follower of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam.7
The story exists in three versions, set out in The Damascus road and compared in The three accounts compared. All three share one element: the claim that he met ʿĪsā ibn Maryam in a mysterious event involving “a bright light from heaven.”8
Paul claims that a “bright light” from heaven surrounded him at his mysterious “meeting” with the figure said to be ʿĪsā ibn Maryam. Even if the event happened, it does not follow that Paul met ʿĪsā ibn Maryam. The New Testament itself states that the Devil can disguise himself as an angel of light:
14καὶ οὐ θαῦμα, αὐτὸς γὰρ ὁ Σατανᾶς μετασχηματίζεται εἰς ἄγγελον φωτός·
14And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.9
Is the resemblance between the appearance of the Devil, as Paul himself wrote it in the New Testament, and the event he experienced in Acts not plain?
- See Galatians 1:11–12. ↩
- Matthew 23:8–10. ↩
- 1 Timothy 2:7, in a letter written in his name; in his own letters he claims the title at Romans 1:1 and 1 Corinthians 9:1. ↩
- 1 Corinthians 15:6 (SBLGNT; KJV). ↩
- Acts 1:15: “And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty).” ↩
- In any tradition that guards historical accuracy, the bearer of a report must be known, and his background examined: who his parents were, what his occupation was, where he was at the time of the event, and how close he stood to the original source. Without such information a claim is no more than a tale without support. ↩
- Colossians 1:1. ↩
- Acts 9:3; 22:6; 26:13. ↩
- 2 Corinthians 11:14 (SBLGNT; KJV). ↩
