Immediately after the event of his repentance, Saul began to claim that he had received “guidance” directly from Jesus Christ. He then sought out the disciples to declare his repentance for what he had done to them.9
The New Testament states that all the followers of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam (ʿalayhi al-salām, peace be upon him) at first kept away from Saul, until Barnabas came forward to believe him and give him protection. Acts records it:
26And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. 27But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.1
Through Barnabas, Saul was accepted by the other followers of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam and became known as Paul. On the strength of his repentance, Paul declared himself one of the disciples of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam.
The claim to apostleship
Paul often, and without embarrassment, claimed to belong among the apostles, as in these words:
1Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,2
5For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.3
Paul’s proclamation of himself as an apostle drew no attention from the Jewish community, and the followers of the mission of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam did not believe him at all. How could they? Paul had been the chief enemy of the followers of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam.
Not long before, he had been the one arresting, punishing and killing their brethren for their faith. The New Testament itself records that the main supporters of the mission of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam before Paul’s appearance were Barnabas and Peter.
By his own admission, Paul never studied under ʿĪsā ibn Maryam and never heard any teaching from him. Yet because he claimed to belong among the apostles, the teaching he devised was crowned “the revelation of God.”
The title was self-conferred, and the authority that rests on it is, ipso facto, self-conferred too. Paul explains it himself:
11But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.4
Paul admits that his gospel differed from the teaching of the other apostles, such as Peter and Barnabas. He goes on:
6I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.5
Curses for dissenters
Besides spreading a gospel different from the one the apostles brought, Paul showed his arrogance by cursing anyone who did not believe the gospel he brought:
22If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.6
For that reason Paul pressed people to accept wholesale his claim to be an apostle, on the ground that his rank was no lower than that of the other apostles:
4For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. 5For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.7
Barnabas and Paul
Throughout the spreading of the teaching of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam, Barnabas traveled widely with Paul, who now appeared in a new guise as the most faithful adherent of that teaching. Paul began to introduce himself as “servant of Christ Jesus” or “apostle of Christ Jesus,” as the openings of his letters show.10
The relationship between Barnabas and Paul is described in Acts:
1Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.8
In the list of the disciples, Luke names Barnabas first and places Saul (Paul) last.
Chosen to work together, the disciples set out to spread the teaching. Barnabas and Paul left with Mark to carry the teaching of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam into Greek territory, while James the son of Zebedee remained in Palestine as head of the followers of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam, together with Peter.
Acts also records that although they were sometimes stoned in various places,11 the work of the two preachers bore great fruit, and their reputation as messengers of God spread widely.
Not long after they had spread the mission of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam together, Barnabas began to distance himself from Paul, having recognized the underhand tactic by which Paul was trying to compromise the religion of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam with the beliefs of the Graeco-Roman world. The next articles show how Paul began to assimilate the teaching of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam to outside elements through a subtler disguise.
- Acts 9:26–27 (KJV). ↩
- 1 Corinthians 1:1 (KJV). ↩
- 2 Corinthians 11:5 (KJV). ↩
- Galatians 1:11–12 (KJV). ↩
- Galatians 1:6–9 (KJV). ↩
- 1 Corinthians 16:22 (KJV). ↩
- 2 Corinthians 11:4–5 (KJV). ↩
- Acts 13:1–2 (KJV). ↩
- cf. Acts, chapters 9 to 13. ↩
- cf. Romans 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:1, etc. ↩
- Acts 14:19. ↩