Paul’s Three Conflicting Stories Regarding His Conversion On Road To Damascus

We have three different accounts of Paul’s unsupported claim of conversion. All three version are contained in Acts, therefore all three are from the same author, Luke. They are found in Acts chapters 9, 22, and 26.

The three versions are completely different in some very important details, as we will examine further. Three different versions from the same author leaves us with three options as to why they are different:

1. Luke was a sloppy and incompetent historian / recorder;
2. Luke was a clever literary mastermind who left these as clues to the embellishment;
3. Luke was a reliable reporter who reported accurately as Paul shifted his story, exposing Paul as the embellisher.

Personally, I’m going with number 3 – Luke was very accurate and detailed in recording what he heard come out of the mouth of mr paul.

Each person is going to need to decide for themselves, which of the three options above are correct. Or perhaps Father Jesus will reveal a 4th option to you, in which case I pray that you will drop me a note as to what exactly you found / were given.

“you judge for yourself what is right”  Luke 12:57

Paul’s Version #1

Acts 9:1-9 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 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. Saul 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.

_  _  _  _  _  _

Matthew 15:14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.

Paul’s 2nd Version

Acts 22:4-11 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. 

“About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’

“‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.

“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.

‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.

“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.

Paul’s 3rd Version

Acts 26:12-18 “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

“ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

I KNOW MY SHEEP AND THEY KNOW MY VOICE AND FOLLOW ME

Acts 9:6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. they heard the sound but did not see anyone.

Acts 9:5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

Acts 22:8 “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

Acts 26: 15-18 ‘Who are you, Lord?’

In Acts 22:17-21, Paul ‘claims’ Yahushua told him to “get out of Jerusalem, for they (the Jews) will not receive your testimony concerning Me (Yahweh)”. That is an odd statement from “Paul’s Jesus”, as the Jews were in fact receiving testimony from the real apostles in Jerusalem.

            _  _  _  _  _  _

John 10:4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.”

SCALES

Acts 9:18: Paul had something like scales fall from his eyes.

Paul was blinded by SCALES covering his eyes. Serpents are covered with SCALES.

Job 41:1 “Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope?
15 His rows of scales are his pride, tightly sealed together.

DID PAUL’S COMPANIONS HEAR SOMETHING,  OR NOT?

In chapter 9 Paul’s companions hear the voice talking to Paul, but they don’t see anyone; in chapter 22 they see light but don’t hear anything. Who knows?

Here are the verses:

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

Paul’s companions heard the sound of the voice but didn’t understand what it said.

WHAT DID PAUL’S COMPANIONS SEE, OR NOT?

Acts 9:7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone;

Acts 22:9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.

DID PAUL’S COMPANIONS FALL TO THE GROUND, OR NOT?

In chapter 9 the companions are left standing while Paul falls to the ground; in chapter 26 they are all knocked to the ground. Who can know?”

Here are the verses:

Acts 9:7 “The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.”

Acts 26:14 “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

PAUL’S 3 ACCOUNTS AS EVIDENCE FOR LUKE’S RELIABILITY

If anything, we actually find that upon closer inspection of Luke’s three accounts, the variations line up with what we know about Paul’s circumstances. This may boost our confidence in Luke.

In both of these speeches, Paul leaves out facts that would have been interesting to Luke as the recorder, but less so to Paul’s audience. For instance:

1. Leaving out the part that Paul didn’t eat for several days after his experience on the road to Damascus;
2. When He was healed, scales fell from his eyes (Acts 9:9, 18-19);
3. In Jerusalem before the mob, Paul paints himself as a zealous and devout Jew, calling his audience “brothers and fathers” (Acts 22:1);
4. And Paul emphasizes his own rabbinic education under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3);
5. Of Ananias who came to him in Damascus, rather than calling him a Jesus-follower, he says he’s “a man who was devout to the standard of the law” (Acts 22:12);
6. Acts 22:15 Paul tells them that Ananias told them that “the God of our fathers” has sent him to be a witness “to all men.”;
7. Paul claims that Jesus sent him to the Gentiles (Act 22:21);
8. Paul omits any mention of Ananias before Agrippa and Festus. Again, why would they care about an obscure Jew from Damascus?
   Well, maybe there is more to the story that we see on the surface:
   In his “Barnabas and the Early Christians,” Ata ur-Rakim provided the following information:
   “…it is recorded that Paul had desired to marry a woman called Popea, who was the attractive but ambitious daughter of the high priest of the Jews. She possessed haunting beauty and an intriguing mind. She like Paul, but she rejected his offers of marriage and went to Rome as an actress. Starting on the stage, she climbed step by step until she reached Nero’s bed. Ultimately she married him and so became the Empress of the Roman Empire. Paul therefore had good reason to resent both the Jews and the Romans. Paul’s conversion coincided with his being rejected by Popea. He must have been under considerable emotional and mental strain at the time. It is possible that this crisis in his life had some bearing on this sudden change from his being one the greatest supporters of the Jewish Law to one of its greatest enemies.”
9. Paul strongly emphasizes to Agrippa and Festus (Acts 26:7, 21) that it is the Jews who are opposing him here (Acts 26:2). Now the Jews are the bad guys.
10. Paul calls Christians saints (Acts 26:10).
11. Paul admits that he tried to force the Christians to blaspheme (Acts 26:11), a reflection and self-accusation that fits perfectly with Paul’s own self-blame in his letters (e.g., Phil 3:6).
12. Paul mentions to Agrippa and Festus that the voice from heaven spoke to him “in a Hebrew dialect” (vs. 14), probably Aramaic. This would indicate that Paul is speaking Greek now, as there would be no reason to mention a similar linguistic point to the Jewish audience in Chapter 22, where it’s noted that Paul is speaking to the crowd in “a Hebrew dialect.” (Acts 22:2)

OTHER FACTS ABOUT PAUL THAT MAKE YOU WONDER

1. Paul said he had become all things to all men and here it is on clear display. (1 Cor 9:21-22) Luke’s accurate representation of Paul’s words in these events, and his impressive, careful documentation of them, explain these seemingly small details quite well, even if they’re only side notes.
2. In addition, Acts 9:22-25 states that Paul’s persecutors in Damascus were Jews. Paul contradicts this by naming the governor, under Aretus the king, as (the persecutor) desirous to apprehend him, II Corinthians 11:32-33.
3. In Galatians 1:16-17 Paul tells us that after his revelation he conferred not with flesh and blood, nor went up to Jerusalem to the apostles, but instead went to Arabia (for an unspecified amount of time) and then back to Damascus (coincidentally, these happen to be Essene [sect] locations). Three years later he spent fifteen days with Peter in Jerusalem, and then moved on to Syria and Cilicia (Tarsus and Antioch) for fourteen years.
4. However, Acts 9:20 contradicts this. It says that after his revelation, Paul was certain days with the disciples in Damascus, and preached straightway in Damascus. Then Barnabas took him to the apostles in Jerusalem (Paul assayed to join himself to the disciples; as yet making no claim of apostleship). Then Paul was sent forth to Tarsus (‘Then had the churches rest…’Acts 9:31, after Paul was sent away.)
5. There exists a three-year discrepancy between Paul’s conversion and his trip to Jerusalem, and he admits to having little or no tutoring by the apostles (Galatians is the earlier of the two accounts). Interestingly enough, there’s a document in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Q40266, called ‘The Damascus Document’, written around the time of Saul/Paul’s trip to Arabia (wherein existed the Essene site of Qumran). It’s an excommunication document condemning an unidentified man; referred to as the ‘Lying Adversary, the Lying Spouter, the Tongue, the Scoffer’ who rejected the law in the midst of the whole congregation.

IDENTITY THEFT & BLASPHEMY

It is hard for me to imagine anything more ludicrous than the creator of the universe and Father of all spirits, identifying Himself by the name of the flesh He wore while briefly on earth…Out of all the dozens of Titles and Names for God of the OT, and the same spirit being incarnated in the flesh, that the best way He could identify Himself was:

“I’m Jesus…..”… (NOT in red letter Jesus quotes)

How UTTERLY ABSURD!! The blasphemy is shuttering… Today we call this IDENTITY THEFT!!! The Bible calls it LYING and STEALING:

Leviticus 19:11 ‘Do not steal. “ ‘Do not lie. “ ‘Do not deceive one another.

Exodus 20:15 Thou shalt not steal

Proverbs 12:22  The LORD detests lying lips

To me, there is no doubt that this was a demon, assigned to “tutor” Paul on his journey to overthrow the “good news” that Jesus had recently left in our care. He had to establish “credibility” with Paul very quickly, thus, the big demonic bamboozle…

Once again, we see that Paul is a liar and a deceiver and should not be considered worthy of studying to learn about our Father Jesus.

Russell Dibird

More articles exposing Paul as a false teacher here.

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