CONTRADICTIONS: Are There Three Different Accounts in the Bible of Paul’s Conversion?
Minor details or crucial pieces of the puzzle?
(TEN-MINUTE READ/WATCH) — The short answer to the question in the headline is no, there are three accounts of the conversion of Saul to Paul on the road to Damascus but, as the following 8:58 video from Inspiring Philosophy demonstrates, they are not contradictions, contrary to a host of critics of the Bible.
Paul’s conversion is among the most historically significant events in the post-resurrection history of the Christian church. Before his conversion, Paul nee Saul was a vicious persecutor of people following Jesus Christ.
After his conversation with Jesus Himself on that road to Damascus, however, Paul became the greatest missionary who ever lived, the most prolific author of the New Testament, and a first-rate theologian of enduring influence.
The “problem” here is that there are three accounts of Paul’s conversion, one reported in Acts by Luke, the author of that New Testament book, and two related by Paul and quoted by Luke, also in Acts. On the surface, there are differences of detail that render all three accounts suspect.
Or do they? Watch the video, think about it and then share your thoughts in the Comments:
If a commenter has the same name as the author, is there deception at play?
I find this less contradictory than the account of Judas buying the potter’s field and hanging himself. Was the field where he hung himself purchased on his behalf for the purpose of a place to bury the executed criminals or the poor unable to afford their own burial plots?
In the grand scheme of things, I don’t believe that the story lines trigger an insurmountable reason to declare the whole of scripture as contradictory. I do however fall emphatic that Paul was Baptized, and his sins were “washed away” because he, believed, repented, confessed, followed the command to be baptized, and strove to live the live worthy of his calling – these were not works unto salvation and Paul was indeed saved by the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul explains the importance of working out one’s salvation with fear and trembling in Philippians and the joining to Christ in the likeness of his death, burial, and resurrection in Romans 6.
Good to see you here, my name-sake-doppelganger!