AN ATHEISTIC BIBLE STUDY OF ACTS CHAPTER 9
This chapter deals with Saul /Paul’s conversion to Christ worship – a crucial event in the foundation of the Church, possibly second only to the alleged resurrection itself in importance.
Saul, a fanatical anti Jesus worship activist, gets concerned that the followers of the dead but not really dead Messiah are fleeing from Judea to avoid persecution, and spreading their faith throughout the Near East, Europe and Northern Africa. He conceives a mission involving going to Damascus, and capturing all the Jesus worshippers there, to bring back to Judea for punishment. In effect, Saul is a bounty hunter for the Sadducees.
Permission granted, Saul sets off, but he is blinded by a bright light on the road to Damascus, and receives a visitation within the light from Jesus (who he never met when Jesus was alive). Jesus angrily demands to know why Saul persecutes him (seeing his followers being persecuted and executed as his own personal pain),
Saul has travelling companions, who can hear Jesus, but don’t see him as Saul does. They hear Jesus order Saul to continue on his journey to Damascus, and to wait there for further instructions from beyond.
The aides guide the now temporarily blinded Saul to Damascus and tend to his needs for the three days it takes for his eyes to clear properly.
Jesus stays busy and visits a man in Damascus called Ananias, and instructs him to look after Saul, who is sheltering in the house of a man called Judas (no, not that Judas).
Ananias is reluctant and scared, as Saul has a fierce reputation in his attacks on the early Jesus followers. Jesus assures Ananias that Saul has had a change of point of view on certain matters and that Saul will come to face great persecution for his new beliefs in the years to come. Exactly why Jesus did not convert other persecutors and opponents the faith over the years to come is not explained.
Ananias goes to Saul, and touches his face, curing him of his blindness and baptising him as a follower of Jesus too.
Saul promptly goes extremely evangelical, converting many to the new cause he has adopted, but he has many enemies among those who he betrayed and who expected him to help break the spreading cult, rather than champion it. There is soon a growing conspiracy to capture or kill Saul, and his enemies, watching out for him, closely observe the roads in and out of Damascus.
Saul escapes from the city itself by being lowered down the walls in a basket by his allies, rather than risking going through the city gates. He heads straight for Jerusalem, the very heartland of his opponents, where he was sent from in the first place, in the hope of changing people’s hearts and minds there.
He meets Barnabus, who comes to trust him enough to arrange a meeting with the other Apostles, and leading followers of Jesus who are still active in Jerusalem. The Apostles welcome him into the fold, and Saul goes off to promote the faith in Caesaria and Tarsus.
Meanwhile, Peter goes off to Lyppa, and meets a palsy sufferer who has been bed-ridden for eight years. Peter cures him instantly. He also resurrects a Jesus loving woman who goes by two names, Tabitha and Dorca), to life, after her premature death. Peter remains in Lyppa with a tanner called Simon, who is also a leading follower of the new faith. This may lead to confusion, given that Peter is often also called Simon.
Saul’s conversion would have devastating effects on Christianity in the years to come. Without him, the sect would not have flourished, but his radical ideas would change everything, opening the religion to gentile converts, ending the practice of circumcision, changing the Sabbath days, etc. Christianity was now really becoming Paulianism. Without him, its history would have been very different.
Arthur Chappell
