What Did Paul Experience on the Road to Damascus?
A turning point for Saul of Tarsus, better known to us as the Apostle Paul, was his meeting with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Since it was a turning point for him, it was also for Christianity.
But what exactly did Paul experience on the road to Damascus? Paul only hints at it in his letters but a description of the event is found in Acts. In fact, it is found three times.
However, that is part of the problem. Each of the accounts are slightly different. Here they are:
Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ The men who were travelling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. (Acts 9:3-7)
‘While I was on my way and approaching Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone about me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” I answered, “Who are you, Lord?” Then he said to me, “I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.” Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.(Acts 22:6-9)
[W]hen at midday along the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. 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? It hurts you to kick against the goads.” (Acts 26:13-14)
The question that some people have asked was about the sound that was heard. In one passage, it says that the people with Saul/Paul heard the voice and another that they did not. Which is it?
I have an answer but ultimately it does not matter. For one, obviously Luke did not see it as a contradiction. Secondly, this kind of discrepancy, even within the same author was common. Compare how Josephus describes the same events between Antiquities of the Jews and the Jewish War. These differences were not seen as a problem for historical reliability.
What I think Luke was trying to say in Acts is that the bystanders heard something but that they could not understand the voice. That is, this was an actual event and not just a subjective experience, but the message was for Saul/Paul alone.
I have shared elsewhere (see the video below) that I think Paul’s experience was both like and unlike that of the other apostles. Paul really did meet and communicate with the risen Jesus but this took place after the ascension, making it somewhat difference to what Peter and James experienced. For Paul, Jesus was only present for the moment of the message that was delivered.
What Paul experienced was vision-like, but different from traditional visions that are more subjective. The bystanders could tell something was going on. They seem to have heard something but did not know what it was. Plus, Paul was blind at the end of it.
I cannot prove that Paul only had a simple vision, that could have been caused by any number of things. But a careful reading of Acts suggests that Luke at least understood Paul to have an objective experience that was not purely internal.
