jgreen44

According to the Book of Acts, Paul was living in Jerusalem during the earthly ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. During that time he (Paul) was probably a young adult.

The author of the Gospel of John places Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem during six feasts (three Passover feasts [2:13; 6:4; 11: 55], the Feast of Booths [7:2], the Feast of Dedication [10:22] and one other unidentified feast [5:1]).

Paul was living in Jerusalem during the multiple visits of Jesus of Nazareth and yet, in his epistles, there is not a peep from Paul about his ever having seen or met the earthly Jesus. Hmmm.

jgreen44

And Paul (Saul) was a Pharisee who made it his life's work to persecute Christians. Jesus of Nazareth was constantly butting heads with the Pharisees and yet Paul, a Pharisee living in Jerusalem during the multiple occasions of Christ's visits to that city, never encountered the real-life Jesus of Nazareth.

aa5874

And, the Pauline writer claimed he once persecuted Jesus believers.

It is most remarkable that even though the advent of a Jewish Messiah was probably the most expected event by Jews that when he came no contemporary of Jesus even claimed that they personally interacted with him on any level.

Instead, the supposed contemporary Paul, clearly pointed out that he saw Jesus in a non-historical state, after his resurrection.

brianscott1977

We are told nothing about Saul in the book of Acts until Stephen is stoned to death a few years after Jesus was crucified (exacting dating on this event is basically impossible.)

Then we are only told that Saul was in Jerusalem at that time, not that he was living there or that he had been there for any length of time. It is a huge leap to go from “he was there on this day” to “he had been living there for years.”

While it is reasonable to assume that Paul had heard of Jesus, there is no evidence to suggest that the two men were ever in the same city prior to the crucifixion.

aa5874

And that is a problem for Saul/Paul. We cannot find a contemporary of Jesus who was in the same city and the same historical state.

Amazingly when Jesus was in Jerusalem and Galilee, we hear nothing about Saul/ Paul. When Jesus resurrects and is in heaven, he incredibly blinds Saul/Paul perhaps with a bolt of light and then some Paul would claim that he saw Jesus when he was supposed to be dead.

Saul/Paul what eyes you have?

jgreen44

Acts 22:3
"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city (Jerusalem) educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today."

1) we know Paul was in Jerusalem from infancy till adulthood.
2) we know he was in Jerusalem in the time of Stephen.
3) we are told nowhere that Paul ever left Jerusalem until his fateful trip to Damascus.

The "huge leap", therefore, is taken in assuming that Paul was not living in Jerusalem during the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.

Chili

I would equate 'persecuting Christians' with 'running away from God' or just being a 'bad boy who is taxing religion to the utmost. To be sure, the Damascus event does not happen to nice guys but only to the extreme courage of the Paul's age since it happened to him.

Chili

This just means that Jesus spend about 3 years in Galilee. I doubt if Paul ever lived in Jerusalem himself but these events are Jerusalem related wherein Jerusalem is a state fo mind where transformation takes place from the old to the New Jerusalem.

Transient

Huh???
You doubt that the so-called Paul lived in Jerusalem???
Just where do you think he got all the training from Gamaliel???
In Nazareth or maybe London?

Chili

'In or near' Jerusalem just means 'close to the heart' and so Saul was an upright Jew like Joseph was. The concept sin is not found in the measure of sin by others but in the inner conviction of sin ('vengeance is mine') for which a happy-go-lucky childhood that is filled with virtue and expressed with piety is the Jesusalem that is left behind as sinner . . . so that later it can be recreated in the realization of the same but now in the New.