Did Paul Ever See Jesus During Our Lord's Earthly Ministry?

Fresco from the Grotto of St. Paul from the Aegean Coast of Turkey

Although most New Testament scholars simply assume that Paul had never seen Jesus prior to Paul’s Damascus Road experience, Stanley Porter raises the fascinating possibility that Paul and Jesus had indeed crossed paths before Paul’s conversion. The argument can be found in summary form in: Stanley E. Porter, The Apostle Paul: His Life, Thought and Letters (Eerdmans, 2016), 33-38. A more extensive (and expensive) version can be found here: When Paul Met Jesus: How an Idea Got Lost in History (Cambridge University Press, 2016).

Porter’s case is based upon several lines of evidence.

First, Jesus spent much of his time in Galilee, but went to Jerusalem on several occasions. Jesus also spent the last part of his messianic mission in the city. Given the fact that Paul too spent significant time in Jerusalem as a teen studying under Gamaliel, and that Jesus was a very well-known and controversial figure within Pharisaical circles, Paul likely knew of Jesus’ presence in Jerusalem, even if he had not seen him personally. But given Jesus’ controversial ministry among Jews in the city, a zealous young rabbinical student like Paul very likely would have been quite interested in evaluating Jesus for himself, possibly on one or more occasions. Paul and Jesus were in the same place at the same time so it is very plausible that Paul would have been curious enough to go and see Jesus for himself.

Second, Porter believes that several of Paul’s statements in Acts recounting his conversion imply a personal knowledge of Jesus based upon a prior encounter(s). When Paul is confronted by the Risen Jesus on the Damascus Road in Acts 9, in verses 24-26, Paul sees Jesus (Acts 9:27), addresses him as “Lord,” before Jesus asks him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Jesus’ question to Saul seems to imply a personal attack upon Jesus, not merely upon his people, as one would expect, given Paul’s history of hunting down and arresting Christians (Acts 8:1-2). But when Paul asks Jesus in return, “who are you?” Porter contends, “Paul is not asking after the identity of the speaker—that he already apparently knows—but he wants to know how one gets from the person he once encountered to the person who has just addressed him” (35). Porter takes these questions and Jesus’ reply to mean that Paul had some prior knowledge of Jesus—perhaps even a conversation had occurred between the two at some point while Jesus was in Jerusalem (35-36).

Third, Porter points out that in 1 Corinthians 9:1, Paul says as much. “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?” Paul does not speak of Jesus here only as “Lord”—which is typically the way Paul refers to the Risen Lord, but “the presumption is that if Paul writes `Jesus,’ he is referring to Jesus, the earthly figure” (37).

Finally, Porter cites a more controversial passage, 2 Corinthians 5:16: “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.” Porter makes his case that “despite the controversy and continuing confusion, I believe that a probable interpretation is that Paul had seen the physical Jesus but that a believer’s new relationship with Christ is not based on knowing him in this physical way” (37). Porter offers an extended exegetical argument and preferred translation in support of his contention. Porter concludes, “that time of knowing Christ is in the past, insofar as knowing him as a human is concerned for Paul, and what is important now is that, though we no longer know him as he was, we know him now in a new and spiritual way” (38).

A fascinating and certainly plausible case, indeed.

FWIW, way back when, Dr. Porter and his family were members of the same EFCA congregation my wife and I joined when we first married. He was already a biblical language wiz and teaching at Talbot Theological Seminary (he’s now written over thirty books, mostly on verbal aspect), while I was attending the Simon Greenleaf School of Law (now the Trinity Law School in Santa Ana, CA).