Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · 7. Paul
Testing Paul's claim of divine inspiration
In short
- 1.Paul claims his gospel is 'not of human origin… I received it by revelation' [Galatians 1:11-12].
- 2.He expected the return of Christ **in his own lifetime**: 'we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord' [1 Thessalonians 4:15-17].
- 3.'We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed… at the last trumpet' [1 Corinthians 15:51-52] — again including himself among the living.
- 4.The Deuteronomic test of a prophet: if what he says does not come to pass, God has not spoken through him [Deuteronomy 18:22].
- 5.Paul's conversion account differs between its three tellings in Acts [9:7 vs 22:9].
The claim being examined
Paul grounds his authority in a direct revelation from the risen Christ, received independently of the other apostles.
The Islamic position
Islam applies Paul's own criterion: if his message is from God it should be free of error — and it is not.
Analysis
The unfulfilled imminence of the parousia is a recognised problem in Pauline studies, usually handled by arguing that Paul's expectation developed over time or that 'we' is rhetorical. The difficulty is that Paul introduces the statement with 'according to the Lord's word', which frames it as received rather than inferred. Applying the Hebrew Bible's own test for a true prophet to a man claiming direct revelation is a fair and internal argument.
From the Qur'an
Qur'an 4:82
أَفَلَا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ الْقُرْآنَ ۚ وَلَوْ كَانَ مِنْ عِندِ غَيْرِ اللَّهِ لَوَجَدُوا فِيهِ اخْتِلَافًا كَثِيرًا
Do they not reflect on the Qur'an? If it had been from other than God they would have found within it much contradiction.
From the Bible
1 Thessalonians 4:15
ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες οἱ περιλειπόμενοι εἰς τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ κυρίου
We who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord.
Read it in their BibleDeuteronomy 18:22
אֲשֶׁר יְדַבֵּר הַנָּבִיא בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה וְלֹא־יִהְיֶה הַדָּבָר
If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place, that is a message the LORD has not spoken.
Read it in their BibleActs 9:7 / 22:9
ἀκούοντες μὲν τῆς φωνῆς / τὴν δὲ φωνὴν οὐκ ἤκουσαν
His companions heard the voice / did not hear the voice — the two accounts differ.
Read it in their BibleSources
Abu Zakariya, Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · Albert Schweitzer on Pauline eschatology · Bart D. Ehrman · Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah — ch. 7, pp. 177-183
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