Bible Synapse
Did Paul see Jesus on the Damascus road, or only a light?
Hard question · Acts and the letters · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Paul defends his apostleship: “have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?”
Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?
After Peter, the twelve, the 500, James and all the apostles, “last of all he was seen of me also”.
And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
A light from heaven shone round Saul and Jesus spoke to him; when he got up and opened his eyes “he saw no man”, and was led into Damascus.
And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
Ananias: “the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me”.
And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
The objection
Paul asks, “have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?”, and counts himself among those to whom the risen Christ appeared. But Acts says that on the Damascus road he saw a blinding light and heard a voice, and that when he opened his eyes “he saw no man”. It looks as if Paul heard Jesus but never saw him.
The answer
Acts itself says that Paul saw Jesus on the road, and says it in the same chapter as the verse the objection quotes. Ananias greets him as one to whom “the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest” has sent him (Acts 9:17). Barnabas tells the apostles “how he had seen the Lord in the way” (9:27). Later Ananias tells Paul that God had chosen him to “see that Just One” (22:14), and Jesus himself says, “I have appeared unto thee for this purpose” (26:16).
Acts 9:8 describes what happened next. When Paul got up from the ground and opened his eyes, he could see no one and nothing: “he could not see a thing”, as the BSB puts it, following the Greek manuscripts that read ouden, ‘nothing’. He had been blinded. Paul explains why: “I could not see for the glory of that light” (Acts 22:11). He saw first and was blind afterwards, and he stayed blind for three days until Ananias came (9:9, 17–18). Being blinded by what he saw does not mean that he saw nothing. It was his companions who saw “no man” (9:7): they saw the light, but not the Lord.
Paul’s own words fit this. In 1 Corinthians 15:8 he adds himself to the list of those to whom the risen Christ appeared, using the same Greek word, ōphthē, ‘he appeared’ or ‘he was seen’, that he uses for the appearances to Peter, the twelve and the 500 (15:5–7). In 1 Corinthians 9:1 he appeals to that sight as a mark of his apostleship. So Paul saw the risen Jesus in the light, and the sight left him blind.
Other answers Christians give
Later sightings as well
Paul saw the Lord again after Damascus: in a trance in the temple (Acts 22:17–18) and in a vision at Corinth (Acts 18:9). Some think 1 Corinthians 9:1 may include these. Most refer it to the Damascus road, since Paul there grounds his apostleship on it, as in 1 Corinthians 15:8.
Still open
Paul calls the event “the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19), and Christians have asked how far it was an outward sight and how far an inward one. The light seen by his companions (Acts 22:9) and Paul’s placing of it alongside the other resurrection appearances lead most to take it as a real appearance of the risen Christ from heaven.
From the classic commentators
and when his eyes were opened he saw no man; neither Christ, who appeared to him from heaven, whom he had before seen, nor even any of his companions, nor indeed any objectJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible, on Acts 9:8 (1746–1763)