| Was the Apostle Paul unfamiliar with the Gospels? |
| Very unlikely. This is a common claim of the Critics, and their
arguments are either weak or altogether false. Three of the four Gospels
(all but John's) were written within Paul's lifetime. Paul was very
close to Luke, and was clearly alive when Luke wrote the book of Acts, which
was written after Luke's own Gospel. For Paul to have been unfamiliar
with the Gospel of Luke would be impossible.
The most common arguments I see are: 1) Paul never mentions any of Jesus' miracles Whenever a critic says this, I always point them to several passages written by Paul which mention His resurrection (such as Romans 1:4, Romans 6:5, 1 Corinthians 15:12, among others). Do the critics believe that His resurrection wasn't a miracle? Their response is usually, "I mean any miracles OTHER than that one." It's true that Paul never mentions a virgin birth, or the turning of the water into wine, or the walking on water. But that hardly means that Paul was unfamiliar with them, just that there was no need to mention it. If a reporter writes several articles about President Bush but never mentions that he was born in New Haven, Connecticut, does that mean that the reporter is unfamiliar with the birthplace of our President? No, it just means that there was never an occasion, or need, to mention it. Paul was not writing a biography of Jesus. He also wasn't a witness to any of Jesus' miracles, other than His having met the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus. His mentioning them would have been unnecessary. Exactly where in all of Paul's texts would you expect the 'water-into-wine' or virgin birth to show up? 2) Paul never quotes Jesus Again, Paul did, and again, the critics say "I mean OTHER than that." In Acts 22:10, Luke records Paul as saying, "And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do." As for other quotes from Jesus' pre-resurrection life, Paul was again neither writing a biography of Jesus, nor did he hear any of Jesus' pre-resurrection words first-hand, so giving second-hand quotes would be optional. Had Paul quoted them, this would have been dismissed by critics as 'hearsay'. 3) Paul never mentions any of the Apostles Again, Paul did, and again, the critics say "I mean OTHER than that.". He mentions meeting Peter, John and James in Galatians chapters 1 and 2. While he never mentions Luke, Luke mentions Paul frequently and no historians doubt that Luke and Paul were good friends. |