Saul of Tarsus’ Damascus Road Christology

How did Saul’s view of Yahushua change after encountering the resurrected and exalted king? Did he realize that Yahushua was not only the promised Messiah but also the God of the universe? What revelation did Yahushua give about himself that forged Saul’s understanding and transformed him into Paul, the first century’s greatest missionary?² We’ll answer these questions by examining Paul’s road to Damascus experience. Let’s begin by exploring Paul’s theology before encountering the Lord.

Saul of Tarsus’ Theology

Much of what we know about Saul before his encounter with Yahushua comes from Saul’s own words. He said he was “a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia,” and therefore, “born a citizen of Rome.”³ He received his strict rabbinic training from Gamaliel, a respected rabbi and member of the Sanhedrin.⁴ Saul said on more than one occasion that he was “zealous for the law,” and “for Yahuwah,” and for “his ancestral traditions.”⁵ What then would this self-described “Hebrew of Hebrews” who was “blameless” according to the Law⁶ have believed about who Yahuwah is? According to Saul, he believed everything the Scriptures had to say:

Acts 24:14 “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets.

Thus, Paul’s beliefs would have included adherence to the Jewish creed known as the Shema.⁷ This Biblical statement of faith says that Yahuwah is one:

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel! Yahuwah is our God, Yahuwah is one! ⁵ “You shall love Yahuwah your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

What’s more, Paul would have believed, based on Scripture, that the coming Messiah was a servant of Yahuwah⁸ destined to rule on Yahuwah’s behalf, as the prophet Micah records.⁹ The persecutor-turned-apostle would not have believed, nor would any traditional Torah-keeping Jew of his day, that the Messiah was himself, Almighty God, as this would have been antithetical to the one God of the Shema. In other words, before Paul encountered Yahushua on the road to Damascus, there was no Scriptural-based concept whatsoever that this singular God was instead a member of a tri-person Godhead. Nor could he have conceived that the Messiah was co-equal, co-eternal, or con-substantial with God the Father as fourth-century creeds would later determine. Who then did Saul believe Yahushua to be?

Who Did Saul Believe Yahushua to Be?

Saul did not believe the man from Nazareth was the promised Messiah. On the contrary, he thought him an imposter, as evidenced by his zeal to destroy those who followed this “false” Christ. Luke tells us that Saul was in “hearty agreement” when the Sanhedrin stoned Stephen to death for accusing the council of murdering the Righteous One, that is, the Messiah.¹⁰ Saul was so enraged against those who professed Yahushua to be the Christ that he “began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.”¹¹ Nevertheless, Saul’s persecutory zeal wasn’t satisfied. He asked for authority to pursue Christ-followers beyond the gates of the holy city:

Acts 9:1-6 Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ²and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ³ As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; ⁴ and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” ⁵ And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Yahushua whom you are persecuting, ⁶ but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.”

Saul pointedly asked, “Who are you, Lord?” creating the perfect opportunity for Yahushua to reveal that he is God the Son, the second member of the Trinity. But Yahushua said nothing to alter Saul’s understanding that he was a man crucified for claiming to be the Messiah.

Saul, blinded by the heavenly light, was led into the city where he spent three days fasting and praying until a disciple named Ananias, instructed by the risen Lord, came to him with a message:¹²

Acts 9:17-22 So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Yahushua, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; ¹⁹ and he took food and was strengthened. Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus, ²⁰ and immediately he began to proclaim Yahushua in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of Yahuwah.” ²¹ All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, “Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” ²² But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Yahushua is the Christ.

Here, Luke provides the reader with additional details about Saul’s encounter with the Lord. He records that Saul now understands this man from Nazareth, whom he believed to be a charlatan, is truly the Messiah, as evidenced by the message Saul began to preach in the synagogues. Now filled with the Holy Spirit, Saul began to proclaim Yahushua as the Son of Yahuwah, a term the first-century Jews used synonymously with the Messiah.¹³ This is confirmed when Luke writes in verse 20 that Saul confounded the Jews by proving that Yahushua is Christ.

The question before us is, did Paul’s theology change once Yahushua revealed himself to the Pharisee from Tarsus? The answer is a resounding no! At no time is Saul given any information to counter his Scriptural understanding that Yahuwah is one person. Yahushua never told Saul that he was Yahuwah. Instead, what changed was his Christology. Saul now understands that Yahushua is the promised king, and this is precisely what he begins to preach. The one who once persecuted followers of Yahushua was now preaching faith in him as the Christ:

Galatians 1:22-23 I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; ²³ but only, they kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.”

That Saul’s encounter with the risen Yahushua only revealed that the man from Nazareth was the promised Christ is further corroborated by his retelling of these events. When he appeared before a hostile crowd in Jerusalem, Saul declared

Acts 22:1-8 “Brethren and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you.” ² And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew dialect, they became even more quiet; and he *said, ³ “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for Yahuwah just as you all are today. ⁴ “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, ⁵ as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. ⁶ “But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, ⁷ and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ ⁸ “And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Yahushua the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’

Yahushua did not identify himself as Yahuwah or the Pre-Incarnate Word who pre-existed in heaven but simply as the one from Nazareth. Moreover, in this account, we are given additional information about what Ananias told Saul:

Acts 22:12–16 “A certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, ¹³ came to me, and standing near said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very time I looked up at him. ¹⁴ “And he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth. ¹⁵ ‘For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ ‘Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’

Ananias identifies Yahuwah as the “God of our fathers,” while Yahushua is placed into a different category, that of the “Righteous One,” a designation for the Messiah.¹⁴ In other words, Ananias did not say that the God of our fathers had determined that Saul would see and hear from Yahuwah, but that he would see and hear from the Christ.

Some might reason that the spectacular manner in which Yahushua appeared to Saul demonstrates he is Yahuwah. This is not the case, however, as angels have appeared to New Testaments saints in a similar fashion. Surely, no one would argue that this proves they are deity.¹⁵ Rather, it was the exalted Yahushua, now glorified and raised to immortality that Saul encountered.

If Yahushua is Yahuwah, we would reasonably expect this monumental encounter on the road to Damascus to include a revelation that Yahushua is not only the Messiah but also God Almighty, a revelation that far exceeds that of the Messiah in relevance and importance. But somehow, this fundamental doctrine is omitted. Not only is it absent in this life-changing encounter, but it is also absent from the rest of the book of Acts. Contrary to what orthodoxy purports, Paul never taught it in his epistles even though he said he “preached the whole counsel of Yahuwah.”¹⁶ Indeed, the apostle’s summary teaching on who Yahuwah is can be found in his letter to the church at Corinth:

1 Corinthians 8:5-6 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, ⁶ yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Yahushua Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

Paul succinctly and cogently teaches that Yahuwah the Father is the one God, in keeping with the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4. On the other hand, Paul writes that Yahushua is the Christ, which is in keeping with the revelation given to him on the Damascus road. Where did the idea that Paul believed Yahushua is Yahuwah originate? Historical records show that this post-Biblical doctrine took over three hundred years to develop fully, and it wasn’t codified as official Church dogma until the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.

Saul of Tarsus rightly chose to abandon what he wrongly believed about Yahushua to embrace the truth about who he is. Likewise, we must decide whether or not to accept the revelation the risen Lord gave to Saul on his way to Damascus–that he is the Christ–or if we will cling to the beliefs handed down to us by the Hellenized Catholic Church Fathers.

¹ Acts 9:1-2; 22:4-5.

²I use the names Saul and Paul interchangeably throughout this article. See Acts 13:9.

³ Acts 22:3, 28.

⁴ Acts 22:3 and Acts 5:34-35.

⁵ Acts 21:20; 22:3; Galatians 1:14.

⁶ Philippians 3:5-6.

⁷ Shema or shama is the Hebrew word for listen or hear, the first word in the creed.

⁸ Isaiah 42:1-7; 49:3-13; 50:10; 52:13-15; 53:11-12; Zechariah 3:8; Psalm 2:6; Acts 3:13; 4:24, 26-28 and 30, etc.

⁹Micah 5:2-4.

¹⁰ Acts 7:51-8:3.

¹¹ Acts 8:3.

¹² Acts 9:8-16.

¹³ John 1:49; 20:31; Luke 4:41; Matthew 16:16; 26:63, etc.

¹⁴ Righteous One is a reference to the Messiah in Isaiah 53:11. It is not a reference that is reserved for deity as seen in Hebrews 10:38 when Yahuwah refers to those who do His will as His righteous one.

¹⁵ Luke 2:9-13; 24:4; Acts 12:7, etc.

¹⁶ Acts 20:27. Paul’s letters emphasize that Yahushua is the Christ of Yahuwah, crucified for our sins and raised from the dead. It was this Yahushua that appeared to him on the road to Damascus. See 1 Corinthians 15:3-19, etc.

This is a non-WLC article. Source: https://oneGodworship.com/saul-of-tarsus-damascus-road-christology/

We have replaced the English titles and names of the Father and the Son with those employed by the apostles. In the scriptural quotations provided, we have restored their original names as used by the inspired writers. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the historical development by which the name Yahushua came to be rendered as “Jesus.” Additionally, we recognize that the English term “God” has been commonly employed as an equivalent for the Hebrew Eloah or Elohim. -WLC Team