During my debate with Shabir Ally on the topic: “The New Testament Picture of Jesus: Is it Accurate?” Dr. Ally claimed that the accounts of the Apostle Paul’s conversion in Acts 9, 22, and 26 were contradictory. He argued that the following passages were necessarily contradictory:
“And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.” (Acts 9:7)
“And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.” (Acts 22:9)
Acts 9, Shabir Ally argued, claimed that the companions of Saul of Tarsus did not hear the voice of the risen Christ, while Acts 22, Dr. Ally claimed, affirmed that Paul’s companions did har the voice of the Lord Jesus.
Are these texts actually contradictory? Watch the video below to find out.
If you think the content is good, please feel free to comment here or on YouTube. Also, you can click here to watch “The Apostle Paul’s Conversion Narrative in Acts: Are Acts 9:7; 22:9 & 26:14 Contradictory?” on Youtube and “like” the video if you believe it has good content.
–TDR
Thomas,
You crush it here. I expect crickets from the other side, the typical reaction. I don't know. Maybe they'll try to clean it up or spin it, but I expect ostrich with head in sand.
On the other hand, you referred to original language, that is, how did people understand it that were hearing it in that day? We have readers, who will go apopleptic that you referred to the actual words God used and not just the English. They are a problem as well, not maybe as bad as the Moslem or a figure like Bart Ehrman, who puffs these types of situations into impossible conclusions, but a problem, because they don't care what God actually said, literally taking away from what he said, sometimes worse than a critical text proponent.
Good job, and thank you to the tech people to help you out.
Dear Pastor Brandenburg,
Thank you for the kind words. And, yes indeed, I am very thankful for the help with the technical side of things!
There is also internal evidence that this statement in Acts 22 carries some type of parallel to the statement in John 8:47, in that they did hear a voice however they did not hear his words in the sense as John 8:47 gives, similar to how the pharisees "heard them not"; although the reason for not hearing might be in this case due to a different language, however it may also refer to an equally indescribable inability to hear the words as the Jews in John 8. Hence we get this full meaning by taking both Acts 9 and 22 into consideration. Perhaps they saw the light yet perceived no man for similar reasons.
Thanks Andrew. Feel free to comment on the YouTube video as well if you like so people who might watch it there but not read the blog post can consider that.
Ok, I will feel free. Also I've noticed that the 'recent comments' sidebar on here seems to not be working anymore. Did I break it?