did paul hallucinate seeing jesus i think that's a common claim
yeah that is a common claim she's right um but you know you could look at it and say well paul really
doesn't tell us in his letters paul on paul he doesn't tell us much about uh his the appearance
he had we got to go to the book of acts for that and there it's mentioned in acts chapters 9
i think it was 22 and 26 and it does it's like a vision but hallucinations aren't group experiences
they're private occurrences in the mind of an individual they're false sensory perceptions
of something that isn't really there so they're like dreams so just like i i can't share my dream
with my wife if i can't wake her up and say hey honey i'm having a dream that we're in hawaii go
back to sleep join me in my dream and let's have a free vacation you can't do that she might dream
she's in hawaii but she won't be having the same exact dream i am she can't join me in my dream
because there's no external reality it's all going on in our heads same with hallucinations
so uh even in the book of acts it says that paul's traveling companions saw the light
and they heard the voice they just couldn't understand the voice so they were part of that
experience which wouldn't be a hallucination and then paul later on in acts chapter 13
talks about jesus resurrection being something that happened physically he quotes from psalm
16 10 which says you will not allow your holy one to see decay and he says this couldn't have been
referring to david because david died buried his body decayed we know where he's buried
but on the other hand jesus died was buried but his body did not decay it's referring to jesus
his body did not decay inferring that god raised him and and for that their eyewitnesses so if
you're looking in paul and acts yes you got the description of it that sounds more like a vision
but then you've got his his uh traveling companions partaking it as well and paul
is preaching in a sense that he thinks it's bodily resurrection now when we come to paul and paul not
luke on paul but paul and paul and he's describing resurrection he we can get to his thoughts about
resurrection um through the back door so because he doesn't explain jesus resurrection in detail
himself because he's not given a narrative of the resurrection he's writing letters addressing
questions and in first corinthians he's answering the question you know what's the resurrection like
you know what kind of bodies are we going to get at the general resurrection there are some people
here in corinth who are saying we're not going to be raised from the dead this life is all there is
you die that's it and so paul goes on he says well christ is the first fruits in chapter 15
verse 20 and then he says in verse 23 after that those who belong to christ will be raised at his
coming so when jesus returns that's when believers are going to be raised so what he's saying there's
the way jesus was raised is the way we're going to be raised only we're going to be raised later on
and then he talks about now so in second corinthians chapter 5 verse 8 he says
to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord in philippians chapter 1 verses 20 21
uh he talks about how in 22 that he's in prison he's facing possible execution he says he could
die and be with christ or remain on in the flesh and he says that even though he'd rather be with
christ it being in the flesh is very much better for them more fruitful for them so
what he sees himself is when he dies his view is when you die you go to be as a disembodied
spirit with jesus in heaven immediately and then you go to first thessalonians chapter four
and he's trying to comfort christians who have lost loved ones and he says i don't want you to
grieve as those who have no hope because when jesus returns he's going to bring with him
those who he's going to bring with him those who have died as christians
and then the trumpet will sound and the dead in christ will be raised first well wait a minute if
he's bringing the dead back with him how are they going to be raised first very simple the spirits
the disembodied spirits are going to be reunited with their corpses and then they're going to be
raised it's a bodily physical resurrection a transformat a resurrection and transformation
and remember if we're raised as jesus was raised and if we're going to be raised bodily physically
that means paul thought that jesus was raised in that same sense so no it wasn't it wasn't a vision
that he thought there you go i'm sorry it wasn't a hallucination besides hallucinations don't account
for the group occurrences and paul wasn't grieving over jesus death he was glad jesus was dead jesus
would have been the last person in the universe that paul would have expected to see or wanted
to see well let me ask you another one uh because paul the apostle uh he you know his letters are so
early they're um they come before the gospels we have like you know information first corinthians
15 that traces back even earlier than that and so obviously paul's like an important chess
piece in this discussion well some would say in the mythicist community that paul
he didn't really believe in a jesus who died and resurrected on earth but allow me to quote richard
carrier because i think he's an icon i think he's probably one of the chief icons right now in this
community he says paul is ever only talking about a jesus in outer space that he has conversations
with that's a quote word for word richard carrier for those who don't know he he thinks that that
paul is envisioning a a spiritual being jesus who never came to earth never interacted on the planet
earth and and later you know the gospel writers took this sort of spiritual being and turned him
into a human who lived a real earthly life that's the eu humorization thing i was talking about
um so what would you say about interpreting paul as referring to an outer space jesus
that's that's weird interpretation i mean paul in the crown jewel of all of his letters romans
chapter 1 verse 3 it says concerning his son
who was born of a descendant of david according to the flesh so he places jesus clearly as
a historical figure and he mentions about this jesus being crucified by the rulers of our world
so i mean it's just um again that's just the real stretch that rick has to go to in order to try to
discredit a really good source about jesus i mean i don't know of anyone who really takes
no scholars other than richard would would take that interpretation i don't know of a single one