Ebook: When Paul Met Jesus: How an Idea Got Lost in History

Did Paul ever meet Jesus or hear him teach? A century ago, a curious
assortment of scholars – William Ramsay, Johannes Weiss, and
James Hope Moulton – thought that he had. Since then, their idea
has virtually disappeared from New Testament scholarship, to be
revived in this monograph. When Paul Met Jesus is an exercise in both
biblical exegesis and intellectual history. After examining the positive
arguments raised, it considers the negative influence of Ferdinand
Christian Baur, William Wrede, and Rudolf Bultmann on such an
idea, as they drove a growing wedge between Jesus and Paul. In
response, Stanley E. Porter analyzes three passages in the New
Testament – Acts 9:1–9 and its parallels, 1 Corinthians 9:1, and
2 Corinthians 5:16 – to confirm that there is New Testament evidence
that Paul encountered Jesus. The implications of this discovery
are then explored in important Pauline passages that draw Jesus and
Paul back together again.