Supposed Contradiction: Saul’s Conversion
Conversion on the Way to Damascus (1601), by Caravaggio, Public Domain
There are two accounts of Saul’s (Paul’s) conversion in the book of Acts that have come under attack. They are found in chapters 9 and 22. Skeptics have claimed that there is a contradiction in these two accounts regarding the witnesses of Saul’s experience. In chapter 9, the witnesses, “heard the voice, but saw no one.” But in chapter 22, in some translations, it is said that the witnesses saw the light, but did not hear the voice. So which was it? Did they hear the voice, or didn’t they? Did they see anyone, or did they see no one? This is perhaps the second easiest supposed contradiction to reconcile, next to, “was Jesus the carpenter, or the carpenter’s son?”
The important factor to consider (and perhaps the most obvious) is that in both English and Greek, the word “hear” can have multiple meanings. For example, my wife can ask me after I’ve zoned out listening to her tell me about her day (love you, Honey!), “Did you even hear what I just said?” To which I reply, “Yes I heard you!” And you can probably guess what comes next; “Then what did I just say?”
In my wife example, neither of us lied, per se, but we meant different things by “hear/heard” I absolutely heard my wife talking, but I didn’t listen to what she was actually trying to tell me.
Now, I am not saying that Paul’s companions were oblivious to the Damascus Road experience. The point of my story was to merely make the case that there is a polysemy in the word “hear”. And in case you were thinking that it may be the case in English that “hear” can have different meanings but not in the Greek, I would like to refer you to a free resource called BlueLetterBible.org. There you can look at the different uses of the Greek word for “hear” (akouo), and you will find many meanings for the word including, “to comprehend; to understand.”
A much better analogy would be helpful to understand the theory of this matter that I will explain here:
Imagine that you are coming home from a business trip in China, where there were was a translator to facilitate the negotiations between your company and a Chinese company, for you do not speak Mandarin. But now you are at the airport, awaiting your flight to return to the United States (or wherever you are from) and the translator is not there, as he has already caught his flight. Now imagine that a Chinese woman is arguing in Mandarin with the clerk at the counter. You wonder what is going on, but you have no idea what the situation is. The woman is detained and escorted out by airport security. Now one of the officers spots you and notices your attentiveness to the event.
He approaches you, and to your delight, he speaks both Mandarin and English fluently! He asks you if you heard these two people arguing at the counter, and you reply, “I sure did; they were really going at it!” But the officer pulls out his notebook and says to you, “Excellent! What exactly did you hear them arguing about?” He needs to gather statements from witnesses of the scene to corroborate the story told to him by the clerk. “Well, I didn’t hear what they said, I just heard them arguing. I don’t speak Mandarin.”
In this case, you can be said both to have heard the argument, while having not heard what was said. The language barrier is the key issue here, as I believe could be the case in Paul’s conversion story.
The theory I am most sympathetic to is that Paul’s companions may have been Hellenistic Jews who did not speak Aramaic; or at least, not well. The third account in Acts 26 tells us that Paul heard the voice speaking to him in Aramaic, not Greek, the common language in the Roman Empire in the first century. Hellenistic Jews knew Greek as their primary language, as it would be very difficult to live in the Roman Empire only speaking Aramaic. For this reason, there was a translation made of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (the Old Testament) from Hebrew into Greek. This is what we know as the “Septuagint” named after the 70 or so Jewish scholars who undertook the translation.
As for the question, “Did they see anyone or not?” Respectfully, just read the passages again. There’s no contradiction there either. I only include this because some people actually include this in their contradiction claim concerning these accounts. They saw the light, but not a person in it. It’s that simple.
Another supposed contradiction bites the dust.
Recommended Resources:
Bible Contradictions Refuted: playlist by InspiringPhilosophy