Tackling Tradition 91: Loftus On Paul

 

In context, what is Paul actually saying? Is he saying that his experience on the Damascus Road is the source of his ideas about the Gospel or is it a statement about his earlier education in which he became steeped in rigid Ecclesiastical Tradition & Liturgical Philosophy.  
If it’s the former & nor the latter then that affects your views on visions & dreams & what he had to say about those who get caught up in them — namely that that sort of thing is what the Apostles’ foils & other such people do in demonstration of their disconnectedness from the Body of Christ in Colossians 2 & while mentioning a man caught up in Paradise 14 years ago, glossing over that man’s experience & choosing instead to boast in his infirmities.   
What you are alleging is that Paul was engaging in behavior he elsewhere discounts as sound theology & ethics. 
<want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.> 
In Paul’s theology, revelation like this isn’t something he heard or saw.  The topic of Galatians is the doctrine of justification — not the resurrection of Christ, although his experience on the road to Damascus convinced him that Yeshua had risen from the dead. 
Paul isn’t claiming that his doctrine of justification came to him via private revelations like a charismatic preacher might claim.   That theory doesn’t make sense given his overall education & life experience. 
For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. (Galatians 1:13–17)
Paul was a Pharisee & ecclesiastical leaders of that caliber were fluent in Scripture, study, teaching, & application.  Why would such a person drop all of that in favor of claiming that he was relying on private revelation? 
Paul’s foils in Galatians are purveyors of Ecclesiastical Tradition & Liturgical Philosophy that centered on Works Righteousness.    That is what Paul is referring to when he writes that his gospel did not come to him via any man.  In other words, he is contrasting his gospel with that of a specific set of individuals & life experiences, namely the gospel of the majority of the Sanhedrin & that of the Judaizers.   
To say that he received it via a revelation of Yeshua himself is a statement comparing & contrasting the content of the gospel of justification by faith with that which he was taught.  It’s not a statement about one mode of revelation (private direct revelation as if he was saying his vision or visions & dream are the source of his ideas) in contrast with another (ie prayer, study, Scripture, & education).  It’s a statement contrasting 2 very different points of view. 
He says he left the vicinity of Jerusalem for a time then returned after a few years & at that point consulted with  Apostles. 
He was accepted by them & then 14 years later he went back to be certain that his understanding of the gospel was correct before going any further.   He’s not arguing that his readers ought to trust him because his ideas came from dreams & visions, & any other private means like some sort of cult leader or pagan oracle.  Rather he is claiming that in addition to what happened in Acts 9, he chose to withdraw for a time & use the tools available to him for prayerful study & reflection & he did, in fact, seek to check his understanding by way of the Apostles & didn’t even write Galatians until after he was certain he had harmonized with them & had their support.