PAUL IN PERSON

I imagine that many Christians at one time or another have fantasized what it would be like to meet famous people of the past in heaven, especially those who are the most prominent in the Bible. We can certainly picture towering, larger than life giants of the faith such as the apostle Peter as someone like Charlton Heston in his role as Moses – a powerful leader and commanding presence. Or maybe we imagine Thomas as a somewhat sharp and cynical intellectual.

But what about the apostle Paul? Our church was fortunate to have in our congregation an older man with long flowing white hair whose ministry was to impersonate Paul. He had memorized all of the epistles of Paul and would dress up in a robe and act out the apostle reading over his latest letter, sometimes while wearing chains and being in a prison cell backdrop. His readings were especially well received by the prisons in which he was allowed to present his program.

He did an excellent job, but I still wondered if that was what Paul really looked and acted like. Fortunately, we have some hints given us right in the New Testament.

Paul first appears as Saul in Acts 7 where Stephen is stoned by an angry mob who lay their outer clothing at Saul's feet to free their arms to hurl their rocks. And Saul stood by approving of their actions. It may be because of my own experiences as an undersized, near-sighted, klutzy boy that influence the following supposition. But Saul sounds a little bit at this point like the sort of person who is always the last one picked for a team in any group sport since his athletic kills are sadly lacking and he is only of use as a bat boy, bench warmer, team mascot, cheerleader, or in my case, the player assigned to far left field. And Paul's early experience being taught by the great rabbi Gamaliel also types him as the studious sort who might be uncomfortable taking part in any strenuous physical endeavor, even stone-throwing.

Following this event, we soon see Saul/Paul on the rampage against the early church in Acts 8-9. This demonstrates another aspect of his personality, his highly developed sense of righteous indignation. This personality trait pops up again when he refuses to take John Mark with him on his second missionary journey due to his disappointing performance on a previous trip (Acts 15:37-38) and when he demands an apology from the magistrates at Philippi for illegally mistreating him (Acts 16:35-40). But it is in Paul's writings where we see this trait most strongly. Paul starts II Corinthians in an even tone, but by the end of the letter he is pleading earnestly with them not to follow those who are teaching a different gospel and even threatens to come to them in person to scold them. Galatians is even harsher in tone toward those false teachers and those in the congregation who follow them. Especially harsh is his addressing them in 3:1 as “you foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” And concerning the false teachers, he expresses the fervent wish that they might castrate themselves (Gal. 5:12).

Yet even in the middle of his righteous rants and sarcastic attempts to defend himself against false accusations, Paul can stop and admit that his boasting only makes look like a fool. Just look at the way those two words alternate with one another throughout his speech in II Corinthians 10-12 (22x “boast” and 7x “fool”). He concludes that the only sort of true boasting he can do is boasting of his “weakness” (9x “weak[ness]”) since in his weakness, God's strength is seen.

In terms of the way Paul presents himself in person to others, we can only go by hints in the New Testament writings. Concerning his physical condition, Paul alludes to his thorn in the flesh in II Corinthians 12:7, the marks on his body (probably from whippings) in Galatians 6:17, and a possible eye condition in Galatians 4:15 and 6:11. William Ramsay read into Paul's comment of Galatians 4:13 (“It was because of a physical infirmity that I first announced the gospel to you”) the possibility that he had contacted malaria in the lower altitudes and that was his reason for moving to higher ones in the area of Galatia. Yet despite his physical handicap, he must have had enough physical resources to continue his demanding travel schedule to new cities where he would continue to earn his own living at tent-making while also preaching to others.

As to how Paul presented himself to others as a public speaker, we can't go entirely by the persuasive way he wrote his letters to the church. Just look at II Corinthians 10:10 in which his enemies say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” To this, even Paul admits, “I may be untrained in speech, but not in knowledge.” I see in this exchange the same unfortunate phenomenon which is common today among a large percentage of Christians who wrongly equate a forceful personality with a truthful and effective leader, and a milder personality with a wishy-washy one.

We perhaps find confirmation of Paul's poor preaching skills in the fact that Eutychus fell asleep and out of a window during one marathon session Paul conducted. I know from first-hand experience that no matter how much rapt attention you can garner from an audience, there will often still be one in the group who just can't manage to stay awake. And I have certainly been on the receiving end of my share of boring speakers myself.

But apparently despite Paul's rhetorical weaknesses, his intensity of belief and surety of what he said were enough to allow him to found churches in several hostile environments. And he managed to hold his own in a group of his intellectual peers at Mars Hill (Acts 17) and “almost persuaded” King Agrippa with his reasoning (Acts 26:28). Despite that, it is somewhat difficult imagining him delivering the same sort of powerful Pentecost sermon that Peter gave.

That is about as far in the biblical record as we can go in preparing ourselves with a possible face-to-face meeting with Paul in the future. But we do have the supposed physical description of Paul found in a second-century Christian document, the Acts of Paul. It reads, “A man of middling size, and his hair was scanty, and his legs were a little crooked, and his knees were far apart; he had large eyes, and his eyebrows met, and his nose was somewhat long.” This sort of a unprepossessing presence would also help explain why the people of Lystra thought that Paul was only Hermes while Barnabas was Zeus (Acts 14:14).

But whatever he happened to look like, I am certain I would not be disappointed in any encounter I would be blessed to have with him