The road to Damascus conversion of Saul to Paul is given in several passages in the bible (Act 9, Act 22 and Gal 1). Acts 22 and Gal 1 are first person accounts of the incident, narrated by Paul himself. So why cannot Paul get his story straight? The accounts are given below. See if you can spot the discrepancy.

After his conversion, how long was it before he went to Jerusalem?

BTW, why would the Jerusalem temple authorities have sent Saul into Damascus, a city in Syria and outside of their jurisdiction, to persecute Christians? This does not sound plausible. It is the equivalent of the Nigeria authorities dispatching police officers into Cameroon to arrest criminals. (We do not know if there were (or not) any extradition agreements or such like between Judea and Syria, but surely the Roman administrators of Syria would have frown upon a foreigner persecuting residents of their city.)

So not only are these accounts internally discrepant, they lack a sense of historical verisimilitude.


[table]
[tr][td]Acts 22[/td][td]Galatians 2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]
1"Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense."
2When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.
Then Paul said:
3"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.
4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison,
5 as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
[b]6"About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.
7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, 'Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?'
8" 'Who are you, Lord?' I asked.
" 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,' he replied.
9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.
10"'What shall I do, Lord?' I asked.
"'Get up,' the Lord said, 'and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.'
11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
12"A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there.
13 He stood beside me and said, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight!' And at that very moment I was able to see him.
14"Then he said: 'The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth.
15 You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.
16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.'
17 "When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance
18 and saw the Lord speaking. 'Quick!' he said to me. 'Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'
19" 'Lord,' I replied, 'these men know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you.
20 And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.'
21"Then the Lord said to me, 'Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.' "
Paul the Roman Citizen[/b]
22 The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!"
23 As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air,
24 the commander ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and questioned in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this.
25 As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn't even been found guilty?"
26 When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "This man is a Roman citizen."
27The commander went to Paul and asked, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?"
"Yes, I am," he answered.
28Then the commander said, "I had to pay a big price for my citizenship."
"But I was born a citizen," Paul replied.
29Those who were about to question him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.

30The next day, since the commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.[/td]

[td]1Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead

2And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:

3Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,

4Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

5To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

6I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

7Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

8But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

9As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

10For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

11But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

12For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

13For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:

14And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

15But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,

16To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

17Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

18Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.

19But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.

20Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.

21Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;

22And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ:

23But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.

24And they glorified God in me.
[/td][/tr]
[/table]

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Anyone knows what is this about?

As a prophet of the Almighty God, I so much admire your insight
in making known the incorrectness of the New Testament   
through your deligent scanning of the New Testament.

These truths have escaped many Christians,
theologians, academicians and many others.
May the Lord God Almighty who does not lie, empower you more and more
to expose Christianity as a false religion
so that many will know the truth.That would be to our own gain.
Only the truth of God will stand forever-- not the twisting and manipulative
stories of men coined to be the New Testament.

Reading through the New Testament, we can see how men are
persueded and at the same time frightened
to believe the false sayings in the book or else be damned.
It takes only  the special grace of God
to read through the New Testament and  not be brain-washed at the end.

Some would ask what about the miracles? I assure you, when you
lift up your heart to God in any place at any time he will
give you the miracles you need, without having to believe
that Jesus is God or Saviour. You want to prophesy and speak in tongues
as the prophets in the book of Samuel? Then ask God alone.
Nothing is impossible with God. God alone is the wonder worker.

God alone is GOD, and none else!
Our purpose here on earth is to discover God and do what He likes and helping
our fellow human beings.

God is our maker, saviour, sustainer, healer, provider, uttermost lover
and He alone is the God we shall all return to.
Let us do good and worship God alone and none else!

Let us search diligently the true way of God and
not be brain-washed by Christianity or any religion
that sets up any other person as God. Let us seek truth, peace and prosperity among us.
Then our nations will be up-lifted to the glory of the all-wise and loving God of all.

A good deal of the epistles of Paul are his authentic work, but there are others that cannot so be claimed. This is a major area of research amongst NT scholars. What is agreed by the NT scholarly community is that some Paul epistles clearly have a Gnostic feel to them. Check out the book Gnostic Paul by Elaine Pagel on Amazon to get a feel.

It is believed that later scribes interpolated Paul's epistles and this may acount for the variance we see in some places, one of which is the Road to Damascus episode.