Damascus experience
The Damascus experience is colloquially the meeting of Paul of Tarsus with the risen Jesus Christ on the way to Damascus . According to his own statement, Paul was called by the persecutor of the early Christians to be an apostle of the nations. Because Paul himself did not report any details about it, Christian theology speaks today of the Damascus event or of the call to be an apostle to the people .
In a figurative sense, the “Damascus experience” refers to an event that gives a person a decisive self-awareness, changes their attitude and behavior for the better.
New Testament
According to his own statement ( 1 Cor 15.9 EU ), Paul was originally a persecutor of those early Christians who did not fully observe the Mitzvot of the Torah . Looking back on his first missionary journey , he wrote in Gal 1.16 EU : “But when it pleased God, who had already chosen me in the womb and called me through his grace to reveal his Son in me so that I could proclaim him among the peoples, ... ”He places his vocation as“ Apostle for the Nations ”in the context of divine providence, which not only explains the biographical break in retrospect, but rather has it as a prerequisite for demonstrating God's grace in him. Only years later did he visit the early church in Jerusalem , whose apostles had confirmed his divine missionary mandate. He reminded the addressees of his Pauline letters of this several times ( 1 Cor 9.1 EU ; 15.8 EU ; 2 Cor 4.6 EU ; Gal 1.12–16 EU ; Phil 3.4–11 EU ).
The Acts of the Apostles of Luke describes his calling as the external epiphany of the risen Christ in three texts designed as Paul’s first- person accounts ( Acts 9.3–19 EU ; 22.6–16 EU ; 26.12–18 EU ). According to Acts 7.58ff EU , Paul was present at the stoning of the first Christian martyr Stephen and was "pleased" with it. Afterwards, he “devastated” the community “by entering the houses, kidnapping men and women and having them arrested”. According to Acts 9.1f EU, he requested and received a written order from the Jerusalem high priest to look for followers of Jesus in Damascus and the synagogues there in order to arrest them. According to Acts 9: 3–29 EU, on the way to Damascus - “not far from the city” - he met the risen Jesus himself in a visionary light. He called him with his Hebrew name: Saul , Saul! Why are you chasing me He asked back: Who are you, Lord? The voice replied: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting! As a result, Paul went blind for days and could not eat anything until another early Christian had healed him in the name of Jesus. As a result, he was baptized and began to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God .
These narrative motifs (light and voice from heaven, glare, turning away from the previous way of life) are based on the calling texts of prophecy in the Tanakh . They illustrate the complete conversion of Paul: Through the direct encounter with Jesus Christ he recognized God's true will and the injustice worthy of death of all his previous life devoted to the persecution of Christians and now proclaimed what he had previously persecuted. This narrative arrangement means that the event is often interpreted as a conversion , for example at the church festival Pauli Conversion or through paintings such as The Conversion of Paul by Pieter Bruegel the Elder .
Phrase
In the vernacular , the expression is colloquially detached from its New Testament meaning and generally referred to a drastic experience that causes a change in direction in further life. The expressions " aha-experience " and "key experience " are related .
Sometimes the Damascus experience is also expressed with the phrase from Saul to Paul . However, this name change is not used in the NT. There Paul never calls himself Saul and does not mention any change of name. According to Acts 13: 9, it had a double name, as was customary in Diaspora Judaism , and was given either the Hebrew or the Greek name, depending on the target group. Up to this point the Acts of the Apostles names him only Saul, after that only Paul. She only describes this change four chapters after the Damascus experience described in Acts 9. This took place in Paul's biography about 15 years before the events described in Acts 13.
In 2003 , Franz Nuscheler coined the term Damascus Effect for a change in development policy.
See also
literature
- Michael Reichardt: Psychological explanation of the Pauline Damascus vision? A contribution to the interdisciplinary conversation between exegesis and psychology since the 18th century. Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart Biblical Contributions 42, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-460-00421-5
- Christian Dietzfelbinger: The calling of Paul as the origin of his theology. Scientific monographs on the Old and New Testament 58, Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1985, ISBN 3-7887-0771-2
