(Updated May 20, 2026)
In Paul’s list of the appearances of the risen Jesus, the Greek verb ōphthē, translated “appeared to” or “was seen,” implies a visual experience. The verb can refer to the ordinary seeing of real objects, or, as in a widely-used ancient Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures, for the visual manifestations of God or angels. (Segal, 2004: 406) Some passages use the verb when someone sees something in a dream or a vision, for example:
At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” (1 Kings 3:5)
In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had appeared to me at first. In the vision I saw myself in Susa the capital, in the province of Elam, and I was by the Ulai Gate. I looked up and saw a ram standing beside the gate. It had two horns. Both horns were long, but one was longer than the other, and the longer one came up second. (Daniel 8:1-3)
Although not using the same verb, strange visions are also recounted in the book of Ezekiel:
In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the River Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God… As I looked, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud with brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually and in the middle of the fire something like gleaming amber. In the middle of it was something like four living creatures. This was their appearance: they were of human form. Each had four faces, and each of them had four wings… (Ezekiel 1:1-6)
Such passages raise questions about the appearances Paul references. Was the risen Jesus seen by Paul and the other witnesses here on earth in front of them or did they see him in a dream or a vision like those of Solomon or Daniel and Ezekiel? Were the witnesses transported somehow to a far away location so they could see the appearance? Did the heavens open up so they could see it? Did Jesus look recognizably like he did before his death or different in some fantastic way, such as with a luminous face? (See 2 Corinthians 4:6) In sum, were the witnesses in an altered state of consciousness, such as a trace state or dreaming?
The distinction we might make between seeing external objects and seeing something within our mind, as in a hallucination, dream or some other form of altered consciousness, is not relevant to the ancient authors of these writings. There is little difference between the Temple “appearing” to you when you walk into Jerusalem or “appearing” to you when you are far away praying for the restoration of Israel. In both cases the Temple was really seen by you; it is the context of the experience that affects its interpretation.
With that in mind, on this page I will provide support for a fourth hypothesis:
H4. Paul had multiple unusual experiences he regarded as of divine origin, indicating that he engaged in practices that made him receptive to such events.
In his letter to the Christian community in Galatia Paul writes:
For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. But when the one who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the gentiles, I did not confer with any human, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterward I returned to Damascus. Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days, but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother (Gal 1:11-18)
In writing that he was set apart before birth, Paul alludes to words of the prophets Isaiah (“the Lord…who formed me in the womb to be his servant”) and Jeremiah (“before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations”) in the Jewish scriptures. Like the prophets he claims a divine mandate for his mission, asserting that his commission as an apostle came directly from Jesus and God and not through the human apostles in Jerusalem. According to Paul his commission and the “gospel” he preached (Greek for “good news,” meaning an important public announcement) stemmed from a revelation of Jesus to (or “in”) him, presumably referencing the appearance of the risen Jesus he lists in his letter to the Corinthians. He adds that he did not meet any of the earlier apostles until he met Cephas (Peter) three years later.
A few verses later Paul writes this:
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up in response to a revelation. Then I laid before them (though only in a private meeting with the acknowledged leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain. (Gal 2:1-2)
Judging by what he goes on to say in this passage (Gal 2:3-9), the good news Paul was given to proclaim was that the gentiles were being welcomed into the salvation offered by Christ. As a former persecutor of the Christians he already would have been familiar with the proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah and God raised him from the dead, so that would not be the gospel Paul says he did not receive from a human source.
But note that it was seventeen years after his commissioning that he returned to Jerusalem: his first visit was three years after his commissioning and his second visit another fourteen years later. He returned there, he writes, “in response to a revelation.” This could possibly be another revelation Paul received from Jesus or God, or alternatively it could have been a revelation to another Christian that motivated Paul’s trip. A later Christian writing, the Acts of the Apostles, depicts Paul (using his Hebrew name Saul) as going to Jerusalem in response to a prophecy by a prophet named Agabus. As the recipient of the revelation is unclear in the letter, I won’t count this as definite spiritual experience of Paul.
In his Second Letter to the Corinthians Paul reveals another type of spiritual experience which seems more clearly his own:
I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows—was caught up into paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. (2 Cor 12:2-4)
Most commentators agree that Paul is writing indirectly about himself in this passage so as to follow the customary reticence about discussing such personal mystic experiences. (Segal, 2004: 408) The “fourteen years ago” would place this event later than the time of the initial appearance of the risen Jesus. It is not clear whether his journey to the “third heaven” and the one to “paradise” happened in the same experience or two different ones, but the passage confirms that he had at least two spiritual experiences—the appearance of Jesus and his heavenly journey(s)—and thus suggests that he may have cultivated a receptivity to such experiences through some type of mystical practices. (Segal, 2004: 409-410)
In a set of articles in the Harvard Theological Review, Morray-Jones writes of visits to paradise and the “third heaven” recounted in the merkabah mysticism practiced by later rabbis, the heirs of the Pharisee religious faction that Paul says he belonged to. (Merkabah is Hebrew for “throne-chariot,” an image in one of Ezekiel’s visions.) The rabbinic writings “offer detailed instructions about the ascetic, liturgical, and theurgic techniques that make the visionary journey possible.” (Morray-Jones, 1993a: 181) He concludes that Paul based his claim to apostolic authority on an ascent to a heavenly Temple and a vision of the enthroned and glorified Christ. This was not a spontaneous, involuntary experience, but something induced by mystical techniques. (Morray-Jones, 1993b: 283) I’ll have more to say about this in a moment.
After a few intervening lines Paul continues his discussion of his visits to heavenly places:
Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor 12:7-9)
It is unclear whether the message about grace being sufficient was a part of the experience of being caught up to the third heaven or happened later, as Paul says he had appealed to the Lord three times about his affliction before getting a response. But this passage confirms that Paul believed he continued to receive messages from Jesus (or God) long after his initial experience of the risen Christ.
The Greek word Paul uses for “revelation” in Galatians is apokalypsis, the same word used to identify a genre of ancient Jewish literature in which human beings ascend to heavenly places and return to reveal what they learned there. This literature includes the Jewish books of Ezekiel and Daniel and the later Christian book of Revelation, as well as a host of other writings less well known today. (Segal, 2004: 405-416) Commentators often treat the kinds of unusual experiences recounted in these writings as a literary device to convey a message to select readers in coded language, but Paul’s heavenly journey challenges this assumption. It may be that the authors, or at least some of them, actually engaged in methods meant to induce altered states of consciousness. These methods could include ascetic practices such as fasting and staying awake for lengthy periods, intense concentration in prayer, the repetitive singing of hymns, and even the use of psychotropic drugs. A resulting experience would then be interpreted through the influence of familiar religious texts, using similar symbolism and sometimes innovating with the introduction of new concepts, interpretations, or messages from God. (Segal, 2004: Ch. 8; Pilch, 2011: Chs. 2-4)
Paul stands chronologically between the Jewish visionary prophets and later rabbis who used techniques to experience religious visions. If there is a tradition of such practices being handed down through generations of religious devotees, as a man of intense religious devotion Paul fits the profile of someone who would participate in it. Direct evidence that he engaged in such practices with an intent to induce visions is absent, but there is evidence that he engaged in at least some such practices. We saw above that he engaged in repetitive prayer, expecting some kind of response from God. He was a celibate, showing a commitment to asceticism. Here is Paul advising periods of sexual abstinence, prayer, and perhaps (as in some manuscripts) fasting:
Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer [and fasting] and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. (1 Cor 7:5)
Further support may be found in later Christian writings. A passage in the Acts of the Apostles describing a speech by Paul says this:
After I [Paul] had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw Jesus saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ (Acts: 22:17-18)
Here we have prayer in the Temple, a ritualized form of religious devotion, resulting in Paul falling into a trance and seeing and hearing Jesus speaking to him. One can question whether this depiction is based on a real event, but certainly it shows that the first-century Christian who wrote it found it to be completely plausible.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that Jesus is portrayed in the early Christian writings as seeing a vision and hearing a voice from heaven during a religious ritual, discussing how his disciples should fast, and staying up at night to engage in intense prayer.
Given Paul’s propensity for various kinds of spiritual experiences, it is likely that he engaged in practices that would increase his receptivity to them. Their writings show that Paul and other early Christians were aware of some of these practices and saw them as a normative in their communities.
Next page: 3d. The gospels as historical sources
Sources cited
Morray-Jones, C.R.A. (1993a). “Paradise Revisited (2 Cor 12:1-12): Jewish Mystical Background of Paul’s Apostolate, Part 1: The Jewish Sources.” Harvard Theological Review, 86:2, pp. 177-217.
Morray-Jones, C.R.A. (1993a). “Paradise Revisited (2 Cor 12:1-12): Jewish Mystical Background of Paul’s Apostolate, Part 2: Paul’s Heavenly Ascent and its Significance.” Harvard Theological Review, 86:3, pp. 265-292.
Pilch, John J. (2011). Flights of the Soul: Visions, Heavenly Journeys, and Peak Experiences in the Biblical World. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Segal, Alan F. (2004). Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in the Religions of the West. Doubleday.
Jesus Reconstructed 